MinterEllison is threatening to sue us again, this time in another matter, and demanding we reveal our sources – an absolute sacrosanct no-no for journalists. Meanwhile, we raised money to give Simon Turner something to live on while BHP and Minters are suing him. Also because the public interest stakes in his case are high.
Simon broke his back at BHP’s Mount Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley in 2016. Ten years on, BHP has never filed a defence. He was being paid around $400 a week when his own paperwork put him on $137,000 a year, and a letter BHP sent Centrelink five years ago still blocks him from a payment today. He has been in hospital. He has no money for food.
Last month BHP and its lawyers MinterEllison pulled Michael West Media into court over the case, threatened us with BHP’s costs, then dropped it after we filed a strike-out application. Now the same firm has come back with a defamation threat on behalf of a different client, demanding we reveal our sources, and has aimed it at our 23-year-old reporter Stephanie Tran as well as Michael West.
Confidentiality orders sit over most of the evidence, which is the reason this video says less than it could. Half the proceeds of Michael West Media’s tenth anniversary night go to Simon Turner.
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Chapters
00:00 Gala Night
01:29 Why Simon Gets Half
02:15 Dragged Into Court
03:24 No Money For Food
04:41 Now They Want Sources
06:27 Dean Levitin’s Letter
09:09 Our Duty
10:33 Trent Forno Recuses
12:53 $2,000 For Evidence
15:49 Blocked From Centrelink
16:58 The Buried Decision
18:31 Thank You
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.
