The jury in a defamation case against Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones has not been able to reach a verdict.
After more than five hours of deliberation, the
group of seven men and five women were unable to decide whether the
Defence Force and its head Lt Gen Rhys Jones defamed freelance
journalist Jon Stephenson.
Justice Alan MacKenzie discharged the jury and thanked them for their work.
Mr Stephenson sued the Defence Force and Lt Gen Jones for defamation and sought damages of $500,000.
Mr Stephenson wrote an article in Metro
magazine in 2011 claiming Kiwi forces in Afghanistan were complicit in
handing over detainees to authorities known to use torture.
Shortly after publication the Defence Force released a media statement saying parts of the story were untrue or inaccurate.
The Defence Force contended it had evidence Mr
Stephenson did not gain entry to an Afghan crisis response unit base and
interviewed its commander.
Outside the Wellington High Court Mr Stephenson said
he was disappointed with the outcome, but was happy Lt Gen Jones
conceded he did go to the Afghan crisis response unit base.
He did not rule out a retrial of the case or settling the matter outside court.
Mr
Stephenson did not think Lt Gen Jones had an ill will towards him, but
was rather “poorly advised” when the statement was released.
The jury retired to deliberate yesterday afternoon, but did not return their decision by the end of the day.
It
had to decide whether Mr Stephenson had been defamed by the Defence
Force. If they believed he did, the jury had to decide how much money Mr
Stephenson should be awarded.
In closing
statements yesterday, lawyer for the Defence Force Hugh Rennie QC said
it merely stated "what it knew" about the interview at the time, which
was not defamatory.
Mr Rennie said if he was wrong, then the money awarded should be no more than $10, Mr Rennie said.
Mr
Stephenson's lawyer Davey Salmon said the case was not about money.
Anyone questioning the credibility of a journalist "was like a dagger
through the heart," he said.
Mr Salmon said he
chose the $500,000 sum based on previous defamation cases – it was not
an issue that was important to his client.
The
case was heard over seven days and included evidence from Three
unidentified serving SAS soldiers, Lt Gen Jones and Mr Stephenson.
3 News Thu, 18 Jul 2013 5:08p.m.
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