December 1, 2015
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has welcomed the decision by the NSW Supreme Court to dismiss a defamation case brought against the editor of The Australian, Clive Mathieson, senior reporter Christian Kerr, and former Greens leader Christine Milne by Fredrik Toben. Toben sought damages from The Australian over a 2013 article which described him as a “Holocaust denier”. Toben had been previously found guilty by several Australian courts of having breached racial discrimination laws through his promotion of claims concerning Jews and the Holocaust. In 1998, Toben was incarcerated for nine months for violating Germany’s Holocaust laws, and subsequently served three months in Australia for repeatedly publishing material vilifying Jews on the internet in breach of a court order. In this case, Judge McCallum concluded that Toben’s objective in commencing the suit was, “to create a public forum for disputation of the history of the Holocaust and for the expression of anti-Semitic views, and further stated that: “The defendants have established to my satisfaction that Dr Toben seeks by these proceedings to manipulate the process of the court to create a forum in which to assert the very views by the attribution with which he claims to have been defamed”. Judge McCallum noted that as recently as last December Toben posted material on his website questioning the history of the Holocaust.
Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“We applaud Judge McCallum’s wise decision in seeing through the charade of this suit brought by Toben and dismissing his so-called defamation proceedings. We agree with the determination of Judge McCallum that Toben sought to cynically use the court as a public megaphone to promote anti-Semitism and to cast doubt on the historical truth of the Holocaust. This sends a very strong message that Toben’s abhorrent views will never be given credibility and legitimacy in Australia, and that the courts will not give a platform to any purveyor of Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish bigotry.”
For more information, please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on, 03 9272-5677