Media Release

Leading educators took the stand this week in the NSW Supreme Court defamation action brought by Tim Macartney-Snape and Jeremy Griffith in relation to a 1995 ABC-TV Four Corners program.

The defamatory broadcast imputed, among other things, that Mr Macartney-Snape had deceived schools that had invited him to talk about climbing Mt Everest.

The Court heard on Friday from the eminent educator John Lewis, former headmaster of Eton College in England and previously Geelong Grammar School in Victoria where Mr Macartney-Snape gave the speech day address in 1993.

Mr Lewis said he considered the selection of Mr Macartney-Snape, a former student of the school, as “highly appropriate”.

“Tim’s reputation was very high, he was admired for his courage and endurance but also because he was evidently and patently a humble and humane person,” he said.

A column Mr Lewis subsequently wrote in the school’s newsletter described Mr Macartney-Snape’s speech as being “about what should be the mainsprings of human endeavour and aspiration”.

Mr Lewis’ testimony followed evidence the previous day from Gordon Stewart, former headmaster of Concord High School, who related his experience of Mr Macartney-Snape’s speech night address to the school in March 1995, footage of which was included in the Four Corners program.

Mr Stewart said the ABC told him the program was intended to be a “tribute to Tim for climbing Mt Everest” and that he was assured by the ABC that neither he nor the school would feature in the program.

The educator said he subsequently watched the program, adding, “I was filmed speaking which was something I did not expect and the school was identified in a context I did not think was relevant to the night.”

When asked if he expected that Mr Macartney-Snape would be presenting his values and beliefs, Mr Stewart said “yes”.

Also giving evidence on Friday was University of Dallas psychologist and editor-in-chief of The Humanistic Psychologist, Professor Scott Churchill who tendered a report as to the scientific and scholarly standard of Mr Griffith’s published work before being cross-examined at some length by counsel for the defendants, Bret Walker SC.

The case continues in the Supreme Court at Queens Square on Monday.

Media Release

The NSW Supreme Court heard today that Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape and science author Jeremy Griffith were misled into participating in a 1995 ABC-TV Four Corners program.

Opening submissions from Kieran Smark, barrister for the two men, continued today in their defamation case against the ABC being heard before Justice David Kirby.

Mr Smark said there were several key incidents that occurred in the preparation for the defamatory broadcast which revealed guest producer Reverend David Millikan’s malicious intent.

“In an inquisitional style interview, marked by the presence of bright hot lights on Griffith, it became clear, which hadn’t been clear until this time, that the leopard had not changed his spots and that David Millikan was still unrepentantly adverse and hostile to Jeremy Griffith’s ideas,” he said.

Reverend Millikan’s comments following a letter of concern from Mr Griffith to the ABC were also alleged to reflect his animosity towards the plaintiffs.

Mr Smark said unused film footage recorded Reverend Millikan saying, “the letter he [Griffith] wrote to us [ABC] on Monday had a sort of threatening tone to it and he’s obviously opening up the possibility of taking us on legally and maybe trying to injunct the program or something like that which I would relish. It would cost him a lot of money and get him absolutely nowhere. And open up the possibility of us to use the sort of legal mechanisms to harass him.”

Mr Smark described the consequences of the ABC Four Corners program for Mr Macartney-Snape and his speaking career as “dramatic and immediate”.

“The impact for Mr Griffith was no less devastating. He was overwhelmed by negative responses.”

Mr Smark went on to criticise the ABC’s failure to apologise despite two recommendations from the Australian Broadcasting Authority in the years following the broadcast.

He said the terms of an ‘apology’ to Mr Macartney-Snape tabled in Court by the ABC on 15 February 2007, almost 12 years after the program and less than a month before the trial began, did not retract the imputations against Mr Macartney-Snape and was in fact a further aggravation.

Following submissions, the plaintiffs called California-based Professor Walter Hartwig, a biological anthropologist and the editor of The Primate Fossil Record (2002), a definitive reference work on human/primate evolution, who gave evidence as to the standard of Mr Griffith’s work.

Mr Smark foreshadowed further experts would be called tomorrow, including Professor of psychology, Scott Churchill from the University of Dallas and Emeritus Professor Harry Prosen, former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

The case continues tomorrow at the Supreme Court at Darling]]> Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:00:00 +1100 court-told-of-four-corners-malicious-intent http://www.worldtransformation.com/mediaroom/releases/20070314.html 14 March 2007

Media Release

The long awaited defamation trial over the ABC’s treatment of Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape and biologist Jeremy Griffith in a 1995 Four Corners program began today in the NSW Supreme Court.

The opening submissions from Kieran Smark, barrister for the two plaintiffs, presented an overview of the case before Justice David Kirby.

“This is a case in several senses about evolution, about the evolution of humans and also about the evolution of ideas and the way that process can be fostered or hindered by media,” Mr Smark said.

“In this country, freedom of expression permits broadcasters, including the national broadcaster, to make publications about individuals and their ideas without restraint, but the consequences of that is that they remain answerable for those publications and that’s what this proceeding is about.”

Mr Smark said it was also a case about three men, the plaintiffs Mr Griffith and Mr Macartney-Snape and Four Corners guest producer and second defendant Reverend David Millikan. The plaintiffs first met Reverend Millikan at the 1991 launch of Mr Griffith’s second major work, Beyond The Human Condition. Beyond was described by Mr Smark as being broad in scope drawing from a number of disciplines including biology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and primatology.

He went on to say the promotional flyers distributed at the book launch contained prominent commendations from two scientists, namely Professor Charles Birch and Professor John Morton that were indicative of the significant scientific support at that time for Mr Griffith’s work.

Mr Smark highlighted Reverend Millikan’s subsequent review of Mr Griffith’s book for the Bulletin magazine, in which Reverend Millikan said Mr Griffith’s conclusions were “a scandal”, and questioned Griffith’s “lack of belief in God”.

He outlined key events in early 1995 leading up to the publication of the Four Corners program which he said evidenced a malicious intent by Reverend Millikan.

Mr Smark also criticised the editing of the program which caused the powerful imputations in respect of Mr Macartney-Snape that the jury found to arise.

The conduct of Reverend Millikan “showed an obsession with Griffith’s ideas and whether those ideas have room for a transcendent God. It is relevant that David Millikan was, from 1991 to 1995 offended, appalled or otherwise adverse to Jeremy Griffith’s ideas, rightly or wrongly, because those ideas did not have room for a transcendent God, and that was unpalatable to Reverend Millikan.”

The opening submissions continue tomorrow. The plaintiffs are also expected to call biological anthropologist Professor Walter Hartwig from Touro University, California to give evidence.

13 March 2007

Media Release

A four week trial begins tomorrow in the NSW Supreme Court to determine defences and damages following the ABC’s defamation of Australian biologist and author Jeremy Griffith and renowned Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape AM in a 1995 Four Corners TV program.

The trial follows a 2003 jury verdict that found the ABC defamed the two directors of the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood, a Sydney-based research foundation dedicated to advancing biological understanding of the human condition: humans’ capacity for both ‘good and evil’.

“What’s at stake in this trial is the principle of freedom of expression in this crucial area of scientific enquiry,” said John Biggs, a spokesperson for the Foundation.

“Humans’ fundamental responsibility as conscious beings is surely to find knowledge, ultimately self-knowledge, understanding of the human condition no less.

“While this issue of our contradictory nature is the most confronting and contentious of subjects, it is also the underlying issue in all human affairs that has to be addressed if there is to be a future for humanity.”

Mr Biggs said the ABC’s misrepresentation of Mr Griffith’s work in this field highlights the dishonesty and great danger of the public broadcaster’s politically correct culture. “It is a culture that dogmatically imposes idealism at the exclusion of any tolerance and analysis of humans’ less than ideal reality,” he said.

“Rather than be a proponent of free and independent thought, the ABC supported guest producer Reverend David Millikan’s attack on a ground-breaking scientific synthesis that he found threatening to his faith.

“This is a very serious development—especially for a country valued for its initiative, its tolerance and its love of a fair go.”

Significantly, Mr Griffith’s work is increasingly attracting international attention and support from prominent scientists who do see it as being at the cutting edge of scientific enquiry.

Professor Harry Prosen, former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, said of Mr Griffith’s recent book, The Great Exodus, “there has never been a more important book”.

Mr Griffith’s 2003 book, A Species In Denial, has become a bestseller, and his biological synthesis for a proposed documentary series about the human condition has received commendations from over 100 of the world’s leading scientists and thinkers including physicist Stephen Hawking and Nobel Laureate Charles Townes.

Despite the growing appreciation abroad, it has been a 12 year struggle for Mr Macartney-Snape and Mr Griffith to clear their names in Australia, Mr Biggs said. “This legal challenge was forced upon us when, despite the Australian Broadcasting Authority ruling the program ‘inaccurate, partial and unbalanced’ and recommending that the ABC apologise, the ABC refused to do so.”

The trial, before Justice David Kirby, will commence at the Darlinghurst Courthouse with opening submissions from barrister Kieran Smark outlining the plaintiffs’ case.

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