WATCH: Rebel reporter Avi Yemini served with INSANE legal threat
This has got to be one of the most insane threats I’ve ever seen — but it's dangerous and I need your support to fight back.
A man who shares the same name as a dead terrorist has served me with a Concerns Notice for reporting on the terrorist’s demise. Just because they have the same name.
And he’s demanding I pay him $50,000 — or face a lawsuit for up to $500,000.
Crazy, huh? It is. But it’s very dangerous, too.
And I need your help to survive it — because this so obviously is just a way to try to get me to stop reporting on the Israel-Hamas war.
On the 27th of December, while the mainstream media was still pretending that two “innocent” Australian brothers had been “caught up” in the Israel-Hamas war, I was quickly able to confirm (via Hezbollah’s own online posts) that at least one of the brothers killed in the Israeli airstrike was a Hezbollah terrorist.
So I reported the breaking news that this Australian wasn’t as innocent as reported — he was a legitimate target. But a week later I was served with the legal documents claiming that I had defamed ANOTHER Australian Muslim who, by coincidence shares the same name as the dead terrorist I was reporting on.
I didn’t mention this other guy. I didn’t know he existed. The story wasn’t about him. But he obviously saw an opportunity — grab some cash for himself, and get me to stop reporting on terrorism.
Neither of those things is going to happen. This is a junk legal threat — it’s “lawfare”, a way to fight me by abusing the courts.
I’ve already retained Justin Quill, one of Australia’s best defamation lawyers. He thinks we’ll win. But it won’t be cheap. Take a look at it for yourself:
The legal threat says that my report, which included an image of the dead terrorist:
“identifies their client by his full name, and by reference to his former association as a ‘bikie’ within Sydney, Australia.
In circumstances where our client is well known within the Sydney Lebanese community, he is readily identified by the publication”.
Even though the photo in my report is of the dead terrorist. And that’s obviously who I was talking about — not the guy with the same name who is still alive and suing!
His lawyers demand that within 28 days I:
- remove my report;
- sign an apology;
- not talk about the dead terrorist again;
- pay the random guy with the same name $50K;
- and pay his legal costs so far.
Oh, just that? This isn’t a real legal threat. It’s an obvious attempt to silence me and my reporting.
But if I were on my own, I’d have no choice — I wouldn’t have the money to fight this in court. I’d have to capitulate.
But with your help, I know I can win, and continue to do important journalism that seems to have all the right people upset with me!
Even these initial stages of defamation will likely cost more than five figures, but my lawyer Justin Quill is worth every cent.
Of course this legal threat is targeting me. But if it were successful, it could be a terrible precedent binding every Australian, basically making it impossible to criticise anyone, for fear there may be someone with the same name out there who objects!
That’s not good journalism, that’s not free speech and that’s not very Australian, is it?
Please give what you can by using the donation form on this page so I can fight this before it’s too late.
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