Nick Luck got the latest from Vicky Leonard who, along with The Thoroughbred Report and Kit Gow, is being sued for defamation by Peter V’landys.
After Peter V’landys brought Supreme Court action against The Thoroughbred Report (TTR) in response to it questioning whether his 21-year tenure as CEO of Racing New South Wales was serving the best interests of the industry, TTR’s founder and managing director Vicky Leonard was on today’s episode of the Nick Luck Daily podcast to discuss her establishment of a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal costs.
Nick Luck, who prefaced his conversation by informing listeners that Leonard is both a friend of his and a regular contributor to the podcast, asked her to provide an update on the situation.
“As of Tuesday,” she responded, “we were officially served papers by Mr V’landys’s legal team that essentially shows we’re being sued for defamation.”
She said that it’s a “personal” defamation case, given that it was “not Racing NSW” but “Peter himself” suing her, TTR and Kit Gow, author of the article.
“We’re obviously strongly denying that it’s remotely defamatory,” Leonard stated, saying TTR was “of the very strong belief” that the article is “part of a natural conversation” around racing’s leadership.
“We need to be able to ask some hard questions and have proper conversations about our industry’s future,” she explained. “That includes not just discussing the highs, as Mr V’landys would like us to focus on, but also the lows.”
Leonard accepted the article was “a robust piece”, but said it also covered “a lot of the huge successes” that have been achieved during V’landys’s tenure.
“Leonard accepted the article was ‘a robust piece’, but said it also covered ‘a lot of the huge successes’ that have been achieved during V’landys’s tenure.”
“We strongly stand by our journalistic principles,” she made clear, calling it “public interest” that TTR be discussing pertinent topics about racing’s leadership in New South Wales, particularly while there’s an ongoing review into the state’s Thoroughbred Racing Act of 1996.
A hearing has been scheduled for Friday 27th March, which Leonard understood to be “a pretty basic hearing” at which a timeline would be presented as to how to proceed.
“It’s not a quick process,” she said, adding that in her understanding “for a case to go through to trial will take anywhere from a year to 18 months.”
Leonard said that in Australian defamation cases, publications could be given allowances for public interest.
Tests, she said, needed to determine whether “serious harm” was involved, with proof of “irreparable damage” to the V’landys’s reputation, beyond what should be considered for the leader of a major jurisdiction, as well as evidence that what was written “wasn’t true.”
Asked about her GoFundMe page, which has so far raised less than 10 per cent of it’s A$750,000,000 target, Leonard said it had been launched because TTR was of the understanding that “even to get through to the first hearing” costs would be “in the vicinity of A$200,000 to A$250,000.”
She said that figure would increase “pretty significantly” therafter, to the extent that it could involve costs of “A$1,000,000 plus trial.”
Though Leonard accepted that TTR is a small publication, “thankfully”, as she put it, it has “an army of supporters” behind it.
“I’ve had hundreds of people reach out and offer their support,” she shared. “A lot of them are chipping in and helping us with the funds required to get this across the line.”
V’landys hasn’t publicly commented on news of Leonard’s GoFundMe page.
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