Anti-co-governance campaigner Julian Batchelor has lost his defamation case against TVNZ and a researcher.
District Court Judge David Clark dismissed Batchelor's claim in a reserved judgment released this afternoon, finding all three defences raised by the defendants — truth, honest opinion, and responsible communication — had been proven.
"Mr Batchelor’s claim has been wholly unsuccessful. It follows he should pay costs."
A hearing on the case took place last December.
Batchelor sued TVNZ and Disinformation Project researcher Sanjana Hattotuwa over a 1News story published in August 2023, headlined "Julian Batchelor under investigation over anti-co-governance pamphlets". He sought damages and an apology to be aired.
The article quoted Hattotuwa describing Batchelor's rhetoric as "dangerous speech" that "incites hate, and it instigates harm offline", and calling it "racist rhetoric".
The court found those comments were defamatory at face value but were true, honestly held opinions, and responsibly communicated.
"On any measure, the answer must be yes," Judge Clark wrote of if Batchelor used racist language, calling the comments "sustained, made over a significant period of time, deliberately targeting Māori" and "in many instances highly pejorative and offensive".
In its defence, TVNZ's counsel relied on honest opinion, responsible publication of a matter in the public interest and, mitigation of damages.
The judge found Batchelor's evidence on most issues throughout the hearing to be "imprecise and more of a narrative of events which suit his theory of what happened or should have happened rather than an accurate depiction of what did happen".
A key dispute centred on whether 1News Māori Affairs Correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui had interviewed Batchelor through a call before the story was published.
Batchelor denied the call took place, at one point saying it was "absolutely impossible" he would have forgotten it, before later appearing to pivot.
Judge Clark preferred Hurihanganui's evidence and found the interview did take place, noting telephone logs and text messages supported her account.
"I have carefully assessed the credibility of the evidence of both Mr Batchelor and Ms Hurihanganui and as noted, prefer Ms Hurihanganui’s," he wrote.
"Her evidence presented as precise and coherent, and she was prepared where required to concede on areas in which her recall of events was not clear."
The 2023 1News story also included Batchelor's position that he denied he was racist, incited hate, or spread misinformation.
The judge assessed not just Batchelor's pamphlet but his wider body of work, including blog posts, speeches, interviews, social media commentary and extracts from an unpublished book called "The Māori Agenda for New Zealand".
Batchelor, who led the "Stop Co-governance" movement, held 82 public meetings across New Zealand in 2023 and distributed hundreds of thousands of pamphlets.
During the hearing it emerged a third party Jim Grenon — who is also a director of media company NZME — had been helping to fund Batchelor's legal costs.
A case management conference on costs has been scheduled for April 3.
"At the conference, timetabling for cost submissions will be discussed as well as whether Mr Grenon wishes to be heard and, if so, how," the judge wrote.
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