ABC Reaches Confidential Settlement In British Anti-Trans Activist’s Defamation Case
Image: British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen.
Australia’s national broadcaster ABC has reportedly reached a confidential settlement in a defamation case over an anti-trans rally in Melbourne organised in March 2023 by British activist Kellie-Jay Keen aka Posie Parker.
In a clarification posted on its website, ABC said that a March 27, 2023 interview with Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto, could have led the “interview to suggest” that Kellie-Jay Keen “has associations with Neo-Nazis”.
The interview was conducted following the ‘Let Women Speak” rally in Melbourne and the action initiated by the Liberal Party against expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
The rally outside the Victorian Parliament building on March 18, 2023, was organised by Kellie-Jay Keen. Neo-Nazi members of the National Socialist Network attended the meeting and clashed with transgender rights activists.
Deeming, who had spoken at the rally, was expelled from the Liberal party in May 2023, after she threatened to sue Pesutto for defamation, claiming the Victorian Liberal leader allegedly accused her of being a “Nazi sympathiser”.
Didn’t As For Damages, Says Kellie-Jay Keen
Host Sarah Ferguson in the program without naming Kellie-Jay Keen referred to “a woman with neo-Nazi and far-right associations.” Ferguson mentioned the dossier that Pessuto had circulated against Deeming and asked the Liberal leader “the organiser of the rally, and this is someone with very clear, for our audience, very clear far-right associations, many of which you detailed in the dossier that you presented to your own party room.”
The ABC reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with Keen, which may have implications for the defamation cases against Pesutto by Keen and Deeming, reported News Corp.
In its clarification, ABC said that the March 27, 2023, 7.30 interview with Pesutto “referred to the organisers of the “Let Women Speak” event held in Melbourne earlier that month and included a social media post by ‘Posie Parker’.”
“Some viewers may have understood the interview to suggest that Kellie-Jay Keen, who was not named in the interview, who organised the Melbourne “Let Women Speak” event, has associations with Neo-Nazis,” the ABC said, adding, “The ABC understands Ms Keen denies any association with Neo-Nazis and the ABC does not endorse any imputation that may have been conveyed to that effect.”
Kellie-Jay Keen in a video posted on social media said she was “thankful” to the ABC “for their apology and correction”.
The anti-trans campaigner claimed that she had not received any financial damages. “I wanted clarification and that’s what I got. I didn’t ask for damages or expenses, Kellie-Jay Keen posted on X (formerly Twitter).
