The FHA Blog

Deborah Masters, producer of the 1995 ABC-TV Four Corners program about biologist Jeremy Griffith and mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape, entered the witness box again today as the Supreme Court trial rolled into its 25th hearing day.

Continuing through her evidence-in-chief with counsel for the defendants, John Sheahan SC, Ms Masters described her priorities in producing the Four Corners broadcast:

“To present the story, to clearly have Jeremy’s views and an explanation of them, to have interviews with members of the FHA and why they were there, and obviously Tim, who was a key figure, to raise the concerns held by people like the parents [of FHA members] and Rosie and Howard Whelan … and to get Jeremy’s work assessed by scientists”.

Ms Masters explained to the Court how the ABC’s production team for the program, which also included guest reporter Reverend David Millikan and executive producer Ian Carroll, reached a consensus decision not to include in the broadcast an interview with parents who were supportive of their offspring’s involvement with the Foundation.

“My view was that we had spent a lot of time allowing Jeremy Griffith and Tim [Macartney-Snape] to explain the philosophy and the involvement … we didn’t say all parents were against their children’s involvement within the script, and my view was it was not necessary”, Ms Masters said.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the plaintiffs, Kieran Smark, Ms Masters agreed that she was aware of families expressing support for their offspring’s engagement or participation in the Foundation but had made no attempt to contact them.

“You didn’t take any step to find out [about supportive families] on the walk, and that remained the case up until the broadcast, didn’t it?”, asked Mr Smark.

“Yes. Yes. I think David [Millikan] may have, but I’m not entirely sure”, Ms Masters responded.

In relation to the objective of airing opinion about the scientific merit of Mr Griffith’s work, Ms Masters said that Four Corners had interviewed Professor Colin Groves, Professor Tim Flannery and Dr Graham Robertson. This preceded the following exchanges between Mr Smark and Ms Masters in cross-examination:

Smark:

There was never any interview with Professor Morton, was there?

Masters:

No, there was not.

Smark:

And there was never any interview with Professor Birch?

Masters:

No.

Smark:

And there was never any interview with any other scientist which was put to air or which was not put to air which was fairly regarded as being supportive in your mind of Mr Griffith’s ideas?

Masters:

That’s right.

…

Smark:

It was your perception, wasn’t it, that when the program went to air as at April 1995, the thrust of the program overwhelmingly was that there was no scientific support at all for Mr Griffith’s ideas?

Masters:

That’s right.

Cross-examination of Ms Masters is expected to continue on Monday before the defendants call Professor Maciej Henneberg to the witness box.

Commendations for the work of biologist and author Jeremy Griffith from world-renowned scientists Charles Birch, Paul Davies and John Morton were tendered in Court today as Mr Griffith and mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape’s defamation action over a 1995 Four Corners program continued.

In a 2003 determination that preceded the current hearing, a Supreme Court jury found that Mr Griffith had been defamed by the imputation in the Four Corners program that, as a scientist, he “publishes work of such a poor standard that it has no support at all from the scientific community”.

The scientific commendations admitted into evidence today were among various letters and other materials the plaintiffs had exchanged with the three academics, ranging in date from prior to the publication of Mr Griffith’s second book Beyond The Human Condition (1991) to the launch of his third book, A Species In Denial (2003), more than a decade later.

In his commendation of Beyond, the Templeton Prize winning Emeritus Professor Charles Birch, who lectured Mr Griffith as a biology student at Sydney University in the 1960s, wrote:

“[Griffith] gives us a genuinely original and inspiring way of understanding ourselves and our place in the universe. His vision is one I embrace with enthusiasm and commend to all those who are searching for meaning.”

Other documents tendered in relation to Professor Birch outlined the history of his support for Mr Griffith’s work, including his Open Day address at the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood in 1993, a speech he gave at the Foundation’s website launch at the Australian Museum in 1998 and a copy of his foreword to Mr Griffith’s 2003 bestseller, A Species In Denial.

In addition to material relating to Professors Birch and Morton, the plaintiffs also tendered a commendation for Beyond from the physicist and 1995 Templeton Prize winner, Professor Paul Davies, sent in November 1991, which stated:

“What does it mean to be human? Jeremy Griffith’s challenging study of our internal conflicts – our “upset” – will surely spark fresh debate on the human condition. In this sweeping synthesis, the author draws from the physical sciences, from anthropology, from religion and philosophy, to build a new conception of human beings and our place in the universe. From his penetrating insight into the origins of the human condition Griffith shows how, through understanding it, we may move onto achieve true peace and harmony. Here is a frank, bold and, above all, hopeful message for mankind.”

After tendering Professor Davies’ commendation, counsel for the plaintiffs, Kieran Smark, said he was not seeking to lead the Court to the inference that the physicist’s position had remained unchanged and he foreshadowed further evidence would be admitted on that subject in the course of the hearing.

After the luncheon adjournment, counsel for the defendants, John Sheahan SC, called the ABC’s Deborah Masters, the producer of the defamatory Four Corners broadcast, to the witness box.

Ms Masters began her testimony by describing to the Court how she was approached in January 1995 by Four Corners’ then executive producer Ian Carroll to be involved in the making of the proposed program about the plaintiffs. She recounted how three days after Mr Carroll’s approach, she and the program’s guest reporter, Reverend David Millikan, met with Mr Griffith at his Sydney home.

Evidence from Ms Masters continues tomorrow before Justice David Kirby.

Affidavit evidence from the eminent New Zealand zoologist, Professor John Morton, was filed today in support of biologist Jeremy Griffith’s defamation claim against the ABC and Reverend David Millikan.

The University of Auckland Emeritus Professor of Zoology and Lay Canon Emeritus of the Diocese of Auckland is known for his work in the fields of biology, zoology, philosophy and theology, including his books Man, Science and God (1972) and Redeeming Creation (1984).

Unable to attend Court due to ill-health, the professor’s affidavit set out his long history of involvement with Mr Griffith, from reading his first book Free: The End Of The Human Condition (1988) and speaking at the New Zealand launch of his second book Beyond The Human Condition (1991) to endorsing his third book A Species In Denial (2003), which he described as ‘superb’.

In his sworn statement, Professor Morton recalled watching the defamatory Four Corners broadcast in Sydney in late April 1995 and annexed a transcript of an interview he gave the next day to the late Andrew Olle on Radio 2BL, in which he discussed Mr Griffith’s work:

“It’s about man’s biological future as it must relate to religion. It’s got overtones of Teilhard [de Chardin] and goes back as old I suppose as William Blake and Wordsworth. What is it? Its message is that mankind has lost some of his primal innocence on this planet. We’ve become over, perhaps two million years of evolution … an intellectual species … over sophisticated, over numerous, overpopulated, overgreedy”, Professor Morton said in the interview.

“I don’t think that we should too often use the word prophet for a fallible human being but make no mistake there is seriousness and there’s a substratum of truth in the book Beyond The Human Condition. I would recommend that listeners read it.”

Earlier in the day, the Court heard an interview of Mr Griffith by Gerard Stone on Radio 5AA, aired on 23 April 1995, the day before the Four Corners broadcast:

“[Millikan] did ring us up about two months ago and said, ‘look I know I wrote a dismissive review, but I believe I got it wrong and I want to now nominate your understanding for an international documentary of seminal thinkers to take humanity to the next millennium’ and he gave us very positive encouragement”, Mr Griffith was heard to say.

“… it turns out [Millikan] totally misrepresented us and he has a deep animosity we suggest towards the understandings in my books, and what happened was, he wasn’t there to really understand what we were putting out, so much as to vilify it and that’s what we’re complaining about.”

Later in the interview, Mr Griffith says, “I’d like to contrast that with Professor John Morton, who’s both a very eminent theologian as well as an eminent biologist and Dr Millikan isn’t a biologist … this is Morton’s view, ‘Griffith’s book should be read by Christians, especially young ones in schools and also taken home by them’, whereas the view that Dr Millikan is presenting [is] that I’m a deluded cult figure or something.”

The Court was then shown a reconstruction of an ABC-TV interview conducted by Reverend Millikan in mid-March 1995 during the production of the Four Corners program.

Evidence continues tomorrow in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court today heard contrasting recordings of the ABC’s guest producer, Reverend David Millikan, as biologist Jeremy Griffith and mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape’s defamation trial against the national broadcaster continued.

In the first of several audio and audio-visual records played before Justice David Kirby today, Reverend Millikan is heard speaking to Mr Griffith in a telephone conversation on 24 January 1995, explaining his intentions for the proposed Four Corners program some three months before it went to air:

“The situation is this. This friend of mine he has, he approached me about six months ago, and he said that he is working with a group out of San Francisco who want to put together a series of sixteen films…called ‘Beliefs for the New Millennium’ or ‘Beliefs Beyond 2000’ and it is an attempt to gather together seminal thinkers and ideas that would, that are not part of the mainstream and yet would be sort of, should be put forward for public consideration.”

“… so the deal was, I would get this up here in Australia but I would do it in a way that would give me the right to take the film beyond Australia. So I will do a deal with Four Corners if they want to do this thing, that they put it on in Australia but once it’s been shown in Australia, I have the right to take it off and package it up in another way.”

On the tape, Reverend Millikan goes on to say to Mr Griffith:

“I want to be able to give a clear statement of what it is you are saying and the implications of what you are saying in terms of the sort of the progress, the future of Australia and the world generally.”

Further on in the recording, Mr Griffith is heard responding to Reverend Millikan:

“Yeah well you’ve got all the experience in the world behind you in terms of connections … we are very lucky to have somebody who has had all that experience in the media, has training in theology, and also discipline minded and also has had experience in this tender area of ideas where they can be one or the other you know. So I’m running with you.”

Next up, the Court was shown an audio-visual recording of an ABC-TV interview conducted a month later by Reverend Millikan, with Charles and Gillian Belfield, parents of Sam Belfield, a member of the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood. In the course of the interview, portions of which were included in the Four Corners program, Mr and Mrs Belfield discussed their son’s interest in Mr Griffith’s work and his involvement in the Foundation.

Towards the end of the ABC footage, in an incomplete excerpt not included in the Four Corners program, Reverend Millikan is seen talking to Mr and Mrs Belfield, saying:

“And like I said to you I think this, it’s going to be a hard time for everyone in the group over the next, the first couple of months after [the Four Corners program] goes to air because [Griffith] will ahh he’ll bring ‘em in, he’ll reign ‘em in, just start reasserting, start asserting his authority and becoming more and more intrusive to cut off any avenues of dissention and then they’ll start to drop off. For many of them it will just get too hard and they’ll suddenly sort of feel that they just can’t keep up. And he may take a couple out, he’ll certainly lose access to the schools and the universities because whoever Macartney-Snape …”

Following this, the Court heard an ABC radio interview aired on 5AN Adelaide on 20 April 1995, four days before the defamatory Four Corners program was broadcast. Mr Griffith was heard saying:

“[Millikan] misrepresented himself when he approached us and he’s misrepresenting us, our information and the reason we’re concerned is because of that misrepresentation.”

The trial before Justice Kirby continues tomorrow.

The trial in biologist Jeremy Griffith and mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape’s defamation action over a 1995 ABC-TV Four Corners program resumed today in the Supreme Court following a 10-week adjournment.

In a day marked by protracted legal argument, the plaintiffs’ counsel, Kieran Smark, picked up where he left off on 13 April 2007, tendering audio-visual material, correspondence and other documents as part of his clients’ evidence-in-chief.

The plaintiffs’ tender bundle included a letter from Mr Griffith sent on 27 April 1995, just two days after the defamatory broadcast first aired, to the ABC’s then managing director, Brian Johns, claiming the national broadcaster had breached its Code of Practice.

Following objections from the defendants, Justice David Kirby allowed Mr Griffith’s letter to be admitted, limited to relevant evidence of complaint in respect of four subject matters, being “the selection of some parents [to appear in the program] but not others; some experts but not others, the reference to Mr Griffith being a Jesus Christ figure which he did not claim to be and Mr Macartney-Snape abusing the hospitality of schools who invited him to speak.”

Also tendered was a letter in response from Mr Johns on 29 May 1995, which dismissed Mr Griffith’s concerns and preceded the filing of a formal complaint with the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) and a subsequent ruling from the media regulator in 1998.

Mr Smark then sought to admit correspondence between the public bodies, including a letter dated 8 July 1998 from the ABA’s then deputy chairman, Gareth Grainger, to the ABC that stated:

“The ABA’s investigation resulted in a number of adverse findings against the ABC concerning accuracy and balance within the ‘Four Corners’ program. In light of these findings the ABA is of the view that out of fairness to the complainant it would be appropriate for the ABC to broadcast some form of apology”.

Also put forward were letters exchanged later in July 1998 showing the ABC protesting the investigative process that led to the ABA ruling, and the media watchdog maintaining its position.

The new counsel for the defendants, John Sheahan SC, objected to the purpose for which the plaintiffs sought to tender the ABA correspondence:

“The question whether someone else called upon [the ABC] to apologise and [it] refused raises what is in truth a wholly collateral issue”.

After hearing submissions, Justice Kirby admitted the ABA correspondence into evidence subject to limitation, saying:

“In some respects it may be arguable that, flawed or not, this was an opportunity from a relevant body of jurisdiction for the ABC, in a timely way, to search its soul as to whether it had been guilty of the things that were said against it”.

After the luncheon adjournment, Mr Macartney-Snape returned to the witness box to give evidence about events relating to the scientific support for Mr Griffith’s work.

The trial continues tomorrow in the NSW Supreme Court.