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#AceNewsDesk – A judge overseeing former commando Heston Russell’s defamation case against the ABC has been told it is “absolutely vital” that the media be free to report on allegations of war crimes by Australian forces.

Mr Russell is suing the broadcaster in the Federal Court over online, radio and television stories published in 2021, arguing they falsely implied he was involved in the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan.

The ABC is relying on a defence of public interest.

The broadcaster’s barrister Nicholas Owens SC explained how he expects the defence to be deployed.

Both sides agree on the first element of the defence, the court was told.

“Mr Russell agrees, we wholeheartedly agree, that it is absolutely vital that the media be free to report upon allegations of war crimes by Australian forces,” Mr Owens said.

Mr Owens said that by the end of the case, he believed the judge would “have no cause to doubt” that the respondents believed that publishing the stories was in the public interest.

“The real fight, as we apprehend it, will be … whether that belief… was in fact reasonable,” he said.

The stories followed previous reports about allegations against unnamed soldiers from a US marine, who was given the pseudonym “Josh”.

They included the alleged death of a bound prisoner in 2012 after “Josh” heard a “pop” over a radio after being told a group of prisoners would not all fit on a helicopter coming to pick them up.

Mr Russell — the commander of November Platoon from 2011 to 2012 — last week told the court he was “absolutely shocked” when he saw the 2021 stories that reported his platoon was being investigated.

Investigative journalist Mark Willacy, who is one of the respondents, was today cross-examined by Mr Russell’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou SC about what information he had prior to the publication of the allegations from the marine.

Mr Russell is suing the ABC for online, radio and television stories in 2021 over the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan. (Australian Values Party)

Willacy accepted confidential sources may potentially breach the law by handing over certain sensitive information to journalists.

“I think you know, Ms Sue Chrysanthou, that journalists often deal with sources who are very delicately placed,” he said.

The court heard the journalist re-read a chapter of his colleague Chris Masters’ book, No Front Line, believing it referred to the period of “Josh’s” deployment from May to November 2012.

The cross-examination explored the timing of two different rotations of Australian forces — rotation 17 in the first half of “Josh’s” deployment, and rotation 18 in the latter half.

Rotation 18 included November Platoon, the court has heard.

Ms Chrystanthou put to Willacy that he would have known from research for his own book that rotation 17 was a period known for its “huge body count”.

She alleged that even in the face of “all the facts to the contrary”, the journalist’s mind was “closed” against any suggestion the period in question covered anything other than rotation 18.

“No, it wasn’t closed,” Willacy replied.

“I just use the information that I had, from the sources that I had that was the most credible in terms of matching up what essentially was an allegation of a prisoner being murdered.”

Ms Chrysanthou last week told the court the ABC had engaged in an “inexcusable abuse of power” by publishing articles and using a “PR machine” to issue press releases about the reporting.

The trial is expected to run until Friday.

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