Supreme Court Justice Terrence Higgins has ruled that the ABC defamed Channel 9 Journalist Richard Carleton in its Media Watch program, but has accepted the ABC’s defence of ‘fair comment.’

Carleton and two 60 minutes producers sued the ABC for comments which claimed they had lifted their story on the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica from a BBC documentary.

Carleton says the decision “proves he is not guilty of plagiarism.” ABC senior lawyer Ross Duncan called the decision “a victory for the right to express honest and robust opinion.”