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Hockey headline ‘accurate’: editor

AAP

AAP

Fairfax Media editors have told a court they do not believe Treasurer Joe Hockey is corrupt and don’t believe a story headlined “Treasurer for sale” implied that he was.

Four days of hearings in a defamation action brought against Fairfax Media by Mr Hockey ended on Thursday with the news organisation defending the story that investigated the North Sydney Forum – a political fundraising organisation in Mr Hockey’s electorate.

Mr Hockey is claiming the story alleged he was corrupt, left him “devastated”, was part of a “relentless campaign” against him and was published as an act of revenge and “petty spite.”

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The article appeared in Fairfax’s The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers on May 5, 2014 under the headline “Treasurer for sale” and said Mr Hockey was “offering privileged access to a select group … in return for tens of thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberal Party.”

On Thursday editor-in-chief of The Age newspaper, Andrew Holden, told the court he stood by the headline as “a statement of fact”.

“In the context of that story I think it was a good headline and an accurate headline,” he told Mr Hockey’s barrister, Bruce McClintock SC.

But Mr Holden said he didn’t intend the story to suggest Mr Hockey was corrupt and readers would understand the story was about the nature of party political donations.

“If we had the evidence to suggest that he was corrupt we would have published it,” he said.

The article investigated the North Sydney Forum, a fundraising body in Mr Hockey’s electorate that offered attendance at VIP events with the treasurer to people who paid membership fees of up to $22,000.

The membership fees go to the Liberal Party as political donations.

Mr Hockey’s lawyers have argued that the access granted to NSF members was no different to access Mr Hockey gave to any member of the public at any of 400 public events he attends each year.

Mr Hockey has claimed the May 5 story was an act of revenge after the SMH was forced to apologise for a March 21 story about repayment of political donations.

The court has heard Mr Hockey’s media adviser rang SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir at 2.15am and demanded a correction to the story about $33,000 in membership fees paid to the NSF by a company linked to Labor power broker Eddie Obeid.

Text messages read in court show Mr Goodsir told Mr Holden and other senior journalists at 6.35am the same morning that Mr Hockey’s office had “a f***ing hide” waking him in the middle of the night.

But Mr Goodsir told the court that although he thought Mr Hockey’s reaction to the story was “over the top” he was not angry about the call.

Another text from Mr Holden said Fairfax should allow Mr Hockey a reply in a subsequent story and “beyond that, f*** him”.

Mr Hockey was in court for most of Thursday’s proceedings, as he has been throughout the four days of hearings.

-AAP

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