Allen & Unwin, the publisher, says it does not plan to publish a book by Charles Sturt University academic Clive Hamilton called Silent Invasion, on the influence of the Chinese government in high places in Australia. Hamilton says the publisher has privately communicated to him that it is afraid of facing defamation lawsuits should it go forward. [Andrew Greene, Australian Broadcasting Corporation]
2 Comments
What this and other articles on this topic do not make clear is why this Australian publisher is so worried about defamation suits. Is China unusually aggressive? Is this publisher unusually cowardly? Or does Australia perhaps have defamation laws favorable to plaintiffs such as China?
Maybe claims of defamation liability risk is a fig leaf and this is just an example of the undue influence of the Chinese government over Australia that the author is trying to point out.