"It's a complicated picture": Nick McKenzie speaks after Ben Roberts-Smith verdict
"He's a war hero and he’s a war criminal, you can be both"
On Thursday, Justice Anthony Besanko delivered his verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case, in a ruling that fell on the side of the newspapers. After a case that began in 2018, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Times were decided to have proven the truth of the most serious allegations against Roberts-Smith.
As well as the papers themselves, Roberts-Smith had taken action against journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, and former journalist David Wroe.
On Friday morning, Nick McKenzie joined 2GB’s Ben Fordham to speak about the case.
Fordham wasted no time in getting to the heart of the case, asking McKenzie “first of all, in your eyes, is Ben Roberts Smith a war hero?”
However, things weren’t quite as black and white for McKenzie.
“He's a war hero and he’s a war criminal, you can be both. His valour in war has been absolutely recognised, but now what we know as truth – according to the federal court, according to a judge who's heard the evidence of very brave SAS soldiers who served alongside him – he killed prisoners with their hands bound. He killed a civilian a father who had done nothing wrong except smile at Ben Roberts-Smith at the wrong time.
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“It's a complicated picture. It's an ugly picture, but at its core, Australians and your listeners can be proud of the men of the SAS who stood up to expose wrongdoing. That's the vast majority of the soldiers in the SAS, they stood for what was right and they've been vindicated.”
Later in the interview, Fordham asked whether he had ever approached Ben Roberts Smith, to which McKenzie replies that he had done so “from day dot.”
“The very first message was a LinkedIn message, then it was emails after emails. He never responded, he only responded through his lawyers. We wanted to sit down with him and say ‘we’re hearing these allegations, can you sort it out.’”
McKenzie went on to say that despite their attempts, he has never had a conversation with Ben Roberts-Smith.
“We tried many, many times. It’s a fundamental part of journalism: you speak to the person you are investigating to get their response. We would have weighed that up very deeply, but he never wanted to talk, and I think now we know why.”
Justice Besanko has listed the matter of considering costs for June 29.
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Top Image: Nick McKenzie
