The republishing of Paul Barry’s biography on Kerry Packer is a fascinating example of the chilling effect of the old defamation laws.

All the scandal about Packer’s affairs and his use of bordellos to repay his mates was left out of the original version when it was published in 1993.

Why would this happen when the material was so hot? After all, politicians reportedly frequented the brothels and one of his lovers committed suicide, blaming Packer for her despair.

A significant reason, according to Barry, was the old defamation law in NSW which demanded that allegations were not only truthful, but also “in the public interest.”

Barry told Crikey, “There was a danger that a judge would say that it wasn’t in the public interest.”

He says that whilst he personally had “no doubt” that it was, he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in court defending it. Barry knew that Packer had a history of suing journalists personally. He remembers journalist Colleen Ryan’s fears about losing her home when Packer came after her following her critical coverage of some property deals.

“It was too much of a risk,” says Barry, who had worked hard to get an interview with Packer for the first edition. He wrote to him declaring he had “no hostile intent” and offered to just listen and not ask questions if that’s what it took to get access.

Instead Packer’s lawyers declared “Mr Packer doesn’t look on your project favourably” and threatened to not only prosecute Barry “with the utmost vigour” but also anyone who had “any involvement whatsoever” in the book.

“There couldn’t be any doubt about what he meant.”

Barry also omitted the bordello stories from the first edition because he knew the publicity surrounding the book’s launch would centre on that alone.

In the end he published some serious allegations about Packer and tax evasion but received no writ. The only legal action came from a minor player, Neil Ohlsson, regarding the Effington Corporation. The matter was quickly settled with a slight alteration in the paperback edition.

An interesting aside. If Kerry Packer was a Tasmanian this book might still be facing some legal hurdles. The new defamation code, which became law six days after Packer’s death in late 2005, is almost entirely uniform across the states, but there are a few exceptions.

In Tasmania, dead people can still sue, meaning the estate of a deceased person can take action. Lucky Kerry wasn’t from the Apple Isle. Mind you, his grandfather Robert Clyde Packer was.

In any case, truth is now a complete defence so this won’t be an issue.