Tweets not Journalism

The Federal Court of Australia has decided that a person who published allegedly defamatory tweets on Twitter does not receive the benefit of the journalists' privilege under the Evidence Act.

See Kumova v Davison [2021] FCA 753

This does not mean that a person who tweets can never be considered to be a journalist.  In this case, looking at the Twitter feed as a whole, the defendant was not considered to be a journalist.

See this helpful note from Clayton Utz.  Also Bennett & Co.  Story in the AFR and The Age.