John-Paul Cashen

John-Paul acts for Australia’s major media organisations, including News Corp Australia, Channel Nine, Channel Seven, Nine Newspapers, AFL Media, Racing.com, the ABC, SBS Australia, Southern Cross Austereo and Radio 3AW. John-Paul provides daily pre-publication advice seven days a week and 24/7 on urgent matters to editors and newsrooms across the country.

John-Paul specialises in defamation, contempt of court, suppression orders, privilege, breach of confidence, freedom of information, urgent injunctions and racial vilification claims. He provides daily pre-publication advice across virtually all Australian jurisdictions, makes difficult editorial calls under time pressure, and runs defamation and related proceedings across multiple states simultaneously. He has significant appearance experience across almost all courts and tribunals in Australia, with a particularly strong presence in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. In the past year his team has created new and important precedents in defamation law, including on serious harm and the public interest defence.

John-Paul led the Thomsons team in Nine Entertainment Co’s landmark defamation win against Dr Munjed Al Muderis — the first successful use of Australia’s new statutory public interest defence under the 2021 defamation reforms — establishing precedents with far-reaching consequences for investigative journalism. He also acted for approximately 100 media entities, editors, news directors and journalists in the Cardinal Pell contempt proceedings, and acted in the five-year Lawyer X suppression order campaign that reached the High Court.

John-Paul is recognised by clients and peers as the leading media litigator who excels under pressure and makes the right calls. His deep passion for the media’s role in society, his track record in creating landmark precedents, and his capacity to run major proceedings across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously make him one of the most consequential media lawyers currently practising in Australia.