Marlia Saunders

Marlia is an experienced media, entertainment, intellectual property, online safety and privacy lawyer, who advises media organisations, content creators, digital platforms, corporations and government departments on matters relating to defamation, pre-publication advice, suppression orders, copyright and trade marks, advertising and marketing, online safety and privacy, drawing on both top-tier private practice and senior in-house counsel experience.

She acts for Australia’s major media organisations and digital platforms, including News Corp Australia, Nine Entertainment, Network Ten, Seven Media Group, the ABC, SBS, Guardian Australia, NOVA Entertainment, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Reddit and X Corp. Marlia also advises production companies, publishers, advertisers, government bodies and other corporate entities on media and intellectual property issues.

She is ranked Band 1 by Chambers Asia Pacific 2026 for Media (the highest ranking), shared with Justin Quill and John-Paul Cashen. Thomson’s media team holds three of the five Band 1 individual rankings for Media in Australia.

Marlia’s practice spans the full range of media and intellectual property law: defamation (litigation, complaints management and pre-publication advice), contempt of court, suppression and non-publication order challenges, freedom of information and court access applications, confidential information claims, copyright and trade marks, consumer law, online safety and privacy. She advises on sponsorship, production and licensing arrangements, and manages digital platforms’ obligations under Australia’s online safety and privacy frameworks. Her practice is at the forefront of the evolving interaction between media law and technology regulation.

Marlia led the Thomsons team in the successful defence of Network Ten in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation proceedings, one of the most high-profile defamation cases in Australian history. She was also part of the team that achieved the first successful application of Australia’s new statutory public interest defence in Al Muderis v Nine. She is currently acting for Reddit in its High Court challenge to the social media minimum age law and for X Corp in its challenge to online safety regulation against the eSafety Commissioner in the Federal Court. Marlia previously advised various News Corp Australia entities in the Dylan Voller proceedings in the High Court relating to digital intermediary liability for defamation and in contempt proceedings arising from Cardinal George Pell's prosecution.

Marlia brings senior in-house experience alongside top-tier private practice expertise, a combination that gives her a distinctive understanding of how media organisations operate under pressure. She is Chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Media and Communications Committee, Vice-President of the Communications and Media Law Association, a member of the Copyright Society of Australia, IPSANZ, ANZSLA and the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA), and organised the Media Law Resource Center’s two Australian conferences.