Kerry Packer Defamed by ABC Television Jury Decides, AAP Says

(Bloomberg) -- A jury has found Australia's wealthiest individual Kerry Packer was defamed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a television program, Australian Associated Press reported.

The four-person jury took less than two hours to decide the `Four Corners' program contained three defamatory meanings, including a claim that Packer, 63, let employees illegally obtain a confidential report on a rival bidder for Sydney's Star City casino license, AAP reported.

Packer sued the government-funded television network, journalist Sally Neighbour and producers John Budd and Mark Maley over the program aired on April 7, 1997, and repeated the next day.

The two-male and two-female New South Wales state Supreme Court jurors also found Packer was defamed in relation to ABC allegations he defrauded Australian National Industries Ltd., later bought by Smorgon Steel Group in 1999, AAP reported.

The case will go at a later date to a judge, who will hear arguments on any defenses put forward by the ABC and submissions on damages, AAP reported.

Packer, who controls Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd., owner of the Nine Network, the country's No. 1 commercial TV station, was ranked 121st by Forbes magazine last year in a list of the world's richest people. On Nov. 22, the businessman underwent surgery to transplant a kidney donated to him by long-time friend and helicopter pilot Nicholas Ross.