The NSW police asked a magistrate in the NSW Local Court (8/9/21) to charge Jordan Shanks, who publishes the FriendlyJordies YouTube Channel, with contempt as part of the NSW Police’s criminal charges against Kristo Langker for stalking NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. The contempt application relates to FriendlyJordies publishing the below video calling various NSW Police corrupt and publishing an affidavit by John Barilaro in the video which proves Barilaro has lied in public statements about the matter.
The big problem for any contempt charge against Jordan Shanks is the 2004 High Court of Australia precedent Coleman v Power were the High Court found that calling police “corrupt” and “slimy lying bastards” is legal political communication. And as far as publishing Barilaro’s affidavit is concerned it clearly says on the front page “John Barilaro v Jordan Shanks” and there is no matter before the courts with that title so to try and charge Shanks for publishing the affidavit would be scandalous.
The SMH reported on the 8/9/21:
NSW Police have asked a Sydney court to find YouTuber Jordan Shanks in contempt of court over a video he posted in August that airs a statement from NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, which forms part of their case against a Friendlyjordies producer.
“And before you even think it’s contempt of court for me to read it, don’t worry, from my understanding it’s not relevant to any matter before the courts at the moment,” Mr Shanks assures his viewers in the video.
NSW Police have taken a different view, as the statement forms part of their brief of evidence against Mr Langker.
A police summary of the video also notes it referred to the involvement of named police officers in the arrest of Mr Langker, which was filmed; and Mr Shanks described those officers as “corrupt” and the police operation as politically motivated.
However, she agreed with Mr Langker’s barrister Emmanuel Kerkyasharian that the matter did not warrant an urgent suppression order on material associated with the proceedings against Mr Langker or the removal of the video, as sought by the prosecutor, since it was published two weeks ago and “you can’t unscramble the egg”. (Click here to read more)
Kristo Langker was charged by the Fixated Persons Investigation Unit, and I published an article on the 29/8/21 titled “NSW Police anti-terrorism unit used by politicians, judges and others to intimidate and falsely charge journalists who expose them’ and said:
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s own police statement, which has been leaked to the media, has exposed Barilaro for lying to the media about secretly using a NSW Police anti-terrorism unit to harass and intimidate journalists Jordan Shanks and Kristo Langker who publish the YouTube channel Friendlyjordies. The evidence of NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s lies and part of his police statement are in the videos below. (Click here to read more)
FriendlyJordies published the below video “Who set the Terror Police on friendlyjordies?” on the 27th of August and the video is the reason why the NSW Police want to charge Jordan Shanks with contempt and they also wanted a suppression order put on the video. The magistrate refused both applications, but Mr Shanks could still face contempt charges as I understand the police were told to file an application in the NSW Supreme Court if they want to pursue Jordan Shanks for contempt.
You can legally call Police corrupt – Coleman v Power [2004] HCA 39 (Click here for the High Court judgement) and (Click here for the judgment in the District Court of Queensland)
On the 26th of March 2000 Patrick Coleman, a law student at the time, stood in Townsville Mall with a placard ‘get to know your local corrupt-type coppers’ and called police ‘slimy lying bastards’. Constable Brendan Power approached Coleman and asked for a pamphlet. In response, Coleman announced to passers-by: ‘This is Constable Brendan Power, a corrupt police officer’. Constable Power told Coleman that he was under arrest for using insulting language. Coleman was also charged with assaulting and obstructing a police officer.
From Wikipedia:
Coleman argued he was not guilty of using insulting words because they were political communication and thus protected under the implied freedom of political communication. A magistrate found him guilty, but he then appealed. All subsequent appeals failed to some extent. He then appealed to the High Court.
The High Court held that his conviction under s7(1)(d) of the Vagrancy Act (using insulting language) should be set aside but that the conviction for assaulting/obstructing a police officer should stand.
Gummow, Hayne JJ and Kirby J held the impugned section of the VA to be valid, concluded that it would infringe the second limb of the Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation test, to the extent that it applied to political communication and read it down so that it did not. What Coleman said was not insulting as intended to be outlawed by the Act, they reasoned. They accepted that communications alleging corruption of police were protected by the implied right to freedom of political communication. They also accepted that political communication could include insults. Further, Kirby J noted that insulting words were a well-known tradition in Australian politics from “its earliest history”. (Click here to read more)
Jordan Shanks calling the NSW police corrupt in the above video is exactly the same as Patrick Coleman calling the QLD police corrupt in Coleman v Power and both are protected by the implied right to freedom of political communication in the Australian constitution.
The NSW police might argue that the 2 matters are different because in the Coleman matter there was no court case afoot when he called the police corrupt but when Shanks called police corrupt there was already a court case already afoot against Kristo Langker so that could be considered contempt of court.
In the precedent Herald & Weekly Times Ltd & Bolt v Popovic [2003] VSCA 161 they discussed making criminal and corruption allegations against judicial officers and it says at paragraph 10:
WINNEKE, A.C.J.:
That does not mean that there can never be a discussion about a judicial officer which will, or might, be relevant to the system of representative and responsible government. It is not difficult to conceive of circumstances where discussion of the character and/or conduct (whether in or out of court) of a judicial officer is capable of amounting to a discussion on government or political matters in the relevant sense. (Click here to read more)
The key part is “whether in or out of court” which would mean if what was said about a judicial officer is “in court” then a court case would have to be in progress which would support Jordan Shanks’ situation of calling police corrupt when there was already a court case afoot. The reality is that the only reason there is a court case afoot is because of police corruption so it’s a bit rich for the police to charge anyone with contempt of court.
Summary
The attempted contempt charge and application for suppression orders is part of the ongoing harassment of Jordan Shanks and his employee Kristo Langker. I published an article in June 2021 titled “Corrupt NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro turns NSW Police into a Nazi goon squad to assault, harass and jail journalists” and said:
“Corrupt NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has lied to NSW Police to have a journalist Kristo Langker charged for stalking as the video evidence below proves which could end up being his undoing. The reason Barilaro wants Mr Langker jailed is that he and his boss, Jordan Shanks, have been posting videos on the Friendlyjordies YouTube page exposing criminal conduct by John Barilaro.
Kristo Langker has been charged with 2 counts of stalking. The first count of stalking relates to Kristo Langker trying to ask John Barilaro questions at a function, which is on video as per below, with many people around and Mr Barilaro is clearly not concerned for his safety. The second count of stalking relates to Kristo Langker trying to hand Mr Barilaro a legal document, which is also on video as per below, and looks like rock-solid evidence that Mr Barilaro polished up his police statement to make sure Kristo Langker was falsely charged by the police.
This reminds me of CRIMES ACT 1914 – SECT 41 Conspiracy to bring false accusation (1) A person commits an offence if: (a) the person conspires with another person: (i) to charge any person falsely with an offence; or (ii) to cause any person to be falsely charged with an offence; Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years. (Click here to read more)
The video evidence freely available online and reported by most media points to the NSW police having no case against Kristo Langker for stalking NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and the police are abusing the law to try and silence Jordan Shanks from reporting the police’s abuse of the law.
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