False accusations about Archbishop Makarios, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, have cost veteran Greek journalist Alkis Morelas more than $300,000 AUD ($213,000 USD) in damages as Sydney’s Federal Court found him guilty of defamation on Friday.
According to the decision, Morelas defamed Archbishop Makarios Griniezakis in four online articles he wrote for Greek-language website Greek Flash News in August and September 2021, where he had falsely accused the church leader of stealing money from a Black Summer bushfire charity appeal, spending church money on personal vacations and failing to take action against a priest accused of child sexual abuse.
Aggravated damages were awarded to the Archbishop in part because Morelas continued to publish the defamatory allegations after being told to stop by the court.
Archbishop of Australia sues journalist for defamation
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia took legal action against Morelas in July 2022, as the articles had severely damaged his reputation. The Court heard Archbishop Makarios was contacted by the global leader of the church, Patriarch Bartholomew, and was also regularly asked by his community about the allegations. Witnesses testified seeing him cry on several occasions, AAP News reports.
Morelas attempted to defend the accusations saying the articles were his honest opinion and he had qualified privilege to make the claims, but Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham found there was no reliable evidence of appropriate fact-checking before publication.
The court found the journalist did not contact the media unit for the Archdiocese to give the Archbishop a chance to respond to his claims and also used “florid and offensive language” in the four pieces, Justice Abraham said. The Archbishop, on the contrary, who the judge found was a credible and reliable witness, gave evidence he spent between $60,000 and $80,000 AUD ($43,000 and 57,000 USD) annually, mostly on traveling around Australia attending to his duties.
“His evidence was that his strictly personal expenses were modest. There is no evidence to the contrary,” the judge found.
ABC Australia article
In 2021, ABC Australia published a similar article on the Archbishop, later issuing an apology to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and Archbishop Makarios after publishing a report claiming Makarios had been using taxpayer money meant for nursing homes for his own personal use.
ABC’s article was chiefly concerned with Makarios’ $6.5 million Sydney apartment overlooking the water, which they felt was a display of wealth unfit for the “vow of poverty” that comes with being a servant of the church.
Nonetheless, the article claims were proven to be unfounded, and ABC stated in its apology that it “wishes to clarify that this story was not intended to suggest that Archbishop Makarios of Australia had personally funneled money from St. Basil’s to the Greek Orthodox Church, or that he had personally spent money intended for aged care on his own lifestyle.”
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