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ABC v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd (2001) 208 CLR 199

Facts: Animal rights activists had taken video footage of an abattoir and sent it to the ABC. Lenah Game Meats (LGM) sought an injunction to stop the broadcast of the footage, arguing a breach of confidence. 


Outcome: High Court ultimately denied LGM’s application for injunctive relief to stop ABC from broadcasting the footage. 


Held (Gleeson J): In order to get an injunction, the plaintiff needs to identify a legal or equitable right which the plaintiff seeks to protect. It was not a breach of confidence or privacy. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in that behaviour. Despite the film capturing what was happening on private land of the abattoir, the information was not considered to be private in nature. The test of 'private' is whether disclosure or observation of the information or conduct is highly offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities.


Held (at [42]): Certain kinds of information about a person, such as information relating to health, personal relationships, or finances, may be easy to identify as private; as may certain kinds of activity, which a reasonable person applying contemporary standards of morals and behaviour would understand to be meant to be unobserved.

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