60; (2005) 64 NSWLR 485 at [71] and [78] per McColl JA (with whom Sheller JA and McClellan AJA agreed)). The precise imputation conveyed or communicated depends upon the terms of the article.
43 As I have said, there is no dispute between the parties as to the imputations conveyed or communicated by the Group 1 articles. I turn to address the contested imputations in relation to the Group 2 and Group 3 articles.
The Group 2 Articles
Imputation 4 – The applicant while a member of the SASR, committed murder by pressuring a newly deployed and inexperienced SASR soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to "blood the rookie"
44 The applicant drew the Court's attention to a number of matters in support of his submission that this imputation was conveyed or communicated by the Group 2 articles. The headline of both the newspaper article and the online article, "Special forces rookie 'blooded' by executing an unarmed man" appears to be a statement of fact. In para 5 of the newspaper article and para 6 of the online article, there is reference to an SAS trooper in his first deployment to Afghanistan being pressured to execute an elderly unarmed detainee by fellow higher ranking soldiers as part of a "blooding ritual", according to defence insiders who were witnesses at the scene. The applicant points to the reference in these statements to higher ranking soldiers and to the fact that the source of the information is said to be defence insiders who were witnesses at the scene. In para 6 of the newspaper article and para 7 of the online article, there is a reference to a man with a prosthetic leg being killed by machine-gun fire. In the case of the online article, and only that article, the caption under the photograph of the man with the prosthetic leg refers to that man having been killed in 2009 in an incident that involved an alleged war crime.
45 The subject matter of the article then reverts to the summary execution of the elderly detainee and, as the applicant points out, there is a reference in that context to a rogue SASR team operating in Afghanistan and information uncovered by a Fairfax Media investigation and corroborated by special forces insiders. In para 8 of the newspaper article and para 10 of the online article, there is reference to two more senior soldiers, one of whom was earlier overheard proclaiming a need to "blood the rookie". The applicant referred to paras 9 and 10 of the newspaper article and paras 11 and 12 and to the image of the prosthetic leg in the online article. In para 11 of the newspaper article and para 14 of the online article, it is said that SASR sources
