Aussie Restaurant Closes After Poor Review
December 21, 2009
Filed under Weird Stuff
“A Sydney restaurant which blamed a scathing review for receiving hundreds of cancellations and being forced to close lost its defamation case against the food critic and his newspaper.
The owners of the now-defunct Coco Roco had sued Sydney Morning Herald journalist Matthew Evans over a 2003 piece which said its dishes “jangled like a car crash” and were “simply unpalatable”.
But Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison said the critic and the newspaper were entitled to comment about the restaurant, which went into receivership early the following year.”
AFP
The Supreme Court’s ruling is an important victory for freedom of the press and common sense. When a food critic evaluates a restaurant’s offering, liability concerns shouldn’t be on the back of his mind. I don’t want a critic raving about an establishment’s dried and chewy New York steak, because he doesn’t want to be sued.
If I ever go on a vacation Down Under, and a culinary critic raves about a diner’s Dingo Burger, I know that he is giving his honest opinion.
The Coco Roco deserved to go out of business, and the restaurant critic deserves praise for telling it like it is.
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