July 20, 2026 — 6:27pmTwo top harness racing officials say they were exposed to hatred, ridicule and contempt by a series of articles in News Corp mastheads accusing them of presiding over a doping crisis.Harness Racing NSW chief executive Peter Buckman and the sport’s chief integrity officer, Michael Prentice, commenced defamation proceedings in the Federal Court last month after articles accusing them of failing to warn trainers that a popular animal medication had become contaminated with levamisole, a deworming drug that is prohibited in equestrian sports because it acts as a powerful stimulant.Two top harness racing officials are suing News Corp over a series of articles about a drug scandal. None of those pictured are involved in the saga.Katherine GriffithsAs a result of the contamination, several trainers were banned from participating in the sport, under its strict doping regime.Buckman and Prentice claim the articles published in The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Code Sports by journalist Julian Linden defamed them by holding the pair responsible for HRNSW failing to warn participants about the potential contamination, and accused them of contributing to an emerging drug scandal in the sport.The pair claim Linden’s reporting depicted them as “callously indifferent to the lives and livelihoods of harness racing trainers”, including former firefighter Scott Wade, who had been disqualified for life but maintains his innocence.“Both applicants have been exposed to hatred, ridicule and contempt, and have been gravely injured in their personal and professional reputations, and have suffered and will continue to suffer hurt, distress and embarrassment,” a statement of claim filed by the pair said.Buckman and Prentice are seeking aggravated damages and an injunction restraining further publication of the articles.In response, News Corp’s lawyers say the articles are substantially true, and that they are protected by a public interest defence. Before Linden’s articles were published, 12 trainers had been suspended or disqualified from the sport after their samples were contaminated with levamisole, News Corp said in documents lodged with the court.The media company’s lawyers submitted that in July 2025 HRNSW had detected quantities of the prohibited substance in Fenbender 100, a popular chemical used by farmers to treat livestock.However, no notification was provided to the industry for over two months, News Corp said, an act which showed “a callous indifference to the lives and livelihood of trainers in New South Wales”.News Corp’s lawyers submitted that the articles were in the public interest because they concerned HRNSW, the statutory body responsible for regulating the harness racing industry, and the considerable consequences of potential disqualification for trainers who had inadvertently used the banned substance.Linden, a Walkley-award winning sports reporter, had reasonably believed the stories to be in the public interest, and had spoken to dozens of industry figures including three anonymous sources during the reporting process, News Corp submitted.Looming over harness racing is the shadow of the 2011 Green Light scandal, in which corrupt stewards allegedly tipped off trainers about when their horses would be drug tested. The episode led to criminal changes for some stewards, and bans for several high-profile drivers.News Corp’s lawyers, in their submission, wrote that there was “a perception in the industry that HRNSW had gone too far in seeking to address corruption in the sport ... by imposing draconian punishments for breaches of its rules”.The public interest defence to defamation, introduced in 2021, allows a publisher to defeat a claim in cases where it held a reasonable belief that the publication was in the public interest. It was first successfully applied last year when Nine, owner of this masthead, defeated a defamation claim brought by orthopaedic surgeon Munjed Al Muderis over reports alleging negligent surgery. Last month, he launched an appeal against that decision.A first case-management hearing in the Buckman matter was held before Justice Michael Lee in the Federal Court last Friday. The parties have been ordered to enter into mediation before November. Both sides were contacted for comment.The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.From our partners