Veteran activist and author Dun Mihaka has had a $5000 jury defamation award upheld, and will receive costs and interest of $8580.
In a judgment released in the High Court at Wellington, Justice John Wild said News Media Auckland, publishers of New Truth, no longer wanted to argue a defence that would defeat the jury's $5000 damages award.
Mr Mihaka, of Paraparaumu, alleged that in 1995 the paper ridiculed his protest actions and suggested he regularly bared his buttocks in public.
In August 1999 a jury awarded Mr Mihaka $5000 but the result was held over. Mr Mihaka claimed $16,863 legal costs, but the judge said more than half the claim was not recoverable because it was not for legal costs.
Justice Wild's decision this week adds $580 interest and legal costs of $8000 to the defamation award.
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