4th January 1999
In the public interest
On the 31st July last year I was singled out and arrested on the instructions of the Attorney General, Matt Foley. The allegation that I named a Queensland Labor MP facing fifty child sex charges was referred to the Office of Crown Law after a journalist at The Courier-Mail made a written complaint to the DPP on the paper's letterhead. A copy of this Courier-Mail document has been subpoenaed by my lawyers from Crown Law and is in my possession.
On the 18th August 1999 The Courier-Mail's Matthew Franklin wrote, under the heading, "One Nation leader hits out at paper over reports":
"We (The Courier-Mail) are not party to any action against Scott Balson." The Courier-Mail called Bill Feldman's claims "false and irrational" in an editorial over this issue in the same paper.
On the day of my arrest, 30th July 1999, The Courier-Mail's David Solomon singled me out in an opinion piece saying, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse - as publisher Scott Balson may discover if prosecuting authorities decide to charge him for publishing the name of a man currently facing committal proceedings on child-sex charges."
Extraordinarily, the brief of evidence against me supplied by police reveals that two high profile organisations, including a prominent legal firm in Brisbane, are allegedly in breach of the Act under which I have been arrested.
Tomorrow I will face the Ipswich Magistrate's Court after a series of aborted cases in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court. The first because the police "were not ready" after agreeing with my lawyers on a date for the hearing, the second because the police had "arrested me in the wrong jurisdiction".
After the hearing tomorrow I will be making a well-founded statement about the Office of Crown Law and will be calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate my claims.
Scott Balson
Media Enquiries: 3201 1353 or 015 477 609
EMAIL: gwb@gwb.com.au
(Note: no media statement will be made until AFTER the hearing).