A complaint had been made that the director of the Adelaide Institute had vilified actions and characteristics of Jews, in part by denial of the Holocaust, on the Institute's website. It was found that a non-password protected website was a public, not private, communication, and the Judge ordered removal from the website of material which implied serious doubt that the Holocaust occurred and there were homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz.

In an effort to create a balance between the principle of free speech and the need to protect minorities from racial hatred, the Racial Discrimination Act provides for a broad range of exempt conduct.

Among other exemptions, it preserves the right to make or publish "a fair comment on any event or matter of public interest if the comment is an expression of a genuine belief held by the person making the comment".

In this case the Judges rejected the director's argument that he was expressing a genuine interest in the historical truth about the Holocaust, and concluded that his real purpose was to"disparage Jewish people".

Reproduced from In Touch With The Law, published by the Law Society of NSW