Sir Bob Jones withdraws defamation case

Sir Bob Jones has withdrawn his defamation case against Renae Maihi, who set up a petition after he wrote an article which suggested Māori should be grateful to Pākehā for existing.

Maihi talked in court yesterday about how denigrated she felt by his column - which was removed from the NBR website days after it was published due to "inappropriate content".

• This story was first published by RNZ

Her lawyer Davey Salmon was using the defences of truth, honest opinion, and qualified privilege to defend the case.

Sir Robert admitted the previous day he had not read the petition in full.

"I've never read her petition, I admit that, all I know is that I was aware she was running a petition on the knighthood proposition, which is insulting."