In an out-of-court settlement with undisclosed numbers, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key acknowledged that freelance journalist Bradley Ambrose did not act with malicious intent in the incident now known as the 'Teapot Tapes Scandal.' Any legal attempt to pursue a defamation case against the Prime Minister has also been dropped.
According to RNZ, Ambrose had accused Key of slurring his good name and reputation. The controversy circled around a tape made by Ambrose in 2011 which recorded a confidential conversation between Key and his political ally, John Banks, the candidate of the Australian Capital Territory. Key said that Ambrose had deliberately and maliciously recorded the conversation in breach of ethical conduct and journalistic rules.
In his suit against Key, Ambrose countered that the tape had been made accidentally. For the statemenets that Key had made against him in the media, Ambrose was asking for damages that reached up to NZ$1.25 million or US$846,000.
The Australasian edition of the South China Morning Post said that the final amount of the settlement was undisclosed, but it was far less than the total cost of a court proceeding. Key had described the settlement as "pragmatic" in so far as "reducing costs." Ambrose said he was moving on after Key, short of apologizing to him, had admitted that he had made wrong statements about the journalist. The journalist also said that his recording of the Key-Banks conversation, which later made it online, was an accident; he had left his machine open as authortiies were escorting him out of the venue.
Scoop says that the New Zealand taxpayer would end up paying for Key's legal fees. The money would come from the leaders' fund allocated for Parliament and its projects, or Key's own National Party.
