Brittany Higgins case: Lisa Wilkinson steps back into the witness box for a second day and is asked if she is a ‘serious investigative journalist’

Having established that she was not a dirty hack reporter, it was unclear until Friday what kind of journalism Lisa Wilkinson thought she had been practicing for the past 45 years.

Wilkinson stepped back into the witness box during the defamation trial of Bruce Lehrmann and, under cross-examination by the alleged rapist's lawyer, tried to clear up any confusion about her job description.

Lehrmann is suing Wilkinson and Network Ten in the Federal Court over her February 2021 interview on The Project with his accuser, former political operative Brittany Higgins.

At the 2022 Logies, Wilkinson described that interview as “by far the most important work” she had ever done in her long and lucrative magazine and television career.

Lehrmann's senior counsel Matthew Richardson had told Wilkinson on Thursday that she was less interested in the truth of Higgins' story than she was “excited by the compelling commercial story she was telling.”

“Please don't make me sound like a cheap tabloid journalist, Mr. Richardson,” an unimpressed Wilkinson had replied.

Much amusement was had at the time by observers who remembered Wilkinson's history as co-host of Today and Weekend Sunrise and editorial roles at Dolly, Cleo and Australian Women's Australian Weekly.

No one had suggested that Wilkinson was cheap. She signed with Ten in 2018 with a reported annual pay package of $1.7 million and extended her contract in 2021 with a new multi-year deal.

On Friday, Richardson asked Wilkinson what she actually did.

Richardson: 'Ms Wilkinson, you describe yourself as a serious investigative journalist?'

Wilkinson: 'I describe myself as a journalist.'

Richardson: “Well, you emphasized yesterday that you were not a tabloid journalist, and I assume that's why you describe yourself as a serious investigative journalist?”

Wilkinson: 'I describe myself as a journalist, Mr Richardson.'

So not some ratings-hunting reptile or crusade magnet, but probably somewhere in between.

On the 17th day of the trial, Richardson renewed his attacks on Wilkinson for her reporting on Higgins' claims, which went on air without ever mentioning Lehmann.

Wilkinson continued to defend her professionalism and tried to downplay her role in deciding what information was ultimately broadcast or in checking its accuracy.

On Thursday, Wilkinson had said she was 'not tech savvy at all' and her evidence on Friday further confirmed this.

In the weeks before The Project episode aired, Higgins' fiancée David Sharaz Wilkinson had forwarded a link to Lehrmann's LinkedIn profile.

Days later, producer Angus Llewellyn sent Wilkinson an email warning her not to open the link.

“Afternoon,” Llewellyn wrote. It is striking that if you click on the LinkedIn profile of the suspected perpetrator, he can receive a notification, something we clearly want to avoid.'

Richardson: 'Do you remember if you ever visited the LinkedIn profile yourself?'

Wilkinson: 'I don't have a LinkedIn account so that would have been useless.'

Wilkinson had also never looked at Lehrmann's Facebook page. “I don't have a Facebook account,” she told the court. “I can't look at Facebook.”

Wilkinson then tried to correct that evidence by saying a Facebook account was set up for her when she ran the 10 Daily website.

“The person who ran that account left Channel Ten and they had the password, so I haven't had access to Facebook for years,” she said.

Higgins has accused Lehrmann of raping her in the Parliament House office of their then employer, Senator Linda Reynolds, at the end of a long night in March 2019.

Lehrmann, who has always denied having any sexual contact with Higgins, was suspected of rape but the hearing was aborted in October last year due to juror misconduct.

That trial was postponed for three months after Wilkinson praised Higgins for her “unwavering courage” and “never giving up” in her acceptance speech for Logies.

Wilkinson, who denied on Thursday that her speech was “reckless and ill-advised”, had also emphasized that the Logie for the most high-profile news reporting or public affairs was presented not only to her, but also to the project team.

Richardson has seized another part of Wilkinson's evidence, in which she seemed happier to take credit for the Higgins segment.

The project's executive producer, Chris Bendall, had texted Wilkinson congratulating her on the Higgins interview 43 minutes before it was shown.

“Don't be nervous, Lis,” Bendall's message read. “You have done an excellent job developing, executing and delivering this story. Everything is perfectly fine and on schedule.'

Richardson: “I just want to ask you if you agree that your role in developing, executing and delivering the story was – is that an accurate description?”

Wilkinson: 'Yes.'

After accepting that this was her role, Wilkinson has since taken on less credit and responsibility.

On Friday she repeatedly said her involvement in the preparation of the program had diminished in the run-up to the screening and that decisions about what went on air were made by Ten's senior management and lawyers.

“I understand that appropriate checks were being carried out and advice was being sought within Channel Ten as to whether or not these facts should be included on air,” Wilkinson said at one point.

“And I left those decisions up to others better qualified than me to decide whether or not it was appropriate to keep those details on air.”

She later said: 'To put it in general terms, Mr Richardson, I knew that Channel Ten's legal department was aware of this story and I trusted that it was appropriate for those details to be included.'

Wilkinson denied Richardson's suggestions that Lehrmann had not been given enough time to respond to Higgins' allegations and that he would have been identifiable as her alleged rapist.

The 80 hours Lehrmann was given to respond was “very fair and reasonable,” according to Wilkinson.

“Lawyers, like politicians and journalists, all work seven days a week,” she said.

When the Project received a response from then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office about the way the rape allegations had been handled, it differed from the version given by Higgins.

When asked if it would have been appropriate to speak to Lehrmann's accuser again, Wilkinson indicated that was also not part of her job.

“I was mostly out of the picture at that point, Mr. Richardson,” she said. “That was for others to decide.”

Wilkinson also expressed dismay when Richardson drew her attention to the fact that a key detail Higgins had mentioned in the unedited version of their two-hour interview was left out before broadcast.

Richardson: 'That's very bad journalism, isn't it, to hide that?'

Wilkinson: 'I'm disappointed to see that.'

When she again referred to Bendall's text stating that Wilkinson had been responsible for “developing, executing and transmitting” the Higgins story, she seemed less willing to take so much credit.

“That was a very kind text from Mr. Bendall,” Wilkinson said. “But there was a whole team that also deserved words in that sense.”

Richardson: “I think you agreed that what he said about you yesterday was right, correct?”

Wilkinson: “But I wasn't the only one working on the story, Mr. Richardson.”