As a fellow Aussie, I feel I should clear up a few things about th Azaria Chamberlain story.
In 1980, in the Australian outback (this didn't happen in a city, it happened 600km from the nearest city Alice Springs which today only has a population in the 20,000s).
The local law enforcement was out of their depth, a dingo had never taken a child before and forensics were far from satisfactory.
Blood in the front seat of the family car turned out to be milkshake residue.
You can begin to see how ordinary this was...but the public wasn't told it was a milkshake, we were told it was blood. We were told the baby's jumpsuit had been CUT, not bitten....and so was the Court.
The family's demeanour was questionable, Mrs Chamberlain got pregnant during the trial, they were 7th Day Adventists (seen as a bit loopy) and there was no evidence that a dingo had taken anything.
The truth came out when the baby's bloody matinee jacket was found years later in a remote area, which proved that the parents couldn't have been involved.
The Chamberlain's were guilty in the eyes of the Public because the media told us they were. There was no internet to study facts ourselves...and anyone being presented with the evidence today would dismiss the case quite quickly.
The Chamberlain's, despite being arrested, sent to trial and found guilty...and even spending time in jail...cooperated with authorities. They genuinely had nothing to hide.
The Australian people have a relatively informal freedom of speech, in that it isn't specifically constitutional. Radio people are fond of adding "allegedly" to a lot of what they say, but the reality is, I can say what I like in a public forum as long as people realise it's my opinion.
It is why we have, compared to the USA, relaxed TV rules, relaxed Radio rules, very VERY low levels of bigotry and censorship. We don't sue people left, right and centre and we're happy.
Agatha_C said heaven wasn't in Oz...but it's based on it.