Lisa Wilkinson says she's not a 'cheap, tabloid journalist' as she ...

Veteran journalist Lisa Wilkinson has defended the speech she gave at last year's Logie Awards, which led to a delay in Bruce Lehrmann's criminal trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Key points:Lisa Wilkinson is providing testimony to the Federal CourtWilkinson is being sued by Bruce Lehrmann over her 2021 interview with Brittany Higgins on The ProjectMr Lehrmann is also suing Wilkinson's employer Network Ten

Wilkinson interviewed Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, with Ms Higgins alleging she had been raped at Parliament House in 2019.

Mr Lehrmann was not named in the coverage but has claimed he was identifiable and is suing Network Ten and Wilkinson for defamation.

The former Liberal staffer's criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was aborted after juror misconduct last year and there remain no findings against him.

Wilkinson gave a speech when The Project won a Logie last year for the interview in question, eight days before Mr Lehrmann's criminal trial was due to commence.

The defence successfully sought a delay in the trial due to the publicity generated by the speech.

Today, it was played to the Federal Court for the second time since Mr Lehrmann's defamation action began.

Lawyers argue speech conveys message Wilkinson believed Brittany Higgins

Lisa Wilkinson won a 2022 Logie award for her interview with Brittany Higgins.(Supplied: Nine Entertainment )

Mr Lehrmann's barrister Matthew Richardson suggested the speech conveyed a message that Wilkinson "absolutely 100 per cent" believed Ms Higgins's allegation to be true.

"That is the obvious interpretation of anyone listening," Mr Richardson said.

"That isn't what I said in that speech," Wilkinson replied.

"If you can be in the minds of the entire nation, that is a superpower I don't possess."

But Wilkinson accepted she would be unlikely to refer to a person's "unwavering courage," as she did in regards to Ms Higgins, if the person was making a false allegation.

She disagreed that her decision to give the speech was, as Mr Richardson argued, "reckless and ill-advised". 

"I had sought advice before I got up on that stage," Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said she had discussed the speech in the days before the award ceremony with the ACT's former top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, though their accounts differ as to whether Wilkinson was warned not to give the speech.

Wilkinson today also told the court she had not had any specific training in contempt of court throughout her four decades in the media industry.

Lisa Wilkinson is being sued over her interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in 2021.(Instagram: Lisa Wilkinson)

Wilkinson not a 'cheap, tabloid journalist' 

Mr Richardson suggested Wilkinson had a strong motive to present Ms Higgins's allegations as the truth.

"You were thrilled by the riveting commercial appeal of the story that she told," he said.

"Please don't make me sound like a cheap, tabloid journalist, Mr Richardson," Wilkinson replied.

But Wilkinson later said the team behind the episode did intend to convey the suggestion that a rape had occurred.

She also said she believed there were efforts within the Liberal Party to cover it up.

"I believe there was a lot of damage control going on within the prime minister's office to keep this thing under wraps," she told the court.

Lisa Wilkinson is being represented by separate lawyers to Network Ten.  ( ABC News: Keana Naughton )

Mr Lehrmann's legal team also pressed Wilkinson on the introduction to the program, which referred to "a young woman forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice".

Ms Wilkinson said the program did not suggest that the pressure Ms Higgins felt not to pursue a police complaint came from any one person in particular.

"That was pressure that Ms Higgins was putting on herself," she said.

"She understood the way Parliament House worked, the machinations of power, and being a team player."

Wilkinson washes hands of responsibility to check details of Ms Higgins's story 

Wilkinson told the court she was not responsible for checking details that required clarification from Ms Higgins before the program went to air.

These included potential inconsistencies between Ms Higgins's claims that her phone had recently been wiped, leading to a significant loss of data and that she had managed to save some pieces of contemporaneous evidence, including the photograph of a bruise on her leg.

Brittany Higgins provided The Project with a photo of a bruise she said she sustained during the alleged rape. (Supplied)

Wilkinson said procedures were put in place for dealing with Ms Higgins, to limit any distress she might experience by fielding calls and messages from multiple people from The Project.

"There was a decision taken by the senior management … that all communication should be limited to one producer, that being Mr [Angus] Llewellyn," she said.

"Any concerns that I had went through Mr Llewellyn."

The court heard Wilkinson wanted the potential discrepancies over the phone to be investigated further.

"I was told that it had been further investigated, and it was now a non-issue," she said.

In Wilkinson's affidavit, she said she was satisfied there were no issues on this topic by the time the program went to air, and the detail was not included in the story.

Mr Richardson suggested that except for this issue, Wilkinson "accepted every part of the allegations [Ms Higgins] made without question".

"I reject that," Ms Wilkinson replied.

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn gave evidence over two days in the trial.(AAP: Bianca De Marchi)

The Project producer defended actions 

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn, who had worked alongside Wilkinson on The Project episode, previously faced two days of cross-examination by Mr Richardson.

Mr Llewellyn denied suggestions he had failed to pick up on alleged contradictions in Ms Higgins's interview.

He also defended his efforts to contact people mentioned in the broadcast, including Mr Lehrmann.

Bruce Lehrmann has been in the Federal Court to hear Lisa Wilkinson's evidence.( ABC News: Keana Naughton )

Wilkinson is relying on qualified privilege to defend herself in Mr Lehrmann's defamation lawsuit. 

Network Ten is also aiming to rely on a defence of qualified privilege, as well as seeking to prove that its reporting was true — that Mr Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, after the pair were out drinking at a Canberra bar and nightclub.

Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegation. 

The defamation trial was due to finish this week but will now likely spill over into the week before Christmas.

Cross-examination of Ms Wilkinson is expected to conclude tomorrow.