Stan has announced that the original documentary Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial, will premiere December 10.
The feature-length documentary follows Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters’ quest to uncover the truth behind rumours that Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Produced and directed by Dora Weekley, Ben Roberts-Smith: Truth On Trial traces the origins of McKenzie and Masters’ reports in 2018 and the subsequent stories on 60 Minutes, through to Roberts-Smith taking them to court in a defamation trial that ended in 2023.
Over five years, the pair looked into what occurred in Afghanistan between 2006-2013 alongside military and police inquiries. When Roberts-Smith launched Australia’s biggest defamation trial against them, the onus of proving the truth was on them.
In June, following the defamation trial verdict, Ben Roberts-Smith resigned from his position with the Seven Network. He had been working as general manager of Seven West Media’s Queensland operations since 2015, however he took leave due to the trial in 2021.
Nick McKenzie said: “Amid all the secrecy and attempts at cover ups, this documentary gives Australians the inside story into the fight by brave SAS soldiers to have the truth about Roberts-Smith revealed as well as our struggle as journalists to ensure the public learned the facts, not the myth, about Roberts-Smith.”
Chris Masters said: “I think of the Ben Roberts-Smith saga as a bundle of stories. We have two journalists inside the assignment of their lives; the elite SAS at war over one of their own; a courtroom drama for the ages, and behind it all, an extraordinary murder mystery.”
Created in collaboration with 60 Minutes, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial is the seventh title in Stan’s Revealed documentary slate, following Danielle Laidley: Two Tribes, The Cape, Reefshot, Trafficked, Amongst Us – Neo Nazi Australia and No Mercy, No Remorse.
The Stan Original Documentary Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial will premiere December 10, on Stan.