CNN said it is preventing Australians from accessing its Facebook Inc pages after a court ruled that publishers can be liable for defamation in public comment sections and the social media firm refused to help it disable comments in the country.

The move makes CNN, which is owned by AT&T Inc, the first major news organisation to pull its Facebook presence in Australia since the country's High Court ruled this month that publishers were legally responsible for comments posted below stories - even if the stories themselves were not defamatory.

CNN does not feature prominently in...