Murdoch to repay Crikey its $1.3m defamation case legal bill
News Corp co-chairman and Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch will hand over $1.3 million to Crikey – the amount it spent defending his now settled defamation case against the independent online news outlet.
Photo: AAP/Steven Saphore
Crikey will recoup its legal costs on the condition that it gives away almost $590,000 in donations received during crowdfunding campaigns during the hotly fought and highly publicised lawsuit.
The son of Rupert Murdoch sued Private Media over an allegedly defamatory opinion piece published in June 2022 and again two months later which called Donald Trump a “confirmed unhinged traitor”.
He claimed the article labelled him as the former US president’s “unindicted co-conspirator” over his alleged role in the mob march to overthrow the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Former Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray, political editor Bernard Keane, chairman Eric Beecher and chief executive Will Hayward were also sued.
The case was settled quietly in April this year after much media publicity between Crikey and Murdoch including a New York Times ad inviting the Fox CEO to sue it.
Murdoch dropped the case and the settlement came after Fox News reached a separate $1.2 billion settlement with US voting system provider Dominion for false claims aired following the 2020 presidential election.
On Tuesday, Murdoch’s lawyer John Churchill confirmed his client would pay over $1.3 million in Crikey’s legal costs of defending the case.
The costs will only be paid if Crikey donates its crowdfunded legal war-chest to the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.
“Crikey admitted that there is no truth to the imputations that were made about Mr Murdoch in the article and Mr Murdoch remains confident that the court would have ultimately found in his favour,” Churchill said.
“Mr Murdoch said when he discontinued the proceedings that he did not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits.”
Hayward said he was delighted to give money originally offered by supporters to cover Crikey’s legal defence costs to the AJF.
“This money was raised from the goodwill of people across Australia who believe in the importance of free speech. These funds will now go to support the alliance and its team as they champion that cause across the world,” he said.
– with AAP
