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Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Corp., paid the legal fees of an Australian news site after abandoning a lawsuit. (Image: Reuters)
Murdoch paid legal bills of Australian news site Crikey, worth more than US$800,000, after it discontinued the defamation case.
Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has paid the legal costs of an Australian news site that he had previously sued for defamation, the outlet said Tuesday.
The Crikey news site said Murdoch had picked up legal bills worth more than US$800,000, after an aborted attempt to sue it for saying his family’s conservative media empire fuelled the 2021 US Capitol riots.
Murdoch took Crikey to court over a series of articles that labelled his family and “poisonous” Fox News commentators as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the January 6 post-election riots.
The articles referenced Fox News’s decision to amplify unfounded conspiracy theories that the presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was stolen from the then-incumbent Donald Trump.
But eight months into legal proceedings the eldest son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch abruptly “discontinued” the case.
Crikey said on Tuesday that “in a letter sent on August 14, Murdoch through his lawyer agreed to cover Private Media’s costs of Aus$1.3 million in full — more than the Aus$1.1 million asked for”.
Crikey, an often pugilistic left-leaning publication, had repeatedly dared Murdoch to sue them over the articles, and launched fundraising and subscription drives off the back of the legal action.
The outlet received hundreds of thousands of dollars in public donations, allowing it to more than cover its legal costs.
Crikey said it would donate the surplus cash to a defence fund for journalists being sued.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
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