Lachlan Murdoch pays $1.3m to Crikey for abandoned defamation suit

afr.com:

Lachlan Murdoch has paid more than $1.3 million in legal costs to Crikey to settle the bill associated with the media mogul’s abandoned defamation proceedings against the small Canberra publisher.

Mr Murdoch’s lawyers said he paid the full costs in order for Crikey’s parent company to donate the $588,000 it collected from crowdfunding around the case to the Alliance of Journalists’ Freedom.Crikey had only requested $1.1 million for its costs.

News Corp co-chairman and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Getty

Itbrings an end to Mr Murdoch’s suit against Crikey for the publication of a commentary piece by political editor Bernard Keane last year, which linked the Murdochs to the January 6 US Capitol riot.

The comment piece sparked an angry back-and-forth between Mr Murdoch’s personal lawyers and the media company, with Crikey’s editors initially offering to apologise. But a dispute over the wording of the apology spun out into a defamation suit that was slated to go to trial later this year.

Crikey used the defamation proceedings to launch a CrowdFundMe website, courting donations from Murdoch critics at home and overseas. The publication also erected outdoor billboards and took out an advertisement in The New York Times.

Mr Murdoch was represented by defamation specialist Sue Chrysanthou, SC, while Crikeyturned to Michael Hodge, KC, formerly counsel assisting the banking royal commission.

While Mr Murdoch pursued the matter in the Australian courts, Fox Entertainment, where he is chief executive, was facing a landmark US defamation trial against voting machine maker Dominion.

The multi-year defamation action led to Mr Murdoch, his father Rupert and Fox News presenters being deposed about Fox News coverage of the 2020 presidential