Lachlan Murdoch discontinues defamation case against Crikey publisher Private Media

Co-chairman of News Corp, Lachlan Murdoch, has discontinued his defamation proceedings against Crikey publisher, Private Media, after it proposed a new defence thatties the case in with the Fox Corporation and Dominion Voting Systemsin the US.

In a media statement today, Murdoch’s lawyer, John Churchill, said he had filed a notice of discontinuance in the proceedings against Private Media.

However, he said Murdoch “remained confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour”, but wished to stop the proceedings to avoid facilitating “a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits” from Crikey’s end.

“It is a matter of public record that Crikey admits that there is no truth to the imputations that were made about Mr Murdoch in the article,” Churchill said.

Private Media includeda few imputations in its updated defence last weekthat draw from the lawsuit in the US, in which Lachlan Murdoch and his father, Rupert Murdoch, have provided testimony.

Earlier this week, Fox News agreed to settle the case with Dominion Voting Systems for US$787.5 million (A$1.16 billion).

“In their latest attempt to change their defence strategy, Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled,” Churchill said.

“In that case, in the US state of Delaware, the trial judge ruled the events of January 6, 2021, in the US Capitol, were not relevant.

“Further, the plaintiff Dominion Voting Systems made clear it would not argue that Fox News caused the events of January 6, and at no point did it ever argue that Mr Murdoch was personally responsible for the events of January 6. Yet this is what Crikey’s article alleged and what Crikey is attempting to argue in Australia.”

Murdoch launched a defamation case against Private Media in August 2022 over an article published in June that referred to the Murdoch family as the “unindicted co-conspirator” in the US Capitol attack.

One of the case’s respondents,Peter Fray– then Private Media’s managing editor and Crikey’s editor-in-chief – has since departed the publisher.

Sophie Black was named the new editor-in-chief of Crikeyearlier this month.

Mumbrella approached Private Media for comments.