Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation proceedings against independent Australian publisher Crikey

Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation proceedings against the independent Australian media company Private Media, the publisher of Crikey.

Murdoch launched defamation proceedings in August against the independent news site over an article published in June that named the Murdoch family as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the US Capitol attack. The CEO of the small publisher hailed the news on Friday as a “victory for free speech”.

The Fox Corporation CEO said he was ending the case in light of the settlement in the US of the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.

The federal court trial had been set down for October to run for three weeks, with Murdoch expected to attend at least some of the proceedings.

Murdoch said he was confident he would have won but he “does 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”.

Murdoch’s lawyers filed a notice in the Australian federal court on Friday morning which was a single line: “Pursuant to rule 26.12(2)(a)(ii) LACHLAN KEITH MURDOCH, the Applicant, discontinues the whole of the proceedings. Date: 21 April 2023”.

Guardian Australia understands Private Media was blindsided by the announcement and is likely to demand costs from Murdoch.

A GoFundMe campaign launched by the publisher has raised $588,735 and Crikey is yet to say what will happen to those donations.

Murdoch’s lawyer, John Churchill, said on Friday that he had filed a notice of discontinuance in the defamation proceedings.

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“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.

“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.

“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.

“Mr Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour, however he does 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,” Churchill said.

The CEO of Private Media Will Hayward said it was a substantial victory for legitimate public interest journalism.

“We stand by what we published last June, and everything we laid out in our defence to the court,” Hayward said. “The imputations drawn by Murdoch from that article were ridiculous.

Hayward said it was absurd for Churchill to claim Murdoch “remains confident” he would have won.

“The fact is, Murdoch sued us, and then dropped his case.”

“We are proud to have exposed the hypocrisy and abuse of power of a media billionaire. This is a victory for free speech. We won.”

Earlier this month, federal court Justice Michael Wigney ordered the parties into a second round of mediation, saying the case was being driven by ego.

“It seems to me that both parties at such a mediation could take stock of what is turning into a scorched-earth policy in relation to both sides of the litigation,” he said.

“There does seem to be a hint that this case is being driven more by … ego and hubris and ideology than anything else.”