The Fox Corporation CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, has paid Crikey A$1.3m in legal costs for his failed defamation suit against publisher Private Media.
The co-chair of News Corporation surprised the Australian outlet by paying more than the $1.1m the publisher expected, on the condition that the entire $588,735 from a Crikey fundraising campaign is paid to the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. The total legal costs incurred by Crikey publisher Private Media were more than $1.3m but the court usually doesn’t award the full amount.
Murdoch’s lawyer John Churchill said Murdoch had paid $1,306,739.36 to “enable Private Media to keep its commitment to donating all the funds raised through a GoFundMe page to the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom”, which amounted to $588,735.
“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.”
Guardian Australia understands Murdoch did not want Crikey to use the fundraising money earmarked for the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom to cover its gap in costs so chose to pay more than was legally required. Private Media has maintained the fundraising money was always going to be given to the alliance.
Murdoch dropped his defamation proceedings against the independent Australian media company in April, days after his company settled the $1.6bn lawsuit brought by Dominion in the US.
Murdoch launched defamation proceedings in August last year against Crikey over an article published in June that named the Murdoch family as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the US Capitol attack.
Private Media’s CEO, Will Hayward, said he was “delighted” to donate the money raised from Crikey supporters to the alliance.
“This money was raised from the goodwill of people across Australia who believe in the importance of free speech,” he said. “These funds will now go to support the alliance and its team as they champion that cause across the world.”
The executive director of the alliance, Peter Greste, said he was both “grateful and humbled” by the donation.
