The chairman of Fox Corporation has dropped the defamation suit against Australian publication Crickey over an op-ed linking the Murdoch family and Fox News Channel to the 2021 attack on the US Parliament.
The Australian Federal Court reported Friday via its official portal that the trial had been “suspended/withdrawn”. days after Fox News agreed to pay more than $780 million in the United States after it was accused of defamation during its coverage of the 2020 US presidential election.
Lachlan Murdoch [presidente da Fox] has dropped the defamation claim against Crikey and will pay Crikey’s legal fees. We and our customer are very satisfied”said the law firm Marque Lawyer, which represents Private Media, the business group to which Australian publication Crikey belongs.
John Churchill, Murdoch’s lawyer, said in a statement that – despite the client he represents “confident that he would win” in a lawsuit against the Australian publication – he does not want “Crikey to continue to use the court” to get a run a targeted campaign. to attract customers and profit.
Last August, Australian businessman Murdoch sued Private Media over an article accusing Fox of involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, robbery of the Capitol.
“Trump is confirmed to be a mad traitor. Murdoch is the unindicted ‘allied conspirator'”headlined the publication on June 29, 2022.
Murdoch’s lawyers claimed the article insinuated that the businessman “illegally conspired” with former US President Donald Trump to incite protesters to march on the Capitol in Washington with the aim of preventing confirmation of the results of the election. the Republican candidate.
Recently, Crickey representatives added thousands of documents to the file on the alleged involvement of Fox and the company Dominion Voting Systems, which accused the television network of spreading false information about alleged fraud in the 2020 election.
Eric Beecher, CEO of Private Media, called Murdoch’s decision to withdraw the complaint a “victory for free speech”, adding that he was “proud to expose the media mogul’s hypocrisy and abuse of power.” to have brought”.
“We stand by our position that Lachlan Murdoch was guilty of promoting the lies about the 2020 election result because he and his father (Rupert Murdoch) had the power to stop the lies. How do we know? Because Dominion Fox News sued for promoting lies and Fox eventually paid (…) Dominion to settle the case”Beecher said in a statement.
Murdoch’s lawyer’s argument is different.
“In this case (Dominion), the U.S. State of Delaware held that the events of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol were irrelevant”said Chruchil.
Murdoch’s attorney insisted that Dominion had “made it clear that it would not argue about Fox News’ involvement in the January 6 events and that it had never claimed that Murdoch was personally responsible.”
Source: DN
