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The heir to the Murdoch media empire has launched an attack on the Australian media house over claims his family and Fox News are “unindicted co-conspirators” in Riots at the US Capitol.
Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s eldest son and chief executive of Fox Corporation, threatened legal action against Crikey over an article published late last month.
Murdoch’s lawyers say the article, which does not mention him by name, effectively accuses him of illegally conspiring with former President Donald Trump to “nullify the 2020 presidential election” and “set a firestorm with murderous intent” in January.
On Monday, Crikey editors hit back, publishing their correspondence with Murdoch’s lawyers online, accusing him of “abusing media power”.
In an open letter to the media scion published in the New York Times, Crikey editor Peter Fray and chairman Eric Beecher said they had taken the unusual step of publishing his legal threats “so that people can judge your allegations for themselves”.
They added: “You have made it clear in your solicitor’s letters that you intend to take legal action to resolve this alleged defamation.
“We await your letter so that we can test this important issue of freedom of journalism in the public interest in a courtroom.”
In a companion article, also published on Monday, Crikey noted the Murdoch family’s public calls for greater media freedom and criticism of what some see as overly restrictive libel laws in Australia.
They pointed to a speech Lachlan, who is also co-chairman of News Corp, gave to the Australian Institute of Public Affairs in March. The 50-year-old claimed efforts to “limit views, stifle diversity of opinion and enforce a single world view” were “fundamentally anti-Australian”.
News Corp has spreading interests around the worldincluding Fox News and the Wall Street Journal in the US, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, Times Radio and TalkTV in the UK, and The Australian, Foxtel and Sky News, among dozens of other titles, in Australia.
Australian-born but American-born Rupert Murdoch, 91, is executive chairman.
Crikey added: “Like the Murdochs, we believe in the public’s right to know.
“Disclosing this legal attack is the only way we believe we can shine a light on the actions of a powerful media owner to silence a small publisher using Australia’s defamation laws – laws that News Corp itself has consistently argued should give the media more freedom to fulfilling its mandated role.”
Lachlan Murdoch’s legal threats are an unusual move for a family member, one media law expert said.
Mark Lewis, a barrister who represented the family of murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler in the phone hacking scandal, said: “It seems strange that someone who is very supportive of a free press would threaten to use libel laws in this way.”
He added that Murdoch’s aggressive letters could have a negative effect by drawing attention to claims that would otherwise go largely unnoticed.
“Defamation plaintiffs judge themselves by what is said about them, I always tell my clients that,” Mr Lewis added.
“Sometimes these things are best left unchallenged.”
Mr Murdoch has been described in recent years as the “heir to the throne” of the News Corp empire, according to exit of his brother James in 2020.
He had previously left the family business in 2005 after reports of disputes with other executives, saying he had “moved on”, but returned to the site in 2014 as co-chairman of News Corp.
In addition to his role in this company, he also has a private family office, Illyria, which invests in start-ups.
The father of three is married to supermodel Sarah O’Hare and the couple have three children.
Last year, Mr Murdoch was reported to have returned to New York after a six-month stay with his family at their $50 million Sydney mansion.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, they temporarily moved back to Australia after the election of Democratic candidate Joe Biden as US president made things “rough” for Mr Murdoch and his family in Los Angeles.
Fox News has been accused by critics of uncritically spreading unsubstantiated claims by Mr Trump and prominent members of the Republican Party that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by fraud.
In a separate legal battle in the US, Fox is facing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems after it published unsubstantiated claims that the company’s voting machines were used to rig the election in favor of Mr. Biden.
Fox has been approached for comment.
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