Murdoch loses bid to throw out part of Crikey’s defamation defence

Online news outlet Crikey has had a preliminary win in its defamation fight with Lachlan Murdoch, after a judge rejected Murdoch’s application to throw out part of the media outlet’s public interest defence before the trial.

In a decision in the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday, Justice Michael Wigney said he was “not persuaded it’s appropriate to strike out any paragraph of Crikey’s defence” before the trial.

He also rejected an application by Crikey to strike out part of the News Corp co-chairman’s reply to its defence.

The issues raised were “more appropriately determined on a final basis at trial”, Wigney said.

Murdoch, chief executive of Fox Corporation and elder son of media baron Rupert, filed defamation proceedings against Crikey in August over a June 29 article naming his family as “unindicted co-conspirators” of former US president Donald Trump following the deadly US Capitol riots in 2021.

Crikey is seeking to rely in part on a new public interest defence that has not yet been tested in Australia. The new defence started last year in NSW, where the trial will be held.

Under the defence, Crikey’s publisher Private Media – chaired by Eric Beecher – must prove the “defamatory matter” concerned an issue of public interest and it “reasonably believed … the publication of the matter was in the public interest”.

Murdoch sought to have the first 16 paragraphs of Crikey’s defence, presented under the heading “factual background”, struck out or used for a limited purpose.

But Wigney said the paragraphs were “potentially relevant to Crikey’s public interest defence” and rejected the application.