<p><em>Fox Corp</em> chief executive Lachlan Murdoch is suing Australian news website Crikey in a Sydney court for defamation over an opinion piece about last year's storming of the US Capitol.</p>.<p>Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court on Tuesday, a day after Crikey publisher <em>Private Media</em>'s chairman Eric Beecher and managing editor Peter Fray put their names to an ad in <em>The New York Times</em> inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue.</p>.<p>“We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom,” the two media executives said in an open letter to Lachlan Murdoch, which was also published in Australia's <em>The Canberra Times</em> newspaper on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Murdoch is suing<em> Private Media,</em> a private company, Fray, who is also the website's editor-in-chief, and Crikey's political editor, Bernard Keane.</p>.<p>Murdoch claims he was defamed by Keane's column about the US congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection which Crikey published on June 29 under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”</p>.<p>US cable news giant <em>Fox News</em> is accused in suits filed in the US of airing false claims linking two election technology companies, Dominion and Smartmatic, to a conspiracy to steal votes from former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, won by President Joe Biden.</p>.<p>Crikey said it welcomed the Murdoch action. “Crikey will not be silenced,” the statement published on Wednesday said.</p>.<p>Lachlan Murdoch's office confirmed the defamation proceedings had been filed but declined to make further comment.</p>.<p>Private Media chief executive Will Hayward said in a statement: “We are determined to fight for the integrity and importance of diverse, independent media in Australian democracy.”</p>.<p>No court hearing date has yet been set. Murdoch has not proposed a monetary sum should he win damages in court.</p>.<p>Crikey removed the contentious article from its website when it received a letter from Murdoch's lawyers a day after the article was published.</p>.<p>After further letters were exchanged between lawyers, Crikey published the article again last week.</p>.<p>Crikey attracts an audience of at least 175,000 unique readers a month and has at least 15,000 paid subscribers, according to court documents.</p>
<p><em>Fox Corp</em> chief executive Lachlan Murdoch is suing Australian news website Crikey in a Sydney court for defamation over an opinion piece about last year's storming of the US Capitol.</p>.<p>Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court on Tuesday, a day after Crikey publisher <em>Private Media</em>'s chairman Eric Beecher and managing editor Peter Fray put their names to an ad in <em>The New York Times</em> inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue.</p>.<p>“We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom,” the two media executives said in an open letter to Lachlan Murdoch, which was also published in Australia's <em>The Canberra Times</em> newspaper on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Murdoch is suing<em> Private Media,</em> a private company, Fray, who is also the website's editor-in-chief, and Crikey's political editor, Bernard Keane.</p>.<p>Murdoch claims he was defamed by Keane's column about the US congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection which Crikey published on June 29 under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”</p>.<p>US cable news giant <em>Fox News</em> is accused in suits filed in the US of airing false claims linking two election technology companies, Dominion and Smartmatic, to a conspiracy to steal votes from former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, won by President Joe Biden.</p>.<p>Crikey said it welcomed the Murdoch action. “Crikey will not be silenced,” the statement published on Wednesday said.</p>.<p>Lachlan Murdoch's office confirmed the defamation proceedings had been filed but declined to make further comment.</p>.<p>Private Media chief executive Will Hayward said in a statement: “We are determined to fight for the integrity and importance of diverse, independent media in Australian democracy.”</p>.<p>No court hearing date has yet been set. Murdoch has not proposed a monetary sum should he win damages in court.</p>.<p>Crikey removed the contentious article from its website when it received a letter from Murdoch's lawyers a day after the article was published.</p>.<p>After further letters were exchanged between lawyers, Crikey published the article again last week.</p>.<p>Crikey attracts an audience of at least 175,000 unique readers a month and has at least 15,000 paid subscribers, according to court documents.</p>