Australian indie publication defiant in face of legal threats from Lachlan Murdoch

News in brief

Independent Australian publication Crikey has decided to release a number of letters from lawyers representing Lachlan Murdoch threatening the small publication with defamation lawsuits over a June op-ed entitled “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator“.

In an open letter to Murdoch, Crikey stated its concern that Australia’s defamation laws are too restrictive and explained it is publishing all legal demands and accusations from Murdoch’s lawyers and all replies from Crikey‘s lawyers “so people can judge your allegations for themselves”.

Crikey dared Murdoch to follow through on his threats to sue, writing: “We want to defend those allegations in court. You have made it clear in your lawyer’s letters you intend to take court action to resolve this alleged defamation. We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom”.