After abandoning his defamation lawsuit against Crikey, Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch paid substantial legal fees to Private Media, the publisher of the scrappy Australian publication.

Murdoch’s lawyer, John Churchill, confirmed Tuesday that Murdoch had paid. Private Media has requested $1,306,739 Australian ($839,207.39 US) to cover its legal costs, more than $1.1 million Australian ($705,000 US) it had requested.

Crikey published an article on June 29, 2022, calling Murdoch an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Despite not explicitly naming Lachlan Murdoch, the story was removed the next day after Crikey received a legal threat from Fox Corp.

Murdoch alleged that the article was both defamatory and levied several false accusations, such as that he conspired with former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election by “inciting an armed mob to march on the Capitol to physically prevent the confirmation” of election results.

Murdoch dropped his defamation suit against Crikey in April, saying he did not want to “litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost profits”. According to Private Media, which stood by its reporting, the retreat was “a substantial victory for legitimate public interest journalism.”

In the largest publicly known defamation settlement involving a US media company, Fox News settled its defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million just days earlier.

Churchill, Murdoch’s lawyer, said in a statement Tuesday that Crikey admitted there was no truth to the allegations made about Murdoch in the article.

Private Media, which crowdfunded its legal defense against Murdoch, has pledged to donate the entire $588,735 Australian ($377,555 US) it raised to the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. Private Media’s chief executive, Will Hayward, expressed delight at being able to donate the funds.

As Hayward said in a statement, “This money was raised from the goodwill of Australians who believed in the importance of free speech.” These funds will now support the alliance and its team as they champion that cause worldwide.”

AJF said it was “incredibly grateful” for the donation and planned to use it to support the passage of a law guaranteeing press freedom.

The funds will be put to good use to promote greater press freedom, which is essential to democracy, according to AJF executive director, Professor Peter Greste.