News Corp co-chair Lachlan Murdoch is set to appear at his high-profile defamation case against the publisher of Australian independent newspaper Crikey.

Barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC says her client, who claims Crikey defamed him, damaged his reputation and hurt his feelings, will testify in the Federal Court during next year’s hearing.

“Mr Murdoch … will be giving evidence at the trial of this matter,” she told Justice Michael Wigney on Thursday.

The Fox Corporation CEO has sued Private Media, the organisation behind the Crikey masthead, over an allegedly defamatory June 29 opinion piece by political editor Bernard Keane, that was taken down and then posted back online on August 15.

Crikey used article in marketing push

The article is titled “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator” and relates to US House of Representative hearings into former president Donald Trump and the Capitol riots in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

In a pre-trial hearing where parties sparred over further questions, called interrogatories, which each side could be forced to answer, Ms Chrysanthou said that before July 25, Crikey heads had discussed using the article in a marketing campaign to attract subscribers.

As well as Mr Keane and editor-in-chief Peter Fray, who is also sued in the lawsuit, Crikey CEO Will Hayward and chairperson Eric Beecher also had significant intervention in the campaign, the court heard.

As part of this marketing push, Crikey spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, including on an advertisement in the New York Times, Ms Chrysanthou said.

Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corp, claims the publisher acted with malice against him. Photo: Getty

The decision to take out this ad was not public interest journalism, the barrister said, referring to Crikey‘s defence that the article was in the public interest to publish.

“This was a commercial decision … to promote a non-existent dispute at that point between my client and the respondents,” she said.

Part of this campaign, which portrayed Crikey as the victim in a “David and Goliath dispute”, included requests for readers to contribute to a GoFundMe campaign to cover any costs of the proceedings, the court heard.

Request ‘spectacularly artifical’

Ms Chrysanthou said Private Media was already covered for any future legal losses through its insurance policies, but had not disclosed this information to readers.

While Crikey, Keane and Fray had handed over all material they relied upon when drafting their article, Mr Murdoch went further, asking for documents and publications which they knew of but didn’t rely on.

Justice Wigney questioned this, however, calling the request “spectacularly artificial”.

“How can you possibly verify one way or another all information that you had … six months ago? It’s absurd,” the judge said.

Ms Chrysanthou said her client merely wanted to know what Crikey could recall about how it wrote the article.

Mr Murdoch wants this information to test the state of mind of those at Crikey when they created the allegedly offending article, to see whether they knew or realised what they wrote could have been defamatory.

Seeking aggravated damages

He is seeking aggravated damages, claiming the publisher acted with malice against him.

Crikey‘s barrister Clarissa Amato rejected Mr Murdoch’s interrogatories, saying they were either irrelevant or that the media mogul had the information he required.

The publisher had already admitted it engaged in a campaign to promote its article in Australia and worldwide, she told the court.

“The campaign, I admitted. The fact that (Mr Murdoch) wishes to go further and say that it was disingenuous to crowd-fund… There has to be a limit,” she said.

“Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you’re entitled to have it.”

While Mr Keane and Mr Fray will give evidence, Mr Hayward and Mr Beecher won’t appear at the upcoming trial.

Mr Murdoch alleges the article contained defamatory claims including that he entered an illegal criminal conspiracy with Mr Trump to overturn the US 2020 presidential election and incite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitol.

As well as its public interest defence, Crikey contends the article itself did not defame Mr Murdoch and rejects allegations it damaged his reputation.

A nine-day trial is due to start on March 27.

-AAP