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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Friday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty sixth of August.

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Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: Now what happens when Lachlan Murdoch, the co chairman of

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Speaker 2: News Corps, threatens an Australian independent news website with a lawsuit. Well,

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Speaker 2: the website publicly challenges Murdoch to sue them. We'll catch

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Speaker 2: you up on everything you need to know about the

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Speaker 2: impending Criikee v. Murdoch battle later in the Deep Dive,

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Speaker 2: But first Sam, what's making headlines.

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Speaker 3: Finis to Anthony Albernizi has announced there will be a

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Speaker 3: Royal commission into the robodebt welfare collection system, which unlawfully

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Speaker 3: raised one point seventy three billion dollars for the government.

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Speaker 3: The findings of the Royal Commission will be presented to

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Speaker 3: the Governor General in April of twenty twenty three, with

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Speaker 3: Alberniezi saying it would work to quote prevent this ever

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Speaker 3: happening again.

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Speaker 2: Quantus has posted a one point nine billion dollar underlying

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Speaker 2: loss in the last financial year, which it attributes to

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Speaker 2: the impacts of the delta and omicron variance and the

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Speaker 2: costs of restarting the airline after lockdowns. The figure took

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Speaker 2: Quantus's total revenue losses from the COVID nineteen pandemic to

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Speaker 2: twenty five billion dollars, which CEO Alan Joyce has described

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Speaker 2: as staggering.

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Speaker 3: Meanwhile, the Greens have proposed a two year rent freeze

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Speaker 3: to address the rental and cost of living crises. The

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Speaker 3: plan includes ongoing rent caps once the freeze is over. However,

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Speaker 3: it is unlikely to be passed through Parliament. Prime Minister

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Speaker 3: Anthony Albernizi SI yesterday that the Greens hadn't raised the

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Speaker 3: rent freeze with the government, while the Opposition told TDA

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Speaker 3: that they would not support the measure.

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Speaker 2: Some good news to end your week. The seventh season

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Speaker 2: of the AFLW kicked off last night with a clash

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Speaker 2: between traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood. This is the first

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Speaker 2: season that eighteen teams will contest for the premiership, which

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Speaker 2: mirrors the number of teams in the men's comp All right, Sam,

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Speaker 2: I know that you're obsessed with two of the main

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Speaker 2: characters in this story, but for anyone that might not be,

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Speaker 2: can you start off by telling us a bit about them?

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Speaker 2: So let's begin with Lochland Murdock.

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Speaker 3: Zara. I feel like I'm in match preview mode for

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Speaker 3: Sport with Today's podcast, and I actually think that's a

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Speaker 3: pretty handy way to look at this situation. So why

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Speaker 3: don't we start in one corner. We've got Lochlan Murdoch. Now,

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Speaker 3: he's the co chairman of News Corporation and CEO of

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Speaker 3: Fox Corporation. If you aren't sure if you know News Corp,

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Speaker 3: you definitely do. NewsCorp owns several Australian outlets including, and

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Speaker 3: I'll take a bit of a deep breath here, The

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Speaker 3: Australian News dot Com, Today U, The Daily Telegraph, The

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Speaker 3: Herald's Son, The Kura Male. It also owns Sky News, Foxtel,

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Speaker 3: Fox Sports, Bingeko, real Estate dot Com, Today U, kidspot,

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Speaker 3: Delicious dot Com, Today, U, Vogue and GQ, and I've

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Speaker 3: left out about half of those titles there. Now overseas,

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Speaker 3: they owned Fox News in the US, the Wall Street Journal,

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Speaker 3: HarperCollins Book Publishing, and The Times of London. I guess

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Speaker 3: in shut the Murdochs have lots of fingers in lots

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Speaker 3: of pies. Both NewsCorp and Fox Corporation were founded by

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Speaker 3: Lachlan's father, Rupert Murdoch.

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Speaker 2: Now there's definitely, and i'd say rightly so, a sense

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Speaker 2: that the Murdochs are one of the most powerful families

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Speaker 2: in the world. Former US President Donald Trump was famously

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Speaker 2: glued to Fox News for most of his presidency and

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Speaker 2: would take phone calls from the Murdocks regularly. But on

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Speaker 2: the other hand, we've got a bit of a smaller

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Speaker 2: Australian outlet. Can you tell me about kriiche.

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Speaker 3: Craikey is an Australian online news media company that was

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Speaker 3: founded back in two thousand. Now, I wouldn't describe them

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Speaker 3: as a major Australian media company. They're definitely well known

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Speaker 3: within political circles and have some brilliant journalists, but they've

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Speaker 3: never had an enormous readership. They work largely on a

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Speaker 3: subscription model, and the last time their subscription figures were

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Speaker 3: publicly reported sometime last year, it was in the vicinity

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Speaker 3: of twenty thousand people.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so we've got the Murdocks on one side and

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Speaker 2: named Criikee on the other. Can you just explain the

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Speaker 2: crossover here?

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Speaker 3: So on the twenty ninth of June this year, Criikee

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Speaker 3: published an analysis piece by politics editor Bernard Keene addressing

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Speaker 3: the latest evidence provided to a committee investigating the attack

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Speaker 3: on the US Capitol on the sixth of January twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty one. These are the Jan six riots we've talked

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Speaker 3: a lot about on this podcast. The article was titled

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Speaker 3: Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor and Murdoch is his

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Speaker 3: unindicted co conspirator. Soon after it was published, Lachlan Murdock's

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Speaker 3: lawyers filed a lawsuit in Australia's Face Court saying the

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Speaker 3: article is defamatory. Now, even though Crikee originally took down

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Speaker 3: the story after this threat from Murdoch, they republished it

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Speaker 3: soon after as the publication began to defend itself.

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Speaker 2: Okay, and what exactly did this article say about Lochlan Murdock.

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Speaker 2: It's made him go so far as to take legal action.

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Speaker 3: The story didn't even mention Lochlan Murdock in writing, but

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Speaker 3: did mention Murdoch in the headline and the Murdochs in

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Speaker 3: the last line. I'll read that last line to you.

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Speaker 3: It says the Murdochs and their slew of poisonous Fox

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Speaker 3: News commentators are the unindicted co conspirators of this continuing crisis.

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Speaker 3: And we got a sense of why Lochlan Murdock was

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Speaker 3: compelled to take action by reading the letter that his

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Speaker 3: lawyers sent to Crikee on the thirtieth of June. And essentially,

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Speaker 3: his lawyers are arguing that there are defamatory imputations and

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Speaker 3: that's a fancy word for meaning things that aren't said directly,

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Speaker 3: but it's reasonable to assume that readers draw their own conclusions.

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Speaker 3: And basically, his lawyers are arguing that this article led

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Speaker 3: people to think that Lochlan Murdock was partly responsible for

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Speaker 3: Trump's efforts to overturn the twenty twenty election and inciting

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Speaker 3: the riots on jan six. The letter went on to

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Speaker 3: say that the Krikey story carried fourteen counts of defamation

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Speaker 3: and argued that Lachlan Murdock was quote beyond doubt in

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Speaker 3: the mind of the readers the subject of the article.

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Speaker 2: I'm keen to understand a bit more about this idea

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Speaker 2: of suing for defamation when you're not actually named in

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Speaker 2: the piece at hand. Can you go through that a

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Speaker 2: bit more.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bit of a weird legal idea because

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Speaker 3: it really taps into what isn't on the page rather

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Speaker 3: than what is on the page. I guess you really

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Speaker 3: just have to think about imputation as an idea of

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Speaker 3: the audience really being able to have no other conclusion

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Speaker 3: than the one being argued. So in our case, it

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Speaker 3: could be that one of the two founders of The

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Speaker 3: Daily Oz has terrible body oder and she really doesn't

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Speaker 3: look after herself. Now, even though they're not mentioning you

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Speaker 3: by name, the fact that there's a male co founder

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Speaker 3: and a female co founder means that it's implied that

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Speaker 3: that person is you. And I'm really glad to report

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Speaker 3: to everyone that you're looking after yourself quite well and

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Speaker 3: we don't have to worry about that. But you would

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Speaker 3: have grounds for defamation if such a statement was published,

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Speaker 3: even though the word Zara isn't on the page.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that all makes a lot of sense to me.

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Speaker 2: So how have Criikee responded?

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Speaker 3: Well, I guess here. After Lachlan Murdock sent the first

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Speaker 3: few letters to Criikee, the publication had a clear choice.

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Speaker 3: It could have kept the article offline and sent a

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Speaker 3: subsequent letter of apology to the Murdocks, and the whole

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Speaker 3: thing likely would have gone away. You've got to remember

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Speaker 3: that people write bad things about the Murdos all the time,

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Speaker 3: but there aren't thousands of legal actions on foot now.

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Speaker 3: The other option available to Criikee was to challenge the

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Speaker 3: Murdocks to follow through on this threat of legal action

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Speaker 3: and use this as a chance to, in Prikee's own words,

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Speaker 3: stand up for free speech. Crikee chose option B. The

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Speaker 3: lawyers said that Murdoch's claims were quote pitched far too

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Speaker 3: high and bound to fail, and this began a back

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Speaker 3: and forth letter exchange between Murdoch and Crikee's lawyers in

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Speaker 3: which it all culminated with Murdoch's lawyers asking Kriykei to

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Speaker 3: provide a genuine apology to his client. Now, according to

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Speaker 3: a final letter that we know about from the fourth

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Speaker 3: of August, as we suspected an apology would resolve the matter,

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Speaker 3: but in this final correspondence, Crikee refused to apologize for

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Speaker 3: what they say is the most extreme possible interpretation of

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Speaker 3: its article, adding that it stands by its reporting.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so it sounds like we're in for a bit

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Speaker 2: of a legal battle. Where does everything stand right now?

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Speaker 3: This Friday, it has certainly been a huge week for Krikee.

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Speaker 3: I don't think anyone in that building would forget this week.

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Speaker 3: On Monday, about two weeks since its last correspondence with

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Speaker 3: the Murdochs, Krikee challenged Murdoch to take legal proceedings against them,

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Speaker 3: and in an open letter to Murdock which they released

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Speaker 3: on their website, it's said that they wanted to defend

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Speaker 3: the allegations made in court and test this important issue

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Speaker 3: of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom now.

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Speaker 3: Craigie said their decision to publish their legal correspondence was

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Speaker 3: so that people can judge the allegations for themselves, and

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Speaker 3: sure enough, one day later, Murdoch filed a defamation case

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Speaker 3: in the Australian Federal Court against private media who are

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Speaker 3: Crikee's owners.

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Speaker 2: If we got sued it would be a big problem fastly,

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Speaker 2: but secondly the financial imbalance between a say big family

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Speaker 2: that owns the biggest media company in the world and

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Speaker 2: a little old publisher like us, that would be really

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Speaker 2: financially difficult. What's it been like for Kriikee.

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Speaker 3: It's been a fascinating reaction from Kriikee. They've gone on

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Speaker 3: the front foot and they're trying to get ahead of

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Speaker 3: this and get the public support behind them. They've filed

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Speaker 3: twenty five stories about the letters this week. This includes

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Speaker 3: an open letter or their legal correspondence, and more stories

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Speaker 3: about the Murdochs. Eight stories were published on the day

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Speaker 3: that Murdoch filed the lawsuit. Now that's a pretty bold reaction.

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Speaker 3: Private Media chairman Eric Beachars said the Murdock's legal threats

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Speaker 3: were an abuse of media power in Australia, and Criikee's

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Speaker 3: editor said that the Australian outlet should be able to

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Speaker 3: report on the January sixth rights in the same way

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Speaker 3: as American outlets would without the fear of legal action. Now,

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Speaker 3: as you rightfully said, the big challenge here for Kriikee

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Speaker 3: is going to be cash. NewsCorp have what is only

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Speaker 3: described as a bottomless pit of money and teams of

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Speaker 3: lawyers ready to work on this lawsuit. Criikee, on the

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Speaker 3: other hand, have now turned to their readers for financial

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Speaker 3: assistance in what the CEO of Private Media, whose name

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Speaker 3: is Will Hayward, says is a case that could lead

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Speaker 3: to millions in damages and legal costs if they are

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Speaker 3: indeed defeated in court. But it looks like for now,

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Speaker 3: off to court the two parties go.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm sure one day it'll make a very interesting

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Speaker 2: Netflix series or documentary series, but it is definitely one

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Speaker 2: to watch and a fascinating one, certainly for the media

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Speaker 2: industry and how we grapple with this idea of defamation,

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Speaker 2: especially as it stands in Ali. Thanks for joining us

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Speaker 2: this week on The Daily OS. If you land something

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Speaker 2: from today's episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so that

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Speaker 2: there is a TDA episode waiting for you every single morning.

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Speaker 2: We'll be back again on Monday, and until then, have

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Speaker 2: a brilliant weekend.