An article published in Crikey titled The Brittany Higgins case: We’re not required to leave our brains at the security entrance has been pulled, with the publication issuing an apology.
Written by Guy Rundle, the piece encouraged making the settlement paid to Brittany Higgins public information, however, it drew criticism for its tone when describing the alleged sexual assault in Parliament House.
Higgins herself wrote on Twitter that she found the article “Pithy but disgusting.”
On Friday, Crikey – owned by Private Media – announced that it had retracted the piece, due to tone as well as factual errors.
“Crikey has made the decision today to remove a piece written by Guy Rundle that asserted the consultation process over Brittany Higgins’ compensation was ‘stunningly rapid'”, the publication said in a statement.
“That is not correct — Higgins lodged her claim in March 2022 while the Morrison government was still in office, and it was not settled until December 2022, seven months after the election of the current government.
“The piece also repeats the false assertion that the ‘figure is believed to be $3 million’. There is no factual basis for the $3 million figure; Higgins has publicly said that figure was her initial claim but that the final figure was much lower than that.
“In addition to these factual errors, the tone of the piece did not meet Crikey’s journalistic standards, crucially given that it concerns writing about allegations of sexual assault.”
The statement ended with a direct apology to Higgins.
“We apologise to Brittany Higgins and our readers and we will update you on a continuing conversation around this issue.”
In April, Private Media announced the appointment of Sophie Black as the new editor-in-chief of Crikey. She previously worked as editor-in-chief of the publication in 2015, and as editor before that.
Alongside the appointment of Black, Gina Rushton was announced as editor and Jack Callil as opinion editor.
Later that same month, Lachlan Murdoch dropped his defamation action against Private Media and Crikey, after suing politics editor Bernard Keane alongside former editor-in-chief Peter Fray over an opinion piece linking the Murdoch family to the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol.