Lachlan Murdoch touches base with News, Fox reporters at work in war zone

Media executive Lachlan Murdoch travelled to Israel last week to meet with the journalists from Fox Corp and News Corp who have been covering the conflict.

Lachlan Murdoch speaks with Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, right, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where scores of Israelis were killed on October 7.

Media executive Lachlan Murdoch travelled to Israel last week to meet journalists from Fox Corp and News Corp who have been covering the conflict.

Mr Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp and the executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation, also visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel where more than 60 people were murdered by Hamas militants on October 7.

“I appreciated the opportunity to meet with our journalists in Israel to see first-hand the amazing job they are doing covering the war from the front lines. It was also incredibly moving to tour some of the areas that suffered such devastation from the October 7 attacks,” Mr Murdoch told The Australian.

Lachlan Murdoch with Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in southern Israel.

FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and FOX News Media president Jay Wallace joined Mr Murdoch on the trip, during which the executives spent time with Jerusalem-based journalists from The Australian, The Sun UK, The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and the Israel FOX News bureau.

Yoni Bashan, a senior journalist with The Australian, spent almost three months reporting from the war zone in the aftermath of October 7.

The FOX delegation also visited the Erez Crossing located on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, which prior to October 7 was the sole civilian crossing point from Gaza into Israel, allowing Gazans with work permits access to jobs and medical care. The military complex was extensively damaged on October 7, with at least three Israeli soldiers killed during the Hamas attack, and others taken hostage.

Mr Murdoch’s trip to Israel was his second visit to a war zone in recent months.

In November, he travelled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who at the time warned the war could still escalate to a much wider conflict.

On that trip, Mr Murdoch was accompanied by FOX News journalist Benjamin Hall who was severely injured when his car was shelled during the first weeks of the war. Two of his colleagues, cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and fixer Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed in the attack.

News Corp is the publisher of The Australian