Independent media outlet New Matilda is facing a defamation case brought by the Seven Network.

The legal action follows a March article by New Matilda contributor Michael Brull, which called out evening current affairs program Today Tonight for its “trashy standards of reporting” and “racist credulity”. Other allegedly defamatory content in the article includes captions describing presenter Rosanna Mangiarelli as a “guttersnipe” and reporter David Richardson as a “gutter journalist”.

Brull’s charges relate to a Today Tonight feature about a nefarious Muslim plan “to establish a caliphate here right under our noses”, which included testimony by two men described as imams, neither of whom are recognised as such by the Australian National Imams Council. The piece was inflammatory bullshit designed, as is so much sensationalist garbage, to induce fear and loathing in the network’s audience.

The poor little snowflakes at Channel Seven have now engaged corporate law firm HWL Ebsworth to extract a “full and unqualified written apology … and retraction” from New Matilda editor Chris Graham.

Graham, a Walkley Award winner, is no stranger to lawsuits. He has dealt with a number of complaints about New Matilda’s uncompromising investigative pieces and its pugnacious “tell it like it is” style. But this one is next level, given the corporation in question.

“The threat of defamation by one of the country’s largest media outlets against one of the country’s smallest is ridiculous”, Graham told Red Flag. “But it’s precisely how large corporations do business in Australia, particularly media corporations. They’re more interested in bullying than doing their jobs, and you can see that in the sort journalism that Channel 7 produces.

“We’ll resist this threat, like we resist all of them. We’ll keep exposing their bigoted reporting – and the bigoted reporting of mainstream media more generally – no matter how many times they threaten or bully us.”

New Matilda is one of only a few independent media outlets that have gained a profile and substantial audience in Australia. It provides the sort of reporting and analysis that are lacking in the corporate- and state-owned media.

Red Flag is asking our readers to consider contributing to the New Matilda defence fund to help Chris Graham and his team fend off this latest court action so that they can continue their work.

For more information visit the New Matilda fundraising campaign at www.pozible.com/project/channel-7-is-threatening-to-sue-1.