Sky News has paid $40,000 in legal fees to avoid a defamation suit being filed against them by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Sky News falsely broadcasted claims that Hanson-Young took her infant niece to a dangerous environmental protest in South Australia where protesters were blocking heavy machinery.

Hanson-Young’s solicitor Rebekah Giles says the claims were, quote, “false and completely indefensible.”

Hanson-Young said she was, “never given an opportunity by Sky News to comment on the entirely false allegations before they were published.”

Sky News agreed to pay $40,000 in legal fees, air an apology during Rita Panahi’s program on Friday evening, and to publish an apology on its Facebook page and a separate corrections page on its website.