July 22 (Reuters) - Fox News Media and its parent Fox

Corp ( FOXA ) won a ruling on Monday dismissing a lawsuit by a

former Biden administration official who accused the media giant

of defaming her as a proponent of censorship.

Chief U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly in Delaware ruled

that Nina Jankowicz, who resigned from her U.S. Department of

Homeland Security post in May 2022, could not back up her

defamation claims.

Jankowicz sued Fox last year, claiming she was forced to

resign from the Disinformation Governance Board as a result of

the company's broadcasts. She said Fox had "intentionally

trafficked in malicious falsehoods to pad its profits." Fox

denied the claims.

Fox News Media said in a statement on Monday that it was

pleased with the decision, calling the case "a politically

motivated lawsuit aimed at silencing free speech."

Lawyers for Jankowicz said they disagreed with the order and

would appeal.

The Disinformation Governance Board quickly drew criticism

from conservative critics of President Joe Biden and others

after it was formed in 2022. The administration suspended the

board's work in May 2022, and it was dissolved later that year.

Connolly's ruling said most of the Fox News statements at

issue in the lawsuit were aimed at the board, not at Jankowicz

directly. The judge also said viewers would likely have

understood the statements at issue to be protected opinion.

"It is undisputed that from the time its existence was

announced by DHS, the Disinformation Governance Board was a

hypercharged subject of political debate," Connolly wrote.

Connolly also said the board's objective "is fairly

characterized as a form of censorship."

Last year, Fox Corp ( FOXA ) agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a

defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems that said Fox News

broadcast false claims that the company's voting machines were

involved in a conspiracy to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential

election.

Fox as part of the settlement said it acknowledged "the

court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be

false."