FALSITY, PUBLICATION, REPUBLICATION

STATEMENT OF FACT VS. OPINION

MILKOVICH V. LORAIN JOURNAL CO. (1990), p. 331

PUBLICATION VS. DISTRIBUTION

ZERAN V. AMERICA ONLINE, INC. (4th Cir. 1997)

Sec. 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher/speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." See pp. 339-340.

 

A publisher is to be distinguished from a distributor. Distributors are liable for defamation only if they have actual knowledge of the defamatory statements.

 

REPUBLICATION

NEUTRAL REPORTAGE--"WHEN A RESPONSIBLE, PROMINANT ORGANIZATION. . . MAKES SERIOUS CHARGES AGAINST A PUBLIC FIGURE, THE FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTS THE ACCURATE AND DISINTERESTED REPORTING OF THOSE CHARGES, REGARDLESS OF THE REPORTER'S PRIVATE VIEWS REGARDING THEIR VALIDITY."

KHAWAR V. GLOBE INTERNATIONAL, INC. (Supreme Court of California 1998)

Republication of defamation against private figures is not protected by the Neutral Reportage Privilege, pp. 345-346.

 

RETRACTION--AN INCOMPLETE DEFENSE

BURNETT V. NATIONAL ENQUIRER, INC. (Calif. Appellate Court 1983) p. 360

Cal. Civ. Code sec. 48a: "in any action for libel against a newspaper or slander in a broadcast, the plaintiff shall recover no more than special damages unless a correction be demanded and not be published or broadcast. The plaintiff's demand must be written, must specify the statements claimed to be defamatory, and must be served on the defendant within 20 days after the plainteff learns of the publication or broadcast. If the defendant fails to publish or broadcast a retraction in substantially as conspicuous a manner in said newspaper or on said broadcasting station as were the statements claimed to be libelous, in a regular issue thereof published or broadcast within three weeks after such service, plaintiff may recover general, special and exemplary damages."

Is the National Enquirer a newspaper?