...7/18/2013 7/18/2013 Libel in the News Libel in the News Daniel Cakanic ENGL219_ Prof. Stefan Donev Daniel Cakanic ENGL219_ Prof. Stefan Donev Libel a : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel (Merriam-Webster). Sometimes, journalists and others try to be acute with words, implying things, thinking they are guarded because they can prove the plain truth of the words. They are wrong in believing this assumption. What they are required to prove, is the meaning that ordinary readers take from their story. Libel is committed when you call someone a liar, corrupt, incompetent, unfaithful, or any other inference to one’s character, in print. It also includes what ordinary readers or viewers read “between the lines”. The courts look at the remarks made in the article. Proving the literal truth of the statement won’t help if the negative comment is conjecture. Here’s an example: You’re Rob Scott, an electrician with a great reputation, doing no wrong. A guy with a similar first and last name – Bob Scott -- is arrested and accused of rape. The newspaper is reckless and prints...
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...food libel laws, also known as food disparagement laws were first brought into the spotlight after a 60 minutes episode featuring Alar turned out to be catastrophic to the apple industry. The purpose of these laws are to protect economies by guarding their agricultural industries, and to protect farmers from food safety scares. In law suits in the United States the plaintiff (person doing the suing, in this case farmers) must prove that the defendant (the one making the claim) is deliberately, and knowingly spreading false information. Food libel laws contain strict requirements for the sort of proof that would be required to support a successful claim. There are 13 states in the united states have passed veggie libel laws; Louisiana, Idaho, Mississippi, Georgia, Colorado, South Dakota, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio, and North Dakota. Although each state had the laws enacted at different times, the laws still contain similar decrees. However only one state, Colorado, it is considered a criminal law, when compared to a civil law in the remaining 12 states. There has been much controversy over these food libel laws. The main reason being is that most people consider these food libel laws unconstitutional. These laws are in direct contradiction of our first amendment. According to the first amendment, we as citizens have the right to freedom of speech, as well as freedom of expression. Even if someone is found innocent of defamation in a food libel law case...
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...Is a Law Against “Libel Tourism” Needed? by John Gregory More posts by John » The US Senate has passed a bill against ‘libel tourism’, essentially barring the enforcement of defamation judgments from places that the US deems to protect free speech insufficiently. In what has become a widespread but still unfortunate practice, the bill’s name is an acronym: the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act (viz the SPEECH Act).* Out-law.com has this story and more official information is available on the Govtrack.us site. (It does not show the bill as passed as of July 14.) Is such a bill necessary? Would not a rule like the Canadian one of not enforcing a foreign judgment if the foreign court did not have a real and substantial connection with the controversy be enough to refuse enforcement? Or are British rules on jurisdiction over online publications no more liberal than American or Canadian laws? Did the Ontario Court of Appeal in Bangoura v. Washington Post 2005 CanLII 32906 (ON C.A.) get it right? Is the Senate bill just a little hypocritical, given the willingness of many US courts to take jurisdiction over activities that occur well outside the US (and of US legislatures to give it to them)? Is the test clear: refuse to enforce judgments that undermine the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States? Presumably that should mean that enforcement in the US would undermine the protection of US speech by the first...
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...Libel is false, “published or broadcast communication that lowers the reputation of an individual by holding him or her up to contempt, ridicule, or scorn” (Pember, 691). Defamation is a broader, more encompassing term that includes both libel, which is published defamation, and slander, which is spoken defamation. In the case Gregory v. Gregory, plaintiffs Robert, Christopher, and Samuel Gregory sue their brother, W. Patric Gregory III (“Patric Gregory”) for libel. The brothers are in a family business together called New Jersey Galvanizing and Tinning Works, Inc. (“NJG”), where one of the plaintiffs, Robert Gregory, is the president. A few years ago, the plaintiffs were involved in a dispute that did not include the defendant Patric Gregory. Siblings James Gregory, Mary Gregory O’Connor, Michael Gregory, and Elizabeth Gregory filed a complaint against Robert, Christopher, and Samuel Gregory in order to keep shares for which President Robert Gregory issued a call notice, as well as alleging conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder oppression, and the taking of corporate opportunity. Although James, Mary, Michael, and Elizabeth were awarded about $1.5 million total for their shares in June 2013, the court held that Robert, Christopher, and Samuel Gregory did not oppress their minority shareholders or engage in wrongdoing. In February 2014, the defendant, Patric Gregory, published and shared a binder to fifteen people in the Gregory family, including the plaintiffs and...
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...rules and regulations. Practitioners of mass communication is no exception. The individuals working under this profession have to observe and follow the law and ethics of mass communication. These are not just standards of what is right and wrong nor based only on morality, as what most people think so. There is more to ethics than their misconceptions. These standards of conduct are highly essential and therefore strict adherence is recommended. These ethics drive the practitioners to instill self-discipline, professional attitude and sense of responsibility among 1 themselves as they are guided on how to deal with day-to-day situations involving ethical dilemmas. Here in the Philippines, there have been a lot of reported cases of libel suits. No matter how hard practitioners of mass communication try to keep up with moral responsibilities, others could not fight the urge to defy the odds. There are instances wherein some reporters and journalists abuse the privilege given to them through irresponsible reporting and writing. Thus, under Act No. 3815 or the Revised Penal Code, the offenders shall be subject to...
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...it as a tort and a crime. • A defamatory matter may be of any imputation concerning any person, or any member of family, whether living or dead, by which the reputation of that person is likely to be injured. • Defamation in common law • The common law origins of defamation lie in the torts of slander (harmful statement in a transitory form, especially speech) and libel (harmful statement in a fixed medium, especially writing but also a picture, sign, or electronic broadcast), each of which gives a common law right of action. • Libel • A libel can be defined as a publication of false and defamatory statement in some permanent form tending to injure the reputation of another person without lawful justification or excuse. • libel is actionable per se, i.e., without proof of actual damage. • In libel, general damages are presumed i.e., the plaintiff does not have to show actual injury which includes compensation for disgrace, dishonor, humiliation, injury to reputation and emotional distress. • Slander and libel • Libel and slander both require publication. • The fundamental distinction between libel and slander lies solely in the form in which the defamatory matter is published. • If the offending material is published in...
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...Chapter 4 British lawmakers are considering reforming the nation's libel laws. Why might they do that? I believe since Britian has a much lower standard for proving libel and that it could be so expensive they would want to reform their laws. An example being that a wealthy plantiff can wind up bankrupting a defendant even if the plantiffs case is weak. In the U.S the person who is suing has to prove that the offending speech was false, in Britian atuomatically assumes the offending speech is false. With Britian having such easy libel laws some states and cities in the U.S have adopted laws to protect their citizens. I think that since the U.S has stricter libel laws and since some of the states are starting to react to them, by being able to protect their citizens that Britian would want to do the same. Knowing that anyone could be charged wrongfully and not be able to speak the truth and landing them in bankruptcy Britians people would have to start speaking for themselves. Britian is even willing to hear cases in which the alleged libel took place in another country, making it become the international destination of choice for those who wish to file libel suits. Why might they want to reform thier libel laws? Because we the people have freedom of speech and in most cases what we have to say is true, and if it is not true that should be the only time that anyone should be taken to court for being...
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...about Carolene Eubanks the plaintiff, that later came out to be untrue and if this was libel and an invasion of privacy against Ms. Eubanks. The Northwest Herald is a newspaper that collects e-mail reports about criminal arrests from area police departments and publishes the information. This information however, is allowed to be published considering it is public records. Carolene Eubanks was charged with theft and obstruction of justice at a local station; the information of the arrest was then emailed to the newspaper. The Herald published this information, however, the police then sent a second a correction that stated that Carolene had not been charged...
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...DEFAMATION Defamation also called calumny, vilification, slander and libel is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. Defamation is the publication of a statement which refers on a person’s reputation and tends to lower him in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally or tends to make then shun or avoid him. [1] The tort of defamation protects a person’s interest in his reputation. If the defendant had made an untrue statement, or what amounts to a statement, which is defamatory of the plaintiff, the plaintiff has a right of action against him unless the defendant can establish one of the special defenses available to an action for defamation. Since the tort of defamation protects the plaintiff’s reputation, and since reputation depends on what other people think of the plaintiff, the publication of the statement by the defendant to persons other than the plaintiff himself is an essential part of the tort –the purpose of the tort is not to protect the injured the feelings of the plaintiff. The tort goes beyond protecting their mere personal reputation of the plaintiff and extends to the protection of the reputation of his commercial and business undertakings. The rules of the tort represent an attempt to strike a balance between two important and often competing interests, the public interest in freedom...
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...ESSAY 2 The issues to be identified in this case are whether or not the use of the photo of John Travolta described in the magazine is considered a parody, whether or not this photo in question violates the libel defamation and/or copyright laws for use of Travolta’s image, and finally, whether or not Rolling Stones Magazine is protected under their First Amendment rights. The rules of law the court will use to decide this case are listed below. Parody: is defined as a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or ridiculed a feeble or ridiculous imitation. In other words, a parody is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment as a "distorted imitation" of an original work for the purpose of commenting on it. The subject matter is usually a political or entertainment figure or situation and it is often used in a comedic way to bring up a point or exaggerate the situation. Some forms of parody and satire are difficult to distinguish from truthful publications. Moreover, many forms of parody and satire can be particularly offensive to the subject of the parody. As a result, publication of various types of parody often involves litigation over libel, slander, and other types of Defamation. Fair Use Doctrine Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research....
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...INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS LAW Introduction What is a contract and what constitutes a valid contract (chp 5) Quest.1: The employment of workers (chp 13) a. Refer to the definition-explain the relationship of the employee & employer and then the relationship of an employer/worker. b. Explain the difference between an employee and worker-each category has different rights. Refer to the text and also look at the website below. c. The employer offers a salary in exchange for the performance of duties and this is meant to be legally binding. d. Explain that there are expressed terms in a contract-these are terms that are actually stated. Give examples: such as holidays, notice period, hours of work e. Explain what are implied terms-duties of employer & employee (pg 426) f. Breach by either party & the employment contract, there is recourse in the employment tribunal. e.g if an employer unfairly dismisses the employee, there are remedies such as re-instatement, re-engagement and compensation. (PG 437-438) g. Explain if there is a breach with reference to a worker, there is limited recourse. http://www.thompsons.law.co.uk/ltext/l1520004.htm Quest.2: Supplier/ Customer (chp 10: pg 294) a. Refer to the definition-explain the relationship between the supplier & customer in the sale of goods-money in exchange for equipment. b. Explain that there are expressed terms in this type of contract-these are terms that are...
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...Case Study on tort of Defamation (Relevant to AAT Examination Paper 6: Fundamentals of Business Law) Alfred Chan, Solicitor There has been an increase in the number of defamation cases which have gone to court. In the two scenarios cases that follow, both of which are taken from recent court cases, we can see examples of legal issues in defamation and how one can approach them. Hopefully this will improve your technique in answering problem-solving type questions. First to refresh your memory, in defamation: 1. The plaintiff has to prove a. the statement is defamatory and it refers to him b. there is publication of the statement c. whether there should be special damages for slander. 2 The defendant can defend by showing the statement is a. justified (defence of justification) b. a fair comment c. made on a privileged occasion which can be i) absolute privilege ii) qualified privilege d. retracted and section 4 of the Defamation Ordinance is complied with, in the case of a newspaper defendant But the plaintiff can defeat defences 2b and 2c(ii) by proving malice on the part of the defendant in making the statement. 3. The plaintiff can claim damages if he succeeds; there is more than one kind of damages. ************************** CASE 1 A representative from an accounting firm (who graduated from the AAT 20 years before) told a prospective SME client: "I have read your company’s books. Though your accountant is a CPA, he has not served you well. See, he took so long to finish...
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...Significant Legal Decisions Involving Hate Speech in America What exactly is Hate Speech? There are many different variations to this answer. According to dictionary.com, it is “speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation” (“hate speech”). Anthony Lewis’ description of hate speech focuses more on the people it aims at: “Hate speech, it is called: virulent attack on Jews, blacks, Muslims, homosexuals, or members of any other group. It is pure hatred, not based on any wrong done by an individual” (157) Throughout history, many cases involving hate speech have been brought to court; each of them differ in their own ways and each brought a significant change to our Constitution. Our country prides itself in having freedom for all, and that includes freedom of speech. But when does freedom of speech cross the line? Many court decisions tried to come up with a solid answer, but there may not ever be a successful way to categorize hate speech. All of the cases covered here played a large part in transforming what the First Amendment covers. America started to recognize the significance of hate speech beginning in 1940, and policies began to form to protect offensive speech. At this point in history, hate speech was better known as “racial and religious propaganda” (Walker 62). The Holocaust was a major turning point for America, because we realized the destruction that it caused, and the government wanted to make sure nothing...
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...alters its food with artificial chemistry; exploits children with its advertising; is responsible for torture and murder of animals; poisons customers with contaminated meat; and exploits its workers and bans unions. At first, McDonald’s ignored the London Greenpeace campaign but when it grew and was taken up seriously by more and more groups around the world in 1989, they decided to take extreme measures against the group. McDonald’s hired seven private investigators to spy on the London Greenpeace to find out who was responsible for the production and distribution of the leaflet. And to be able to file a libel case they will need names of individuals. So the spies penetrated to the group to get names and addresses, took letters sent to the group, got fully involved to the group’s activities, stole documents and took photographs. In 1990, McDonald’s filed libel cases on five members of the group. The company wanted those five to retract what they said in the leaflet and apologize. Three of the five retracted and apologized but two of them decided that they would fight in court to ensure that McDonald’s wouldn’t succeed in silencing their critics. And this was the...
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...According to Canadian law defamation can take two forms, slander and libel. Slander is defined as the defamation of a person, group, organization, product, government or country that was in the form on spoken words, sounds, sign language, or gestures. Libel is the same thing but the defamatory statement was made in written or printed words or in pictures. You are currently dealing with a defamation case in the form of libel. In legal terms; "The publication of any false imputation concerning a person, or a member of his family, whether living or dead, by which (a) the reputation of that person is likely to be injured or (b) he is likely to be injured in his profession or trade or (c) other persons are likely to be induced to shun, avoid, ridicule or despise him. (White, A Primer on the Law of Defamation in Ontario) Basically Peter Reid Graham has the ability to sue for defamation because the statement referring to the pedophilia was a false statement made as if they were true and referring to him. The information may have been factual but the implications were that the man in the picture (Peter Reid Graham) was the one being accused, which is false. In addition it caused damages to this mans reputation (the damage does not need to be proven) The victim will just have to state that he is being accused of a crime he did not commit. Now his name was not used but his picture was which still falls under the category of libel defamation. “The plaintiff must be...
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