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July 2023

MediaLawLetter July 2023

PUBLICATION:
in this issue

Gearing Up for MLRC’s Biggest Conference of the Year

George Freeman

A look behind the scenes of MLRC's Media Law Conference, October 4-6 at the Lansdowne Resort in Northern Virginia.

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Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer

C. Amanda Martin

North Carolina lawyer and academic on her beginnings, work related to the O.J. Simpson trial, teaching, NC must-sees, summer reads and more.

Maine Supreme Court Affirms Trial Win for Newspaper That Reported on Sex Abuse Allegations and Coverup

Cynthia Counts

The Maine Supreme Court affirmed a jury’s verdict in favor of a newspaper company and two journalists accused of defamation for reporting on decades old sex abuse allegations against a former police captain.

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Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Claims Against The Intercept Dismissed for Lack of Actual Malice

Margaret N. Strouse

Judge Preska referenced the actual malice standard under New York’s anti-SLAPP statute but, because actual malice already was required of Prince as a public figure, she did not decide which source of the actual malice standard should govern.

Ohio Appellate Court Upholds Post-Trial Libel Injunction

John C. Greiner

An Ohio court recently demonstrated how a court may enjoin a party from libeling someone, without violating the Constitution.

Charity’s Defamation Claim Against Canadian Public Broadcaster Can Continue in U.S. Federal Court

Sam Lachman

The Court dismissed the charity’s claims for breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and negligent misrepresentation for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, leaving its defamation claim to proceed to discovery. At issue is

Arizona Law Banning Video Recording of Police Ruled Unconstitutional

Matthew E. Kelley

Ruling in favor of a coalition of news organizations, a federal judge has struck down an Arizona statute that would have made it a crime to record video of police within eight feet of them after being warned to stop.

“Server Test” Is Reaffirmed (For Now) in Hunley v. Instagram

Jim Rosenfeld and Raphael Holoszyc-Pimentel

The server test has been the law in the Ninth Circuit since 2007, but in recent years it has come under attack in lower courts in other jurisdictions.

Maine Governor Vetoes Legislation Requiring News Outlets to Establish Unconstitutional Censorship Process for “Foreign Government-Influenced” Political Communications

Sigmund D. Schutz, Alexandra A. Harriman, and Margeaux E. Lavoie

No state has come closer than Maine to imposing on news outlets constitutionally fraught and onerous obligations to police and censor foreign-influenced spending on political advertising.

A Victory for Transparency in Uvalde

Reid Pillifant

More than a year after a gunman killed 19 students and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a judge has ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to release information about the attack and the law enforcement response.