MediaLawLetter June 2010
Download Publication REPORTERS PRIVILEGE 2d Cir.: Federal Court Orders Documentarian to Turn Over All 600 Hours of Raw Footage from His Film “Crude: The Real Price of Oil”Second Circuit to Hear Expedited Appeal in Journalist’s Privilege CaseIn re Chevron Corp. D.D.C.: New Yorker Reporter Cannot Be Compelled To Testify About Interviews With Plaintiff In Anti-Terrorism…
Virgin Islands Superior Court Grants Judgment as a Matter Of Law In Favor of Newspaper Following Libel Trial in Case Brought By Former Judge
On May 27, 2010, Senior Judge Edgar D. Ross of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands granted a newspaper’s motion for judgment as a matter of law on the heels of a two-week jury trial in a defamation case brought by a former local judge. See Kendall v. Daily News Publishing Co., 2010 WL…
Ethics Corner: What Does It Mean to be a “Partner”?
I. Introduction In response to the recent economic downturn, law firms have increasingly created changes to the traditional partnership model. They have demoted less productive capital partners to “non-equity” status, reduced the number of capital partners being promoted, created multiple tiers of partnership with different levels of participation, management and profit sharing, and even required…
Maryland Ordinance Banning Fortunetelling Violates First Amendment
The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, this month held that a county ordinance that prohibits profiting from fortunetelling is an unconstitutional restriction of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Nefedro v. Mongomery County, 2010 WL 2302311 (Md. 2010). Background Montgomery County Code § 32-7, criminalized “the acceptance of remuneration for…
New Jersey League of Municipalities Not Subject to Open Public Records Law
A New Jersey appellate court recently held that a nonprofit, unincorporated association that exists to promote “the general welfare of the municipalities” of New Jersey is not subject to the state’s Open Public Records Act. Fair Share Housing Center, Inc. v. New Jersey State League of Municipalities, No. A-1200-08T3, 2010 WL 2089650 (N.J. App. May…
Pennsylvania Court Establishes a Broad Definition of Governmental Function for Public Records Disclosure
Ruling in favor of a newspaper on an open records request, a Pennsylvania appellate court established a broad definition of governmental function for public records disclosure. East Stroudsburg University Foundation v. Office of Open Records, No. 886 C.D. 2009, 2010 WL 2025480 (Pa. Cmwlth., May 24, 2010). The court held that a private, non-profit foundation…
Second Circuit Delineates the Parameters of the Law Enforcement Privilege
Pursuant to a petition for writ of mandamus, a Second Circuit panel applied a law enforcement privilege to deny discovery of certain New York Police Department intelligence reports sought by plaintiffs in a civil rights lawsuit against New York City. Dinler et. al. v. City of New York, No. 10-0237 (June 9, 2010) (Cabranes, Wesley,…
Google Executives Convicted in Italy for Privacy Law Violation
The owner of the wall is not liable for the writing on the wall, but he may be liable for the economic profit arising from the writing. – Judge Oscar Magi In late February, an Italian court found three Google executives criminally liable for violating Italy’s data privacy law in connection with a mobile phone…
Supreme Court of Canada Recognizes Limited Right to Access Government Documents
The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized a limited constitutional right to access government documents. In Ontario (Public Safety and Security) v. Criminal Lawyers’ Association, released on June 17 after an extraordinary 18 months under reserve, the Court held that the scope of s. 2 (b) Charter (freedom of expression) includes a right to access…
Supreme Court of Canada Upholds Mandatory Bans on Bail Hearings
American reporters would find it bizarre to be permitted to attend a Court hearing but be prohibited from reporting. That is exactly what happens in many Canadian pretrial hearings such as bail hearings. The ban on bail hearings (Criminal Code s. 517) is mandatory when the defense requests it. The judge has no discretion. It…
The Other Side of the Pond: Updates on UK Developments
Whither Libel Reform? Going into the British General Election, both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives had committed themselves to libel reform. They are now in coalition and the coalition agreement includes “the review of libel law to protect freedom of speech.” The Conservatives had said that they would “review and reform libel laws to…
U.S. Supreme Court Allows Search of Employee’s Text Messages
In a unanimous 9-0 decision issued on June 17, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an audit by the City of Ontario of transcripts of an employee’s text messages sent on a City-owned pager was a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. City of Ontario v. Quon (No. 08-1332). The Court’s ruling, however, was…
New Federal Libel Tourism Bill Introduced in Congress
On June 22, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced the introduction of a new federal libel tourism bill to prevent the enforcement of foreign libel judgments that are not compliant with the First Amendment and state constitutional protections for speech and press. S. 1318 is also sponsored…
Florida Trial Court Throws Out $10.1 Million Libel Verdict on Motion for JNOV
A Florida Circuit Court granted a newspaper publisher’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, throwing out a $10.1 million jury libel verdict against the St. Petersburg Times. Kennedy v. Times Publ. Co., No. 05-8034-CI-11 (Fla. Cir. Ct., Pinellas Co. June 16, 2010). Last August a six person jury awarded a public official plaintiff $5,149,137…
Defamation by Click: Hyperlinking and the Defense of the Single Publication Rule
Typically, a hyperlink is an innocent piece of text on a webpage or Internet document connecting readers to another webpage or another portion of a document. While on its face a hyperlink itself conceivably could constitute a defamatory communication (for example, “to read more visit www.johndoeisachildmolestor.com”), it is rare that a link on its face…
Nonresident Blogger Can Be Sued Over Defamatory Statements Accessible and Accessed by Floridians
A nonresident blogger can be sued for allegedly defamatory statements about a Florida-based company posted on her website, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled unanimously. On June 17, 2010, the court issued its decision in Internet Solutions Corporation v. Tabatha Marshall, No. SC09-272, 2010 WL 2400390 (Fla. June 17, 2010). The case involved a Washington…
Ohio Supreme Court Finds Personal Jurisdiction over Defendant in Defamation Case Involving Statements Made on the Internet
By Jeffrey T. Cox and Melinda K. Burton On June 10, 2010, a divided Ohio Supreme Court handed down a potentially significant decision, in Kauffman Racing Equipment, LLC v. Roberts, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-2551, relating to personal jurisdiction in defamation cases involving the Internet. Beyond the substantial due process concerns raised by the Court’s finding of…
Illinois Appellate Court Rejects Adopting Heightened Standard in Pre-suit Petitions to Unmask Anonymous Internet Commenters
With its opinion in Maxon v. Ottawa Publishing Co., LLC, No. 03-08-0805, 2010 WL 2245065 (3d Dist., June 1, 2010) (Holdridge, J.) the Third Appellate District became the first reviewing court in Illinois to set ground rules for trial courts to determine whether a plaintiff’s putative defamation is sufficient to warrant unmasking anonymous Internet commenters. …
New Yorker Reporter Cannot Be Compelled to Testify About Interviews With Plaintiff in Anti-Terrorism Lawsuit
Reaffirming both the qualified testimonial privilege afforded to journalists by the First Amendment and the importance of protecting third parties from unreasonable burdens in civil discovery, a federal court in Washington, D.C., has held that a former reporter for The New Yorker magazine cannot be deposed about his interviews with an Israeli settler who is…
Federal Court Orders Documentarian to Turn Over All 600 Hours of Raw Footage from His Film “Crude: The Real Price of Oil”
The conflict between a journalist’s right to safeguard his or her source materials from compelled disclosure and a litigant’s right to obtain discovery in aid of a foreign proceeding is at the core of In re Chevron Corp., 10-1918 (2d Cir.), a case currently pending before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Background Joe Berlinger,…