Log in to access all content
Not a member yet?
Join MLRC today!
We provide you with essential tools to advance First Amendment and media rights, and a supportive community in which to discuss emerging legal issues and the future of communication.
in this issue
Ethics, Aspirations, and the Animal House Standard
By Len Niehoff You would think that the lawyers who drafted our legal ethics codes (being lawyers and all) would have honored the due process principle that those who are regulated should be able to understand what they can and cannot do. You would be wrong. The mischief started early. The American Bar Association approved…
A View from the Inside: Keeping Communications Confidential
By Ashley Messenger On February 15, the New York Times published an article revealing that an Australian ally of the National Security Agency (NSA) had captured confidential attorney-client communications between a law firm and its client, the Indonesian government, whom the firm was assisting with trade matters. This revelation came after a year of news…
TOPICS : Reporters Privilege
Court Rules Lawyer’s $1 Million Challenge Didn’t Create Unilateral Contract
Unedited Dateline Interview Showed No Contract Was Made It sounds like it was made for TV. A criminal defense lawyer on national television offers $1 million to anyone who can disprove part of his client’s defense. The prosecution argued that his client flew roundtrip from Atlanta to Florida to commit murder, and returned from the…
TOPICS : Media Contracts
NTSB Judge Shoots Down Drone Regulation in Photographer’s Case
FAA Immediately Appeals Ruling By Charles D. Tobin and Mickey H. Osterreicher The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has appealed this month’s ruling by an administrative law judge striking down a fine against paid photographer who had strapped cameras to a model airplane and photographed the University of Virginia. See Huerta v. Pirker. The case, now…
TOPICS : Newsgathering
The Development of Shield Laws in Australia and the Growing Quest for Journalists’ Sources
Peter Bartlett and Amanda Jolson The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance has called for uniform national shield laws. Christopher Warren, the Federal Secretary of the Alliance correctly referred to Australia’s shield laws as “patchy and disparate.” According to Chris “it is appalling journalists are served with a subpoena that essentially would require them to breach…
TOPICS : Reporters Privilege
5th Circuit Issues First Texas Anti-SLAPP Decision
Court’s Ruling Leaves Dentist Smiling, Questions Unanswered By Marc Fuller In its first case under Texas’s anti-SLAPP statute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the collateral order doctrine gave it jurisdiction to review a district court’s order denying a law firm’s motion to dismiss defamation and other claims filed by…
TOPICS : Anti-SLAPP
D.C. Super.: “‘L’etat C’est Moi’ Is Not a Concept Recognized by Tort Law”
To Unmask Informant, Corporation Must Show Actual Business Harm By Adrianna C. Rodriguez and Charles D. Tobin In the latest development in a nine-year battle to protect an anonymous whistleblower, a District of Columbia trial court has quashed a subpoena issued to a software association in a defamation litigation filed by a defense contractor. The…
TOPICS : Defamation, Digital Privacy
Illinois Supreme Court Strikes State Eavesdropping Law As Unconstitutional
By Samuel Fifer, Natalie J. Spears and Gregory R. Naron In two decisions issued March 20, 2014, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the State’s eavesdropping statute as unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment. The decisions — People v. Clark, 2014 IL 115776 and People v. Melongo, 2014 IL 114852 — were the capstone to…
TOPICS : Newsgathering
Mugshot Website Entitled to Five-Day Notice of Defamation Suit
Website a “Media Defendant” Under Florida Notice Law A plaintiff suing a mugshot website for defamation must give at least five days notice before filing the lawsuit because the website is a media defendant, a Florida federal court has ruled. Intihar v. Citizens Information Associates, No. 2:13-cv-00720 (M.D. Fla. March 4, 2014). No Florida state…
TOPICS : Defamation
Emotional Distress Suit Over Suicide Broadcast Dismissed
By Chris Moeser An Arizona trial court has dismissed claims for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress against Fox News Network, L.L.C., stemming from the network’s live coverage of an 80-mile police chase that ended in the suspect’s suicide. Rodriguez v. News Corporation, No. CV 2013-008467 (Jan. 30, 2014) (minute order dismissing claim). Background…
TOPICS : Private Facts
Colorado Court Dismisses Libel Case Against Homicide Hunter Program
Crime Reenactment Was Substantially True By Steve Zansberg On March 7, 2014, Colorado state district court judge Gregory R. Werner granted a motion to dismiss a libel, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress case brought against cable network The Discovery Channel, the production company (Jupiter Entertainment), and the star and namesake of the documentary series,…
Texas Court Affirms Dismissal of Libel Case Against New York Times
Plaintiff Failed to Show Actual Malice By David McCraw A Texas appellate court has affirmed 2-1 a grant of summary judgment dismissing a libel suit brought against The New York Times and one of its journalists by a Texas political activist who became an undercover informant for the FBI. Darby v. The New York Times…
TOPICS : Defamatory Meaning, Fault
Libel Suit Over “Bag Men” New York Post Report Survives Motion to Dismiss
Paper Implied Men Were Suspects; Fair Report Privilege Rejected A Massachusetts Superior Court this month denied the New York Post’s motion to dismiss libel and emotional distress claims brought by two men featured on the newspaper’s cover during the intense hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. Barhoum v. NYP Holdings, Inc., No. 13-2062 (March 5,…
Activist Wins $563,000 Defamation, Negligent Infliction Emotional Distress Verdict
A Massachusetts jury awarded $563,052 to a prison-rights activist on claims of defamation and emotional distress against the Boston Herald. Almost the entire verdict was made up of damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress. Marinova v. Boston Herald, Inc., No. 10-1316-H (Mass. Super. jury verdict March 19, 2014). The plaintiff said she was harmed…
Pennsylvania Court Orders Third Trial in Long-Running Newspaper Libel Case
Holds Trial Court Erred on Proof of Damages Issues On appeal from a bench trial verdict in favor of the defense, a Pennsylvania Superior court reinstated libel claims against the Citizens’ Voice newspaper in a long-running libel suit over a series of articles discussing an FBI raid of plaintiffs’ businesses. Joseph v. The Scranton Times,…
TOPICS : Defamation, False Light
Doctor Awarded $2 Million in Libel Trial Against Pennsylvania Newspaper
On March 20, 2014, a Pennsylvania jury awarded a doctor two million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages in a libel case against a local newspaper. Menkowitz v. Peerless Publications, Inc., 98-07291 (C.C.P. Montgomery Cty). Plaintiff’s seventeen year-old case against the Pottstown, Pennsylvania newspaper The Mercury alleged that his career as a prominent orthopedic surgeon…
Virginia Supreme Court Affirms JNOV for Virginian-Pilot Newspaper
Court Analyzes Defamation by Implication Standards By Brett Spain Over the past several years, the number of “defamation by implication” claims filed in Virginia has increased dramatically. Virginia precedent, coupled with its unique procedural rules governing dispositive motions, seemed to allow plaintiffs to survive to trial by alleging virtually any implication, regardless of how implausible….
TOPICS : Defamatory Meaning
Second Circuit Protects News Organizations That Report on Copyrightable Material
Publication of Analyst Call a Fair Use By William M. Ried and Thomas H. Golden In its recent decision upholding Bloomberg News’s right to publish the contents of an analyst call held by a publicly-traded company, the Second Circuit made clear that newsmakers will have a hard time precluding the media from reporting on newsworthy…
TOPICS : Copyright
Ninth Circuit Orders Take-Down of “Innocence of Muslims” Video in Novel and Controversial Application of Copyright Law
By Thomas J. Williams and Vincent P. Circelli Reminding one of the expression that bad facts can make, at least in the eyes of many, bad law, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Google to remove from YouTube all or part of a film entitled “Innocence of Muslims” based on an actress’ claim that…
TOPICS : Copyright
MLRC Miami Conference Explores Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-Border Publishing
Legal Issues Concerning Hispanic and Latin American Media On March 10, approximately 70 lawyers convened at the University of Miami School of Communication for MLRC’s second annual conference on Legal Issues of Concern for Hispanic and Latin American Media. The Conference was a unique opportunity for lawyers from North and South America to meet and…
MediaLawLetter March 2014
Download Publication MLRC MLRC Miami Conference Explores Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-Border PublishingLegal Issues Concerning Hispanic and Latin American Media INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Ninth Circuit Orders Take-Down of “Innocence of Muslims” Video Novel and Controversial Application of Copyright LawGarcia v. Google 2d Cir.: Circuit Affords Protection to News Organizations That Report on Copyrightable MaterialPublication of Content…