MediaLawLetter October 2010
Download Publication MLRC MLRC Presents First Amendment Leadership Award to Robin Bierstedt MLRC Roundtable: The Roberts Court and the First AmendmentFloyd Abrams, Professor Joel Gora, Paul Smith Discuss First Amendment Cases of 2010-2011 LIBEL & PRIVACY Pa. CCP: Jury Returns Verdict in Favor of The Pocono Record in Libel Cases Over Investigative Series on Inflated…
ECHR: Conviction of Finnish Newspaper for Publishing Information About Extra-Marital Affair Violated Article 10
In a decision issued on October 12, 2010, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held that Finland’s criminal convictions of a newspaper, its editor-in-chief and a journalist, for publishing information about the private life of the chief communications officer of a presidential candidate during the 2000 election campaign, violated Article 10. Saaristo v. Finland,…
State University Research Foundation Subject to Freedom of Information Law
In a decision issued last month, the New York Supreme Court in Albany County granted a Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) petition filed by the Albany Times Union (a Hearst newspaper) and its reporter (collectively, “Times Union”) and ordered the Research Foundation of the State University of New York (“Research Foundation”) to produce the requested…
Kentucky Newspapers Win Access To Child Services Documents
A Kentucky court has held that Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health & Family Services must publicly disclose records relating to children who are killed or seriously injured (under the Cabinet’s supervision). Lexington Herald-Leader, The Courier Journal v. Kentucky, No. 09-1742 (Ky. Cir. Sept. 29, 2010) (Shepherd, J.). In a challenge brought by the Courier-Journal (Louisville) and…
NY Times Wins Access to Names of Persons Licensed to Trade in Sanctioned Nations
A federal district court has granted The New York Times summary judgment in a Freedom of Information Act suit seeking the identities of individuals who have been licensed by the Treasury Department to conduct business in or with sanctioned nations like Iran and North Korea. New York Times Company v. U.S. Dept. Treasury, 09 Civ….
Seventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Complaint Over Yahoo! Search Results
Typing one’s name into a search engine can pull up results ranging from past accomplishments to embarrassing episodes to complete nonsense. Most would ignore the ultimate category as a byproduct of inconsequential Internet spam, but one woman decided to sue the search engine alleging it had culpability in the matter. The Seventh Circuit, however, held…
California Court of Appeal Grants Anti-SLAPP Protection to Medical Data Publisher
In a matter of first impression and one of the first decisions of its kind nationwide, the California Court of Appeal granted the anti-SLAPP motion of Hearst Corporation’s First DataBank, a specialty publisher of medical information, in a wrongful death lawsuit directed solely at First DataBank’s publication about prescription drugs. The Court ruled that plaintiffs,…
Documentary Producer Wins Anti-SLAPP Dismissal on Appeal
A California appellate court granted on appeal an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss interference with contract claims against a documentary film producer. Krown Towers v. David La Chapelle Studio, Inc., No. B217526, 2010 LEXIS 6238 (Cal. App. August 6, 2010) (Kriegler, Turner, Kumar, JJ.). The trial court had denied the motion to dismiss, holding that the…
California Court of Appeal Affirms Anti-SLAPP Dismissal of Public Official’s Defamation Case Against Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle
The California Court of Appeal resoundingly affirmed a lower court ruling striking a defamation complaint by an Oakland, California City Councilwoman against the San Francisco Chronicle and one of its columnists, which arose out of an opinion column that referred to official investigations into the public official’s alleged receipt of illegal kickbacks. Brooks v. San…
Court Dismisses Libel Claim Over Erroneous Newspaper Headline
On September 29, 2010, Judge Kenneth M. Karas of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an Opinion and Order granting Gannett Satellite Information Network’s (“Gannett”) motion to dismiss amended complaints brought by James Morrone and Steven Triano that asserted claims for defamation and intentional and negligent infliction of…
South Dakota Court Denies Summary Judgment to Newspaper Over Parody Letter
In an interesting libel decision, a South Dakota trial court held that a jury should decide whether a fake apology letter, intended as a parody of a public figure, was published with actual malice. Scott v. Beck and The Argus Leader, No. 07-3426 (S.D. Cir. Ct. Sept. 17, 2010) (Zell, J.). The court found that…
New York’s Highest Court Extends Its Defendant-Friendly Approach to Non-Media Republication Liability for Defamation Damages
By Henry R. Kaufman and Michael K. Cantwell The New York Court of Appeals, long-known as a media and defendant-friendly venue in defamation cases, addressed the liability of a non-media originator of a defamation for damages from its later republication by the media. Geraci v. Probst, (N.Y. Oct. 14, 2010). In a 6-1 opinion,…
Three Appellate Courts Interpret Illinois’s Anti-SLAPP Statute
The Citizen Participation Act (CPA), 735 ILCS 110/1 et seq., Illinois’s anti-SLAPP statute, was enacted in 2007; however, before September 30, 2010, no Illinois appellate court had issued a ruling addressing its scope. In the past month, two appellate courts and the Supreme Court of Illinois have issued opinions that largely confirm the broad interpretation…
Jury Rejects Mayor’s Libel Claim Against Thorn-in-the-Side Newspaper
The former editor of the Westchester Guardian and 16 other newspaper employees won a total of $8 million in damages against Mayor Philip Amicone, Yonkers, NY, over claims that city officials seized newspapers, newsracks and threatened distributors with arrest in retaliation for the newspaper’s criticism of the Mayor. Claims from the newspaper plaintiffs were consolidated…
California Newspaper Publisher Loses Private Figure Libel Trial
After a six week trial, a California state court jury this month awarded $332,500 in damages to a private figure plaintiff in a libel case against the owner and publisher of a group of community newspapers. Bohl vs. Hesperia Resorter, et al., SCVSS 68052 (San Bernardino Sup. Ct. verdict rendered Oct. 4, 2010) (Gafkowski, J.). …
Baltimore Federal Court Jury Awards 350K in Case of Misidentification
In a recent Maryland libel trial, a jury awarded $350,000 to a Florida restauranteur for a series of articles published online and in print in the Baltimore City Paper which misidentified him as a federal fugitive of the same name. Kafouros v. CEGW, Inc. et al, No. 09-1542 (D. Md. Jury verdict Sept 23, 2010)…
Pennsylvania Jury Returns Verdict in Favor of The Pocono Record in Libel Cases over Investigative Series on Inflated Home Pricing
After a nine-day trial, it took a Monroe County, Pennsylvania jury just under two hours to unanimously conclude that The Pocono Record and its former reporter, Matt Birkbeck, had not libeled Raintree Homes, a real-estate developer, in a 2001 series investigating the reasons behind the foreclosure crisis in the Pocono Mountain region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. …
MLRC Presents First Amendment Leadership Award to Robin Bierstedt
On September 30, 2010, at the biennial NAA/NAB/MLRC Media Law Conference, MLRC was honored to present its First Amendment Leadership Award to Robin Bierstedt, who recently retired from Time Inc. where she was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel with primary responsibility for all legal matters relating to TIME Magazine, and the company’s First Amendment…