Libel and Privacy Claims Over Photo Error Dismissed
Claims Barred by Single Publication Rule A Pennsylvania federal district court recently dismissed libel and privacy claims against KDKA-TV for mistakenly using plaintiff’s photo in reports about an escaped prisoner. Ghrist v. CBS Broadcasting No. 2:13-cv-1544 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 21, 2014) (Hornak, J.). The plaintiff is named Christopher William Ghrist. In 2011, another Pennsylvania man…
A View From The Inside: Responding To Take-Down Requests
By Matthew Leish Over the past two years, I have found myself spending an ever-increasing amount of time dealing with requests to take down articles from the Daily News’ website. Sometimes the requester insists that the story in question is false; more often, he or she simply says that the story is embarrassing, outdated, or…
Libertarian Senate Candidate Not Entitled to Participate in TV Debate
Holding that the First Amendment is not a rule of quantity at any cost, a Kentucky federal court has upheld a broadcaster’s right to limit the number of candidates invited to election forums and debates to those who have a realistic chance of winning. Libertarian National Committee, et al. v. Dr. Terry Holiday, No. 14-63-GFVT…
Supreme Court to Decide “True Threats” Case Involving Online Speech
Is Proof of Subjective Intent Required to Convict? The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider a “true threats” case this upcoming term with possible implications for the Internet and social media, as well as music and other expressive genres. U.S. v. Elonis, 730 F.3d 321 (3d Cir. 2013) (Scirica, Hardiman, Aldisert, JJ.), cert. granted…
Texas Courts Analyze Access to Juvenile Court Proceedings
By Thomas J. Williams As the United States Supreme Court observed almost 50 years ago in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 17 (1967), the juvenile justice system is “a peculiar system,” one which is “unknown to our law in any comparable context.” While juvenile court proceedings in some ways resemble the adult criminal justice…
Death Certificates Are Public Records Under Indiana’s Records Law
Public Interest in Access Outweighs Privacy Right The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that death certificates must be disclosed under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act. Evansville Courier & Press v. Vanderburgh County Health Department, No. 82S04-1401-PL-49 (Ind. Oct. 7, 2014). Background At issue in the case was whether death certificates filed by doctors,…
Dow Jones Awarded $5 Million in Hot-News Misappropriation Case
By Jay Conti and Craig Linder When The Wall Street Journal in 2013 broke the news that Twitter Inc. was about to set a price range for its hotly anticipated initial public offering, the first people in the world to find out were subscribers to Dow Jones’s DJ Dominant newswire, a real-time news feed that…
TVEYES Not Dimmed By Claims of Infringement for Complete Copying
Media Monitoring Service Held to Be Fair Use By Judith A. Endejan Following in the footsteps of Author’s Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014) and Author’s Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 954 F.Supp.2d 282 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), the Southern District of New York again found that wholesale copying of copyrighted works that…
California’s New Consumer Comment Law Leaves Questions and Potential Loopholes
By Jeff Hermes On September 9, 2014, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill No. 2365, adding a new Section 1670.8 to the California Civil Code. The new law was passed in response to a practice among some businesses of requiring consumers to waive their right to comment on either the business or…
Mississippi Appeals Court Affirms Summary Judgment for Book Authors
Former FBI Agent Sued Over “Kings of Tort” Book The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in favor of the authors of the book “Kings of Tort” which recounts the prosecution of trial lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs and judicial corruption in Mississippi. Neilson v. Dawson, No. 2012-CA-01792 (Miss. App. Sept. 16, 2014). The book…
Pennsylvania Federal Court Dismisses Libel Claims
Lack of Personal Jurisdiction and Lack of Defamatory Meaning By Matthew L. Schafer An article suggesting that a businessman asked the SEC to stop trading in his company’s stock amid fraud concerns is not susceptible of a defamatory meaning. Bukstel v. DealFlow Media, Inc., No. 13-3287, 2014 WL 3952842 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 13, 2014) (Rufe,…
KTRK Awarded Over $250,000 in Fees and Mandatory Sanctions Under Anti-SLAPP Law
By Laura Lee Prather and Alicia Calzada In what is the second largest attorneys’ fees award in the Texas anti-SLAPP statute’s three-year history, a judge in Harris County, Texas awarded KTRK Television over $250,000 in attorney’s fees on remand after the station won an anti-SLAPP appeal. Robinson v. The Walt Disney Comp. at al., No….
Washington State’s Highest Court to Decide Constitutionality of Anti-SLAPP Statute
By Bruce E.H. Johnson and Ambika Kumar Doran Earlier this month, the Washington Supreme Court agreed to decide a case involving constitutional challenges to the state’s 2010 Act Limiting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (“SLAPPs”). It will also decide whether the statute bars claims that former board members of a food co-op violated the board’s…
The End of the Line for Defamation Claims by Railroad and Its CEO Against Trade Newsletter
By Sigmund D. Schutz and Benjamin S. Piper In a victory for media defendants, the federal district court in Maine, granted summary judgment dismissing libel and false light claims brought by a railroad and its CEO against a small trade newsletter (Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports) and its publisher. Pan Am Systems Inc. v. Hardenbergh,…
Alleged Cyberbully Loses DefamationLawsuit Over Arrest Report
TV Station’s Reports About Teen’s Arrest Were Privileged By Adrianna C. Rodriguez A Florida federal court dismissed defamation and defamation by implication claims brought by a teenager against Florida Panhandle television station WJHG challenging accurate reporting of her arrest for felony cyberbullying for running a Facebook smut page called Panama City’s Trashiest. The claims were…
New York Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Libel Claims Brought by Brooklyn Judge
New York Court of Appeals Denies Leave to Appeal By Lisa Zycherman and Laura R. Handman On July 17, 2014, a unanimous panel of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the dismissal of all claims brought by Kings County Supreme Court Justice Larry D. Martin against the Daily News, LP and…
Dismissals in Two States Over Police-Supplied Photos of Wrong Suspects
By Bruce S. Rosen and Sarah L. Fehm New Jersey plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed a defamation case seeking to hold media defendants responsible for using surveillance photographs of purported thieves from a “Toys for Tots” drop-off bin supplied by local police. Ninety miles to the north, a Brooklyn trial court justice reluctantly dismissed a similar action…
Court Affirms Summary Judgment for CBS on Former Journalist’s Defamation, Privacy Claims
Reporter a Public Figure; No Expectation of Privacy in Source’s Backyard By Matthew E. Kelley A public-figure plaintiff alleging defamation by implication under Illinois law must show that the defendant was subjectively aware of or recklessly disregarded the implied meaning, an intermediate Illinois appellate court has ruled. Jacobson v. CBS Broad. Inc., 2014 IL App…
From the Executive Director’s Desk
By George Freeman I have recently returned from a Conference on Courts and Communication in Budapest. But I write not to give you a travelogue but, rather, to praise the value of an exchange of ideas with jurists away from the familiarity of home – – and to ask you to consider a process common…
MediaLawLetter October 2014
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s DeskEuropean Court Press Spokesmen Model Deserves Serious Consideration A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE Responding To Take-Down RequestsRequests Tend to Fall into Several Recurring Categories LIBEL & PRIVACY Ill. App.: Court Affirms Summary Judgment for CBS on Former Journalist’s Defamation, Privacy ClaimsReporter a Public Figure; No Expectation of Privacy…