Libel Law Study Guide: Understanding Defamation and Reputation - Prof. Eugene Senat, Study notes of Communication

Download Libel Law Study Guide: Understanding Defamation and Reputation - Prof. Eugene Senat and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! JB 4163 — SECOND EXAM STUDY GUIDE: 10-LIBEL PART 1 (Cortneys) Know the definitions and rules in general and how they are applied in Oklahoma. Be able to correctly recognize and apply them in hypothetical situations.  How is libel generally defined? P. 158, S P. 7 o Libel is generally defined as a false and defamatory attack in writing on a person’s reputation. o Libel is the publication or broadcast of any statement that injures someone’s reputation or lowers that person’s esteem in the community  Is libel law essentially state law? o Yes, libel law is modified and decided on by the states.  Libel must do what and be what? P. 158 o 1 – Libel is the publication or broadcast of any statement that  Injuries someone’s reputation or  Lowers that person’s esteem in the community o 2 – A “false or malicious unprivileged publication by writing, printing, picture or effigy or other fixed representation to the eye, which exposes any person to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or which tends to deprive him of public confidence, or to injure him in his occupation, or any malicious publication as aforesaid, designed to blacken or vilify the memory of one who is dead, and tending to scandalize his surviving relatives or friends.” o Basically, it must be false and must be written defamation  What is the difference between "character" and "reputation"? o Character is what you are. o Reputation is what people think you are, which is protected by the law.  What does "libel proof" mean? o Libel proof means there can be no further harm to the individual’s reputation, that the defamatory words were incapable of causing addt’l damage to the plaintiff’s reputation. o In those instances where an allegedly libelous statement “cannot realistically cause impairment of reputation because the person’s reputation is already so low… the claim should be dismissed.”  The libel must lower the person's reputation in the eyes of whom? That segment of the population must represent what?  At least a significant minority of the community must believe that the plaintiff’s reputation has been damaged, but the minority must not be an unrepresentative minority. The defamation must lower a person’s reputation in the eyes of a significant number of people, and unless unusual circumstances exist, these people must fairly reflect representative views.  In Oklahoma, is broadcasting typically subject to libel law? s – p. 7 o Yes, but not to slander, which OK defines as “a false and unprivileged publication, other than libel.”  Is libel the concern of only journalists? o No. Libel law suits can arise from communications other than news stories.  Who can and can't sue for libel? Can you libel the dead in Oklahoma? o Any living person, corporation, business or unincorporated association, organization or society can sue for libel. However, the OK SC reaffirmed in 1984 that “libel is one of the few actions which does not survive the death of a plaintiff who has been defamed in his own lifetime, and which abates on the death of the defendant.” o Can government sue private citizens for libel?  No. o Can government be sued for libel?  Yes.  Date of Publication/Statute of Limitations in Oklahoma. Under which circumstances could the statute of limitations be extended? When won't it be extended? o The plaintiff has one year from the date of publication to file a libel lawsuit. The limitation period can be extended if the publication was “concealed or published in a secretive manner which would make it unlikely to come to the attention of the injured party.” o Exceptions should be “strictly construed and are not enlarged on” because of apparent hardship or inconvenience” or “ignorance of the law.”  How is publication defined? Understand whether communication inside a corporation, between its officers, employees, and agents, is a publication for the purposes of a libel lawsuit. o In Libel law, exposing an allegedly libelous statement to one person in addition to the subject of the libel. o “Communication inside a corporation, between its officers, employees and agents is never a publication for the purposes of actions for defamation.”  Agents and employees of a corporation are not 3rd parties to the corporation in their relations with the corporation, and therefore communications between those agents and employees are not considered publications because it is the corporation communicating with itself.  Such communications “are never actually published if they never go outside the corporation.”  What is the republication rule? o The news media can be held liable for repeating the libelous statements of others, including material contained in letters to the editor.