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    Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
    Tablet and mobile phone showing news online

    Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.

    False light

    False light invasion of privacy occurs when information is published about a person that is false or places the person in a false light, is highly offensive to a reasonable person, and is published with knowledge or in reckless disregard of whether the information was false or would place the person in a false light.

    Judge grants motion to dismiss 'birther' libel case under D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, First Amendment

    Emily Miller | Libel | News | June 5, 2012
    Emily Miller
    News
    June 5, 2012

    A libel case brought by a 'birther' -- those who question whether President Obama is a natural-born American and eligible to be president -- ended prematurely when a U.S. district judge granted a magazine's motion to dismiss under the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, which protects speech relating to issues of public interest.

    N.J. editor did not act with actual malice in false light case

    Chris Healy | Libel | Feature | March 5, 2012
    Chris Healy
    Feature
    March 5, 2012

    A front-page teaser that wrongly stated that the subjects of a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission were "arrested" was not made with "actual malice" -- intentional falsity or reckless disregard for the truth -- the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled.

    The decision means that the The Nutley Sun and its parent company, the North Jersey Media Group, are not liable to the plaintiffs in the false light case filed against them.