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.
The Texas Senate unanimously passed Wednesday the Citizen Participation Act, anti-SLAPP legislation aimed at curbing lawsuits intended to silence critics.
Because the Senate approved minor amendments to the bill, Texas H.B. 2973, it will head back to the House for concurrence before being sent to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk. The House unanimously passed the bill May 4.
A California appellate court last week affirmed a lower court ruling that a bank manager presented enough evidence to allow his defamation claim against McGraw-Hill to proceed, thus rejecting the publisher's anti-SLAPP argument. The manager alleged that he was defamed by statements about the mortgage crisis in a BusinessWeek article.
A California judge ordered Dole Food Co. Inc. to pay about $200,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees to two documentary filmmakers who it had sued over a documentary about the company's practices. Dole previously voluntarily dropped its defamation lawsuit against the filmmakers, who, Dole alleged, implied the company had caused the deaths of Nicaraguan farm workers.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that public speech about building developers is protected under the state’s recently enacted anti-SLAPP statute, setting a broad precedent for future cases.
The Illinois Appellate Court this week upheld a lower court’s ruling in a defamation case, granting a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against a group critical of a high school basketball coach’s performance.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) in late August reinstated a defamation suit filed by televangelist Rev. Frederick Price against ABC and former “20/20” correspondent John Stossel, finding a lower court’s dismissal of the case to be premature, according to court documents.
A federal judge in Washington state dismissed the privacy claims in a lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore regarding his 2007 health care documentary, “Sicko,” in the first application of the state’s revised anti-SLAPP law.
An enhanced version of a Washington state law that protects individuals against frivolous lawsuits intended to quash critical speech was signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday.
A California appellate court yesterday found that a lawsuit by "indie" rock musicians against Rolling Stone over a feature article inside fold-out advertising pages should be dismissed under the state anti-SLAPP statute.
A San Francisco appeals court held that the article in question, a visual representation of a variety of bands in the “Indie Rock Universe,” was noncommercial speech protected by the First Amendment.
The House of Representatives is considering legislation that would create a federal anti-SLAPP law to protect individuals from meritless lawsuits filed to intimidate them into refraining from criticizing a person, company, or project.
