Defamation

New York's legislature on Monday unanimously passed the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, sending the measure – intended to protect American journalists from lawsuits in foreign jurisdictions that do not provide the same free speech protections as the First Amendment – to the desk of Gov. David Patterson.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed on March 20 a defamation lawsuit filed against a former state representative who argued that his free speech rights were being violated.

Joyce Schelling filed the lawsuit in 2006 against then-Rep. Kenneth Lindell, who represented District 41 in the Maine House of Representatives. The suit stemmed from a pair of letters to the Republican Journal, initiated by Schelling, who criticized Lindell for not supporting a particular law. 

The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments last Thursday on two cases involving false-light invasion of privacy. One case, involving the news media, will have the court decide whether a businessman’s lawsuit against the Pensacola News Journal should be considered a false light or libel claim, and what timeframe for statute of limitations should apply.

Time Magazine asked the Indonesian supreme court to reconsider an earlier ruling that ordered the publication to pay former President Suharto more than $100 million last year, the New York Times reports.

A Pittsburgh attorney's defamation lawsuit against a newspaper publishing company has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin, who ruled that the content in question was permissible under the fair report privilege.

Flatsigned Press Inc. is suing radio personality Don Imus for making disparaging remarks about a book they paid to have advertised on his show. The book publisher claims that book sales dropped $40,000 a day for several months after Imus openly mocked its commercials for late President Gerald Ford’s book about the JFK assassination investigation.

A rare prior restraint on speech has turned up in an unlikely place -- a divorce case -- with a Vermont judge ordering a husband to take down blog postings about his wife and their dissolving marriage. The husband called his postings a "fictionalized account of the marriage" according to a New York Times article, but the wife contended they are defamatory statements and the judge ordered the posts be removed pending a February hearing.