Fair report privilege

A New York trial court judge dismissed a defamation claim brought by a convicted sex offender against a local newspaper that reported on his arrest and guilty plea.

Queens County Judge Sidney F. Strauss concluded this week that Wave Publishing Co., publishers of the weekly newspaper The Wave in Rockaway Beach, were protected by the state’s fair report privilege for a 2008 story concerning the criminal charges brought by local authorities against Jacek Marczewski, the custodian of a synagogue in Far Rockaway, Queens.

A New York judge dismissed a portion of a libel suit against ESPN because the statements in question were reported from court documents and therefore protected under the state's fair report privilege.

Claims that the Boston Herald further defamed a famous musician in its coverage of his libel suit against the newspaper were dismissed Wednesday by a Massachusetts judge, who ruled that the rocker failed to show that the reports were inaccurate, unfair or malicious.

The initial claim against the Herald filed by Tom Scholz, the founder of the rock band Boston, is still pending.

A San Diego radio talk show commentator was shielded from libel claims brought by a former public high school principal after reporting on an audit into whether the principal used school resources to sell ads for a gay magazine, a California appellate court ruled last week.

The First Amendment protects statements in a “60 Minutes” story about the alleged use of a chicken processing company as a cover for terrorism financing in the United States, a federal court ruled earlier this week.

An incarcerated felon who placed a personal advertisement on a website is a limited purpose public figure who could not meet the heightened standard of proof of actual malice in his defamation claim against the Boston Herald and a Herald reporter for the paper's series on prisoners and online dating, a Massachusetts appellate court ruled earlier this week in LaChance v. Boston Herald.

A Texas appellate court last week affirmed the dismissal of an Austin neurosurgeon’s defamation suit against a local television station, thereby recognizing that accurate and fair reports of allegations against the subject of a broadcast are protected.

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that journalists who report accurately from court filings are protected from defamation suits.