First Amendment Handbook [Back to contents page] [RCFP Home Page]

Invasion of Privacy: 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.

Although this tort is similar to defamation, it is not the same. The report need not be defamatory to be actionable as false light. This type of invasion of privacy tends to occur when a writer condenses or fictionalizes a story, or uses stock footage to illustrate a news story.

False light includes embellishment (false material added to a story, which places someone in a false light), distortion (the arrangement of materials or photographs to give a false impression) and fictionalization (works of fiction containing disguised characters that represent real people or references to real people in fictitious articles). Some courts may consider works of fiction to be constitutionally protected expressions even if they contain characters who resemble, or clearly were based on, identifiable individuals known by the author or creator.¹⁰

Notes

10. See, e.g., Polydoros v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 965 P.2d 724 (Cal. 1998), aff'g 67 Cal. App. 4th 318 (Cal. Ct. App. 1997).

Next section: Invasion of Privacy: Misappropriation