Among the cases for which the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari Monday was the case of Salzano v. North Jersey Media Group . The Court's decision not to accept the case for review allows an important fair report decision issued earlier...(read more)
Massachusetts High Court Extends Fair Report Privilege
In late January, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed that the fair report privilege applied to information attributed to an anonymous source. The 6-1 decision in Howell v. The Enterprise Publishing Company dismissing the plaintiff's...(read more)
Arkansas Supreme Court Affirms Fair Report Privilege
The Arkansas Supreme Court held last week in a unanimous decision that the fair report privilege protected reporters from The Courier newspaper who had reported allegations about a rape investigation based on the contents of a police report. The...(read more)
New Jersey Supreme Court Stays Fair Report Decision
We previously reported a recent intermediate appellate court decision from New Jersey in which the court took a narrow view of the fair report privilege. That decision gave cause for concern for news organizations in New Jersey because it held that...(read more)
New Jersey Court Narrows Fair Report Privilege
Although no reporter or news organization wants to find itself defending against a defamation claim, the reality is that plaintiffs have and will continue to file claims alleging injury to their reputations based on media reporting. Fortunately,...(read more)
New Jersey and Kentucky Decisions Narrow Fair Report Privilege
In a prior post, we described the contours of the fair report privilege . This common-law privilege protects journalists from liability for republishing factual errors that appear in official records -- such as a police report, government press...(read more)