“The 9th U.S. Circuit... “...federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages.” “The appeals court ruled that the trustee was not a public figure, which could have invoked an even higher standard of showing the writer acted with malice, but the issue was of public concern, so the negligence standard applied.” Because...” the “... blog post addressed a matter of public concern, even assuming that Gertz...” supra..., “...is limited to such speech, the district court should have instructed the jury that it could not find...” liability “...for defamation unless it found that” the person “...acted negligently” We hold that liability for a defamatory blog post involving a matter of public concern cannot be imposed without proof of fault and actual damages. The Court “...wrote.” “...the ruling affirms what many have long argued: Standards set by a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., apply to everyone, not just journalists.” Its not a special right to the news media “its a good thing for bloggers and citizen journalists and others. It makes clear that bloggers have the same First Amendment rights as professional journalistsThere had been similar precedents before concerning advocacy groups, other writers and book authors. This follows a fairly well established chain of precedents.” This is perhaps, “... the first federal appeals court level ruling that applies to bloggers.(1.) Sources: (1.) Excerpted from: “Court: Bloggers have First Amendment protections”; “Court ruled that bloggers have First Amendment protection when sued for defamation”; USA Today, Jan. 20, 2014; (2.) For the full text of the (1974) U.S. Supreme Court holding in “Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc.”, cited by “The 9th U.S. Circuit Federal Court of Appeals” in its Opinion, click on the Cornell Law School Link below: google/url?sa=t&rct=j&q&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CEsQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Flaw.cornell.edu%2Fsupremecourt%2Ftext%2F418%2F323&ei=S8LrUvSmAaH4yQHqooG4Cw&usg=AFQjCNEV_VAavj5-sa_FOJR0F22wk943NA&bvm=bv.60444564%2Cd.aWc
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:25:23 +0000
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