Libel law is meant to protect an individual’s reputation. If
a person feels that his or her reputation has been affected, they can file a
claim against the party responsible asking for damages and monetary
compensation hoping to restore their name. This concept of someone’s reputation
being worth something is a century old concept with famous writers such as
Shakespeare exploring the idea.
An important consideration of libel is the truthfulness of
the statement. Just because someone says something about another that can harm
his reputation doesn’t mean he will fall void to libel. If the statement is
true then the reporter was just doing his job reporting news. Defamation is the
false communications about another person that damages that persons “fame” or brings
him or her to dispute. Slander and libel are two forms of defamation. Slander
is associated with spoken word while libel is with written defamation. The
purpose of the libel laws are in an attempt to restore ones reputation when it
has been negatively affected.
There are six elements of libel in the plaintiff’s case: A
statement of fact, that is published, that is of and concerning the plaintiff,
that is defamatory, that is false and for which the defendant is at fault. A
statement of fact simply means that there must be an assertion of fact.
Opinions cannot be considered libel because an opinion cannot be false.
Publication means that the false assertion was made public. There only needs to
be one source and one receiver for it to be legitimate. Identification means
the plaintiff must show he was the person directly being targeted. There are
three ways a person can be identified. Those are through stating their name,
stating their title, through photographic images or within a context in which
their identity can be inferred. Another element is that the statement must have
defamatory purpose. The challenge is defining and establishing the standard of
defamation. Lastly the statement must be false.
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