MEDIA LEGAL

Media Law is a legal field that relates to legal regulation of the telecommunications industry,
information technology, broadcasting, advertising, the entertainment industry, censorship, and
internet and online services among others.

The legislation through which governments regulate the mass media (see also deregulation;
regulation). It includes issues of censorship, copyright, defamation, broadcast law, and antitrust
law. In democracies, media law is seen as a balancing act between two conflicting principles:
freedom of expression and constraints laid down in statutes of common law, as in issues of
defamation and the national interest.

DEFAMATION LAW

Meaning of defamation

Defamation (sometimes known as calumny, vilification, libel, slander or traducement) is the oral

or written communication of a false statement about another that unjustly harms their
reputation and usually constitutes a tort or crime.

Defamation is a statement that injures a third party's reputation. The tort of defamation

includes both libel (written statements) and slander (spoken statements).

NB: defamation is the publication of material that tends to lower someone reputation in the
estimation of a right thinking individual.

Defamation law is the area of law that seeks to protect a person’s reputation by preventing
unfair speech that might hurt a person’s reputation.

The purpose of the area of law is to protect people from having their lives and livelihoods
ruined or significantly altered because of untrue statements against them.

Elements of defamation

Even though defamation laws vary by state, the typical elements of a defamation case are:

 Someone makes a statement

 They publish the statement to a third party
 Their statement causes injury
 It’s not a true statement
 There’s no privilege to protect the statement
Types of defamation

There are two types of defamation: libel and slander.

Libel is any publication of defamatory material in permanent form and is generally embodied in
some printed, written or physical form.

Slander Refers to defamatory statements conveyed by the spoken word.

Generally, the law treats libel as worse than slander. Because it’s written down, libel can be
read again and transmitted again while slander might not have the lasting or ripple effects that
can come with libel.

Defenses to defamation

There are a number of defenses to defamation claims. If the defamer can successfully claim one
of these defenses, he/she might be able to win the case despite the defamation.

The major defenses to defamation are:

 Truth

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Remember that defamation is a false statement of

fact. So, if the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

 Absolute Privilege

Certain types of communications are absolutely privileged. Absolute privilege means that the
person making the statement has the absolute right to make that statement at that time, even
if it is defamatory. In other words, the person making the defamatory statement is immune
from a defamation lawsuit.

In general, absolute privilege exempts persons from liability for potentially defamatory
statements made:

 during judicial proceedings

 by high government officials
 by legislators during legislative debates
 during political broadcasts or speeches, and
 In between spouses.
Qualified Privilege

Other types of communications are subject to what is called a qualified privilege, meaning that
the person making the allegedly defamatory statement may have had some right to make that
statement.

If a qualified privilege applies to a statement, it means that the person suing for defamation
must prove that the person who made the defamatory statement acted intentionally,
recklessly, or with malice, hatred, spite, ill will or resentment, depending on your state’s law.

Just some of the statements for which a qualified privilege applies are:

 statements made in governmental reports of official proceedings

 statements made by lower government officials such members of town or local boards
 citizen testimony during legislative proceedings
 statements made in self-defense or to warn others about a harm or danger
 certain types of statements made by a former employer to a potential employer
regarding the employee,
 published book or film reviews that constitute fair criticism

PRIVACY LAW

Meaning of privacy law

Privacy law refers to the laws that deal with the regulation, storing, and using of personally
identifiable information, personal healthcare information, and financial information of
individuals, which can be collected by governments, public or private organizations, or other
individuals. 

Deal with the right of individual privacy, critical to maintaining the quality of life that citizens in
a free society expect. Privacy laws generally maintain that an individual’s privacy shall not be
violated unless the government can show some compelling reason to do so—such as by
providing evidence that the safety of the nation is at risk.

Types of privacy law

 privacy tort law

The following torts are the ones most commonly involved in privacy cases:

• Invasion of Privacy (a collective term for the four privacy torts)

– Public Disclosure of Private Facts

– Intrusion upon Seclusion

– False Light

– Appropriation of Name or Likeness

• Breach of Confidentiality

• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

• Defamation

– Libel

– Slander

• Negligence

 Contract/Promissory Estoppel

Confidentiality or other privacy protections can be an express or implied contractual term in a

relationship. Promises to protect privacy might be enforced through promissory estoppel.

 Criminal Law

Many privacy laws have criminal penalties. Many states have criminalized blackmail, “Peeping
Tom” activity or surreptitiously capturing nude images of others.

 Evidentiary Privileges

In evidence law, many privileges protect the confidentiality of information shared within certain
relationships, such as attorney-client and patient-physician.