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#libel

1 post1 participant0 posts today

‘An absolute disgrace’: John McDonnell MP criticises UK government for proscribing Palestine Action

youtube.com/shorts/HxkyD2KzV0Q

McDonnell voiced his worries over the move, saying he had not seen “an assault on civil liberties like this, maybe for a generation,” and vowed to fight against the decision alongside others in the House of Commons…

This morning, NPR aided and abetted the Drump’s and Fox News’s lies about sending the National Guard into Los Angeles. Newsom is suing Fox News for libel for reporting Drump’s lie. Drump lied that he and Newsom had discussed Drump’s plan to send in the guard on a call the day before doing so. Fox News reported this lie as fact, even though Fox News knew that Drump was lying because there is no evidence of such a call between Drump and Newsom.

NPR fudged the story by reporting that Fox reported that Drump had the conversation in a call *prior* to sending in the guard. However, the only phone conversation between Drump and Newsom was a call several days before and it did not address the issue of sending in the guard. NPR fudged by reporting that it was a *prior* conversation rather than making clear that Drump and Fox had lied in specifying that the conversation was the day before.

#media#NPR#FoxNews

Today in Writing History May 21, 1703: The authorities imprisoned writer Daniel Defoe for seditious libel. Defoe was most famous for his novels Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, and Moll Flanders (1722). However, he also wrote political pamphlets, including The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, which satirized how Tories handled religious dissenters by proposing that they all be exterminated. As a result, the authorities arrested and imprisoned him for seditious libel.

#censorship #prison #writing #author #fiction #freespeech #censorship #satire #danieldefoe #libel #books @bookstadon

ON A SERIOUS NOTE
“christian” zionists hate anybody semitic and Arab so much, they support the #genocide of #Christian #Palestinians
theguardian.com/world/2025/apr

and to our Jewish kin:
today many xian zionist cults celebrate the Jewish #deicide #libel that is at the heart of the #Inquisition #expulsiones #pogroms and #Holocaust.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_d

and i say celebrate: the RCC officially repudiated the libel that many genocidal xians (including catholics) won’t cosign
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostra_a

The Guardian · ‘They are trying to make it unbearable’: Jerusalem Christians face Easter under Israeli crackdownBy Hannah Ellis-Petersen

More than 60 years ago, New York Times C. v. Sullivan established that, to succeed in defamation cases, public figures must prove that a published statement is false and that publishers acted with "actual malice." "Murder the Truth," a new book by New York Times journalist and editor David Enrich, discusses the movement to overturn Sullivan, accelerated by Trump, his allies and people who are influenced by them. Nieman Lab spoke to Enrich about his investigation, the journalists he spoke to, and more. "The push to overturn Roe was obviously one of the most coordinated assaults on established Supreme Court precedent, probably in history," Enrich says. "This is definitely not like that — but it’s not an accident that these people were getting up and being given platforms on places like Fox News to make these arguments over and over again."

flip.it/AVGQcJ

#USLaw #Law #Libel #Defamation #Books @bookstodon #Media #Journalism #MurderTheTruth

Nieman Lab“More alarming by the day”: New York Times investigations editor on the legal threats faced by news publishers"The rhetoric and actions that Trump and his allies take at a national level are being mimicked across the country at a much smaller level. Whether they’re Trump supporters or not, they’re taking cues from the President of the United States."
Continued thread

#SCOTUS in #NYTvSullivan & subsequent decisions set a standard that in order to win a #libel suit, a public figure must demonstrate the offending statement was made w/ "actual malice," meaning w/ knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was false.

That standard has since been adopted in a number of state laws across the country, including in Nevada.

Today in Labor History January 19, 1764: The British House of Commons expelled John Wilkes for seditious libel. Wilkes was a radical journalist and politician who fought for the right of his voters, rather than the House of Commons, to determine their representatives. In 1768, the authorities arrested him. His supporters protested and soldiers shot them in the St George's Fields Massacre. During the American Revolution, Wilkes supported the American rebels. However, in 1780, he commanded militia forces which helped put down the Gordon Riots, damaging his popularity with many radicals.

By #KyleCheney via #Politico @ 5:19pm ET on Dec 13, 2024

A federal judge has ordered President-elect #DonaldTrump and #ABC News host #GeorgeStephanopoulos to sit for 4-hour depositions next week in a #libel lawsuit #Trump brought against the network earlier this yr.

Miami-based US Magistrate Judge #LisetteReid issued the order Fri, signaling that Trump’s status as president-elect is not a reason to put off sworn questioning of him in connection with the suit he filed.

politico.com/live-updates/2024

Replied in thread

@kentparkstreet1

I like this part:
"One of the justices, Flávio Dino, argued that "freedom of expression is closely linked to a duty of responsibility".

"The first can't exist without the second, and vice-versa," he added."

There are parallels between that approach and laws about #Libel / #Slander.

USians seem to have thrown their hands up and said, "But there is no one whose judgement I trust to rule on responsibility!"
And given the state of their judicial system I have some sympathy.

Our Editor Won a 6-Year #Legal Battle. It Didn’t Feel Like a Victory.
==

After publishing a story on a doctor accused of violating federal research rules and skirting ethical guidelines, ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein was named in a #libel suit. An appeals court recently dismissed the case, but the experience took a toll.
propublica.org/article/bud-fra

ProPublicaOur Editor Won a 6-Year Legal Battle. It Didn’t Feel Like a Victory.After publishing a story on a doctor accused of violating federal research rules and skirting ethical guidelines, ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein was named in a libel suit. An appeals court recently dismissed the case, but the experience took a toll.

Before anyone tries to pull a "Free Speech" card on it, #ImaneKhelif, the #Olympics, Algerian and French governments suing over #ElonMusk, #JKRowling, and #DonaldTrump calling her a "man" to scapegoat her into the anti-trans/anti-feminism political discourse isn't a case of "silencing political beliefs", it's a case of #libel and #slander. Not only have these been illegal and pretty much every society for as long as law was codified, but they have a basis protecting people from misinformation.

The best defense for a libel suit, of course, is to show a good enough reason that you would believe this #misinformation is the reality, to offset the potential harm you knew spreading it could do, but as the primary (incredibly wealthy and powerful) instigators of a piece of wild misinformation, they can't claim "someone else told me".

This will be interesting to see play out!