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Gawker vs hulk hogan1/9/2024 ![]() ![]() ![]() The Sullivan case was about an advertisement in the Times, not a news story-a 1960 appeal for contributions to the defense of Martin Luther King in one of his legal tussles with segregationist authorities in the South. Conversely, the purveyors of recent monster revelations, like Wikileaks, have taken pains to find American publishing partners, because the right to publish is far more substantial here than elsewhere. “Libel tourism” means looking for a pretext to sue an American publication in England or some other friendlier venue, especially if you’re a celebrity. Justice William Brennan, in the majority opinion, wrote, "The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a Federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with 'actual malice’-that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." This standard, built on in succeeding cases, made this the country with the most pro-free expression, and specifically pro-press, laws in the developed world post-Sullivan protections extend from publications to individuals, and from libel to invasion of privacy. Sullivan (1964), in which the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, made it just about impossible for a “public figure” to win a lawsuit against a news organization. Probably the most important case in American press law is New York Times Co.
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