Can you defame a politician

Toggle navigation. Legal Help for all South Australians. Refine results. Search by. Who can be defamed. Who can be defamed : Last Revised: Fri Jul 9th The content of the Law Handbook is made available as a public service for information purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice.

See Disclaimer for details. For free and confidential legal advice in South Australia call Disclaimer Privacy Accessibility Adviser. The court made a rule that public officials could sue for statements made about their public conduct only if the statements were made with "actual malice.

Later cases have built upon the New York Times rule, so that now the law balances the rules of defamation law with the interests of the First Amendment. The result is that whether defamation is actionable depends on what was said, who it was about, and whether it was a subject of public interest and thus protected by the First Amendment.

Private people who are defamed have more protection than public figures -- freedom of speech isn't as important when the statements don't involve an issue of public interest. A private person who is defamed can prevail without having to prove that the defamer acted with actual malice. Defamation law aims to strike a balance between allowing the distribution of information, ideas, and opinions, and protecting people from having lies told about them.

It's a complicated area of law. If you have more questions, check your local law library or the Defamation Law Section of Nolo's website for more about the First Amendment and freedom of speech, the rights and responsibilities of the press, invasion of privacy, hate speech, and Internet speech. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.

The attorney listings on this site are paid attorney advertising. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service.

Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state. Grow Your Legal Practice. Meet the Editors. Defamation Law Made Simple. Learn the basics of slander and libel -- the rules about who can say what without getting into legal hot water.

If you believe you are have been "defamed," to prove it you usually have to show there's been a statement that is all of the following: published false injurious unprivileged Let's look at each of these defamation claim elements in detail.

Public Officials and Figures Have More to Prove The public has a right to criticize the people who govern them, so the least protection from defamation is given to public officials. Personal Injury Law. Mroz , Pamela Young, owner of Models Plus International, filed a defamation suit against Wendy Rogers, a congressional political candidate. Young herself was not involved in the political process, but her employee, Steve Smith was running opposite Rogers.

Young sued Rogers for defamation arguing that some of her political attack ads expressly and impliedly defamed her business. Radio Ad. The court first held that the radio ad was not expressly or impliedly defamatory. The court reasoned that, based on the evidentiary record, the factual statements made in the radio ad were substantially true. Campaign Blog. The court also held that the campaign blog was not defamatory. Namely, because Rogers cited the source of the challenged statement, an ABC news article, Rogers had a complete defense to implied defamation.

Young argued that Rogers recklessly disregarded the truth by not carefully investigating the ABC article linking Models Plus to websites that had been used for sex trafficking. And future candidates should not avoid the topic for fear of incurring civil tort damages. Although political discourse is essential to the democratic process and, as demonstrated by Rogers , courts continue to apply a high bar for proving defamation, especially when challenged statements are part of political ad campaigns.

Where an individual makes statements with actual malice, challengers may be able to overcome the generally high standard and restore their reputation. Rogers v. Mroz , No. See more ». This website uses cookies to improve user experience, track anonymous site usage, store authorization tokens and permit sharing on social media networks.