Re: Case Studies

>I would think one could escape liability in an
>academic setting by merely making clear that this material is be
>used for educational purposes and no one is claiming that the
>allegations are true.

An "educational" setting does not per se create insulation from defamation liability, anymore than it automatically creates a copyright fair use, escept to the extent that the setting creates a context in which it might be claimed that the utterance is a joke or hyperbolic. If it is simply an "informative" repetition of another's defamatory remarks (irrespective of the republishers subjective attitude toward those remarks) then liability for republication can attach if the requisite degree of fault is found. There is no blanket privilege to report another's charges. There is of course the recognized "record libel" or "reporters' privilege" that attaches to the reporting of certain kinds of public events, but that is not what this question is about. The classroom does not automatically provide either privilege or license but of course it does provide context for determining if there is a defamatory utterance in the first place. But that again is another issue, separate from that of repeating another's clearly defamatory utterance.

shalpern[_at_]magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Sheldon W. Halpern
Ohio State University College of Law
Phone (614) 291-7525 (voice); (614) 291-3554 (fax) Received on Tue Feb 01 1994 - 04:31:03 GMT