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11 Comm. & L. 3 (1989)
Neutral Reportage as a Defense against Republishing Libel

handle is hein.journals/coml11 and id is 7 raw text is: Communications and the Law DOROTHY A. BOWLES Neutral Reportage as a Defense Against Republishing Libel Dorothy A. Bowles is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, where she teaches communications law in the College of Communications. She is the editor of the Kansas Media Law Guide.* In 1977, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion that was viewed by many legal commentators' and journalists as both a logical development in libel law and an accommodation of journalistic practice.2 Edwards v. National Audubon Society3 held that the first amendment protects the republication of defamatory statements made by a public figure against another public figure in a newsworthy context, even if the reporter doubts the truth of the original statements. This ruling gives the press breathing space beyond the traditional common-law rule that one who repeats a libel is as guilty as the original defamer4 and beyond the constitutional protection afforded by New York Times v. Sullivan5 and its progeny, which permits punishment for republishers who believe the statement to be false or have serious doubts about its accuracy. The author would like to thank Judith Kinshaw-Ellis, M.S.J. 1988, for her assistance with this research. 1. Rodney Smolla says the emergence of the neutral reportage privilege is one of the most significant developments in the law of defamation today. R. SMOLLA, LAW OF DEFAMATION sec. 4 at 69 (1986). See also Sowle, Defamation and the First Amend- ment: The Case for a Constitutional Privilege of Fair Report, 54 N.YU. L. REv. 469 (June 1979); Pautler, Edwards v. National Audubon Society, Inc.: The Right to Print Known Falsehoods, 1979 U. ILL. L.F. 943-68; Dickerson, Fashioning a New Libel Defense: The Advent of Neutral Reportage, 3 CoM. & LAW 77 (Summer 1981). 2. Many widely used journalism textbooks teach that coverage should be given to newsworthy attacks by people in public life against other persons. See Hart, The Right of Neutral Reportage; Its Origins and Outlook, 56 JOURNALISM Q. 227 (Summer 1979). 3. 423 F. Supp 516 (S.D.N.Y. 1976), 556 F.2d 113 (2d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, sub nom. Edwards v. New York Times, 434 U.S. 1002 (1977). 4. RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §578 (1977). PROSSER, HANDBOOK OF THE LAW OF TORTS §113 at 768-69 (4th ed. 1971). 5. 376 U.S. 254 (1964). Communications and the Law 3

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