Judge Rules in Favor of Newspaper

By Megan Rowls
© 2009 Associated Press

An Arkansas court ruled in favor of “fair report privilege” for the Courier Newspaper after being sued. According to the Associated Press the newspaper wrote an article that appeared on the front page about a man named Ryan Whiteside. He was charged for allegedly raping a woman. Whiteside sued the paper for defamation. Whiteside was in the news the previous year for finding the body of a murdered beauty queen. When police later found that Whiteside had no sexual relationship with the woman and did not pursue charges the Courier Newspaper already published the story. Whiteside says the newspaper rushed to print the story because he was involved in finding a murdered beauty queen.
Under "fair report privilege” journalists are protected from getting sued for publishing information from reports based upon police records even if the police report turns out to be false. According to the Associated Press Whiteside has not decided yet on if he will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

· If Whiteside decides to appeal the ruling what will he need to prove to win the case?
· Does the “fair report privilege” only protect reporters from unknowingly printing false statements about public officials?