To promote First Amendment freedom of speech, libel plaintiffs who are public figures or officials must show a publisher acted with actual malice to collect damages.
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In libel cases, plaintiffs who are public figures or officials have to meet a more stringent standard (
actual malice) than do private citizens (negligence) if they are to collect damages. Thus, the status of a defamation plaintiff often affects the outcome of cases, as the courts balance the right of free press against an individual’s reputation.
Public figures and officials must show actual malice
When it comes to
printed defamation (libel), courts have ruled that public figures, including government officials, have the burden of proving that defendants libeled them with actual malice.
In
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), a case involving an Alabama official’s attempt to collect for false statements published in a 1960
civil rights advertisement, the Supreme Court reversed the libel award because the plaintiff had not established that “actual malice” motivated the inaccurate descriptions.
With this standard, a public official must show that the defendant made a libelous statement with “knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”