Threats and Libels and What To Do

[ourdetective]

A lawyer just accused me of being biased because I keep citing his client as the "alleged illegal drug lord" and threatened to file libel charges against me and the paper I work for if I continue to write about his client. Well, his client is really on trial for maintaining  a shabu laboratory so, I cannot really say otherwise. This is my  second

Comments

[editer]

You don't allege a person. You allege a thing. Call the defendant the defendant, or the accused. Say "the defendant is accused of running an illegal drug lab". Competent journalists do this every day with no problem.

And unless the charges specifically include such things as conspiracy and racketeering, "drug lord" is going too far. You may want to sensationalize this, but unless your editors want it too (is this a New York Post-style tabloid?), you're best to back off.

[melyndaf]

What editer said. You're asking for trouble using "Alleged illegal drug lord," because it is, indeed, potentially libelous. Besides...even if it was correct, it's redundant anyway. Are there legal drug lords?

[editer]

Are there legal drug lords?

We call them "pharmaceutical company executives".

[chris03]

HA.

[fingerthemiddle]

Keep writing until the editor says stop. In any case a suit would be against the paper and not you personally. Write like it.

If you have a paper that won't back you up if the shit hits the fan then you need to leave that paper. Especially if you are going to cover anything with any legal exposure.

[editer]

Anything tomluffman tells you to do, do the opposite. You may well be named personally in any legal action in addition to the paper. "I was just following orders" is rarely an affirmative defense.

[fingerthemiddle]

haha that's right. Do the opposite. You'll get a book deal out of following the safe path.

[fingerthemiddle]

It's not as if he is alleging that the person is a murderer. He's alleging that he is a drug lord. And apparently the person has a drug selling operation that is national.

And the attack on me by calling me a dumbass just shows your immaturity. It's sad. Way to be professional. I expect more out of people in this community. This isn't a flame war group and I have no idea why you would act this way. It's absurd and beneath our profession.

[msscarlet]

An allegation is a claim made without proof. If the suspect has been charged with drug violations, I suspect someone down the line found proof

[ourdetective]

Msscarlet, yes, I use that tack, meaning, all the descriptions about the suspect in my stories came from court records, proceedings, police/investigators' statements, and lawyers. And there's also a paragraph, based on the defendant's court filings, saying that the accused has denied the allegations against him. But apparently, for some people, that's not enough.

[fingerthemiddle]

Word.

A reporter just cannot operate being afraid of a libel suit. The reporters editor SHOULD know all applicable libel law and ask this question of them. If the reporter's editor is out-to-lunch on libel then the reporter should find a new paper or study it very closely.