Defamation

Defamation—also calumny, vilification, and traducement—is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.

Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.

False light laws protect against statements which are not technically false but misleading.

In some civil law jurisdictions, defamation is treated as a crime rather than a civil wrong. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights ruled in 2012 that the criminalization of libel violates freedom of expression and is inconsistent with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

A person who defames another may be called a "defamer", "famacide", "libeler" or "slanderer".

Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right is a book by conservative columnist Ann Coulter criticizing "the left's hegemonic control of the news media". The book was a #1 New York Times best seller in 2002, holding the #1 spot for eight weeks.

Comments about the New York Times

Slander accuses the news media of unfairly criticizing conservatives, and cites the New York Times as a prime example.

In an interview with George Gurley of the New York Observer shortly after the publication of Slander, it was mentioned that Coulter actually had friends and acquaintances who worked for the Times, namely restaurant critic Frank Bruni and correspondent David E. Sanger. Later in the interview, she expressed amusement at her recollections of the Times' gratuitousness in publishing two photos of George H. W. Bush throwing up at a diplomatic meeting in Japan, then said: "Is your tape recorder running? Turn it on! I got something to say...My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." Gurley told her to be careful, to which she responded "You’re right, after 9/11 I shouldn’t say that".

Slander (disambiguation)

Slander is a false or malicious claim that may harm someone's reputation.

Slander may also refer to:

See also