The Ninth Circuit Holds—Correctly—That a Blogger Has the Same Defamation Protection as a Journalist

JULIE HILDEN

FEB 03, 2014 12:01 AM

On January 17, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled, as a matter of first impression, that First Amendment defamation rules apply equally to both the institutional press and individual speakers and writers, such as bloggers. Because this was the core issue in the case, I’ll focus on this issue, rather than on the underlying factual dispute between the parties (a blogger named Crystal Cox, and several companies that Cox had criticized publicly.) The Ninth Circuit narrowed the statements at issue in the c -  See more at: http://verdict.justia.com/2014/02/03/ninth-circuit-holds-correctly-blogger-defamation-protection-journalist#sthash.6R6qxFOc.dpuf