It can be challenging to report on legal proceedings while steering clear of defamation landmines. A recent federal court decision, however, provides journalists with a little more breathing room.

In Kinsey v. New York Times, plaintiff claimed that an article published by The New York Times defamed him by including quotations from a declaration filed in an employment discrimination lawsuit that accused him of taking “unwelcome liberties of a physical, sexual nature” with a female intern during a business happy hour event in Washington, D.C. In its defense, the Times asserted that the article was protected by the fair report privilege because the quoted language was taken from a court record. The fair report privilege protects reporting on “official proceedings,” even if the information in the proceedings turns out to be false, as long as the report, itself, is accurate.

First, however, the court had to address an issue that often arises in defamation cases: Which state’s law should it apply? Specifically, the court had to decide whether to apply the New York fair report privilege, which provides an absolute privilege for reporting on any judicial proceeding, or the Washington, D.C., fair report privilege, which is only a qualified privilege that can be waived.  Plaintiff was from Maryland; the incident took place in Washington D.C.; the Times is based in New York; and the articles were circulated nationwide. The court determined that New York law should apply because the Times was published in New York, and New York’s laws reflected its greater interest in protecting publishers who do business in the State.

The court then held the case should be dismissed under New York’s fair report privilege. The court rejected plaintiff’s argument that the article did not provide enough information for the reader to independently locate the declaration at issue, and therefore the privilege did not apply.  The court noted that reliance on an official proceeding for certain statements can be clear to a reader either from a specific attribution or from the overall context of the article.  It was clear from the article as a whole, the court held, which referenced a lawsuit and was organized around the declarations filed in that proceeding, that the quote about the plaintiff came from one of the declarations.

Kinsey highlights the importance of clearly conveying to readers that a publication is reporting on an official proceeding.  But it also demonstrates that journalists do not have to include legal minutia for the fair report privilege to apply.