Guide for Bloggers and Non-Profit Organizations About Writing With Libel in Mind

From the Public Citizen’s Litigation Group:

This is a guide for bloggers and non-profit organizations about writing with libel considerations in mind. The guide discusses the elementary principles of libel law and explains how to prepare for and conduct a pre-publication libel review. It is particularly important to have a third party, not otherwise involved in the preparation of a report or blog post that criticizes individuals or organizations, compare all possibly-defamatory statements with the sources for those statements…(more)

Get the five-part .pdf version of this helpful resource HERE.

 

Criticism Online = Libel? (A years-old feud in a small Oklahoma town could have staggering ramifications online.)

The Setting:

McAlester, OK in Pittsburg County (East-Central, OK, about an hour-and-a-half south of Tulsa, OK)

The characters:

• Jim Bob Miller – District Attorney
• Michael Ethan Miller – Jim Bob’s Son
• Gene Stipe – Former State Senator, Convicted Felon
• Wayne Stipe – Nephew of Gene Stipe
• Harold King – Operator of the “McAlester Watercooler”

The background:

The McAlester Watercooler (McCooler.net) according to it’s home page:

Our goal is to provide the citizens of McAlester, Oklahoma a place to voice their views about the on-going City events. All suggestions are welcome….Keeping it positive doesn’t mean living in denial.

According to a recent report in the Tulsa World:

King said he has been trying to get the district attorney and “most of the Pittsburg County judges” prosecuted for alleged corruption. Commentary on his Web site concerns local politics and the federal government’s investigation and prosecutions of political corruption, kickbacks to legislators, and state funds that were illegally funneled to businesses controlled by Gene Stipe.

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