US court sues blogger for $ 2.5 million for defamation



    It seems that a rather dangerous precedent has been created in the USA. Yes, it has power in the USA, so far only there, but the bloggers of this country can begin to worry. Judge Marco A. Hernandez found the author of several Crystal Cox blogs to be guilty of defamation and ordered payment of $ 2.5 million to the plaintiff. The case is quite interesting, since the court’s decision stated literally the following: "[the author of the publication] is not associated with any newspaper, magazine, any other periodical, book, news service, news or any other company, radio station or TV company." That is, in other words, if Cox was a journalist, at least nominally, she would not have to pay.

    In the United States, there is a law according to which a journalist can refer to anonymous sources to prove his point of view, and it is not necessary to disclose such sources. But in the case of civilians who are not journalists (officially), the situation is a little different.

    It all started back in January this year, when Obsidian Finance Group sued Crystal Cox for defamation. The company claimed $ 10 million in compensation for several critical articles published by Cox in one of its blogs. The girl has repeatedly published a negative about the company and its immediate supervisor. The court accepted the lawsuit, and when a hearing was scheduled, Cox decided to defend herself on her own. This was probably a mistake.

    In general, when the judge asked Cox to provide evidence that she had published with herself in relation to the Obsidian Finance Group, the defendant said that she had received this information from anonymous sources and was not going to disclose the identity of the informant (s). In response, the judge found Cox guilty of defamation, because she could not provide evidence supporting the materials of her publications. The court considered this article of Cox, as one of the most "slanderous."

    And since Cox is not a journalist (officially), the law on the right to conceal a data source does not apply to it. In the end, Cox was found guilty and now must pay a fine of $ 2.5 million. In general, the question of whether a blogger can be considered a journalist has already been resolved in the United States.

    mashable

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