Publish and be Dumb!

No programmer may make libelous statements while broadcasting. If you commit slander (an untruth which defames the character of an individual or group) the programmer, the station and the University can be sued. Any program that potentially involves such an attack should immediately be brought to the attention of the PRC, Governing Board and Broadcast Adviser. The content of broadcast material is primarily up to the judgment of the individual programmer as long as the programmer adheres to state, and federal laws as well as FCC, University, and KZSC guidelines.

Journalist Stuart Luman - who teaches people how to be not just journalists, but GOOD journalists - sums up what needs to be done in his "Fact Checking 101" resource . This lists everything you should do to make sure your facts are right before putting them before the public (and this applies whether you're a newspaper, radio, TV or Internet journalist!).

The Defence

The best defence to the charge of libel is the truth. In other words, if what you say is true, then you have no worries. The trick is proving that it is true. For instance, you can't just say "so-and-so told me, so it's true" (because that would be hearsay). You must be able to provide cold, hard evidence that stands up in court.

There are other defences - for instance, 'fair comment" is one. You might say that "The Prime Minister is an old ratbag", and you might just get away with it. But if you say "The Prime Minister is a lazy, fraudulent old ratbag", you'd better have proof of his or her laziness and fraudulent activities.

Pitfalls

And even if you're ultra careful, you can still make mistakes. I know of one case, where the headline said something along the lines of "Pervert returns to haunt school". Underneath was a picture of a man, which the average reader would assume was the aforementioned pervert. Except, the picture was of the local politician who was campaigning to have the convicted criminal moved away from his old stamping ground. And, not surprisingly, he was less than pleased at the juxtaposition of the photo and the headline, which was nothing to do with the writer, but an error of judgement by the sub-editor.

For broadcasters it is even harder

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