US court sues blogger $ 2.5 million for libel

It seems that a rather dangerous precedent has been created in the USA. Yes, it is valid in the United States, so far only there, but bloggers in this country can begin to worry. Judge Marco A. Hernandez found the author of several blogs, Crystal Cox, guilty of defamation, and decided to pay $ 2.5 million to the plaintiff. The case is quite interesting, since the court decision literally states the following "[the author of the publication] is not connected 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 were a journalist, at least nominally, she would not have to pay.

In the USA, there is a law according to which an anonymous source can be referred to a journalist 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 of this year, when the Obsidian Finance Group filed a lawsuit against Crystal Cox for defamation. The company demanded $ 10 million in compensation for several critical articles published by Cox in one of their blogs. The girl has repeatedly published a negative about the company and its immediate leader. The court accepted the claim for consideration, and when the hearing was scheduled, Cox decided to defend herself on her own. This was probably the wrong decision.

In general, when the judge asked Cox to bring evidence that she had published with respect to Obsidian Finance Group, the respondent stated that she had received this information from anonymous sources and was not going to reveal the identity of the informant (informants). In response, the judge found Cox guilty of defamation, because she could not bring evidence supporting the materials of her publications. In court, this article was considered Cox, as one of the most "slanderous."

And since Cox is not a journalist (officially), the law on the right to conceal the source of data does not apply to it. As a result, Cox was found guilty and must now 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