Thomas John Salzano v. North Jersey Media Group, Inc.
( A-78/79-08) 5-11-10
The fair-report privilege extends to defamatory
statements contained in filed pleadings that have not
yet come before a judicial officer. The privilege is
a hybrid, conditional insofar as it attaches only to
full, fair, and accurate reports of government
proceedings but becoming absolute once those
prerequisites are met. Fault, sufficient to defeat
the privilege, occurs when the publisher fails to do
what is necessary to render the report full, fair, and
accurate. If the publication satisfies that standard,
the state of mind of the publisher is irrelevant. The
portion of the challenged publications that was based
on a bankruptcy complaint was full, fair and accurate,
and thus, immune from a defamation lawsuit because of
the fair-report privilege. Because the publications
also contained defamatory information derived from
sources other than the complaint, plainthis lawsuit in connection therewith.
