An Increase in Libel Suits Shows Why We Need to Keep Protections For the News Media

From a Washington Post opinion column by George Freeman and Lee Levine headlined “An increase in libel suits shows why we need to keep protections for the news media”:

In New York Times v. Sullivan, decided on March 9, 1964, the Supreme Court wisely recognized that news organizations need constitutional protection against libel suits to ensure “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open” debate. Today, the safeguards established by that landmark case are under a dangerous two-pronged assault.

First, the past several years have seen a worrisome increase in libel lawsuits brought by a broad array of political candidates, elected officials and domestic corporate titans, not to mention foreign autocrats and oligarchs.