According to a recent federal court opinion, “news organizations may be more liable in privacy lawsuits if their reporting is factually incorrect,” Inside Privacy reports. The opinion centers on how one gossip website used the plaintiff’s modeling pictures to allegedly publish a false story on the plaintiff, stating the model was a sister of a known celebrity. Senior District Judge Denis R. Hurley filed the opinion in Edme v Internet Brands, Inc. et al and denied a motion to dismiss in the case. Hurley noted that, although the published story “can be considered, for better or worse, a matter of public interest merely because its subject matter involved a celebrity,” the media website in the case reported an “undisputedly false” claim that the plaintiff was a sister of the celebrity, thus losing its newsworthiness.
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