Daily Speed Case Summary

Defamation laws protect the reputations of individuals from damaging statements, whether spoken or written. Daily Speed’s defamatory statements against Leela stated that Leela is a suspect in her son’s death and that she will be charged with her son’s death by the end of the week. This suggests Leela is a murderer and echoes undesirably on her character and integrity.
Leela now has the right to file suit against Daily Speed as her reputation as a prominent women’s right activist has been tarnished. Daily Speed has carried out the act of Publication in traditional form as we have communicated the defamation to someone other than Leela; the defamation was highly publicized and we are primary publisher of the defamatory story and also secondary publisher since we made the story available to a third party (the public). In this case the liability extends across the journalist, editor, publisher and printer of Daily Speed who have participated in, secured and authorized the defamation and can all possibly be sued by Leela. Leela has several causes of action available to her: she has proof that Daily Speed made a defamatory statement about her, she has proof that Daily Speed acted …show more content…
It can be said in defense that the events surrounding the teenager’s death are, in our opinion, somewhat suspicious. The time the insurance policy was taken out, the time of death and the findings of the preliminary report has raised high suspicions and that what was published was based on the opinions of the Yellow Pages and/or the Daily Speed. Also, another possible defense is that the Daily Speed is simply doing its job of fulfilling its role as a media outlet. Newspapers are seen as one of the most depended-upon source of news and Daily Speed saw it fit to publish a story in an act to give the people what they want;