As the country enters the presidential and legislative election season, the media are likely to be flooded with all kinds of election news, but it is sometimes hard to distinguish between true and false information.
For candidates who are sabotaged or defamed by such disinformation, even if they can clear their names in court afterward, the elections would likely be over by that time and the damage would have been done.
In the US, it is not easy to win a defamation lawsuit against a news outlet.
In a 1964 case against the New York Times, the US Supreme Court ruled that to sustain a claim of defamation or libel, the First Amendment of the US constitution requires that the plaintiff show that the defendant knew that a statement was false or was reckless in publishing the information without investigating whether it was accurate.
This provides news outlets with solid protection from defamation verdicts, and 60 years later, a high level of protection for the news media in defamation cases still exists.
When US electronic voting company Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit against Fox News for reporting that US President Joe Biden defeated former US president Donald Trump in the US presidential election because Dominion cheated, people therefore expected a long legal drama. Surprisingly, the trial was over before it even started.
On the eve of the trial, Fox News on Tuesday last week reached a US$787 million settlement with the company.
Although the figure is about half the US$1.6 billion demanded by Dominion, the settlement is still a lot of money for a company with a market value of US$30 million to US$80 million.
The massive amount of compensation condemns Fox News, as it indicates the judge found that Fox News lied, and therefore came up with the jaw-dropping figure.
This is a warning to news media. Internal text messages and e-mails during the litigation process were valuable evidence.
Previous court documents based on such evidence showed that although famous hosts and top executives of Fox News all laughed in private at the election fraud allegations in 2020, they allowed the channel to sensationalize it in its shows.
The huge settlement is a strong message to other right-wing news outlets with legal disputes: If you lie, then you must pay the price.
Fair and impartial media are one of the key foundations of a democratic society under the rule of law, but this is difficult to achieve, as most media outlets are privately owned.
It also seems inappropriate for the government to monitor the media, because the media are meant to monitor the government.
In Taiwan, among the lawsuits between CTi TV and the National Communications Commission over the forced closure of CTi TV News in 2020, the commission lost nine consecutive cases. This shows that the government’s intervention in media management could cause greater problems.
The judiciary is the ultimate judge and gatekeeper. Whether it comes from the media or the government, if one deliberately defames or falsely accuses the other, courts should investigate and mete out punishments.
Unfortunately, the wheel of justice turns slowly, and justice sometimes comes late.
After delaying the lawsuit between Dominion and Fox News for nearly two years, is delayed justice still justice?
Chang Ruay-shiung is a former president of National Taipei University of Business.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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