Opinion ID: 2566607
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The fair comment common law defense.

Text: ¶ 9 Fair comment is a common law defense to a defamation action. [6] The principle affords legal immunity for comment by any and all members of the public [7] and extends to virtually all matters of legitimate public interest. [8] Its purpose is to promote the free and open exchange of ideas. [9] ¶ 10 The common law fair comment privilege extends to fair expressions on matters of public interest. [10] It differs from both: 1) the common law fair report privilegewhich affords a qualified or conditional privilege to the media when they republish defamatory material in an account of a public or official proceeding, i.e. judicial proceedings, legislative sessions, judicial hearings, or official news conferences; and 2) its statutory counterpart, 12 O.S.2001 § 1443.1 [11] which embodies a similar statutory privilege as a complete defense to libel. Although all three concepts overlap, the scope of the common law fair comment privilege, encompassing expressions of opinion on all matters of public opinion, is broader than either the common law fair report doctrine or the terms of the statute [12] both of which have their roots in political speech concepts and encompass public interest reports of official actions or proceedings. [13]