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This entry was published on 2014-09-22
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SECTION 75
Defamation by radio or television
Civil Rights (CVR) CHAPTER 6, ARTICLE 7
§ 75. Defamation by radio or television. 1. The owner, licensee or
operator of a visual or sound radio broadcasting station or network of
stations, and the agents or employees of any such owner, licensee or
operator, shall not be liable for any damages for any defamatory
statement published or uttered in or as a part of a visual or sound
radio broadcast, by any legally qualified candidate for public office
whose utterances, under rules and regulations of the federal
communications commission may not be subject to censorship by such
owner, licensee or operator of such visual or sound radio broadcasting
station or network of stations, or their agents or employees.

2. A "legally qualified candidate" means any person who has publicly
announced that he is a candidate for nomination by a convention of a
political party or for nomination or election in a primary, special, or
general election, municipal, county, state or national, and who meets
the qualifications prescribed by the applicable laws to hold the office
for which he is a candidate, so that he may be voted for by the
electorate directly or by means of delegates or electors and who (a) has
qualified for a place on the ballot or (b) is eligible under the
applicable law to be voted by writing in his name on the ballot, or
other method, and who has been nominated by a political party which is
commonly known and regarded as such or makes a substantial showing that
he is a bona fide candidate for nomination or office, as the case may
be.

3. In order to be absolved from liability for damages for any
utterance by a legally qualified candidate as herein defined in or as
part of a visual or sound radio broadcast, the owner, licensee or
operator of such visual or sound radio broadcasting station or network
of stations, or the agents or employees thereof, shall announce, in
substance, at the beginning and end of each such political broadcast of
more than five minutes duration, and at the beginning of each such
political broadcast of five minutes duration or less, that the remarks
about to be made, or made, as the case may be, by the speaker are not to
be construed as reflecting the opinions or beliefs of the station, its
ownership or management.