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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Media Ethics and Law

Libel

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

/ˈlaɪbl/nounCommon term

In journalism & media, libel means: Defamation in a permanent form, such as print, broadcast or an online post, that falsely damages a person's or company's reputation.

In Turkish: yazılı hakaret, basın yoluyla hakaret, yazılı karalama

How it is used

Common in phrases like libel action, libel case, libel laws and libel damages. Editors send risky stories for a libel check. Spoken defamation is called slander, though law varies by country.

Example sentences

  1. The newspaper paid damages after losing the libel case.

  2. Every investigation goes through a libel check before publication.

Common collocations

  • libel case
  • libel action
  • sue for libel
  • libel laws
  • libel check
  • defamationThe legal wrong of publishing or saying false statements about someone that damage their reputation.
  • accuracyThe quality of being correct in every fact, name, number and quote, which is the first duty of a journalist in most codes of practice.
  • public interestThe benefit of society as a whole, used to judge whether publishing information, especially private or secret information, is justified.
  • correctionA short published note that admits and fixes a mistake in an earlier story, such as a wrong name, figure or quote.

More terms: Media Ethics and Law

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