COM 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Privilege Of Peerage, Middle Ages, Roman Law
5 Apr 2017
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Slander: slander and freedom of expression, sedition and defamation are the two types of expression that have a long history of concern to the state. We have already discussed government"s fears of sedition. English and scottish tribes: as feudalism yielded to monarchical government, slander was judged by the developing judicial systems: local and common courts, ecclesiastical courts and royal courts. Loud and aggressive accusations tend to be intimidating and law suits are expensive. Newspapers, even big newspapers, can be sensitive to controversy and possible expense and often choose self-censorship. Corrupt people know this and try to use it to silence the press when it attempts to uncover their malfeasance. When that happens, society looses: on the other hand, when the media libels a citizen, they ruin her/his reputation. Defamation was one of the most common torts brought before the local courts in the middle ages.
