by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 7 – Freedom of the press is not free.
When the subjects of press coverage seek to retaliate, for example with frivolous defamation litigation demanding $10 million dollars, an independent media like Inner City Press is taken away from its ongoing reporting to have to defend the case.
In November 2022 Inner City Press reported in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, as it does daily, on a criminal case to which a California based defendant pled guilty.
Inner City Press attended and then recounted a proceeding in which the defendant's bail was nearly revoked, with the prosecutors asking "to modify Plaintiff’s conditions of release pending sentencing to preclude him from contacting two ex-girlfriends on the basis he had been accused of domestic abuse—a request Judge Preska granted. (Id. Exs. 1–2; accord DRJN Ex. 3, ECF No. 20-4.)" Aug. 7, 2024 ruling here.
A year later, to the day, the defendant - a disbarred lawyer - filed a one million defamation lawsuit against Inner City Press. Then he amended it to $10 million adding to the caption, "Matthew Russell Lee, reporter."
Jump cut to August 7, 2024 - after months of worry, and having to get admitted to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, after months of work and appreciated pro bono help from Ballard Spahr via Matthew Cate and Robert Gutierrez, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Judge Mark C. Scarci granted Inner City Press' and Lee's motion to strike under California's anti-SLAPP law, and set a schedule for Ballard Sparh to seek its legal fees.
While anti-SLAPP laws go some distance to discouraging frivolous defamation lawsuits, the worry and chilling effect of such suits cannot be underestimate. Inner City Press will not cease. The Press must be free.
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