How news publications put their legal risk on freelancers
April 28, 2021 2:06 PM   Subscribe

“The fear of libel costs can have a chilling effect on freelancers with no legal protection." In the previous five years, between five hundred and one thousand public interest stories had failed to reach the public because of constraints on freelancers. In June 2020, Danielle Kurin, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sued Michael Balter, a science journalist, for defamation after he published a series of blog posts about allegations of Title IX violations and sexual misconduct against her and her former husband, respectively. She’s asking for $18 million in damages. Balter has no libel insurance, despite the contentious nature of his work. This is not for lack of trying. His application for specialized media insurance through the Authors Guild was declined due to the controversial content of his reporting. Balter is being represented pro bono by lawyers and has the backing of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Still, at seventy-three years old, he stands to lose his home and savings.
posted by folklore724 (3 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow. I got too caught up in the sad story of yet another university letting terrible things slide by in as much silence as they can find to pay total attention to the rest of it.

But this man did a service here and I can but hope that he wins fast and this now revives the story so it can't be buried further.

(I assume the lawsuit is tenure case related, to ensure the allegations can't delay it or provide a reason to deny it, but I hope this backfires spectacularly.)
posted by lesbiassparrow at 4:19 PM on April 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


I hope this backfires spectacularly.

Yes, with any luck we are seeing the (UC Santa Barbara) Streisand Effect in action here.

I remember those blog posts and they were alarming. One of Balter's posts tells much of the story, including a firsthand account from a students (cw: descriptions of unwanted touching including kissing, strong implications of other sexual assault). The UCSB Daily Nexus also did an informative (and in my opinion pretty damning) story.

That initial Balter post makes it clear that UCSB kept things very quiet in 2016--apparently many of Kurin's own colleagues were unaware that she had been placed on administrative leave, allowing Kurin and Gomez Choque to continue to direct a non-UCSB summer field school--where the sexual assault mentioned above took place in 2018. (Although Balter makes a strong case that the institution running the field school probably knew about the 2016 allegations, too).

It's all very disturbing. I remember being surprised back in grad school at some of the wild stories shared by archaeologist friends--now I'm saddened and concerned, too.
posted by col_pogo at 6:32 PM on April 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


Does anti slapp apply here?
posted by grokus at 10:45 PM on April 28, 2021


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