The Dominion Voting System is the enterprise responsible for conducting the U.S. Presidential Voting of 2020. Fox News is a NewYork based company that was recently sued for Defamation by the voting company. They claimed that various fake news and reports were published claiming the 2020 election was rigged and Joe Biden falsely won the elections. This caused an immense pecuniary loss to the company.
The Dominion- Fox trial was set to begin on Monday but an additional day was given by the judge to work on a settlement, the parties’ stances are clear and the case has moved to trial on Tuesday starting with the jury selection. The six-day trial is the latest hot cake in the global news. Donald Trump’s statement claimed that Biden stole all the votes and rigged the whole voting. It is expected to be media-friendly, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are top Fox executives who are expected to be called as a witness and anchors Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro will be testifying in the trial.
Dominion charges the Fox hosts with their open expression of a defamatory statement and for that, an immense loss was faced. Dominion’s spokesperson said, “ In the coming weeks, we will prove Fox’s lies had caused enormous damage to Dominion. We are looking forward to a trial.”. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis did not explain the extended date. Assumable from the buffer day it is clear there is no settlement yet. Fox has argued that the claim is protected under First Amendment “ Media’s absolute right to cover a news”.
The Case will be scrutinised under the libel standards of the media publications. The trial aims to approach the matter to prove the “ question of malicious intent of the Fox.”. The U.S. standards of prosecution for malicious libel have been in force for the past 6-decades so impact on all the factors to conclude the intent will be taken into force likely: the backstage information during the 2020 election, the flow of information and the evidence supporting the arguments.
Swarnabh Saha, Bcom.LLB(H) Sem -6, St. Xavier’s University,Kolkata
0 Comments