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<b>Decision of Note:</b> Rapper Isn't Public Figure

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
November 01, 2005

The Court of Appeals of Georgia, Fourth Division, found that a local rap artist wasn't a public figure for purposes of a defamation suit over comments made about him on a local radio station. Riddle v. Golden Isle Broadcasting, A05A1436.

Travis Riddle filed suit after a listener phoned WSEG-FM in Brunswick, GA, and wondered on air whether Riddle had murdered his girlfriend, who in fact was alive. The trial court granted summary judgment for Golden Isle on the ground that Riddle was a public figure, under the state's OCGA Sec. 51-5-10(a), who would then need to prove actual malice, rather than ordinary negligence, by the broadcaster, which the trial court concluded had acted with due care.

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