tort consisting of a false, malicious, unprivileged publication aiming to defame a living person or to mar the memory of one dead. Printed or written material, signs or pictures that tend to expose a person to public scorn, hatred, contempt or ridicule may be considered libelous.
defamatory statement about a person that is published and thereby exposes that person to public ridicule. Libelous statements are not the same as slanderous statements. Libelous statements are printed, malicious (i.e., printed without just cause), and may be true; however, slanderous statements are spoken, not printed, and are not true. A lawsuit charging a publisher or advertiser with libel may be lost if it can be proven that the allegedly libeled individual is a celebrity (in the public eye) and that the statement in question was published because of its newsworthiness, not because of malicious intent on the part of the publisher or advertiser.
