slimvirgin(a)gmail.com wrote:
This is perhaps an inappopriate discussion to have in
public because a
legal action has been threatened, but in brief, the fact that you
report, but do not endorse, a claim is not a defense in a libel
action. If you spread it, you spread it.
It actually is a defense, as long as you report who has alleged it, not
claim yourself it is true. Newspapers report on libel cases all the
time: "X has alleged Y about Z, and Z has sued X for libel in
response". The newspaper cannot be sued in that case simply because it
said "X has alleged Y about Z"---even if Y is false, the fact that X
alleged Y is true.
-Mark