ABC to Pay $15 Million to Settle a Defamation Suit Brought by Trump

 

The outcome of the lawsuit marks an unusual victory for President-elect Donald J. Trump in his ongoing legal campaign against national news organizations.

ABC News is set to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald J. Trump.

The agreement was a significant concession by a major news organization and a rare victory for a media-bashing politician whose previous litigation efforts against news outlets have often ended in defeat.

Under the terms of a settlement revealed on Saturday, ABC News will donate the $15 million to Mr. Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum. The network and its star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, also published a statement saying they “regret” remarks made about Mr. Trump during a televised interview in March.

With this settlement Donald Trump will be embolden to sue any media outlet that criticizes him by claiming defamation. Leading to the news media self censorship. 

Here's an example of how a government uses the courts kowtow the media.

Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019

On 1 April 2019, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) Bill was tabled in parliament for first reading. The Ministry of Law stated that the legislation seeks to protect the society from deliberate online falsehoods created by malicious actors by targeting falsehoods, not opinions and criticisms, nor satire or parody. It defines a falsehood as a statement of fact that is false or misleading.^[9][10][11] After concerns were raised about the Bill's scope, ministers gave reassurances that the bill will not affect free speech. The Bill was passed with a 72–9 vote, with all Workers Party (WP) MPs voting against it, on 8 May 2019 after a two-day debate.^[12]

The POFMA came into effect on 2 October 2019,^[13] with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) being the agency administering Act through a dedicated office.^[14] Subsidiary legislation is also laid out in the Act detailing how the Act will work, including court challenges that take nine days at maximum and cost as little as $200.^[15]

Purpose

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There were concerns that the Act would enable authorities to suppress criticism and dissent.^[16] Section 2(2)(b) defines a false statement as "if it is false or misleading, whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears".^[17] Satire, parody, opinions and criticisms are expressively not covered by the POFMA Act.^{[9][10][11][18]}

Section 3 of the Act covers any statements that are made available to one or more end-users in Singapore via the internet, SMS or MMS.^[17] The platforms include social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other online closed groups such private chat groups and social media groups.^[19]

The purpose of the Act, as outlined in section 5, is to:^[17]

1. to prevent the communication of false statements of fact in Singapore and to enable measures to be taken to counteract the effects of such communication;
2. to suppress the financing, promotion and other support of online locations that repeatedly communicate false statements of fact in Singapore;
3. to enable measures to be taken to detect, control and safeguard against coordinated inauthentic behaviour and other misuses of online accounts and bots; and
4. to enable measures to be taken to enhance disclosure of information concerning paid content directed towards a political end.