Is slander necessarily a false statement or can it be true?

Question

verb
1. charge falsely OR with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation"

Can slander be TRUE information spread to deface someone's character?

www.dictionary.com

Answer 1

Each state is a little different with regard to slander. Generally, truth is an absolute defense against a charge of slander, unless the fact is of a private and personal nature which the public would not normally know, and it was revealed only for the purpose of maliciously damaging that person's reputation without any other legitimate purpose, as part of "a general scheme to defame or otherwise injure" the person.

For example, if I were to publish a private letter in which a person revealed their struggle with genital herpes, and I did so only for the purpose of maliciously damaging their reputation, I may be guilty of libel (or slander if spoken) even though the facts are technically true.

However, the point to remember is this: once you have demonstrated that the facts are true, the burden is on the other person to prove that your actions were motivated by malice. This is a heavy burden. Since malice is more or less a state of mind, it is very difficult to demonstrate.

Answer 2

No. Slander is a form of defamation, and must be a false statement.

True statements spread to hurt a person's reputation would fall under a different tort -- usually some equivalent of public disclosure of private facts.

Answer 3

These are the definitions I've found.

1 : the utterance of FALSE charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation
2 : a FALSE and defamatory oral statement about a person

Answer 4

yes in the definition you gave you can make a true statement and it be slander such as saying that someone is wife beater when they were arrested for domestic violence by using facts that are known about a person in a malicious way such that would make people cat doubt on someone else then you could have slander.

Answer 5

Slander is a false statement.

Answer 6

if it is true then it is not slander