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Written by David L. Hudson Jr., published on January 1, 2009 , last updated on February 18, 2024

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The Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) is a New York–based nonprofit organization that was formed by media groups “to monitor developments and promote First Amendment rights in the libel, privacy and related legal fields.” In this photo, George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, discusses press freedom at the University of North Carolina Center for Media Law and Policy. (Image via UNC Media Law on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) is a New York–based nonprofit organization that was formed by media groups “to monitor developments and promote First Amendment rights in the libel, privacy and related legal fields.”

 

Originally founded in November 1980 as the Libel Defense Resource Center, the organization changed its name in 2003 to reflect its work and research in areas beyond libel, including privacy, newsgathering, fair use, Internet law issues, and international law.

 

MLRC assists attorneys in defense against the medias

 

The MLRC’s publications are designed to assist attorneys and others in the defense of libel, privacy, and other claims against the media. The group issues annual volumes of its fifty-state survey books on media libel, media privacy, and employment libel and privacy; these include detailed overviews of the relevant area of law in each state written each year by a media-law attorney from that state.

 

The MLRC also publishes a quarterly report, a monthly publication, and a daily electronic newsletter concerning media law. In addition, the group publishes a variety of reports and articles about various aspects of libel and privacy law.

 

David L. Hudson, Jr. is a law professor at Belmont who publishes widely on First Amendment topics.  He is the author of a 12-lecture audio course on the First Amendment entitled Freedom of Speech: Understanding the First Amendment (Now You Know Media, 2018).  He also is the author of many First Amendment books, including The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech (Thomson Reuters, 2012) and Freedom of Speech: Documents Decoded (ABC-CLIO, 2017). This article was originally published in 2009.​

 

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