{
  "slug": "lawsuits_against_press",
  "name": "Lawsuits against the press",
  "definition": "A government, a government agency or an official sues a journalist or a news organisation, usually for defamation or breach of contract, whether the official acts in office or in a personal capacity. Lawsuits that fail can still cost the defendant years of work and large legal fees.",
  "notes": null,
  "first_recorded_on": "2025-07-01",
  "incident_count": 1,
  "by_country": [
    {
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "count": 1,
      "by_year": {
        "2025": [
          {
            "slug": "2025-paramount-cbs-settle-60-minutes-suit",
            "title": "United States: Paramount settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, July 2025",
            "occurred_on": "2025-07-01",
            "occurred_on_precision": "day",
            "country": "US",
            "country_name": "United States",
            "continent": "north-america",
            "jurisdiction": "US",
            "level": "national",
            "tactic_primary": "lawsuits_against_press",
            "tactics": [
              "lawsuits_against_press"
            ],
            "leader_slug": "donald-trump",
            "leader_name": "Donald Trump",
            "issue_of_the_day": "60 Minutes' editing of a 2024 interview with Kamala Harris, then vice-president of the United States.",
            "outcome": "sustained",
            "outcome_on": "2025-07-01",
            "outcome_note": "Settled on 2025-07-01: US$16 million to Trump's future presidential library and the plaintiffs' fees and costs; 60 Minutes to release transcripts of presidential-candidate interviews. The outcome enum has no value for a settlement; \"sustained\" records that the settlement terms stand.",
            "era": "2020s",
            "granularity": "granular",
            "status": "in_effect",
            "case_count": 0,
            "summary": "On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of the United States broadcaster CBS News, announced that it would settle for US$16 million a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, over how the CBS program 60 Minutes edited a 2024 interview with Kamala Harris, then vice-president. The money goes to Trump's future presidential library and the plaintiffs' fees and costs, and 60 Minutes will release transcripts of future interviews with presidential candidates, \"subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.\" Paramount \"has maintained that the lawsuit was completely without merit,\" according to CBS News.",
            "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-paramount-cbs-settle-60-minutes-suit"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/lawsuits_against_press?format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/lawsuits_against_press.json",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/lawsuits_against_press.md"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}