The publication of a fair and impartial report of any proceeding before any state or city legislative or executive body, board or officer, or the whole or a fair synopsis of any bill, report, resolution, bulletin, notice, petition, or other document presented, filed, or used in any proceeding before any state or city legislative or executive body, board or officer, shall be privileged, unless it is proved that the publication was maliciously made. The publication of a fair and impartial report or the whole or a synopsis of any indictment, warrant, affidavit, pleading or other document in any criminal or civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction shall be privileged, unless it is proved that it was published maliciously, or that the defendant after request by the plaintiff has failed to publish a reasonable explanation or contradiction thereof, giving the explanation or contradiction the same prominence and space as the original publication, or that the publisher has refused after request by the plaintiff to publish the subsequent determination of the proceeding. This section shall not authorize the publication of any indecent matter.
KRS 411.060
Action for libel -- Privileged communications
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Sahara Gaming Corp. v. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 (1999)
Most recently applied in Smith v. Martin (February 2011)
Effective: October 1, 1942 History: Recodified 1942 Ky
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.