The SJC Defends Environmental Bloggers’ Right to SLAPP Back in Defamation Suit 

https://www.massappellateblog.com/2017/02/the-sjc-defends-environmental-bloggers-right-to-slapp-back-in-defamation-suit/

By Ed Daley on February 21, 2017 Posted in Appellate Practice, Appellate Strategy, Supreme Judicial Court

In Cardno ChemRisk, LLC v. Foytlin, 476 Mass. 479 (2017), the Supreme Judicial Court held that the anti-SLAPP statute protected two bloggers’ critical opinions contained in a blog post directed at a scientific consulting firm working for British Petroleum (“BP”) in the wake of the Deep Water Horizon spill.

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The defendant bloggers, two environmental advocates (how about PUBLIC ACCESS Advocates - editor,) published a blog post criticizing the scientific consulting firm’s analysis and reporting on the toxic effects of the spill on clean-up workers. The allegedly defamatory post criticized the consulting firm’s report for not “coming clean,” and for the firm’s history of defending polluters.
On direct appellate review, the scientific consulting firm argued that the defendants’ blog post was not protected by the anti-SLAPP statute because it did not involve a grievance that was personal to the defendants