§ 12.1-15-01 — Criminal defamation

1. A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if he willfully publishes defamatory matter
or knowingly procures such publication or in any way knowingly aids or assists in the
same being done.
2. It is a defense to a prosecution under this section that:
a. The matter alleged to be defamatory is true; or
b. The matter alleged to be defamatory was contained in a privileged
communication.
3. In this section:
a. "Defamatory matter" means any written or oral communication concerning a
natural person made public with actual malice or with reckless disregard of the
truth by any utterance, printing, writing, sign, picture, representation, or effigy
tending to expose such person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule or to deprive
him of the benefits of public confidence and social intercourse or any written or
oral communication concerning a natural person made public as aforesaid
designed to blacken and vilify the memory of one who is dead and tending to
scandalize or provoke his surviving relatives and friends.
b. "Privileged communication" means a communication made to a person entitled to
or interested in the communication by one who is also entitled to or interested or
who stood in such relation to the former as to afford a reasonable ground for
supposing his motive innocent.
c. "Publication" means a knowing display of defamatory matter, or the parting with
its immediate custody under circumstances which exposed the defamatory matter
to be read or seen or understood by a person other than the publisher of the
defamatory matter, although it is not necessary that the matter complained of
should have been seen or read by another.