§ 32-43-06 — Timely and sufficient correction or clarification

1. A correction or clarification is timely if it is published before, or within forty-five days
after, receipt of a request for correction or clarification, unless the period is extended
under section 32-43-04.
2. A correction or clarification is sufficient if it:
a. Is published with a prominence and in a manner and medium reasonably likely to
reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of;
b. Refers to the statement being corrected or clarified and:
(1) Corrects the statement;
(2) In the case of defamatory meaning arising from other than the express
language of the publication, disclaims an intent to communicate that
meaning or to assert its truth; or
(3) In the case of a statement attributed to another person, disclaims an intent
to assert the truth of the statement; and
c. Is communicated to the person who has made a request for correction or
clarification.
3. A correction or clarification is published in a medium reasonably likely to reach
substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if it is published in a
later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication.
4. If a later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication will not be published
within the time limits established for a timely correction or clarification, a correction or
clarification is published in a manner and medium reasonably likely to reach
substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if:
a. It is timely published in a reasonably prominent manner in another medium likely
to reach an audience reasonably equivalent to the original publication or, if the
parties cannot agree on another medium, in the newspaper with the largest
general circulation in the region in which the original publication was distributed;
b. Reasonable steps are taken to correct undistributed copies of the original
publication, if any; and
c. It is published in the next practicable issue, edition, or broadcast, if any, of the
original publication.
5. A correction or clarification is timely and sufficient if the parties agree in writing that it is
timely and sufficient.