Veritas News Network Protective order issued in Rolling Stone defamation case

Home // Legal // Protective order issued in Rolling Stone defamation case

Protective order issued in Rolling Stone defamation case

By: The VNN Team // Legal

Subscribe in iTunes

Lawyers for Rolling Stone magazine were granted a protective order aimed at limiting the amount of information and documents disclosed during the defamation case filed by University of Virginia Associate Dean Nicole Erano.

Eramo’s lawsuit stems from the November 2014 Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” that told of an alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity house and was later exposed as a fraud, primarily by the Washington Post.

Sabria Erdely, named as a defendant in the suit, authored the story.

The information the proposal secures confidentiality of includes unpublished news gathering materials and that of a personal or intimate nature regarding any individual.

Eramo is seeking $7.85 in damages. Another lawsuit, filed by three University of Virginia graduates and members of the fraternity who were portrayed in the debunked account of the gang rape, has each seeking $75,000 for each count

The story evolved around a woman only identified as “Jackie” who claimed she was gang-raped in 2012 at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. Erdely failed to contact those named in the story, according to those involved.

Rolling Stone subsequently issued an apology, as did Erdely.

The Charlottesville Police Department conducted an investigation and said it found no evidence to back the claims of “Jackie.”

A report published by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism earlier this year said Rolling Stone failed at virtually every step of the process, from the reporting by Erdely to an editing process that included high-ranking staffers.

Image: flickr/walkinboston