12.1-15-01. Criminal defamation

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.