Re: the last paragraph above: Politicians, in the U.S. at least, are treated differently because they are public figures in areas of the law around slander and

Re: the last paragraph above: Politicians, in the U.S. at least, are treated differently because they are public figures in areas of the law around slander and libel.* From Wikipedia's entry on public figure: > A public figure is a person who has achieved notoriety, prominence or fame within a society, whether through achievement, luck, action, or in some cases through no purposeful action of their own. > In the context of defamation actions (libel and slander) as well as invasion of privacy, a public figure cannot succeed in a lawsuit on incorrect harmful statements in the United States unless there is proof that the writer or publisher acted with actual malice by knowing the falsity or by reckless disregard for the truth. The legal burden of proof in defamation actions is thus higher in the case of a public figure than in the case of an ordinary person.