The owner, licensee or operator of a television and/or radio broadcasting station or network of stations, and the agents or employees of any such owner, licensee or operator, shall not be liable for any damages for any defamatory statement published or uttered in or as a part of a television and/or radio broadcast, by one other than such owner, licensee or operator, or agent or employee thereof, unless it shall be alleged and proved by the complaining party, that such owner, licensee, operator or such agent or employee, has failed to exercise due care to prevent the publication or utterance of such statement in such broadcast.
§ 1447.1.Defamation By Radio and Television - Limitation of Liability
Chapter 25: Slander and Libel · Last amended June 6, 1957 · Last verified August 3, 2026
In one sentenceShields the owner, licensee, or operator of a radio or television station, along with their agents and employees, from liability for a defamatory statement someone else broadcast, unless the complaining party alleges and proves the station failed to exercise due care to prevent it.
Full Text of § 1447.1
Amendment History
Laws 1957, HB 609, p. 83, § 1, emer. eff. 6/6/1957.
Plain-English Summary
Section 1447.1 protects broadcasters from being held responsible every time someone else says something defamatory over their airwaves. The owner, licensee, or operator of a television or radio station or network, along with its agents and employees, isn't liable for a defamatory statement broadcast by someone else, unless the plaintiff both alleges and proves that the station failed to exercise due care to prevent the statement from airing.
That puts the burden on the plaintiff to show carelessness, rather than making the station automatically responsible for whatever a guest, caller, or other speaker says on the air.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a TV station be sued for what a guest says on air?
Only if the complaining party alleges and proves the station failed to exercise due care to prevent the defamatory statement from being broadcast -- the station isn't automatically liable.
What does a plaintiff have to show to hold a station responsible?
That the owner, licensee, operator, or an agent or employee failed to exercise due care to prevent the defamatory statement from airing.
Does this protection cover the station's own employees?
Yes. The statute extends the same protection to the agents and employees of the owner, licensee, or operator.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes, enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature.
Last verified August 3, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: oklahoma broadcast defamation liabilityradio station libel liability oklahoma12 O.S. § 1447.1tv station sued for guest's statement oklahoma