Azerbaijan is very upset about a June 5 report on CNN that Israeli troops had used the country as a staging area for attacks on Iran. The country’s government says that the report, based on anonymous sources, is both completely wrong and dangerous, as it risks drawing Azerbaijan into the conflict. In this situation, most governments would issue a condemnatory statement and leave it at that.
But Azerbaijan has gone a step farther, filing a defamation suit against CNN in Delaware last week. CNN’s response: “We stand by our reporting.” The complaint acknowledges that this situation is unusual, and admits that the First Amendment gives Americans the right to criticize their own government without fear of liability. But, it argues that the same logic does not apply to a foreign government, “which is not accountable to the American electorate.” To bring the case, Azerbaijan hired Wayne Dennison, a partner at Brown Rudnick who is best known for his work as part of Johnny Depp’s legal team in the case against Amber Heard.
In an interview, Dennison defended the suit, saying that his client is entitled to recourse for reckless reporting. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. It’s long been clear that foreign sovereigns have the right to use the U.S. courts to redress harms that have been addressed to them.
That’s a fundamental portion of the jurisdiction of our federal courts, and foreign governments have the opportunity to do this. With respect to this case in particular, what we’ve what we’ve looked at is we have a U.S. entity, CNN, engaged in activities that we think are improper and ultimately tortious. And the way in which this government will bring CNN to justice and ultimately to the table is to sue on CNN’s home court.
Why’d you bring suit in the U. Because that’s where the defendant is. We’re not talking about criticism.
What we’re talking about are direct, factual statements that relate absolutely to an ongoing war. CNN is making statements relative to my clients’ activities in a war that my clients absolutely unequivocally say are untrue. And the result of these untrue statements actually put lives at risk.
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