Wikipedia:Libel

The goal of Wikipedia is to create an encyclopedic information source adhering to a neutral point-of-view (NPOV) style of prose. However, the realities of international defamation law demand that we pay attention to legal issues to ensure that our work can be made available, and to protect the project from legal liability.

Any libelous content posted to the Wikipedia potentially exposes the author and Wikipedia's operators (Bomis) to legal liability. The Wikipedia server is hosted in the United States, which guarantees certain Constitutional protections for published work (see below). Although these protections apply to Wikipedia regardless of an authors' nationality, it is important to note they protect the US-hosted Wikipedia server, and not necessarily the author. International authors are advised to check their local defamation laws (any good sites for this?)

Protections afforded by US law

In order for a statement to be found libelous under US law, it must not only be false, but it must also evidence what the courts have called "a reckless disregard for the truth". In theory, this exempts defamatory remarks made in error, where that error was made in a reasonable attempt to produce an accurate article.

more needed here

Talk pages

Although Wikipedia's NPOV policy should adequately serve to protect the project from legal liability, it is important to note that Wikipedia also contains a great deal of material that need not necessarily be written in NPOV-style. The Talk pages, for instance, frequently contain unsupported opinions, allegations, and even insults.