
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993                   TAG: 9310190093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TABLOID LOSES LIBEL APPEAL; 98-YEAR-OLD TO GET $1 MILLION

Three years ago, the Sun, a supermarket tabloid, announced that the Mitchell "World's oldest newspaper carrier, 101, quits because she's pregnant." A picture of Nellie Mitchell, the "Australian granny" who supposedly become pregnant by a millionaire client, illustrated the story.

Publishers of the Sun knew the story was fiction, but what they didn't know was that Mitchell, of whom they had an old file photo, was still alive.

Mitchell was 95 at the time and still running her own newsstand in Mountain Home, Ark. And she was mad.

Monday the Supreme Court implicitly agreed that the Sun should be punished. It let stand a $1 million court award arising from Mitchell's claim of invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The justices without comment rejected an appeal by Globe International Publishing, which puts out the Sun and the National Examiner. The publisher had argued that the high award violated guarantees of free speech and due process of law because the jury imposed it to punish an unpopular publisher.

by CNB