For a plaintiff to succeed in a defamation case, what must they prove?

For a defamation case to be successful, one of the key elements that a plaintiff must prove is that the defamatory statement was made publicly. This means that the statement was communicated to a third party, not merely a private conversation between two individuals. The requirement for the statement to be public is fundamental because defamation concerns harm to a person's reputation that results from false statements made to others. If the statement were made in private and did not reach a broader audience, it would not typically meet the criteria for defamation, as there would be no opportunity for harm to the plaintiff’s reputation in the community.

The other factors, while potentially relevant to specific cases, do not encompass the essential requirement that the statement must be made to a public audience for a defamation claim to be valid.