Paterno

— Here we consider whether a plaintiff in a defamation action subject to the constitutional malice standard established the requisite “good cause” (Code Civ. Proc., §425.16, subd. (g)) to conduct discovery, thereby delaying resolution of the defendant’s pending anti-SLAPP motion. We conclude that where, as here, the plaintiff fails to demonstrate the allegedly defamatory statements are provably false factual assertions — which the plaintiff must do to establish the necessary probability of prevailing on its defamation claim — no good cause exists to conduct discovery concerning actual malice. We therefore grant the writ petition, and direct the trial court to vacate its discovery order and enter a new order denying plaintiff’s discovery motion.

I

Factual and Procedural Background

Plaintiff and real party in interest Ampersand Publishing (Ampersand) is the corporate owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press. Wendy McCaw, its principal, publishes the newspaper. Defendant and petitioner Susan Paterno directs the journalism program at Chapman University in Orange, California, and is a senior writer for the American Journalism Review, a magazine published by the University of…