Braun

This appeal concerns the scope of two, sometimes interrelated, statutes: the anti-SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (section 425.16), and the reporter’s privilege found at Civil Code section 47, subdivision (d). The triggering event in this litigation was the publication of five news reports stemming from allegations of illegal and improper management of the Center for Pre-Hospital Research and Training (CPRT) at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). In particular, the news reports described an investigative audit carried out by the State Auditor, as well as a background audit and “whistle-blower letter” that disclosed various levels of malfunctioning and malfeasance in the CPRT program.

Odelia Braun, M.D., sued the Chronicle Publishing Company (Chronicle), reporter Ben Wildavsky (respondents) and others for defamation and a multitude of other torts. Respondents Chronicle and Wildavsky successfully employed section 425.16 to strike the claims against them. On appeal Braun urges that the statute does not apply to the stricken claims and even if it did, the court erred in striking them because she demonstrated a probability of prevailing…