{"id":2446033,"date":"2019-07-05T08:29:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T14:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=855796"},"modified":"2019-07-05T08:29:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T14:29:37","slug":"michael-jackson-fan-clubs-in-france-sue-leaving-neverland-accusers-for-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/michael-jackson-fan-clubs-in-france-sue-leaving-neverland-accusers-for-defamation\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Fan Clubs in France Sue \u2018Leaving Neverland\u2019 Accusers for Defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/8fefa48133d44fe7d802f7ae4768d3036741b08921cdc86877f1beb0ec345276.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/michael-jackson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_michael-jackson\" data-tag=\"michael-jackson\">Michael Jackson<\/a> fan clubs in France have filed a lawsuit against Wade Robson and James Safechuck, the two men who accused the late pop star of sexual abuse in the HBO documentary <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/leaving-neverland\/\" id=\"auto-tag_leaving-neverland\" data-tag=\"leaving-neverland\">Leaving Neverland<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The three organizations \u2013 Michael Jackson Community, MJ Street and On the Line \u2013 accused Robson and Safechuck of posthumously damaging Jackson\u2019s reputation. While libel laws in the United States and the United Kingdom do not extend to deceased people, there are laws in France against the public denunciation of a dead person, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/e1644cd70bfd46af85fcd2bdbf60178f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><em>The Associated Press<\/em><\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Interestingly, the fan clubs are only seeking a symbolic judgement of one euro each. But John Branca, co-executor of Jackson\u2019s estate, suggested the decision to sue in France was part of a larger effort to change libel laws at home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe Estate is in full support of [lawyer Emmanuel] Ludot\u2019s efforts on behalf of Michael and his beloved fans in France and across the globe that the truth shall ultimately prevail,\u201d Branca said. \u201cWe remain hopeful that a victory in France will soon fuel a movement in the United States to finally explore changes in the law to afford defamation protection for the deceased.\u201d A rep did not immediately reply to a request to see if the Jackson estate was involved in the suit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A representative for Robson and Safechuck did not immediately return <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Emmanuel Ludot also did not immediately return a request for comment. However, the statement provided by the Jackson estate did quote Ludot as calling the allegations against Jackson \u201cextremely serious\u201d and likening them to a \u201cgenuine lynching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Leaving Neverland<\/em> premiered in January before arriving on HBO in March. In the film, Robson and Safechuck <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/michael-jackson-leaving-neverland-trailer-796415\/\">described<\/a> in often excruciating detail the way Jackson allegedly groomed and sexually abused them while they were children. The Jackson estate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/michael-jackson-family-leaving-neverland-public-lynching-785233\/\">denied<\/a> all the allegations, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/michael-jackson-family-estate-leaving-neverland-doc-801258\/\">questioned<\/a> Safechuck and Robson\u2019s credibility and filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv\/tv-news\/michael-jackson-estate-hbo-leaving-neverland-lawsuit-797455\/\">lawsuit against HBO<\/a>, claiming the film violated a non-disparagement clause in the network\u2019s 1992 contract to air a Jackson concert film.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/michael-jackson-fan-club-france-sue-leaving-neverland-accusers-855796\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three Michael Jackson fan clubs in France have filed a lawsuit against Wade Robson and James Safechuck, the two men who accused the late pop star of sexual abuse in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland. The three organizations \u2013 Michael Jackson Community, MJ Street and On the Line \u2013 accused Robson and Safechuck of posthumously [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 23:53:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}