Washington § 7.96.070 - Timelines and sufficiency of correction or clarification.

(1) A correction or clarification is timely if it is published before, or within thirty days after, receipt of a request for correction or clarification or of the information in RCW 7.96.050(1), whichever is later, unless the period is extended by written agreement of the parties.

(2) A correction or clarification is sufficient if it:

(a) Is published with a prominence and in a manner and medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of;

(b) Refers to the statement being corrected or clarified and:

(i) Corrects the statement;

(ii) In the case of defamatory or false meaning arising from other than the express language of the publication, disclaims an intent to communicate that meaning or to assert its truth; or

(iii) In the case of a statement attributed to another person, identifies the person and disclaims an intent to assert the truth of the statement;

(c) In advance of the publication, is provided to the person who has made a request for correction or clarification; and

(d) Accompanies and is an equally prominent part of any electronic publication of the allegedly defamatory or otherwise actionable statement by the publisher.

(3) A correction or clarification is published in a medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if it is published in a later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication.

(4) If a later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication will not be published within the time limits established for a timely correction or clarification, a correction or clarification is published in a manner and medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if:

(a) It is timely published in a reasonably prominent manner:

(i) In another medium likely to reach an audience reasonably equivalent to the original publication; or

(ii) If the parties cannot agree on another medium, in the newspaper with the largest general circulation in the region in which the original publication was distributed;

(b) Reasonable steps are taken to correct undistributed copies of the original publication, if any; and

(c) It is published in the next practicable issue, edition, or broadcast, if any, of the original publication.

(5) A correction or clarification is timely and sufficient if the parties agree in writing that it is timely and sufficient.