IANAL (I am not a lawyer). But I have done considerable work on legal databases. I know just enough to be dangerous. I'd get your Union's tame Lawyer to give you advice. Here in Australia, from what little I know, Bob would be toast if it came to a lawsuit over slander, and possibly the publisher of the broadcast for libel if they recorded it and made it available via Internet. But you'd have to prove financial loss. As a Blogger, I have to be really careful about what I say about anyone else. Libel is considered worse than Slander since it reaches a larger target audience. In Australia anyway, there is no differentiation between a "journalist" and anyone else. I suspect Bob's knowledge of the labyrinthine legal lunacy of Libel and slander is even more sketchy than my own.