Turning to a consideration of the specific factual circumstances attendant to the conduct in question here, we attach particular significance to several factors. First, plaintiff is a private individual and not a "public figure". Second, the nature of the communications made by defendants involved a matter of virtually no "public interest"; there is an inference that defendants' conduct represented a deliberate intent to inflict injury upon plaintiff based upon the claimed unprecedented expansion of its standard "routine" of the "Ugliest Bride" contest to include particulars concerning plaintiff's [**701] name, employer, supervisors and the like, and the fact that the parties are business competitors in the radio broadcast industry.
We are not unmindful of the constitutional [***9] issues implicated in this case and in our resolution thereof. In the quest for the proper accommodation between the right of redress for infliction of injury and the freedoms of speech and expression protected by the 1st Amendment, we have determined that the State's relatively strong interest in compensating individuals for harm outweighs the relatively weak 1st Amendment protection to be accorded
Turning to a consideration of the specific factual circumstances attendant to the conduct in question here, we attach particular significance to several factors. First, plaintiff is a private individual and not a "public figure". Second, the nature of the communications made by defendants involved a matter of virtually no "public interest"; there is an inference that defendants' conduct represented a deliberate intent to inflict injury upon plaintiff based upon the claimed unprecedented expansion of its standard "routine" of the "Ugliest Bride" contest to include particulars concerning plaintiff's [**701] name, employer, supervisors and the like, and the fact that the parties are business competitors in the radio broadcast industry.
We are not unmindful of the constitutional [***9] issues implicated in this case and in our resolution thereof. In the quest for the proper accommodation between the right of redress for infliction of injury and the freedoms of speech and expression protected by the 1st Amendment, we have determined that the State's relatively strong interest in compensating individuals for harm outweighs the relatively weak 1st Amendment protection to be accorded
Turning to a consideration of the specific factual circumstances attendant to the conduct in question here, we attach particular significance to several factors. First, plaintiff is a private individual and not a "public figure". Second, the nature of the communications made by defendants involved a matter of virtually no "public interest"; there is an inference that defendants' conduct represented a deliberate intent to inflict injury upon plaintiff based upon the claimed unprecedented expansion of its standard "routine" of the "Ugliest Bride" contest to include particulars concerning plaintiff's [**701] name, employer, supervisors and the like, and the fact that the parties are business competitors in the radio broadcast industry.
We are not unmindful of the constitutional [***9] issues implicated in this case and in our resolution thereof. In the quest for the proper accommodation between the right of redress for infliction of injury and the freedoms of speech and expression protected by the 1st Amendment, we have determined that the State's relatively strong interest in compensating individuals for harm outweighs the relatively weak 1st Amendment protection to be accorded
Turning to a consideration of the specific factual circumstances attendant to the conduct in question here, we attach particular significance to several factors. First, plaintiff is a private individual and not a "public figure". Second, the nature of the communications made by defendants involved a matter of