Sinclair Broadcasting did not defame a Georgia gynecologist with a televised report on the alleged sterilization of women who were detained by ICE, the state appeals court ruled.

In 2023, Sinclair aired an episode of “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” that discussed women who were detained by ICE three years earlier at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC).

Attkisson interviewed a nurse who said female detainees at the center reported undergoing “mysterious surgical procedures” that “they did not fully understand.”

Wooten had contacted federal agencies, claiming that the women had been sterilized via ovary removal, hysterectomy, and tubal ligation.

Attkisson cited a subsequent Senate committee report that concluded that the women had undergone excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures.”

Dr. Mahendra Amin sued Sinclair Broadcasting for defamation, alleging that the broadcast portrayed him as “an evil doctor seeking to carry out a sterilization campaign on immigrant women detained at ICDC.”

Amin worked as a gynecologist at the center, but he stated that he only performed two hysterectomies and they were both medically necessary. The broadcast did not mention Amin by name.

Sinclair filed a motion to strike Amin’s complaint. The trial court denied the motion for the following reasons:

• Amin proved actual malice by Sinclair;
• The broadcasts statements are capable of being proven false; and
• The statements are ‘of and concerning’ Amin.

However, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the decision and threw out Amin’s defamation complaint.

“It is undisputed that Dr. Amin is not named in the lawsuit,” Judge Elizabeth Gobeil wrote. “It follows that because Amin cannot demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of his defamation claim, the trial court erred by denying Sinclair’s motion to strike.”