On Monday, a US appeals court reinforced the dismissal of the lawsuit filed by a former government scientist (Steven J. Hatfill) against The New York Times. The man accused the publication of having defamed him with several of its columns addressing the anthrax mailing issue back in 2001.

Acccording to the three judges in charge with the case, the initial decision to dismiss the suit was correct. Under a 1964 ruling of the Supreme Court, public figures must be able to demonstrate that a publication’s actions have been taken with "actual malice" in order to win defamation lawsuits.

Nicholas D. Kristof, the author of the problematic columns, began the series referring to a government scientist he called Mr. Z, as the focus of an ongoing investigation. Later on, in August 2002, the journalist first mentioned Steven Hatfill’s name; according to the former, the scientist revealed himself to the media as the man found in The Times’ articles.

Although Steven Hatfill was considered by federal authorities to be a "person of interest" with regard to the anthrax situation, he never faced official charges. He used to work at the Army Medical Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick.

Dr. Steven Hatfill is not doing too bad though; last month, the Justice Department paid about $5 million for settling a lawsuit also started by the scientist. He accused law enforcement officials of having leaked information about him to several news agencies. The case was connected to the anthrax investigation as well. Following the mailing of anthrax-laced letters, five people were killed and seventeen others were infected.