Frank is an employee at the HBF Corporation, and he has recently been terminated because of poor company income. Frank visits the company's blog and saw a comment from his manager, which says, "We had

Termination evidence is documentation that supports the rationale for ending employment; it is not a defamation category and has no bearing on publishing false statements about a former employee.

Slander is defamation delivered in spoken or transient form; because the comment was written and published on a blog rather than spoken aloud, it does not qualify as slander.

Libel is defamation expressed in written, printed, or otherwise published form. Because the manager posted the false and damaging statement on the company's blog - a written, publicly accessible medium - it meets the legal definition of libel. The statement identifies Frank by name, makes a factual claim about his conduct, and is published to a broad audience, satisfying all key elements of libel.

Freedom of speech does not protect false statements of fact that damage an individual's reputation; defamatory content falls outside First Amendment protections.