A. It shall be unlawful to knowingly, with malicious intent, communicate to any person orally or in writing any information which one knows or should know to be false and knowingly that the information tends to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation, or publish the natural defects of one who is alive, or who has not been declared missing or dead for a period exceeding twenty (20) years, and thereby expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule. An injurious publication is presumed to have been a malicious, if not justifiable, motive for making it shown by way of defense.

B. Criminal defamation shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00), or by a term of imprisonment in the Tribal Jail not to exceed three months, or both. However, it shall be a defense to criminal defamation that the person making the publication was at the time engaged in the formal broadcast or publication of news by some public news media of communication and in good faith believed he was reporting a newsworthy event concerning a public figure with a basis in truth.