1. A correction or clarification is timely if it is published before, or within forty-five days after, receipt of a request for correction or clarification, unless the period is extended under section 32-43-04. 2. A correction or clarification is sufficient if it: a. Is published with a prominence and in a manner and medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of; b. Refers to the statement being corrected or clarified and: (1) Corrects the statement; (2) In the case of defamatory meaning arising from other than the express language of the publication, disclaims an intent to communicate that meaning or to assert its truth; or (3) In the case of a statement attributed to another person, disclaims an intent to assert the truth of the statement; and c. Is communicated to the person who has made a request for correction or clarification. 3. A correction or clarification is published in a medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if it is published in a later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication. 4. If a later issue, edition, or broadcast of the original publication will not be published within the time limits established for a timely correction or clarification, a correction or clarification is published in a manner and medium reasonably likely to reach substantially the same audience as the publication complained of if: a. It is timely published in a reasonably prominent manner in another medium likely to reach an audience reasonably equivalent to the original publication or, if the parties cannot agree on another medium, in the newspaper with the largest general circulation in the region in which the original publication was distributed; b. Reasonable steps are taken to correct undistributed copies of the original publication, if any; and c. It is published in the next practicable issue, edition, or broadcast, if any, of the original publication. 5. A correction or clarification is timely and sufficient if the parties agree in writing that it is timely and sufficient.
32-43-07. Challenges to correction or clarification or to request for correction or clarification. 1. If a defendant in an action governed by this chapter intends to rely on a timely and sufficient correction or clarification, the defendant's intention to do so, and the correction or clarification relied upon, must be set forth in a notice served on the plaintiff within sixty days after service of the summons and complaint or ten days after the correction or clarification is made, whichever is later. A correction or clarification is deemed to be timely and sufficient unless the plaintiff challenges its timeliness or sufficiency within twenty days after the notice is served. 2. If a defendant in an action governed by this chapter intends to challenge the adequacy or timeliness of a request for correction or clarification, the defendant must set forth the challenge in a motion to declare the request inadequate or untimely served within sixty days after service of the summons and complaint. The court shall rule on the motion at the earliest appropriate time before trial.