Gordon Austin appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to PMG Acquisition d/b/a The Times-Georgian the newspaper and its news editor, Kathy Jeffcoats, on his claim for libel stemming from statements made in several articles printed by the newspaper.1 The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment on the ground that the statements were either substantially true, non-actionable opinion, or protected as privileged under OCGA § 51-5-7. We agree and affirm. To prevail at summary judgment, the moving party must show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law. ” Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins , 261 Ga. 491 405 SE2d 474 1991; see OCGA § 9-11-56 c. “ A defendant may do this by showing the court that the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on at least one essential element of plaintiff’s case.” Lau’s Corp. , supra.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Austin, the record reveals that Austin’s daughter was cited for underage drinking while at a local restaurant. The citation indicated that she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21. Austin, an oral surgeon on staff at Tanner Medical Center, took his daughter to the medical center for a separate blood alcohol test. Austin deposed that the testing machine printed out a result of 0.0 and that he tore the result from the machine, put it in his pocket, and then left with his daughter. The next morning, Austin left a phone message for the police captain and then prepared an email message addressed to the captain detailing the previous night’s events. As an attachment to the email, Austin created a lab report on his computer to mirror the one he tore from the testing machine the night before indicating that his daughter’s blood alcohol level was 0.0. Just prior to sending the email, however, Austin received a phone call from the police captain and the two arranged a meeting. Austin met with the captain and provided him a copy of both the email and the lab report he created on his computer.2
