Whenever demand has been made for the publication of statements or articles under section 2739.13 of the Revised Code, the newspaper company shall print and circulate the same in the next regular issue or within forty-eight hours following the receipt of such statement or article. Such statement or article shall be phrased in proper language and be printed without any additions to, or omissions therefrom, in the same color of ink, from like type, with headlines of equal prominence, occupying a like space in the same portion of the newspaper as was used in printing the original article complained of, and shall be given the same publicity in all respects and, as nearly as possible, the same circulation as such original article. Such company shall print and publish such statements or articles without cost to such persons or their representatives; and such publication may be proved at the trial of a suit for damages as a mitigating circumstance to reduce damages, provided that any voluntary publication made without demand may be used to rebut any presumption of malice or injury on the part of such company growing out of the original publication to which the same related. This section does not prevent the injured party from alleging and proving actual malice on the part of the publisher and any special damages resulting to him therefrom.
Effective Date: 10-01-1953 .