Gossip, Fact or Opinion...

[Toujours_Jolie]

If you're telling the truth about someone, it cannot be slander. Slander is both potentially damaging to a person's reputation and false. I think if you tell your opinion truthfully, then it is a fact. However, the more emotions that the event evokes from you, the less objective your story becomes. Gossip can be the truth though. Whether something becomes gossip or not is contigent upon what the teller's motives are. If you confide in a friend who you know to be discreet then you're not necessarily spreading information, you're just venting to you're confidante. On the other hand, if you tell the story with the intent of it getting around or with indifference as to whether it gets around at all, it can become the subject of gossip.

If you voice your opinion about someone's character based on a negative experience you had with them, it may be that your personal dislike for this person is overshadowing what you would objectively define as his or her true character. If it's subjective at all then it is merely your opinion and may not be factual, but it doesn't necessarily have to be gossip.

~JoLiE~