Writing about true events: legal liabilities?

Factual Questions
1

I’m considering writing a manga or comic about true events that some friends were involved in. These events involved activism, local politics, and court actions against a company.

What liabilities would I encounter? Could I be sued merely for recounting events that already exist in public record and newspaper archives? Can I use the real peoples’ and organizations’ names? How about likenesses of faces and locations?

Would I be better off fictionalising all the names and locations, but keeping the sequence of events?

How do documentary writers handle this?

2

rule 1: The “truth” is not libel

corollary to rule 1: “truth” is defined by a court.

if your story would cast anyone in anything that might, conceivably, be construed as a negative light, see a lawyer.

see: defamation, intentional infliction of mental/emotional distress, harrassment, public ridicule, etc.

3

This could be a problem, almost certainly. Not my specialty though.