Thiel’s funding of the case “nefarious” and done “for the purpose of destroying a media entity which he doesn’t like. George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York, called Mr. Bollea’s lawsuit was bankrolled by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, whose sexual orientation was allegedly outed by Gawker. “The First Amendment protects matters of public concern, but there’s less rigorous First Amendment protection for purely private matters. “Reasonable lawyers who practice in this area don’t even agree among themselves whether or not it was appropriate to publish the video,” Mr. The Gawker case does highlight the importance of engaging attorneys when there are questions about the legality of publishing information - even if the answer isn’t always clear-cut, according to experts. “Those of us who were following it feel like there were some very compelling and strong arguments that could have been successful on appeal, but we’ll never know.” “The folks at Gawker were not in a position to fight it anymore, and the bankruptcy group ended up really driving the resolution of the case rather than taking it to appeal,” said Emily Caron, vice president of media liability claims for entertainment division for OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd. Denton initially vowed an appeal, the case was later settled for $31 million after Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2016. “Did they inject themselves into the public? Did the person give up some of their privacy? Just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you give up all of your privacy.”Īlthough Mr. “One of the issues that goes into that is the extent to which an individual voluntarily took a position of public notoriety,” he said. Newsworthiness is a “complete bar to liability,” except when it comes to the disclosure of such private information, said Lee Brenner, Los Angeles-based chair of the media and entertainment practice group of law firm Kelley Drye & Warren L.L.P. The jury then slapped another $25 million in punitive damages on Gawker founder Nick Denton.Ī tort claim can be filed for public disclosure of private facts, which means that media organizations can be found liable if the publication of private facts is offensive to a reasonable person, according to lawyers. Hogan, for emotional distress and $55 million for economic damages, after Gawker in 2012 published a one-minute, 41-second edited sex tape. In March 2016, a six-person jury awarded $60 million to Terry Gene Bollea, aka Mr. Along with the lurid details and a Silicon Valley soap-opera twist, the Gawker vs. The civil court judge in the case had ruled that the documents be sealed, but an appellate court sided with the media companies, saying they were of legitimate public interest.Growing public distrust has resulted in increasing exposure for media companies, as evidenced by the lawsuit former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan won against Gawker Media L.L.C. The evidence was unsealed because a group of media companies, including The Associated Press, sued for access and won. The unsealed documents will undoubtedly be key in Gawker's appeals process. There was wrestling history, videos of Hogan yukking it up with Howard Stern and, most notably, how Gawker - a 12-year-old news and gossip website in New York City- does journalism differently from legacy media. Jurors, media and thousands who followed the case on Twitter and livestream video were treated to days of details about Hogan's sex life, body part size, and images of him in thong underwear. The verdict and the unsealing of hundreds of pages of documents late in the day capped a three week judicial circus in the sleepy St. "It could potentially be a turning point in law." PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Admits to Bankrolling Hulk Hogan's Gawker Lawsuit This past March, a Florida jury awarded the former wrestler 140 million in damages after he sued the media company and its founder for invasion of privacy for publishing a portion of a sex tape that featured him. "It's a huge damage award, and just the idea that a celebrity has a right to privacy that outweighs freedom of the press and the public's right to know, that's a huge shift in American free press law," said Samantha Barbas, a law professor at the University at Buffalo and the author of "The Laws of Image," which focuses on the history of libel and privacy. First Amendment experts, media lawyers and privacy advocates watched the case closely.
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