(Newswire.net — March 20, 2016) — A Florida jury awarded $115 million to the former pro wrestler and actor Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan. After a three week trial, the right to privacy won over the right to public speech. the Mirror UK reported.
Gawker, an online media company and blog network that operates under “Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s news” slogan, published a sex tape showing Hogan with his then best friend’s wife. Allegedly, the intercourse was recorded when Heather Cole was still married to Hogan’s best friend Todd Alan Clem, also known as radio dj Bubba – the Love Sponge.
The ex pro wrestler claimed that the footage was secretly recorded, invading his privacy. The tapes “turned my world upside down,” Hogan said at the trial. He and his lawyers had asked for $100 million, although Hogan was awarded more.
Gawker has experienced problems from the beginning of the trial as the pre-trial rulings by Florida Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell left the website without the ability to use any information from the lawsuit between Bollea and Bubba, the media reported.
Gawker hoped to use the racial comments Hogan allegedly said in the recording as the motive for publishing the tapes and not the fact that it was said during intercourse with his best friend’s wife. The tapes were not shown to the jury during the trial, not even the excerpts already published by Gawker.
Gawker’s lawyers called on the First Amendment right to free speech and free press. The court, however, decided in favor of the Fourteenth Amendment, allowing citizens to have the right to privacy under equal protection of life, liberty, and property.
“We don’t need the First Amendment to protect what’s popular. We need the First Amendment to protect what’s controversial,” Michael Sullivan, Gawker’s attorney, said in his closing arguments.
The right to privacy does not by default override the right to freedom of speech, but given the fact that Gawker has a decade long history of violating the privacy of many celebrities, in this case, it likely contributed to the ruling and has showed a shift in how the public sees privacy rights.
The media outlet once published the Gawker Stalker, a map of celebrity sightings that allowed users to “visually pinpoint the location of every stalk worthy [sic] celebrity as soon as they’re spotted.”
Two editors had resigned from Gawker amid a report about an executive who had been blackmailed by a male escort who later turned to Gawker as a source, the New York Times reported.
Although Gawker has not yet posted a comment on the ruling, it is expected that Gawker will appeal.