preview

Terry Bollea Case

Decent Essays
Open Document

Terry Bollea, professionally known by his wrestler stage name Hulk Hogan, sued Gawker Media for posting a sex videotape without his consent. In the controversial videotape, Bollea was having sex with Heather Clem, who was back then the wife of his best friend and radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Initially, Bollea also sued his now former best friend and Clem because, according to him, he did not agree to participate in the sex tape. Bollea also said that he was totally unaware of the video’s existence at the time it was filmed. However, after they were able to settle the conflict without a court’s intervention, Bollea dropped the charges against them and decided that he was only going to proceed with his lawsuit against Gawker Media. …show more content…

Also, Gawker Media’s legal representatives expressed concern about freedom of the press in the United States if the court ruled in favor of Bollea. This lawsuit is not only important because of the emotional damage that the videotape has caused Bollea, but also because of Americans’ privacy and the precedent that the lawsuit’s verdict established for future similar cases. Even though Bollea is a public figure, and the general understanding is that public figures have less right to privacy, his career is not a free pass for media organizations to release a video of him having sex. Gawker Media’s lawyers did everything to protect the media company under the First Amendment, and under the justification that the sex tape was newsworthy because of Bollea’s public career. But this time, privacy rights outweighed newsworthiness and Gawker Media had to pay for

Get Access