I think the media will survive the restriction.Įrwin Chemerinsky is dean and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law at the UC Irvine School of Law. Speech is speech.īut I can imagine a clear rule: No videos of people having sex should be made public unless all of the participants consent. If the jury sides with Bollea, 1st Amendment absolutists will worry about the “chilling effect” the verdict may have on speech, and will claim it’s impossible to draw a line between permissible and impermissible expression. There is a difference, after all, between talking about sex and watching it. Petersburg jurors may ultimately find it hard to accept that Gawker’s speech rights reach into Bollea’s bedroom, notwithstanding the plaintiff’s lewd persona. Indeed, this case reflects how the changing notions of privacy in society make it much harder to decide what would be offensive to the reasonable person and what isn’t of public concern.īut juries, it’s said, make decisions based on emotion, on the gut. In a 2006 interview with Clem, for instance, he boasted about the size of his appendage as openly as Donald Trump at a Republican debate. The Gawker case is more difficult because Bollea has never been media-shy and his past behavior suggests he believes his sex life is of interest to the public. So here we have high-minded constitutional principles running up against low fare. Jurors who will determine the outcome of Hulk Hogan's 100 million invasion of privacy trial against Gawker Media won't get to hear live testimony. Gawker has raised the 1st Amendment as a defense and says that its action is constitutionally protected speech because Bollea is a public figure who has frequently discussed his sex life in books, interviews and his reality TV show. It’s all terribly salacious and, for many, terribly amusing though Bollea obviously isn’t laughing along.Īfter the online news and gossip site Gawker posted an edited version of the sex tape, Bollea sued Gawker, its founder Nick Denton and its former editor-in-chief A.J. Apparently, the friend, radio host Bubba “the Love Sponge” Clem, took the video without Bollea’s consent or knowledge. Bollea, having sex with the wife of a friend. Petersburg, Fla., which revolves around a videotape showing the wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry G. That’s the legal question at the heart of the Bollea vs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |