FIA boss Max Mosley has won his privacy-invasion lawsuit, against British tabloid newspaper The News of the World. The paper claimed that Mosley took part in a Nazi-themed orgy, the judge has now ordered the paper to pay over $1 million.
High Court judge David Eady has ordered the News of the World to pay Max Mosley $120,000 in damages, along with his legal costs.
The News of the World had run a story saying that the FIA boss had participated in a sadomasochistic sex romp, which had a Third Reich theme.
Max Mosley’s legal costs are estimated to be $900,00. Mosley never denied the encounter with the sex workers, but he has always mantained that there was never any Nazi theme.
When The News of the World run the story, there were calls for Mosley to quit his job as FIA President. Despite this constant pressure, the FIA had a vote of confidence, which Max Mosley won.
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Everyone is reading about this case today because it involves a public figure who sued, but I’d like to make the point that ordinary sex workers, who are not in the public eye, are being exposed by the media all the time in the name of sensational sex stories. Tabloid newspapers especially frequently run articles exposing ordinary “working girls”, despite the fact it is not against the law to work as an escort and thus these ladies have committed no crime. The lives of many sex workers in the UK and Ireland have been ruined by this type of journalism. Last month, in Ireland, a TV show exposed two separate independent escorts on national TV for apparently no reason other than salacious TV. I don’t know if today’s verdict will discourage this type of journalism but I hope it will.
Comment by Patricia Albright — July 24, 2008 @ 9:28 pm