Max Mosley Wins Case Against News Of The World

Max Mosley Wins Case Against News Of The World

FIA president Max Mosley has won his privacy case against British newspaper the News Of The World. The verdict came earlier today after Mosley took the paper to court following the publication of photos and a video extracts of Mosley involved in an orgy at a London apartment back in March. After a key witness failed to testify and evidence of Nazi overtones not found, Mosley has been awarded £60,000 and the newspaper will have to pay the costs, expected to around £1m.

The News Of The World had published photographs and a video extract on it’s website on the day of publication, and the story took up a lot of space within the printed paper. In the text, the paper claimed Mosley had introduced Nazi overtones to the orgy through role-playing, and Mosley decided to fight his case on grounds of privacy invasion, saying the episode had destroyed his life.

Since that spring-Sunday, Mosley has been forced to fight for his position as president of the FIA, deal with the general backlash from Formula One employees, fans and general opinion from the public, as well as deal with his relationships with other authoriative sporting people and of course, his own family. However, Mosley was always adament that despite his family’s history, there were no Nazi overtones to his actions.

I found that there was no evidence that the gathering on March 28 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact. I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust.

Of course, I accept that such [S&M] behaviour is viewed by some people with distaste and moral disapproval, but in the light of modern rights-based jurisprudence that does not provide any justification for the intrusion on the personal privacy of the claimant. Mr. Justice Eady, presiding judge.

Mosley has won £60,000, which he promised to the FIA a while ago, and the News Of The World will have to pay costs, believed to be around £1m.

Of course, this now pretty much puts an end to the saga that has dragged on for a few months now, and while Mosley has been embarrassed and caused embarrassment, he can now go about re-focusing his efforts on his job. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing is not entirely relevant to this article, but suffice to say that Mosley will remain president until the end of term, unless something else happens in the mean-time.

12 comments

  • Just like I have been telling everyone that the scandal would not change anything, he is still president of FIA. Now he has won a privacy law suite.it is all good for Mosley.

  • 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.

  • £60,000 is but a drop in the ocean for the NOTW
    Imagine a campaign to unseat a dictator costing only £60,000???
    (Bernie did try it for £1mill 😉
    Imagine the increased circulation and revenue!!

    Max has won the case but definitely lost face,
    he can no longer represent the organisation he is elected to
    and the world of F1 bides it’s time waiting for his successor.
    Somewhere, someone is smiling 🙂

  • “Of course, this now pretty much puts an end to the saga that has dragged on for a few months now, and while Mosley has been embarrassed and caused embarrassment, he can now go about re-focusing his efforts on his job.”

    Really like this last bit, although now Mosley has gone and stuffed it up. He’s so embarrassed that he wants to keep on suing everyone and everything.

  • The saga isn’t over – BBC Radio 4 are doing a special on him, the News of the World and the future of journalism on Any Questions? this afternoon. This includes a phone-in session at the end called Any Answers? Not a programme that is likely to cover any of those involved in glory, given the circumstances…

  • They’ve just got to the Mosley segment of it, and basically Max and the NotW have been declared a pair of hypocrites for their respective post-verdict quotes. Apparently being banned from shoving a camera down someone’s cleavage “would damage investigative journalism” (NotW) and “the court case ruined my marriage” (Mosley)…

  • The audience seems to have decided that Max Mosley was entrapped and that his public words and private actions were not sufficiently in conflict to warrant such entrapment. But then the subject of what anything Max might have said or done before the NotW case never arose and only five people in the audience admitted to reading the story (and even then reluctantly…)

  • Apparently being banned from shoving a camera down someone’s cleavage “would damage investigative journalism” (NotW) and “the court case ruined my marriage” (Mosley)…

    That’s actually quite funny. Just highlights how stupid both parties are. Thanks for updating us on the Radio 4 show. I kinda regret saying that I thought it would all be over now, especialy as the media interest in Mosley has risen recently and that he’s now suing the News of the World. Perhaps I was being naively optimistic!

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