Dozens of former writers and editors at Gawker will receive a legal shield designed to protect them from lawsuits arising from stories they wrote for the entertainment and gossip website in return for backing the company’s liquidation plan.
Gawker and its sister sites had been the focus of a series of damaging lawsuits over posts it had published. One of those stories, which featured a sex tape involving former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, resulted in a $140 million judgment that ultimately forced the company into bankruptcy.
The mechanics of the arrangement with former editorial workers are laid out in Gawker Media Group Inc.’s proposed chapter 11 plan to pay its creditors including Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea. The arrangement, according to the court-filed plan, would allow the team of legal professionals now overseeing the Gawker estate to resolve indemnification claims brought in the bankruptcy on behalf of 62 writers, editors, freelance contributors and former officers and move a step closer to winding down the company’s affairs and, ultimately, distributing assets to creditors. – READ MORE
