Tiger Woods Gags UK Media; Alerts World To Nude Photos

from the yikes dept

It really was just a couple months ago that a ton of press coverage came from the ridiculous attempt by British oil company Trafigura to gag the UK press. All that did was turn what had been a minor story not many people were paying attention to into a huge story that everyone knew about. But what if the story is already huge? Tiger Woods (and we'd gotten this far without having to talk about him...) has apparently taken the same path as Trafigura and has gagged the UK press from writing about certain details of his personal life. Woods apparently had lawyers in London take action to get a court injunction against the press reporting certain things about his personal life -- though, they're still free to write about this ridiculous injunction, and they're certainly wasting little time in doing that.

So what, exactly, is the UK press barred from discussing? Well, none of the UK articles say -- obviously. But, since we live in the US, it's not hard to find reports that say the specific injunction bars the the publication of any nude photos or images of Woods having sex. And, even though the court order states "this Order is not to be taken as an admission that any such photographs exist," it certainly sounds like a very loud clanging bell announcing exactly that. And, of course, this means the race must now be on for various tabloids/celebrity gossip sites and the like to find exactly those photos and videos.

Given the Trafigura situation, though, would you think that someone in Tiger's camp -- or among his UK lawyers -- would recognize how incredibly badly this would backfire? Not only does it continue to make the UK look like a laughingstock when it comes to freedom of the press and free speech, it only calls that much more attention to what, apparently, Woods would like to remain hidden.

Filed Under: media gag, streisand effect, tiger woods, uk