The Supreme Court Upholds Mediaset's €200,000 Compensation to María del Monte

The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court has upheld the ruling against Mediaset, owner of the Telecinco channel, to compensate singer María del Monte with €200,000 for unlawful intrusion into her honour and personal privacy. This decision follows the broadcast of recordings on the programme 'Sálvame' in February 2021. The aired recording was made with a hidden camera capturing Kiko Rivera in 2004, where matters concerning María del Monte's privacy were discussed, linking her to the theft of a sum of money.

The network filed an appeal against the Seville Court's decision, which confirmed the compensation amount of €200,000, initially imposed by the Court of First Instance, arguing that the sum was disproportionate.

The Supreme Court dismissed this argument, stating that the assessment of the circumstances concludes that "the compensation granted here cannot be deemed manifestly disproportionate to the moral damage effectively caused to the claimant, nor does it grossly exceed what could be defined as a reasonable compensation for the non-pecuniary damage resulting from the intrusion."

The ruling indicates that the unlawful interference affected two fundamental rights of the claimant: the right to honour and the right to personal and family privacy. It states that "the intrusion into both rights was of particular severity, as it involved, on one hand, the unfounded attribution of committing an act constituting a crime against property, allegedly perpetrated against someone said to be her romantic partner." According to the Supreme Court, all this "entails an evident and general discredit in social consideration and, on the other hand, the media exposure of aspects particularly reserved for the most intimate space of the person, such as those related to the existence and circumstances of the personal relationship and the causes of the breakup, which were linked to the alleged theft of money."

The Chamber explains that the conversation recorded was broadcast in three programmes aired during prime time by the television network, preceded by captions or voice-overs "with sensationalist headlines" that placed the recordings in the context of the aforementioned relationship, with the "aim of capturing viewers' interest."

It highlights that, in the subsequent discussion among the programme's collaborators, "the harshness of the information was emphasised and its credibility analysed, with differing opinions that, in turn, generated controversy and drew attention, all of which resulted in greater dissemination of the purported news, the spread of the rumour, and a qualitative and quantitative increase in the intrusion and, therefore, the inherent damage."

Additionally, the court considers that the same network was previously condemned on two occasions (in 2014 and 2015) to pay compensation to María del Monte, on those occasions for an amount of €50,000, also for information related to her romantic relationships. For the judges, the fact that María del Monte had to resort to justice on two previous occasions for information related to her sexual orientation, and that the same intrusions into her private life were repeated, produced a "feeling of unease, helplessness, and defencelessness."