After a highly publicized five-month battle, the dust has finally settled on the lawsuit that Zaha Hadid filed against New York Review of Books (NYRB) and critic Martin Filler. — archrecord.construction.com
The following announcement was released:
On January 22, 2015, following extensive settlement negotiations, Ms. Zaha Hadid withdrew her lawsuit against the New York Review of Books and Mr. Martin Filler. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, which remain confidential, Ms. Hadid has accepted the apology of the New York Review of Books and Mr. Filler, and is pleased to announce, in conjunction with the settlement, the donation of an undisclosed sum of money to a charitable organization that protects and champions labor rights.
Previously:
8 Comments
Double win for Filler: the suit is dropped and Zaha makes a donation to the cause she ignored.
Undisclosed sum: that 20 bucks will do so much to help the slave laborers of the world!
Sorry, I had to get that bit of snark out. But while a donation to a human rights cause is certainly welcome, IMO it's fairly self-serving at this point. Too little, too late.
Agreed, too little too late, settlement must have been modest. Can't believe that NYRB doesn't fact check when they falsely accuse someone of being responsible for hundreds of deaths. The loss of income and character damage given her earnings surely could have bankrupted the magazine. Don't understand why she didn't follow through just on principle. NYRB admits to error and they do not fire the writer! They should be ashamed that Filler is still in their employ. Architecture journalism now has its own Jayson Blair. New low from what was once a respectable magazine.
margoak, it was a factual error, but the claims of "defamation of character" or whatever were, given many other instances of Zaha's and Schumaker's public pronouncements, not solid. In fact they were gossamer.
Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumaker publicly pronounced many other instances of one thousand laborers perishing on other projects?
My understanding is the quote by Filler later sited in his apology was the 'factual error' at the center of the lawsuit, retraction and settlement: "estimated one thousand laborers … have perished while constructing her project thus far."
The case claimed that the entire article was damaging to Zaha's reputation, not just the factual error. Statements made by her and those in her employ in many other venues besides that one article support the overall portrait painted by the article. I'm saying that if one were to go to trial saying that Filler's article alone was damaging to her reputation, beyond the one factual error, that it would have been a very difficult case to make.
I give up I'm going back to a discussion of climate change with Rick Scott and Sarah Palin
Here is a list of the most influential architects in the Middle East. One of Zaha's employees is #8. Not excusing Zaha's apparent unwillingness to use her influence to bring about positive change, as not a single other name on this list is recognizable as a "star"chitect, but perhaps those concerned with human rights should be approaching all of these architects as well.
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