Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Whats at stake?
Public domain and the public interest freedom of expression
Individuals right to privacy and private space away from public view
Ethics: When might the private become public? The public domain
Position of individual in society eg privilege, power, authority, public responsibility What they have done eg wrongdoing, achievement, topicality Involvement in major newsworthy incident eg their story is part of the story-telling and fact-finding
Former Labour MP Claire Ward claims the News of the World may have contributed to the loss of her baby because of the stress it caused after threatening to publish a story about her. The politician says she received a call from the newspaper in December 2004, the same time that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was trying to access her voicemail The 40-year-old ex-MP does not say what the paper threatened to publish but said this stress while we were away had an impact on my health I cannot help but think that the stress I was placed under in the early stages of my pregnancy, particularly during my stay in Riga, may have contributed to the eventual loss of my baby. The former MP for Watford said she believed newspapers have a right to hold politicians to account but that she suffered intense and repeated interest in her personal life as the youngest woman MP. In 2001 she says she failed to stop the News of the World publishing a story about her and a Royal Marine dubbed Captain Hunk during a fact-finding trip to Kosovo The ex-MP, who has already been awarded damages for phonehacking from News Group Newspapers, told the reporter it was all complete nonsense. She said she was only 28 at the time but the experience left her fearing calls from Sunday newspapers and a sense of relief when a Sunday deadline had passed.
Balance public interest in full Regulations: and accurate reporting of BBC guidelines stories involving human suffering and distress with individuals privacy and respect for their human dignity Justify intrusions into individuals private life without consent by demonstrating clear public interest Report private legal behaviour of public figures only where broader public issues are raised
journalists free to express yourself unless the law prevented you from doing so eg libel, contempt of court, official secrets. With the new Act the right of freedom is now expressly guaranteed. Limited in similar ways to privacy in Article 8.
Seminar
You are an editor. Which of the following stories would you include in tomorrows newspaper? Give reasons with regard to ethics, public interest, guidelines and the law a) The Max Mosley case b) By hacking you have learnt David Cameron is conducting an affair with Home Secretary Theresa May. c) A popular 8-year-old boy in your local area has died in an accident and the only way to get the full story by deadline is by door-stepping his family. d) A senior Labour MP, tipped for a Cabinet position in the next reshuffle, has registered his civil partnership to his long-time male partner at a small ceremony attended only by relatives. e) Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have announced the adoption of a six year-old Guatemalan child with severe disabilities. f) By hacking you have learnt David Cameron plans to start a war with Iran in two weeks time.