Saturday, November 12, 2011

Media Law - Confidentiality and Privacy

The following are my notes from the Confidentiality and Privacy lecture.

- Must be wary of breaching the Official Secrets Act of 1989
- There is much disputed territory between Article 8 and Article 10 - the right to a private life and the right to freedom of speech
- PCC definition of public interest:
Exposing crime that the police have failed to
Exposing harm to the community
Exposing corruption

- You must think in the public interest NOT just of interest to the public

- no defence against official secrets act - military/ state secrets
- all editors are given advisory notices eg don't publish military secrets
- Met police trying to use Official Secrets Act to force a guardian journalist to reveal his source

common law secrets
- have a right to keep secrets
- third party breach of confidence - THIS IS A CRIME

- "we have seen a document.." don't say you have possession - must find out the other side of the story

- something is confidential if:
1. quality of confidence
2. circumstance imposing an obligation
3. no permission
4. detrimental to the person

common law - judges making the law as they go along
statutory law - parliament legislation

consent
- explicit - signed contract
- implicit - aware of camera eg waving

A key case in Privacy Law is Princess Caroline of Monaco in 2004

- injunction gets you anonymity
- super injunction means you can't even mention the injunction
- an injunction against one is an injunction against all media



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