Media Law 4

Confidentiality/Privacy

1.Confidentiality - Official secrets act and test of condfidentiality, You cannot diclose information without lawful permission. People may pass on information to journalists in confidence, and they have the right to expect this not to be passed on to anyone else.

2. Privacy - Dispute between Article 8 of the human rights act; the right to respect for private and family life, his home and correspondence And artcile 10; the right to freedeom of expression

3. In the public Interest - NOT just the interest of the public. Article 8 says that you have the right to privacy, however when you discover something that is in the interest of the public they have the right to know for example when;

.Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety
.Protecting public health and safety
.Preventing the public from being mislead by action or statement of an individual or organisation.

For example it could be argued that if an MP is portraying themselves as a family man for which they have a private life to, however if they are caught having an affair then this may be of interest of the public. The people who voted for the MP have a right to know as they are representing their constituency.

Also it is important to remeber that people have the right to privacy so you should always be sure that you have permssion to use what someboday has said or film them. In situations such as demonstrations such as we have seen recently, these people are in public looking for attetion for their cause so to a degree they can expect to be filmed. This is what is known as implied consent as staging big public events is not a private matter.


The Official secrets act (1911) ELIMINATES the public interest defence.

If somebody reveals secret information to a journalist, this has the potential to be ' third party breech' injuctions can be put on to stop publication. An injucntion gives the person anonomity. A super injuction means that nothing can be said at all, there is effectively no story.

A Breech of confidence happens when;

- It has to be ''the necessary quality of confidence''
- There has to be circumstances imposing an obligation
- There was no permission to pass on information
- Detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave the information.