Celebrities and Privacy
Scope People in the public eye consists of politicians, athletes, celebrities and other individuals who are famous. For our presentation we will be concentrating on celebrities and whether they should expect their privacy to be respected by the media. Media comes in various forms, with the more common ones being newspapers, tabloids, radio, paparazzi, internet, social media and many more.
A conflict of rights? Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights stated that every person has the “right to respect for his private and family life. His home and his correspondence”. However, it contradicts with Article 10 of the same Act that states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression. The exercise of these freedoms “carries with it duties and responsibilities and may be subject to conditions and restrictions; for example, in the interests of the protection of the reputation or rights of others” (Fenell, 2008). MEAA Code of ethics gives a practical form to freedom of expression and encourages the journalists to have public responsibilities as an honest and efficient journalist that respect the rights of others. The 8th code of ethics in MEAA is to ‘use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material and never exploit a person’s vulnerability or ignorance of media practice’, meanwhile the 11th code of to ‘respect private grief and personal privacy. According to an interview on “The Today Show” with Dr Bruce Weinstein, The Ethics Guy and an ethics columnist for Businessweek.com discusses the ethics of stalking celebrities via Gawker, a famous celebrity gossip website’s ‘Gawker Stalker’ feature. He was quoted to say “Just because we have a right to do something doesn't mean that it is RIGHT to do it. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean that we OUGHT to.”, and the celebrities deserved their right to privacy like any other normal humans regardless of their celebrity status. Weinstein also stated that we live in a
A conflict of rights? Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights stated that every person has the “right to respect for his private and family life. His home and his correspondence”. However, it contradicts with Article 10 of the same Act that states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression. The exercise of these freedoms “carries with it duties and responsibilities and may be subject to conditions and restrictions; for example, in the interests of the protection of the reputation or rights of others” (Fenell, 2008). MEAA Code of ethics gives a practical form to freedom of expression and encourages the journalists to have public responsibilities as an honest and efficient journalist that respect the rights of others. The 8th code of ethics in MEAA is to ‘use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material and never exploit a person’s vulnerability or ignorance of media practice’, meanwhile the 11th code of to ‘respect private grief and personal privacy. According to an interview on “The Today Show” with Dr Bruce Weinstein, The Ethics Guy and an ethics columnist for Businessweek.com discusses the ethics of stalking celebrities via Gawker, a famous celebrity gossip website’s ‘Gawker Stalker’ feature. He was quoted to say “Just because we have a right to do something doesn't mean that it is RIGHT to do it. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean that we OUGHT to.”, and the celebrities deserved their right to privacy like any other normal humans regardless of their celebrity status. Weinstein also stated that we live in a