Press freedom: It8217;s right to know vs right to privacy

NEW DELHI, April 6: The recent episodes of the media's intrusion into US President Bill Clinton's private life and the role of the so called...

NEW DELHI, April 6: The recent episodes of the media8217;s intrusion into US President Bill Clinton8217;s private life and the role of the so called papparazi in Princess Diana8217;s death has highlighted the extent to which the press intrudes into the private life of public figures and the issue of the right to privacy of individuals.

Participants at the international conference of the World Association of Press Councils which is being held in Delhi used these incidents and many other lesser known ones to explore the thin line between the public8217;s right to know8217; and a persons right to privacy.

They said that the press was often unapologetic about looking into the intimate details of the lives of public figures, saying that privacy needed to be violated in the national interest8217;. But very often when the shoe was on the other foot and the press or sections of it came under public scrutiny, the media themselves were the first to cite privacy as an excuse not to reveal anything which might damage theircredibility.

Participants also said that privacy laws were a double edged weapon 8211; which often prevented the full facts of the case from coming out. For instance, a participant from New Zealand took the example of laws which ban public revelation of the status of a persons health or any medical treatment which that person may have undergone. He cited the case of a woman who was refused kidney dialysis treatment by a government hospital because the state of her health meant that undergoing the treatment would be extremely risky for her.

She went to the press with a story about the callousness of public health authorities who refused treatment to patients who needed it and there was much criticism of the health minister in the media.

The health minister however, could not present her side of the story 8212; since privacy laws prevented her from revealing that the treatment would have been risky, given the woman8217;s state of health.

Talking about the Indian press, journalist H K Dua said that Indian press hasgenerally been conservative about reporting the private lives of national leaders.

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8220;This seems to be an outcome of the freedom struggle when many leaders were treated with reverence.8221;But he also pointed out the flip side 8212; the lapses which have occurred because the Indian press chose not to pry into the lives of politicians.

Citing an example, he said that just before partition, if the Indian press had reported that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was critically ill and that he was likely to die within a few months, the effect on the decision to partition the country might have been momentous.

He said that there was a general consensus among the participants in the conference that the private life of public figures is not really that private if it affects the performance of their public duties.Various speakers spoke also about the status of privacy laws in their respective countries.