Privacy Issues

The Press Council's recent submission on privacy and the media exemption to the Privacy Act.

The Australian Press Council, in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission on privacy, argues that questions of privacy require acknowledgement of the balance between private rights and the public's right to know and that any development of privacy rights, whether legislative or judicial, must stress the public interest as the appropriate criterion for determining whether there has been an invasion of privacy.

As the body that administers the Privacy Standards for the Print Media under the media exemption in the Privacy Act 1988, the Council submitted that the media exemption inserted into the Act is working well, and that the Council's experience indicates that an appropriate balance between the flow of information on matters of public concern and individuals' rights to privacy in their private affairs has been struck by that exemption.

The Council was responding to matters raised in the commission's Issues Paper 31, Review of Privacy - a review that is not only looking at the current Privacy Act, which is largely concerned with the protection of personal information held by public and private sectors, but also at the wider question of whether there needs to be further protection of personal privacy.

The Council's submission dealt largely with two issues:

• the threshold issue of whether there is a need for a judicial or legislative recognition of a cause of action for breach of privacy and
   
• with respect to the Privacy Act, whether the extant media exemption should be retained and, if it is retained, whether it requires amendment or additional definitions inserted into the Act.

A slightly summarised version of the submission, which responds seriatim to particular issues related to the media exemption presented in the Issues Paper, was published.

The submission can be found at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/fop/fop_subs/priv_issues.html.

For more information on Privacy Issues, and the Council's views on Privacy, go to
Privacy material on the website
The Council's policy on Privacy
The Council's Privacy Standards for the Print Media.

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