Privacy and the Press: Is State Regulation in the Public Interest?

Privacy and the Press: Is State Regulation in the Public Interest?

Introduction

During the period from 1970s to the 1990s, numerous newspapers and magazines, emerged in different parts of Britain, promoting views other than those presented by the conventional conservative mainstream media. This new press demonstrated diversity and promoting conditions and issues concerning the local communalities. Although many of those titles died away shortly, some of them survived even for nearly 2 decades. Some amongst them were founded by disgruntled journalists, whereas a great majority of those were founded and run by people with no formal or informal training in journalism. Most were published on monthly basis, some fortnightly, and small number of them was published weekly. Almost each of those publication relied mainly upon the idea unpaid labour, but there are some cases when low-paid staff was hired to do stuff others were no capable of doing. As some reached their natural end over the time, few survived past the first half of 1990s. Many factors were responsible behind the emergence of those newspapers and magazine - anti-colonial struggles, strengthening of social movements, student protests and other developments in Europe were among the those factors.

Today, the broad idea of 'public interest' is recognizable to large extent of the public, and it is measured as an appropriate protection for media invasion of privacy under suitable conditions. However, there did not appear to be any one definite meaning of the term. It is supposed that everybody has a right to privacy; however it turned out to be obvious that such a right is uncertain on the behaviour of an organisation or an individual, and the freedom the individual occupies. The methods and degree of intrusion into the privacy of an individual are held as being reliant upon the level of public interest. The greater the level of public interest, the higher level of intrusion allowed. The concept of privacy has modified over time in rather similar way to that of thoughts concerning decency and taste. The progress of a surveillance society has untied prospective of privacy. Thus, the giving of permission or approval to the publication of personal information works to free the press from the charge of privacy intrusion.

Discussion

Press have long been a key player in politics. Newspapers, television, periodicals, and individually produced publications engage the public and elites by providing information and analyses. In the process, they influence the decisions and perceptions of the entire range of political actors. The print media and their journalists and editors are engaged in all aspects of the political process, and the political institutions and players are occupied, in different ways, in determining what appears in the media.

Public Interest

The idea of public interest clearly entails matters that are supposed to affect a substantial number of individuals. In general, it cannot be something that the public is simply interested in being acquainted with; even though, this is less precise where the well-known press is ...