Individual Right to Privacy - Essay Example

Individual Right to Privacy There are many individuals globally who always attract some attention whenever they are in public. These individuals always attract this attention for either the positive reasons or the negative ones. There has always been a debate on the issue of the privacy of these individuals. Some of these individuals feel that the media is invading their privacy at some points. The media have freedom of acquisition of information and conveying it. However, there are some extents to which this freedom applies. This paper aims at discussing the levels to which the law gives such individuals right to privacy. This will be in relation to the right and freedom given to the magazine publishers by the constitution. The intellectual property right is the right given to an individual to control any of his or her intellectual creations. Mostly violation of this right by magazine publishers through publication of these creations without the owner’s permission this may involve the inclusion of photographs a written work by individuals the on the public eye. If a magazine publisher chooses to use any person material without their consent, this would be termed as a violation of intellectual property rights (Phillips & Firth 1999:84). Some of the victims of such violation are photographers, visual artists, and literal creations. If magazine publishers would use images of works by famous photographers without their assent, they would be guilty of violation of this right. However, the magazine can always use these creations by getting in touch with the persons involves and getting either written or verbal assent for the use of these creations. Another form of intellectual property right mostly abused by magazine publishers is the trade secrets. The trade secrets include confidential information that a business or a person uses to get an advantage over their competitors. This information might negatively involve the parties involved if the information gets to the public. A perfect replica of such an incident is one where maybe an artist had a formula or a manner in which he came up with his work. If a magazine publisher publishes this information without the consent of the artist, then the artists’ privacy would have been invaded. The magazine publisher, however, has the right to print this information if the secret of trade violated human rights in any way. The law protects individuals from exploitation just to some limit. Contract law is a section of law that is fundamental for the making of oral and written agreements. These kinds of agreements usually have an association with exchange of goods and services, money, and properties. It entails topics such as the nature of responsibilities, limitation of actions, freedom of contract, privacy of contract, termination of contract and covers also agency relationships, commercial paper, and contracts of employment. In this case, the contract would involve the publisher and the public figure. Such agreement always involves information on the nature of co-existence between the two parties. Magazine publishers sometimes use information about some of the public figures to come up with some of their article. There are cases where the magazine publishers have an agreement of exclusion of some of the information. In such an incidence, it would be a breach of contract if the magazine publishers goes ahead and publishes the information The law of libel protects each and every person from defamation in whatever means. Libels refer to written defamation. This may take place if a magazine publisher decides to publish a story that defames. If it would be proved that the information on the publication is not true, then the publisher will be guilty of defamation. Defamation always takes place as a result of gossip or speculations. When this takes place, the victim usually experiences hatred, shame, disgrace, contempt or ridicule. In some cases, the victim can even experience all the mentioned outcomes. Victims of defamation; however have the legal right of suing the involved publishers. Defaming information which happens to be true can never be termed as a libel. This is one of the defenses that a publisher may cling to in a case where there is an accusation on being libel. Those with the public eye might also fall victims of appropriation of name or likeness. This takes place when an individual uses someone name or likeliness for self-gain. The right of publicity protects always protect individuals from such an exploitation (Welsh, Greenwood & Banks 2007:237). A magazine publisher will be guilty if he uses a look-alike image of an individual or even the person’s name. This means that the individual’s rights of privacy have been abused. This law ensures that there is no use of an individual’s name or image in a way that they do not assent. This law thus protects those in the public eye from exposure to the public in a manner that they think is not right. These individual; therefore have the right to sue the magazine publisher in case such a thing takes place. The law provides for the right of expression to every individual whether public figure or not. The constitution giving a right of free expression should be careful to indicate where the boarders of these rights reach. In a case where both the magazine publisher and individuals in question want to exercise both rights, the public figure will claim that this is intrusion. Despite being supported by the right of expression, the legality of the publication will highly depend on the individual’s consent. If the publisher would go ahead and publish the story without the individual’s consent, then this will be termed as intrusion. The affected individual may take legal action against the publisher. Those with the public eye on the also deserve freedom of movement just like the other citizens. They are supposed to be free to go anywhere without fearing stalking by the media. Though they have this freedom, the media also have the right of passing any information to the public. The media have this right just as long as the information is true. This right really affects the privacy of the public figures. They might sometimes want to spend some time by themselves without the public’s prying eyes. The right of the media to collect and give the information will thus limit these individuals privacy. The public figures also have the freedom of association to anyone. This freedom might be compromised e when the persons they choose to associate with are of questionable reputation. At a time like this, magazine publishers would publish the information raising questions on the nature of their association. A good example will be that of a human rights activist associating with a businessperson believed to be involved in human trafficking. The publisher may publish the information of the association leaving out the reason and nature lest they be accused of being libel. This as we see highly affects individuals. This freedom however, does not limit the magazine publisher right to fetch and give information to the public. Freedom of Information Law is one of the laws that give the magazine publishers a right in acquiring any information held by public bodies. This law highly affects the privacy of individual especially those involved with the public services (Jones, 2002: 119). Details like debt records and tax payments are some of the information that could come handy to the magazine publishers. As long as the publisher does not violate the libel law, they have the freedom to publish the information especially if it is of social or economic interest to the public. The most affected by this would be government officials. A frequent scenario In such a case is of an individual seeking a public position. Information on their past has always been used for or against them. There is the law of transparency, which compels all magazine publishers to pass information to the public as they were without any alteration (Welsh, Greenwood & Banks 2007:375). This would be applicable in this paper in a case where there is information that is to be passed to the public, but it involves a public figure. The magazine publisher will be compelled to abide to the law of transparency at the expense of the individual’s privacy. This can however, be over turned if the information involved is of little significance to the public interest. With this, law, a magazine publisher might find itself in a tight situation, having to choose between the individual privacy and the need to maintain transparency. This kind of situation makes decision making hard as it will require the magazine publisher to decide on either option. This situation is likely to compromise the privacy of those in public eyes. The law of protection of data is a media law used globally. Data protection laws are there to ensure both the rights of a person to have privacy and the freedom of organizations to use data are honored with the aim of benefiting their business activities (Crone, 2001:121). This usually gives those in the public eye a hard time e especially with the advancement in technology. This is because technology has highly increased the accessibility of all forms of data. This can be evident in the rate at which people’s personal data are getting to the public. Such a provision by the law highly limits the use of information by magazine publishers. If they happen to use the data or publish it the person or persons involved may sue them of intrusion. However, there are laws that might come to their defense, for instance, if the data or information in question is a threat to the national security. The data might also be used in case it had some violation of basic human rights. The copyright law is another law that defends those in the public eye. This law ensures that those who creates musical, artistic, literal to dramatic work get their right to dictate the manner in which their creations are used (Jones, H 2002: 213). For the work to qualify for being a copyright it must be original and show some use of skills. This law therefore, protects all original work from the use by the magazine publisher without the owner’s permission. The law prohibits the publication of any part of such materials without the owner’s consent. This law always protects those in the public eye especially those involved in creative production from exploitation by the media. This is mostly common with literal and artistic works. A magazine publisher might want to use a creative piece by a certain individual to communicate or entertain their consumers. This law highly limits this kind of activities. This is because the individual involved has all rights over his creation and thus can either agree or disagree with the usage. Unauthorized access to information on individual’s communication gadgets and medium is a common form of violation of individual’s right to privacy. The most common one is the hacking of cell phones. Another common scenario is the case of hacking of personal computers with the aim of accessing information about the owner without permission. This would translate to violation of an individual’s right to privacy. Some even go to the extent of hacking networks and online communication networks. With such actions, the publishers can be accused of invading the individual’s privacy. With enough and sufficient evidence the victim can be able to sue the magazine publishers for invasion of privacy. Through the paper, we get to know that the people in the public eye do have a right to privacy. There are a good number of laws that give and defend these rights. The rights are all outlined in the paper and are all found in the constitution. There are also some freedoms and rights given to the media that limits these rights. The media’s freedom of acquiring information undermines these rights making it difficult for the public figure to get total privacy. This is encouraged by the eagerness of the public to know all about the public figure. The issue of national security also makes it hard these individuals to exercise their right of privacy. This is mainly because when there are speculations about and individual activities that are a threat to national security the media always have the permission of coverage. However, these individuals still enjoy their right of privacy in terms of defamation. This is because they have rights to sue a publishing company for defamation. With this, the appropriate conclusion will be that those in the public eyes have rights to privacy given to them by the constitution though highly affected by the freedoms given to the media. Bibliography International Journal of Communications Law and Policy. http://ijclp.net/ojs/index.php/ijclp. International Journal of Law and Management. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=ijlma. Jones, H 2002. Publishing Law 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. Journal of Information Law and Technology. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/. Media Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media. Murdie, Alan 2000. Intellectual Property Law 2nd ed. London: Cavdendish Publishing. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. http://ojls.oxfordjournals.org/. Phillips J & Firth A 1999. Introduction to Intellectual Property Law, 4th edition, London: Butterworths. Retrieved from, http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law. Welsh, T, Greenwood W & Banks D 2007. Mc Nae’s Essential Law for Journalists (19th ed), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More