Privacy Issues to Confront Media Self-Regulation

The recent News of the World scandal involving the Murdoch News Empire has raised issues of not only of journalism ethics, responsibilities, and standards, in Australia but has also brought attention to the need for legislative regulation of the industry; particularly in the case of privacy. Journalists have always argued that they are able to regulate their own affairs, but recent events have made it increasingly apparent that this may not be true.

Media organisations in Australia have always been exempt from the Privacy Act in the conduct of journalism on condition that they abide by their own industry codes. But it can be questioned whether a number of journalists knew of the content or even the existence of their company code. The Federal Government has declared that they would get around to looking into this issue in 2012. It is becoming apparent that such issues cannot be left to the tardy development of the common law and will require quick legislative remedy.   

Read the full article here. 

If you need more information or access to reliable Intellectual Property legislation, contact Timebase for a free trial of our Intellectual Property Point-in-Time product for the Australian Legislation.