Time for Australia to embrace privacy as a basic human right
Schillings news | 2 November 2011
"Now is the time for Australia to fully embrace privacy and acknowledge this most basic human right."
In an article published in The Australian Newspaper, Schillings Partner John Kelly calls upon Australia to adopt privacy laws. The full article is available to download here and an extract set out below:
In today's digital age individuals' privacy is subject to attacks from the media, social networking, government agencies and through the ever expanding databases that profile peoples' lives.
A free press is the cornerstone of any democratic society. So any privacy law must protect the role of a free and inquiring media able to keep the public informed of the events of the day and to hold those in authority to account.
Fears that a privacy law will lead to super injunctions being granted by judges who arbitrarily censor newspapers are misplaced.
The proposed privacy law seeks to carefully balance the right of privacy with freedom of expression and in particular the interest of the public to be informed about matters of public concern and the public interest.
This enshrines the original Bernstein and Woodward ideals of journalism that exposed the Watergate scandal.
Who would oppose the right to object to publication of material that is inherently private? There is a very big difference between what is of interest to the public as opposed to material that is genuinely in the public interest.
While we may be curious about the lives of celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman details about their lives and their families' lives are private.
