Paul Ritchie comments:
…. While Lara Bingle and Nick Riewoldt are the high-profile casualties of a world where ”little brother” broadcasts everything, the tentacles of this new world have implications for all of us.
The time has come for a public debate about legislating a right to privacy. The traditional media will resist such a debate, raising concerns about freedom of the press. But a broad public interest test can provide such protection and ensure press freedom is not curtailed.
What we need is protection of what is private, or what should be private. This applies as much to the private photos of a footballer as to the old medical records of a politician. Creating a right to privacy might anger magazine publishers by hindering their ability to print images of Russell Crowe’s children at kindy or to photograph a soapie star sun-baking in her backyard – but how did we get to a place where such voyeurism on others was acceptable?
Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald.