ACMA says Channel Seven did not breach privacy

David Heath
Tuesday, 20 December 2011 14:30

IT Policy - Regulation

Channel Seven sourced images of a grieving family from Facebook as part of a report into the sentencing of a convicted murderer.  A complaint regarding the use of these images was dismissed by the ACMA.

According to the Australian Communications and media Authority's (ACMA) report of its investigation, "The news report concerns the sentencing of Mr X for the murder of Ms Y.  the news report broadcast 13 photographs of Ms Y and her family and friends, accessed from a Facebook page in tribute to Ms Y, as well as a post entered by the 14 year old nephew of Ms Y, which included his name and photograph."

The ACMA applied the standard test of the 'ordinary, reasonable viewer' to determine how the program (as aired) would have been understood.

According to the complainant, "The news item attributed comments to my wife and myself which we did not make."

This complaint was upheld to the extent that the Channel Seven reporter had clearly (although inadvertently) added their own thoughts as if they had been expressed by the complainant.  With this determination, the ACMA found that the licensee (Channel Seven) breached clause 4.3.1 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice (The Code).

The more significant complaint centred around clause 4.3.5 of the code:

"In broadcasting news and current affairs programs, licensees must not use material relating to a person's personal or private affairs, or which invades an individual's privacy, other than where there is an identifiable public interest reason for the material to be broadcast."

The complainant submitted, "The news item which was broadcast included photographs which were lifted, without permission, from 'social networks' and which carried the visible names of a child who had been threatened by Mr X."

The licensee responded to the complainant: "...The photographs displayed publically on the website were briefly used for the purpose of reporting news, which occurs from time to time across the media, not just by Channel Seven.  These photographs are available to anyone who accesses the internet site.  We certainly did not have any intention to offend you and only used the photos to the extent that was necessary."

Read on for what Channel Seven said to the ACMA.