Kate Middleton: Photos, Privacy, Ethics

 About 10 days ago, the British Royal family was involved in a very publicized invasion of privacy. A French newspaper had published pictures of Duchess Kate Middleton sun-bathing topless while vacationing in a private chateau in Italy. As a response, the Royal family filed a criminal complaint and launched a claim for civil damages. They also attempted to prohibit other publications around the world from also publishing the highly-controversial pictures. But because the "demand" for the pictures was high, and most of the tabloids publishing the pictures expected an increase of profit should they print the pictures, many editors found themselves asking if their actions would constitute as an invasion of privacy and whether it was ethical or not.  

Tabloid journalism has always had a rocky relationship with invading into the private lives of celebrities. The reason behind this lies with money. Tabloid journalism, as the Irish Times puts it, "has nothing at all to do with the public welfare, all is geared [towards] [boosting] circulations and corporate profits at the expense of people's privacy." Since the newspaper in France, The Closer, first published the photographs of Middleton, other magazines such as the Chi magazine in Italy and the Daily Star in Ireland have followed suit. Regarding their controversial decisions and how ethics were involved the Daily Star editor Mike O'Kane told the BBC that "The Duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rhianna or Lady Gaga." Alfonos Signorini, editor of Chi, said that the "shots were a non violation of privacy because they were taken from a public space... the photos are absolutely within the confined of Italian Law." But other papers have taken firm stances against publishing the pictures because they see it as an invasion of privacy and stepping over the line. The Guardian Express newspaper in Las Vegas issued a statement condemning the publications who've published the pictures. The Express said, "Publications like ours can and should promote a boycott of the offending media outlets to let them know that our industry will not condone reckless behavior." 

The question of what constitutes invading personal privacy is one of the fundamental issues of journalism ethics. To define, invasion of privacy is the" intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause, which can give the person whose privacy has been invaded a right to bring a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity that intruded". As discussed in class, invasion of privacy's place in ethics is that privacy is a natural right of individuals and that "injury can be caused by being seen."  However, while regular individuals have the right to privacy from" "intrusion into one's private affairs, public disclosure of embarrassing private information, publicity which puts him/her in a negative public light, and appropriation of one's name or picture for commercial advantage", celebrities are usually not protected from invasions of privacy because they have already voluntarily placed themselves within the public eye and their activities are considered newsworthy. Thus, although unethical, it is not illegal for these publications to publicize the photos. 

My personal belief is that is a deplorable way for a newspaper to earn money and that if I was making the decision, I would not choose to print the pictures. What makes these pictures so controversial along ethical lines is because of how they were taken. Duchess Middleton was in a private home assuming that she was out of the public eye and that her privacy was completely protected from intrustion. But the photographer who captured the photographs is believed to have been from a side road 500 meters from the pool where Duchess Middleton was sunbathing That should not be a situation where a photographer is allowed to capture things within anyone's personal sphere of privacy. A spokesman for St. Jame's Palace said that "Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house." Duchess Middleton assumed that her privacy was protected since she had not voluntarily placed herself in the public eye. Papers that publish these photographs should be criticized by the public for doing so. By printing these pictures, the publications are showing their ethical views regarding invasion of privacy. And if their reasons behind doing so are deemed valid, then I think that media journalism is on a "very misguided course".