This presentation teaches students the ethical values in conflict in ethical dilemmas involving privacy. It highlights instances that are generally public and generally private. It teaches students to verify when using information from Facebook and to use a three-step template when making decisions in privacy cases. It is based on Chapter 14 of The Ethical Journalist by Gene Foreman. It was created by Professor Linda Austin for her JNL-2105 journalism ethics students at the National Management College in Yangon, Burma.

1. CHAPTER 14:
PRIVACY
• Identify the ethical conflict with privacy and what
the SPJ and Myanmar Codes say about it.
• Identify what’s private and what’s public.
• Verify when seeking to report information from
Facebook.
• Use a three-step template to make decisions in
privacy cases.

2. WHAT’S THE ETHICAL
DILEMMA IN PRIVACY?
Seek truth
and report
it.
Minimize
harm.

3. SPJ CODE SAYS:
Minimize harm:
• Recognize that private people have
a greater right to control
information about themselves than
public figures and others who seek
power, influence or attention.
• Weigh the consequences of
publishing or broadcasting
personal information.
• Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity,
even if others do.

4. MYANMAR CODE SAYS:
• 5.1 The publication or broadcasting
of information about the private or
family lives of individuals without
their consent is acceptable only
where this is justified in the public
interest.

5. EXAMPLES: “in the public interest”
• Detection, exposure or
prevention or crime or
corruption
• Protection of public health and
safety
• Preventing the public from being
misled on an important matter
• Satisfying an overriding public
right to know.
• Revealing the private affairs of
public figures is legitimate
where relevant to their fitness
for their public roles

6. EXAMPLES: “in the public interest”
• Public performance of public
officials
• Crime
• Accidents
Page 231

7. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
In the public interest
Of interest to the public

8. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Trespassing or intrusion:

9. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Trespassing or intrusion: entering
someone’s property without permission

10. WHAT’S PRIVATE?
Phone hacking:

11. WHAT’S PRIVATE?
Phone hacking: listening to someone’s
voicemails without permission

12. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
False light:
Bynicoleleec

13. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
False light: creating an erroneous,
unattractive impression of someone

14. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Embarrassing private facts:
Journalists should not report
embarrassing information from
someone’s past:
• if it has no bearing on the person’s
present life, or
• if it is something that the public has
no legitimate interest in.

15. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Embarrassing private facts

16. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Embarrassing private facts: He was gay.

17. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Misappropriation:

18. WHAT’S PRIVATE? (pg. 232)
Misappropriation: using someone’s
name or image to sell a product without
their permission
Buy this
wedding gown
at Amazing
Weddings!

19. WHAT’S PUBLIC? (pg. 233)
Public places:
May 27, 2015

20. WHAT’S PUBLIC? (pg. 233)
Public places: anything that takes place
in public view
May 27, 2015

21. WHAT’S PUBLIC? (pg. 233)
Public records:
ByMeaghanO’Malley

22. WHAT’S PUBLIC? (pg. 233)
Public records: documents open to
public inspection
ByMeaghanO’Malley

23. WHAT ABOUT FACEBOOK?
Public or private?

24. WHAT ABOUT FACEBOOK?
Public, but always verify!

25. Lesson:
Verify, verify,
verify.
From a presentation by Karen
Workman of The New York Times

26. GRAY AREAS: USE THE TEMPLATE
• Ordinary people thrust into the news.
• Victims of sex crimes.
• Public officials’ and public figure’s
private lives.
• Suicides.
• Juveniles accused of crimes.
• Adult relatives of the prominent.

31. CASE
STUDY –
THRUST
INTO THE
NEWS
Use the template on page 234 to answer:
 Should the San Francisco Chronicle have
reported that the hero who stopped a
presidential assassination was gay?
Oliver Sipple (left) grabbed would-
be assassin Sara Jane Moore,
saving President Ford.

32. CASE STUDY
NO. 14: ARTHUR
ASHE’S
SECRET
(PAGE 244)
• Should journalists have reported that Arthur Ashe had
AIDS when he didn’t want the news known?
• Was it “in the public interest” to report it, of just “of
public interest”?
By Cliff

33. ARTHUR ASHE: TENNIS GREAT
1943: Born in Richmond, USA
1950: Began playing tennis on
blacks-only public courts
1968: Ranked No. 1 player in the
world, won the U.S. Open
1975: Won at Wimbledon
1980: Retired from tennis and
devoted himself to humanitarian
causes
1992: Announced he had AIDS,
fearing that USA Today was going
to print that fact
1992: Founded Arthur Ashe
Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS
1993: Died of AIDS, contracted
from a blood transfusion
By Bogaerts, Rob /
Anefo - Nationaal
Archief Fotocollectie
Anefo Item number
927-7839. Licensed
under CC BY-SA 3.0
nl via Wikimedia
Commons

34. QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
• 1. Use the template on page 234 to answer this
question:
Should USA Today have reported that retired tennis
star Arthur Ashe had AIDS when he didn’t want it
known?
2. If you would have kept Ashe’s disease secret, would
you have disclosed the cause of death when he died in
1993, even though his family objected?
3. If the family of former President Ronald Reagan had
wanted to keep his Alzheimer’s disease a secret, would
you have kept it secret?
4. What rights to privacy does a person give up when
he or she becomes a public official? A public figure or
celebrity?

35. CASE STUDY NO.
15: IDENTIFYING
A 13-YEAR-OLD
RAPE VICTIM
(PAGE 247)
• Should the media have stopped using the kidnap
victim’s name once it became known she had been
sexually assaulted? Can you un-ring a bell?
By Priyambada Nath

36. QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
• 1. Use the template on page 234 to answer this
question:
Should the media have stopped using the kidnap
victim’s name once it became known she had
been sexually assaulted? Can you un-ring a bell?
2. If your news organization stopped using the
name, how would you explain that decision to your
audience?
3. What if her parents had hidden her from the
media instead of allowing her to appear before
reporters and “say thank you”? Does that change
your decision?