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A quick plug before we get into this week’s edition. Discounted tickets are now available for our second Off the Record live thanks to our early bird offer.
On 15 October in London, we’ll be bringing together senior political journalists and Westminster insiders to talk pitching, building relationships, the Budget and how “the lobby” works… followed by drinks, nibbles and networking.
Grab your discounted ticket here. You never know, maybe we’ll talk about op-eds too.
I’ve been doing some legal consultancy in the last few months with a variety of publishers including regional papers and trade publications.
I should hold my hands up now and say I am not a qualified lawyer, but I am the chair of the National Council for the Training of Journalists law board and have always been on top of media law developments as part of my journalism career.
Interestingly, wherever I go there’s a similar conversation at the moment: can we name someone and if we do and later get a request to remove it from a website, do we have to?
It’s more of a live issue for publishers than ever before – and I think it’s of value to PRs to know a bit of the thinking and how it can impact their work.
So, a few thoughts on privacy, court orders, standard anonymity and the right to be forgotten (we have covered other legal issues like defamation in the past here ).
PRIVACY
The days of kiss and tell stories in the Sunday tabloids are long gone because of stricter privacy laws around relationships. And I’m assuming not many of you are in that field anyhow. But other privacy rules are just as strong and since the introduction of the Human Rights Act 25 years ago have been largely settled by the courts and precedent.
So beyond a footballer being out injured, it is largely impossible to discuss someone’s health without their explicit permission.
That means if you are a health PR, case studies need to give their consent to be identified and pictured. But many other lines of PR will also come across the issue. A senior director stepping down from his role because of illness for example. If you say what is wrong with him make sure it is agreed with the executive. If it is sent out to the media, they will fairly assume they have permission to report it.
There are public interest defences to a breach of privacy – exposing criminality or a danger to public health and safety.
