Electronic Journalism

Lesson 16 : Ethics of Electronic Journalism

Guidelines for Intrusion

To conclude, let’s look at summary points (questions) that courts have deemed relevant in intrusion cases.

• Was what you heard or photographed also accessible to the average person standing on public property?
• Were you given permission to enter private property?
• Did you break the law when you could have gotten the information in a legal way?
• Was the information you got in the disputed circumstances newsworthy and of legitimate concern to the public?
• Was “prying” involved? (Prying goes beyond basic curiosity and moves into the area of offensive and inappropriate snooping into a private individual’s personal life?
• Is what you disclosed something that is generally agreed to be of a private nature?
• Would your alleged intrusion be deemed objectionable to a reasonable person?