So far, so circulation boosting… but wait! Isn’t that in breach of the PCC Code of Practice Clause 3?
PrivacyDidn’t a code of practice come about after Wills lost his mum is car crash and Lord Wakeham reviewed press practices?
i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications. Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent.
ii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.
Note - Private places are public or private property where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
As the BBC reported in 1997 the ‘new code of practice is a ban on the use of long lens photography to take pictures of people in private without their consent.’
It went on…
‘But some media commentators have questioned whether new guidelines will stick, as newspapers have in the past cheerfully violated self-imposed restrictions when they got in the way of a good story.’Surely not! The very thought.
The BBC went on to report a leading figure from one the UK’s most renowned newspaper institutions voicing confidence in the media’s capacity for self-restraint.
‘Sir David English, a former editor of the Daily Mail and chairman of the newspaper industry's code committee, said he was confident that British editors and journalists would observe the code.’Staff at Bobballs are always heartened by such optimism. But would Sir David consider the present Mail editor’s actions dubious in publishing this snap? Perhaps not… if it was taken with Wills’s consent. Can it be true? Is Wills playing with fire? Interested to see if a complaint is made to the PCC.
2 comments:
By jove, pheasant shooting, jolly good show wills, perhaps we might even see him joining Jim "Crusty the Clown" Shannon on his next south american dove massacre, eh?
Anyhoo Bob, surely the act of publishing that pic may also mean staff at Bobballs are also breaking the hallowed laws of the press complaints commission?
A lowly sub could be for a highjump or perhaps the murky level of understanding concerning how far blogs are governed by publishing laws may save their ass..
Ahhhh, but staff at bobballs really are acting within the public interest on this occasion which means that we publish safe in the knowldge that we operate strictly within the finest traditions of good, old-fashioned British journalism.
And of course, as the PCC codes are entirely self-regulating, staff at Bobballs will take the precaution of giving themselves a thorough dressing down just in case they got this one wrong. Either that or some galley slave sub will receive the office christmas card complete with surprise P45!
The only thing Bob regrets now is not headlining the pic with some bollocks caption like 'Wills bags tasty birds with handsome weapon', or some such... i'm so sorry...
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