Privacy debate - Hypocrisy of tabloid’s owners

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has said he finds it hard “to get worked up” about the publication of the semi-nude photographs of Kate Middleton.

He clearly does not agree with the attitude of Justice Minister Alan Shatter on the need to revisit the shelved privacy legislation.

Mr Shatter acknowledged that the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights already protect the right to privacy. Thus there is cause for concern in the knee-jerk manner in which he raised the possibility of revisiting the flawed Privacy Bill, which was seriously discredited some years ago.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin categorised the suggestion as a cynical piece of opportunism. Reintroducing that flawed legislation is only likely to protect the corrupt and powerful at the expense of the rest of society.

The traditional print and broadcast media has generally conformed to existing legislation and those who have overstepped the bounds have been subject to rigorous deformation legislation. The traditional media have usually respected the right to privacy, but technological developments have allowed others to invade those rights and post the most vile, defamatory material on the internet with near impunity.

Before the advent of the internet, the publication in this country of the recent controversial photographs would have been virtually inconceivable. Sophisticated technological advances now allow people to observe cars, rooms, and outdoor locations with microphones and tiny cameras that than can be activated with a mobile phone from hundreds of miles away.

The potential for abuse online is essentially ignored while the focus is centred on traditional media. This diversion actually facilitates wrongdoers.

The publication of the controversial photographs was not in good taste, but Mr Rabbitte was spot-on in his assessment that there was “a big dollop of hypocrisy on the part of the part-owner of the Irish Daily Star, who hasn’t been behind the door in exploiting... women”.

Richard Desmond, the founder of Northern and Shell, the British co-owner of the newspaper, is a pornographer who has built much of his media empire on adult television channels and adult magazines. His indignation at the publication of such photographs sounds particularly hollow.

Expressions of surprise and revulsion by the shareholders of the Irish Daily Star are particularly difficult to understand. The editor essentially advertised the publication in advance by announcing openly on radio the previous evening that the newspaper would be publishing the photographs. It was the worst-kept secret since the severity of the last budget.

The Irish Daily Star has been publishing similar photographs of celebrities for years, yet Northern and Shell and Independent News and Media raised no objection. They shared the newspaper’s handsome profits, but now they are cynically trying to shift the blame.