Privacy laws - Be wary of politics and privacy mix

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has fired a shot across the bows of some of his Fine Gael colleagues in relation to reform of our privacy laws. Fine Gael ministers have been pushing the idea of statutory regulation of the media in recent months.

RTÉ’s handling of the Fr Kevin Reynolds affair exposed a serious mistake on the part of RTÉ, but the organisation was slapped with heavy financial penalties that most of the Irish media would find crippling, and this is likely to serve as a much more effective deterrent to the press than any legislation.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter stated that, as a result of the Irish Daily Star’s publication of topless photographs of Kate Middleton, he is looking at reviving privacy legislation that the previous Fianna Fáil-led administration was considering. The controversy surrounding that publication was not really prompted by the privacy issue so much as commercial posturing by the British element of the joint venture company behind that newspaper.