Seminar Report

This is my seminar report. Let me know what you think :)
Week 9: Moral Minefields: legal and ethical dilemmas
Presentation One: Public Interest and Privacy - Casey Stanwell

Ethical dilemmas for future journalists
Casey Stanwell, a communication student, presented a seminar on public interest and privacy, some of the many moral minefields in journalism.
The seminar was presented to a journalism class at the University of Newcastle earlier this week and questioned the morals in journalism, especially, when to draw the line between what is in the public interest and what is private.
Privacy is a legal and ethical dilemma for journalists and something that is encountered on a daily basis.
Ms. Stanwell also explained that privacy is a fundamental human right, yet there is no absolute definition and there are a number of dimensions to the concept.
She explained how journalists frequently test the line arguing that anything the public is interested in is in the public interest and therefore free to report on.
Ms. Stanwell described how there have been recent calls for a stricter definition of privacy, but journalists are questioning the consequences and what it would mean for them.
One reason against, is that they could possibly shield crimes and a journalist’s right to investigate.
"Privacy is something we value to provide a sphere within which we can be free from interference by others, and yet, it also appears to function negligatively, as the cloak under which one can hide domination, degradation or physical harm to others" said Ms Stanwell.
Ms. Stanwell came to the conclusion that there is a conflict between privacy and public interest with an imbalance of more privacy laws than counter policies.
Privacy laws impact on journalists as it inhibits and makes it harder for them to do their job and they must always be thinking about and weighing up the legal, moral and ethical issues and implications their story might have.
This is an important discussion topic for any future journalist.
Word Count: 297
Recommended for marking by: Sarah Snedden, Jillian Greig