FC: Are journalists too eager to side with privacy over free speech?

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

[From the Poynter.org group weblog... Privacy, at least some aspects of it, 
is in tension with free speech. After all, privacy can mean "you are 
prohibited from saying something about me" while the right to free speech 
tugs in precisely the opposite direction. Journalists in particular should 
be cautious about siding with the former at the expense of the latter. 
--Declan]

---

     Rich Gordon (http://www.poynter.org/tidbits/whoarewetidbits.htm#outing)
     on privacy and public records

     Business Week has an article
     (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2002/tc20021029_1516.htm)
     about the debate over whether public records should be made available
     via the Internet. It's not a bad article, overall, but an impartial
     reader would probably conclude from reading it that there are many
     kinds of public information that shouldn't be posted to the Web. For
     instance, the article mentions property assessment information and
     asks, "How does [posting it online] serve the public good?" Well,
     here's one reason: It allows me — without trekking to the courthouse —
     to compare my assessment to that of my neighbors, to make sure I'm
     being taxed equitably. The article also brings up the infamous case of
     Rebecca Schaeffer, the actress who was murdered by a stalker who
     tracked her down through state driver's license records. That slaying
     spurred Congress to require states to block public access
     (http://www.rcfp.org/news/mag/v.cgi?24-1/foi-congress) to driver's
     license records — eliminating a tool that reporters have often found
     useful to track down a source. The irony, unmentioned in the Business
     Week article, is that Schaeffer's killer got her address through a
     private investigator — and private investigators continue to have
     access (http://www.rcfp.org/news/1999/1115renovc.html) to license
     records under the federal law.

     This article is, I'm afraid, all too typical. Frequently, coverage of
     privacy issues in the mainstream press seems to take the side of the
     privacy advocates — even when the cause of privacy is directly at odds
     with the ability of journalists to do their jobs. (And, I'd argue, with
     the role of the press in a democratic society.) I'm not arguing that
     journalists should become advocates in their coverage of privacy issues
     — but I think we can do a better job of making sure that the case for
     availability of public records online gets a fair representation in our
     coverage.
   




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