Why press freedom trumped privacy rights

By now everyone has heard the comments Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt made on the medical isotope shortage that were caught on tape. According to a column by Dean Jobb at the Chronicle Herald in Halifax, the discovery of the tape, and the events that followed, has helped the media draw a line between individual privacy rights and the public’s right to know.

When former press secretary Jasmine MacDonnell sought to prevent the newspaper from publishing the comments on the tape – claiming invasion of privacy – the Herald went to court where Justice Gerald Moir of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court made it clear that the public’s right to know trumped her claims to privacy. “It is wrong to deprive the press, and the public it serves, of remarks made privately … after those remarks became available because of poor record keeping or management,” he said.

To read more on this, visit: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1127620.html