Campbell footage an invasion of privacy
Channel Seven scrutinised by media authority over its treatment of former Transport Minister David Campbell.
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Seven News invaded the privacy of former NSW transport minister David Campbell when it outed him last year, but the broadcasting regulator has decided it did not breach television standards because of the public interest in knowing why he quit.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority investigated two complaints into Seven News's story showing footage of Mr Campbell leaving a gay sex club in Sydney. Mr Campbell quit his portfolio for "personal reasons" within the hour before the story went to air.
The authority's final report released today says it is satisfied the report invaded Mr Campbell's privacy because "the footage and information relating to the minister's out-of-hours conduct attending premises offering sexual services is something that an ordinary reasonable viewer would consider private".
David Campbell. Photo: Edwina Pickles
The commercial television code allows stories that invade privacy if there is an "identifiable public interest" in doing so.
The authority found that, while privacy protections extended to public figures, including politicians, those holding public office will be open to greater scrutiny in their personal lives than others.
It accepted Seven's argument that a minister's secret activities "could make a person vulnerable to being compromised" even when the secret activity was legal, and especially for those administering law enforcement. (Mr Campbell is a former police minister.)
Given the public criticism of his performance, the sensitivity of his portfolios, the suddenness of his resignation and lack of explanation ("for personal reasons"), the authority found there was a legitimate public interest "namely, the need for a deeper explanation of the circumstances behind the resignation".
"That was the only identifiable matter of public interest," it said, dismissing Seven's other grounds: including that he used a ministerial car to drive there and that he presented himself to the electorate as a "family man".
In other words, Seven's invasion of Mr Campbell's privacy might not have been justified had he not resigned and decided to tough it out.
Authority chairman Chris Chapman warned the case should not be treated as a precedent to invade politicians' private lives.
"Broadcasters cannot simply invoke blandly asserted public interest justifications for flagrant privacy breaches," he said.
"In this case, the resignation of the minister meant that the broadcast, which would otherwise have been an invasion of privacy, was justified, but solely because it provided a deeper explanation of the circumstances behind the resignation," he said.
"This was an on balance finding which relates to the particular circumstances of this case, and should be treated very carefully in terms of precedent value."
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