Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Almost Done

I have been totally focused on writing for that law paper - living, eating, and breathing privacy laws and civil rights. This has been having odd effects - for instance, when I saw in the news that the PM related a conversation with a pizza guy as part of the announcement of a new policy, I automatically figured that was OK as the reference did not identify the person, and did not put him in a bad light.

This did not stop the press from locating the pizza guy anyway and verifying the story. Which was also fine as it is in the public interest and the guy was treated well.

The subject of the PMs pizza habits came up, the guy refused to disclose them; when challenged "that's diplomatic of you" he corrected with "that's not diplomatic, it's just personal" and I jumped up shouting "yes!" That was exactly correct, the information was private and unrelated to the story - though the PM, as a public figure, has a reduced expectation of privacy in these things, that does not mean that it is a good idea to talk about everything.

I see that the Law Society is also completing a review of the privacy act.

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