On The Protection Of The Privacy Of Public Figures

Privacy is not only a negative “right of free intrusion”, but also a positive right ofcontrol and exploitation. It has brought into full play of people’s autonomous andindependent control of private sector, private life and private information. Along withthe development of International Movement of Human Rights and the growth ofawareness of human rights, privacy has been assured and protected by most countriesgradually. Moreover, it has been included into constitutions as a basic human rightand become one constitutional right.As a special social group, the privacy of those public figures has inextricable relationswith public interest because of their particular occupation, social status and influence.This has decided that the privacy of public figures would be restricted to some degree.Plus, with the development of the computer technology, monitoring technology andthe news media, their privacy has often been violated by the medium that chasing thecommercial interest. As a result, the infringement lawsuit of public figures’ privacyhas been increased during recent years. Facing such situation, how to protect theprivacy of public figures has become one of the hot topics in the fields of law andlegal affairs, which is also the focus of this thesis.This paper is divided into five parts:The first chapter devotes to the understanding of the connotation of privacy. Inthe first place, this thesis introduces that privacy is put forward by two Americanjurists: Samuel Warren and Louis D.Brandeis. As the development of the society,privacy has gradually become a right which is protected by most countries and haschanged into a right of public properties little by little, and finally, it has formed abasic right that has been protected by most constitutions.The second part gives a clear definition of the public figures, considering that thepublic figures contain timeliness, publicity and degree. What’s more, in view of theclassification of the public figures domestic and overseas, and thinking about theparticular situations at home, this paper would divide them into political public figure,social public figure and non-voluntary public figure. This classification could lay atheoretical foundation for the protection of the privacy of public figures.The third part is the key section of this paper, which discusses the theoretical foundations of the restriction and protection of privacy of public figures. Due to thehigh social status and great influence, the privacy of public figures is always inconflict with the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and the right to beinformed. To protect the public interest, the privacy of public figures has to berestricted to some degree. However, this doesn’t mean that any public interest couldoverpower personal privacy. On the contrary, in the specific cases, the privacy andother interests should be measured through the balance of legal interest. At the sametime, as a basic human right, the legal basis of constitutional protection is dignity ofhuman personality and personal autonomy. When the unconscionability occurredbetween two subjects, or the public figure’s power is far enough to fight against thestrong groups, the autonomy of private law could not slove the violation of privacy ofthe public figures from news media, entertainment reporters and other civil subjects.Facing this problem, the only way to settle this issue is to seek help through the basicconstitutional right with the intervention of state power.The forth part is the comparative study of the protection of the privacy of publicfigures. As the countries which protect the privacy in a relatively mature way,America and German pay much attention to the protection of the freedom of press. Asa result, when the freedom of press and the privacy of public figures are in conflict,the freedom of press is always been protected. Given this, our country should beinformed that there is no absolute freedom, and the abuse of freedom of press couldseriously violate the privacy of public figure. From this perspective, we should restrictthe freedom of press so that the privacy of public figure could be protected.In the fifth part, according to the lack of legal protection to privacy, the paper hasprovided some advices to protect the privacy of public figures. The most importantfactor is to include the privacy into constitution and give protection to the privacy ofpublic figures form the height of constitutions. On the other hand, to protect theprivacy of public figures from the perspectives of judicial protection and systemsecurity should be also needed.