Case Study on "Communication Law Invasion of Privacy and Libel"

Case Study 5 pages (1676 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Communications

Which of the four privacy torts do you think are specifically involved with regard to this case? Is this Libel?

The privacy tort that is involved in this case is public disclosure of private facts. It is an evasion of privacy to publicize private information about a person's life if the publication of this information would be embarrassing to a reasonable person and the information is not of legitimate public interest or concern. To make public means to communicate the information to a large number of people. There is no liability for further publicizing information that is already considered public. A legitimate public interest in the subject matter or the person involved will outweigh any embarrassment to the plaintiff. In these cases public interest will always trump offensiveness. False light laws are intended to protect a person's mental or emotional well-being. If information is publicized falsely then a tort of defamation might have occurred. If the communication is not precisely false but is still misleading, then the tort of false light has occurred (Pember, & Calvert, 2005). In this case the Church doctrine required that members reveal any personal indiscretions to the leaders of the church. Steve disclosed some of his personal indiscretions to the leaders of the church thinking that this information would go no farther. After his disclosures, they advised him that they intended to tell other members of the church about his indiscretions in order that the church leaders might help him overcome his problems. The church leaders also informed him that they were not only going to tell the members of the church, but also his neighbors and his employer about his problems. The information that the church leaders were publicizing was of no public interest or concern and would more than likely be embarrassing to a reasonable person and thus telling anyone would put Steve in a false light.

As long as the church leaders were merely telling others about Steve's indiscretions and not printing them, they would not be guilty of libel. In order for something to libel it must be disseminated in a written or printed form. For example if they were putting Steve's information in the church bulletin then they would be guilty of libel. By only talking of the Steve's indiscretions to others the charge would be slander.

b. Does the expectation of privacy apply to the facts in the case?

In the areas of constitutional law the expectation of privacy is a legal test which is used to define the scope of applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The expectation of privacy, as a legal notion with a precise definition, is found only in case law. There are two types of expectations of privacy:

A subjective expectation of privacy is the opinion of a person that a certain place or situation is private. This can obviously differ greatly from person to person.

An objective expectation is the legitimate or reasonable expectation of privacy is an expectation of privacy generally recognized by society (Pember, & Calvert, 2005).

Yes, the expectation of privacy applies in the facts of this case. Church doctrine required that members reveal any personal indiscretions to the leaders of the church and Steve disclosed some of his personal indiscretions to the leaders of the church. The church doctrine did not say anything about having to disclose personal indiscretions to anyone but the leaders. It is because of this that Steve would have been under the assumption that it would only be the leaders who would have any access to information that he disclosed. Information regarding personal indiscretions can be assumed to be information that is not publicly known and that if it were publicly known it would not do a person's reputation any good. It can be assumed that the information that Steve disclosed to the church leaders would have information that he would not have wanted to be given to anyone outside of those to which he released it to. The very nature of information surrounding personal indiscretions would lead a reasonable person to believe that it would be information that the party would want to be kept as private as possible. When Steve agreed to release this information to the leaders of the church he had no idea that they had the intention of sharing it with anyone else.

c. Consider the defenses to the tort of Libel and the Privacy torts regarding his lawsuit.

Even if a statement is derogatory, there are certain circumstances in which these statements would still be permissible in law. Consent is a defense to the tort of Libel and the Privacy torts. The church would argue that they had consent from Steve in order to publicize the information that Steve disclosed to them. They will argue that since he told them about his personal indiscretions that the in sense gave them permission to do with what they wanted with the information, which could include telling other members of the church, his neighbors and his employer. They would argue that the information that Steve told them was all true and that because he had told them that by them communicating this truthful information to other people that they did not in fact commit the tort of libel or public disclosure of private facts

Truth is also a complete defense to a charge of defamation. An additional important aspect of defamation is the difference between fact and opinion. Statements made as facts are frequently questioned as defamation. Statements of opinion or pure opinion are not actionable. In order to win damages in a libel case, the plaintiff must first show that the statements were statements of fact or mixed statements of opinion and fact and second that these statements were false. On the other hand, a typical defense to defamation is that the statements are opinion. One of the main tests to decide whether a statement is fact or opinion is whether the statement can be proved true or false in a court of law. If the statement can be proved true or false, then, on that basis, the case will be heard by a jury to determine whether it is true or false. If the statement cannot be proved true or false, the court may dismiss the libel case without it ever going to a jury to find facts in the case. The church will argue that everything that Steve told them is the truth and so their actions of telling others about these truths should not be held as defamation. Steve will counter argue that even though the statements that he made were true he did not give permission for the information to be given to anyone besides those that he told it to. He could also argue that even though the statements that he made were true that by the church telling them to everyone that Steve would then be seen in false light and would suffer harm to his reputation. He would also argue that when he released this information to the church that was required by church doctrine that he did not know that it would be communicated to anyone outside of those immediate people to whom he told it. He would argue that he was never told that it would be communicated to everyone because if he had known he would have reacted like a reasonable person and not told them any of his personal and private information.

Privilege can also be used in defense of a defamation case. There are two different types of privilege in the common law. These are:

Absolute privilege which says that a statement cannot be sued on as defamatory, even if it were made maliciously.

Qualified privilege may be available as… READ MORE

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