[Air-L] an ethical question or two

Charles Ess charles.ess at gmail.com
Mon Aug 4 10:17:26 PDT 2014


Dear AoIRists,

I am editing a piece for a forthcoming journal issue; it includes two
screenshots of tweets from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and a
screenshot of the Facebook page of a politician running for office in
2014, including their pictures and names.
These are public figures very intentionally engaged in a public activity
in a medium that functions as a de facto public sphere (or at least an
approximation thereof).
There is nothing in the screenshots that could be construed as potentially
embarrassing, much less libelous, much less potentially warranting
protection as private.


I have gained the impression over the past few years that both in practice
and in emerging guidelines codes, and law (specifically, based on what
[little] I know of law surrounding freedom of speech and privacy issues in
journalism in the U.S., the E.U., and Scandinavia),
it is permissible to publish these without permission from the politicians
in question.

At most, if these were tweets and FB pages posted by U.S. politicians
aimed at U.S. voters, we would have to note that the tweets and pictures
were de facto copyright by their authors; to my knowledge, however, there
is no parallel requirement on this side of the pond.

Of course, it's usually when I think I know a good response to an ethical
dilemma that I turn out to be missing something crucial - so: am I missing
something crucial, or are we indeed on reasonably safe ground to publish
the screenshots as is, no permissions required, no copyright notices
included?

Many thanks in advance,
- charles ess

Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo 
P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
NO-0317 
Oslo Norway
email: charles.ess at media.uio.no


 






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