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A complaint over a policeman's right to the privacy of his Facebook comments has been rejected by the PCC. Phyllis Goble complained to the Press Complaints Commission about an article published in The People on 26 April 2009 headlined: 'My lot have murdered someone again. S*** happens', claiming that it breached the privacy of her son-in-law, John Hayter.

Hayter had made the comment on his restricted Facebook profile following the death of Ian Tomlinson during the London G20 protest in April 2009.

The complaint was not upheld after the PCC ruled 'there was a clear public interest in knowing about police attitudes (whether publicly or privately expressed) towards the incident'.

Hayter had accepted the People journalist as a Facebook 'friend' for an hour, allowing her to access his profile, the PCC said.

"Mrs Goble also complained that the newspaper had intruded into Mr Hayter's privacy by taking and publishing a picture of him on his private driveway, and by publishing a picture taken from his sister's Friends Reunited profile showing him in uniform," the PCC reported.

"The Commission has recently made clear that it can be acceptable in some circumstances for the press to publish information taken from social networking websites, even when the material is originally intended for a small group of acquaintances and not publicly accessible. However, this will generally be only in cases where the public interest overrides the individual's right to privacy," it said today.

The PCC also rejected complaints of infringement of privacy over publishing photographs of the policeman, subterfuge (Clause 10) and accuracy (clause 1).

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Written by
Judith Townend

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