PCC rules against Scottish Sunday Express for breaching privacy with social networking material

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The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has ruled against the Scottish Sunday Express for breaching the privacy of a group of teenagers by improper use of material from social networking sites. The commission upheld a complaint from three parents of survivors of the Dunblane shooting in 1996 , whose sons were featured in the Express article from March, 'Anniversary shame of Dunblane survivors'.

The complainants argued the newspaper had breached their sons' privacy by publishing photos of them taken from social networking sites and 'unnecessarily drawing attention to them as Dunblane survivors'.

The newspaper did publish a lengthy apology making amends for the tone of the coverage, but argued that the information was publicly accessible via the social sites and that the individuals' identities were well-known as they previously had been named at the time of the shooting.

Publishing images of the boys breached their privacy as they had not been 'public figures in any meaningful sense' for 13 years, the PCC ruled.

The images appeared 'out of context' and were presented in a way designed to 'humiliate or embarrass', the commission found.

"Publication represented a serious error of judgment on the part of the newspaper," it said.

"Although the editor had taken steps to resolve the complaint, and rightly published an apology, the breach of the Code was so serious that no apology could remedy it."

In its adjudication the commission said it is acceptable for the press to publish information lifted from social networking sites if the individual in question 'has come to public attention as a result of their own actions, or are otherwise relevant to an incident currently in the news when they may expect to be the subject of some media scrutiny'.

In addition, the PCC said the using images from such sites if they are freely available and not behind strict privacy settings, or used just to illustrate what someone looks like is less likely to cause a privacy intrusion.

"Circumventing privacy settings to obtain information will require a public interest justification," said the adjudication.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, a spokesman for the PCC said this case was about a breach of privacy involving social networking sites and not solely about the media's misuse of such platforms.

"The code is examined every year to check and see if it's fulfilling all the necessary requirements. It's possible that the issue of social networking may be considered [at the next review]," he said.

The press' use of social networking sites is a concern, because of the increasing amount of material that is used by journalists from such sites, he added.

But the existing code is flexible enough to deal with breaches involving social network use, the spokesman said.