Conflict And Balance Between Freedom Of The Press And Protection Of The Privacy Right Of Public Figures

Modern society is an era of information explosion in which news media is welldeveloped. With information generation and transmission and increasingly high refreshrate, celebrities (i.e., public figures) come forth in large numbers, thus there being asaying,“A celebrity arose within five hundred years in ancient times while five hundredcelebrities come forth within one year in modern society.” Out of curiosity, the public isparticularly concerned about the privacy of the public figures, who are generallydeemed as the models and examples of ordinary people. And freedom of the press, thelegal right in almost every country, occupies an important position in the power system.Under the support of the right to freedom of the press, the news media continue to “spy”the privacy of public figures to cater to the public, thus expanding their market share. Inmodern society, conflict often occurs between freedom of the press and the privacy rightof public figures, and it is common that freedom of the press encroaches on the privacyright of public figures while in a few cases, excessive advocate of the privacy right ofpublic figures also do harm to freedom of the press and the public’s right to know and tosupervise. In this context, the text is written to seek good balance between freedom ofthe press and the privacy right of public figures.The text consists of four parts.The first part focuses on the interpretation of the three concepts of freedom of thepress, public figures and privacy right, which are familiar to us but vague. Based on theexisting theoretical achievements and practice, the text further defines the threeconcepts of freedom of the press, public figures and privacy right, laying a solidfoundation for the following part. On this basis, the text continues to briefly discuss thevalue of freedom of the press and that of the privacy right of public figures, especiallyin the current situation of social transformation in our country, and with the degree ofdemocratic development improving continually, freedom of the press will play animportant supervision role.The second part analyzes the forms of and reasons for the conflict between theprivacy right of public figures and freedom of the press, with a preliminary analysis of the encroachment on the privacy right of public figures by freedom of the press and theharm to freedom of the press caused by excessive advocate of the privacy right of publicfigures. In this part, great emphasis is laid on analyzing the reasons for the conflict fromsuch aspects as right characteristics, ambiguity of authority boundaries, competitivemarket pressure, self-contradictory nature of public figures, legislative vacancy anddeficiencies in judicial practice.The third part studies the theoretical basis of the balance between freedom of thepress and the privacy right of public figures, namely, the social liability theory ofrestricting freedom of the press and the public interest theory of restricting the privacyright of public figures. In addition, the text also studies the existing practice of thebalance at home and abroad with the emphasis on studying the lawsuit of OrientalSports Daily by Fan Zhiyi.The fourth part puts forth suggestions for balancing the conflict, namely, theprinciple base of balancing the conflict, legislative suggestions and the construction andimprovement of the operating mechanism to solve the conflict.