Rethinking The Limitation Of The Public Figures' Privacy Rights In News Practice

The era of social media has witnessed unprecedented challenges against the protection of public figures' privacy rights at complex media environment due to the rapid development of new-media technologies and rising social attention to public figures.The grasp of the "degree" of public figures' private reports is not only difficult in the actual operation of news communication,but a stubborn disease in the field of academic research.In the perspective of mainstream academics,public figures are empowered with the same privacy rights as normal citizens do,but should with more limitation.Unfortunately,it is rare to find related studies on the specific degrees,types,content and other issues in terms of public figures' limited privacy.Supported by media ecology,media ethics,jurisprudence and other theoretical support from the perspective of journalism practice,this essay will take a closer look to rethink the limitation of the public figures' privacy in news practice field with interdisciplinary research method,literature analysis method and case analysis method as the main research methods.The purpose is to reflect on the misunderstanding of the current academic circles on the privacy restrictions of public figures in the combination of journalism and jurisprudence,and to clarify the degree of restriction and the most fundamental limitation of the privacy rights of public figures.Therefore,this essay claims that the public figures should be subject to the same level of restrictions as normal citizens,and which should not be attached additional restrictions.This essay is divided into four parts:Firstly,it sorts out the detailed context of the main concepts.Since there has not been an authorized concept about the privacy rights of public figures in China,this part expounds the basic idea and related theories of public figures' privacy rights in the legal and journalistic circles;it clarifies the classification of public figures,the essence and the value of public figures' privacy rights;it proposes a standard for the measurement and judgment of the specific issues of the public figures' privacy rights restrictions.Secondly,the essay focuses on the misunderstanding of the current academic community and public figures on their privacy restrictions.Combined with the current situation of China'snews context and privacy protection in the Internet environment,this essay analyzes the actual state and expected state of privacy restrictions of Chinese public figures.The main reasons and doctrines for the popular opinion that public people's privacy is more restricted than ordinary people's privacy rights involve theories such as public benefit theory,public interest theory,interest balance and self-sacrifice theory,public opinion supervision and audience's right to know,news media freedom of speech theory,the paper analyzes the inadequacies and misunderstandings of these theories,which this essay describes,rethinks and points out the undesirable consequences if there are improper restrictions on public figures' privacy.Thirdly,on the basis of the previous part,this essay analyzes that currently,China does not have additional restrictions on the privacy rights of public figures by explaining the current status of Chinese legal regulation about the privacy of celebrities.The fundamental basis for the restriction of privacy only is the important public interest.On this basis,it is concluded that due to the close connection with important public interests,the frequency and probability of restricting the privacy of public figures are relatively high,but the degree of their privacy restriction is still same as that of ordinary people,and no additional restrictions should be attached.Last but not least,after clarifying the fundamental basis,classifications and specific content of the restriction on public figures' privacy rights,this essay proposes that how the media should avoid invasion of public figures' privacy in the process of journalism practice in China by three parts,which are the practice activities of regulating the media industry,refining the judicial interpretation of privacy and adding knowledge about the privacy rights of public figures to news materials.Trying to avoid the reoccurrence of violating behaviors in news practice.