OTTAWA – Publicly identifying a plaintiff in a lawsuit is not a breach of privacy, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said on Tuesday.
A January 2008 Global Edmonton (CITV-TV) news report told the story of an adult woman who was suing her foster mother and the daughter complained that the report had revealed her name and showed photographs of her as a child and young adult.
The CBSC concluded that the broadcast did not violate the woman’s privacy under the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA – The Association of Electronic Journalists)’s Code of (Journalistic) Ethics.
Aired during Global Edmonton’s 6 p.m. newscast on January 16, 2008, the report explained that a 44-year-old woman was suing her foster (and later adoptive) mother for half a million dollars. The broadcast, primarily an interview with the 71-year-old mother, provided both women’s full names and showed home movies and photographs of the daughter through the years.
CITV reported the daughter’s allegations that the foster mother had deceived the biological mother in order to be allowed to adopt the daughter; and the daughter had grown up in sub-standard housing. In the interview, the mother expressed her surprise at those allegations, as well as her sadness at becoming estranged from her daughter.
The daughter complained that her name, photographs and other identifying information had been provided in the report without her permission. Global argued that there was no publication ban in place regarding he court case, and that it was entitled to broadcast the information.
The CBSC’s Prairie Regional Panel agreed.
It examined the complaint under Article 4 of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics, which requires broadcasters to refrain from infringing on people’s privacy except when necessary in the public interest.
“The Panel found no breach of that Article because the woman had initiated the court proceedings which are, by their nature under the Canadian judicial system, public.”
