Privacy Commissioner finds no fault in first newspaper investigation

The Federal Privacy Commissioner has released case notes of four recent finalised complaints. One, U v Newspaper Publisher (2007) PrivCmrA23 appears to be the first published of a complaint against a newspaper investigated by the Commissioner. Most media organisations are committed to codes of practice and complaints are investigated by industry bodies.

Under the Privacy Act an act or practice of a media organisation in the course of journalism is exempt if the organisation is publicly committed to comply with industry standards. Apparently this unnamed newspaper had made no such commitment. However on investigation the Privacy Commissioner was satisfied that the publication was an accurate account of opinion about the complainant and did not involve any breach of privacy principles.