Publicity to Private Facts

1
Publicity to Private Facts

• Three elements of the private facts tort
• There must be publicity to private facts about an
  individual
• The revelation of this material must be highly
  offense to a reasonable person
• The material is not of legitimate public concern
  or interest

2
Publicity to Private Facts

• Publicity - the communication of information to a
  large number of people

3
Publicity to Private Facts

• Private facts - the plaintiff must prove the
  information was indeed private before there was
  publicity

4
Naming Rape Victims

• Someone who is sexually assaulted is assaulted 3
  times
• Victims often judged as guilty, what did they do
  to provoke the rape
• Failure to report rapes due to the previous 2
  issues

5
Publicity to Private Facts

• Offensive Material
• The material must be offensive to a reasonable
  person, not someone who is overly sensitive
• Offensive or embarrassing information will not be
  considered an invasion of privacy if the material
  is of legitimate public concern

6
Publicity to Private Facts

• Legitimate Public Concern
• Stories that are of great interest
• Stories about both voluntary and involuntary
  public figures
• Must provide a connection between the private
  facts and newsworthy aspects of the story

7
False Light Privacy

• Three elements of False Light Privacy
• Publication of the material must place an
  individual in a false light
• The false light would be offensive to a
  reasonable person
• The publisher of the material was at fault

8
False Light Privacy

• Fictionalization
• One common source of false light privacy suits is
  a drama that adds fictional material to an
  otherwise true story
• The use of fictional rather than real names in
  such a drama will not normally preclude a
  successful false light suit

9
False Light Privacy

• Highly Offensive Material
• Reasonable person standard
• Ex Cibenko v. Worth Publishers (1981)

10
False Light Privacy

• The Fault Requirement
• Since the U.S Supreme Court ruling in Time v.
  Hill (1967), plaintiffs have been required to
  prove fault in false light cases
• This fault requirement is very much like the one
  applied in libel cases

11
False Light Privacy

• Most false light cases result from the
  publication of false information about a person
  in a news or feature story