Reform push 'not based on complaints about media'

AN officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission has insisted its call for a legal right to privacy was not based on complaints about the media

A SENIOR officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission has insisted its call for a legal right to privacy was not based on any "groundswell" of complaints about the media

The NSW acting Privacy Commissioner John McAteer has also warned the focus of the debate about privacy should not be solely on the media in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal in Britain.

Telephone gripes about the press form only a small proportion of inquiries to the federal government's privacy commissioner.

Privacy has been in the spotlight in the past fortnight since media proprietor Rupert Murdoch -- publisher of The Australian -- faced a parliamentary committee over the activities of his British operations.

Last week, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said he would soon produce a discussion paper based an 2008 ALRC report that proposed the creation of a legal right to privacy.

While Mr O'Connor and Julia Gillard discussed the issue within the context of the events in Britain, ALRC senior legal officer Bruce Alston, who worked on the report, told The Australian yesterday the recommendation to establish a legal right to privacy was not just about the media.

"In recommending a statutory cause of action for an invasion of privacy, we were not responding to any groundswell of complaints against the media," he said.

"And, in fact, we took pains to emphasis the media were not a particular target for the recommended course of action for a serious invasion of privacy."

Mr McAteer cautioned against any discussion on privacy being solely focused on the media and said the "true importance of the debate" was that it had highlighted gaps in the law.

"The current debate has focused largely on allegations of breaches of individuals' privacy by the media, and ensuing comments that such laws might 'gag' or limit the freedom of the press," he said.

"However, the Law Reform Commission's recommendations were not limited to actions against the media."

Mr McAteer said that invasion of privacy tended to occur in instances such as neighbours spying on neighbours or people setting up surveillance cameras on buildings that overlooked public places.

He said privacy breaches often related to matters between citizens and government or customers and businesses.

"Most of the privacy-related complaints arise from an existing relationship between a complainant and the body they are dealing with, whether it be government or private sector," Mr McAteer said.

In the last annual report of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, there were 216 "telephone inquiries" about theatres, sports and the media industry. This compared with 1501 calls about "health service providers", 1011 about the finance sector, 893 about debt collectors and 240 about legal and accounting services.

It was unclear from the 2009-10 report, the last one done by the commissioner, how many complaints about the media were investigated.

Mr O'Connor this week insisted the Gillard government's consideration of new privacy laws was not targeted at the media, but at protecting privacy across the community.

He described the Australian media as "a professional industry" and has not ruled out ending an exemption from privacy laws that extends to political parties.