The latest BIRN monitoring report „Invasion of privacy: Analysis of media coverage” shows that privacy rights violations in media reporting are common and that journalists often base their reports on personal data.
Behind such widespread violations of privacy are various interests, from editorial policies and tabloid approaches to content processing, to the demands of the digital environment favouring speed, clickability and content virality.
The report says it’s particularly concerning that a large number of privacy violations came from state institutions.
In addition to monitoring privacy violations in the regular media, the report presents a special case study analysing privacy violations in reporting on the school mass killings that shook Serbia in May last year.
Key findings include:
- The more media outlets produce, the more frequently they violate privacy rights.
- Privacy rights are most commonly violated during coverage of murders and other forms of violence, especially domestic violence, as well as searches for missing persons.
- In almost half of the analysed articles, personal data is found in the headlines, accompanied by sensationalism and frequent use of amplifiers, ensuring an emotional audience reaction and clickability.
- The most commonly published personal information include: full names, health status, home addresses, information about past crimes, etc.
- During 2023, one of the groups whose privacy rights were most often violated were minors.
- Media that breach privacy rights often do not put bylines on these articles or photos. Access to numerous personal data on social media profiles also contributes to the identification of victims and suspects.
The report covers seven media outlets that previous studies by civil society organisations and the Press Council have found to frequently violate media laws and journalistic ethical codes.
These are: Alo, Blic, Informer, Kurir, Nova, Novosti, and Telegraf. All these media outlets are among the top 10 in terms of visits (source: Gemius Audience), and so have a significant influence on public opinion.