By Alexandria Seay
After studying American journalism for four years, it was quite easy to get wrapped up in the culture of the Missouri School of Journalism and to seemingly forget that media can be different in other parts of the world. The Europe Tour provided thought-provoking presentations that illustrated the various ways the government plays a role in journalism and advertising overseas. The presentation I found to be most interesting was that of Peter Gumbel, the Director of Communications for Sciences Po. He showed an intriguing multimedia presentation that highlighted differences between French and American privacy laws and their portrayal in the media. What I once considered to be social norms were not so normal in France.
Many of the topics covered in the lecture stemmed from the French Civil Code. Article 9 of the French Civil Code states “everyone has the right to respect for his or her private life” and goes on to define one’s private life as including “his or her love life, friendships, family circumstances, leisure activities, political opinions, trade union or religious affiliation and state of health.” These French privacy lawss are enforced regardless of whether a person is a public figure or private individual. As one can gather from this section of Article 9, French privacy laws have a few substantial differences from American privacy laws. In many cases, the French privacy laws are stricter than those of Americans.
In America, the notion of newsworthiness is a large factor for journalists. We believe we have a responsibility to inform the people. Therefore, with this responsibility we often see the exposing of public figures in American media. However, based on France’s stance on this matter, it is apparent that the idea of newsworthiness prevailing is not a universal truth. Gumbel spoke of the respect for citizen’s private lives, an idea highlighted in the Civil Code. He gave an example of a public figure running for governmental office, claiming to be a devout Catholic, but having an affair. There was knowledge of his infidelity amongst journalists, but no one would report on it because this dealt with his private life. After learning this information, many of the students on the tour had questions.
