Privacy concerns over 'party' photo in student mag

An image published on the cover of a New Zealand student magazine has drawn public attention to the issue of privacy in the media.

The University of Waikato’s student publication Nexus featured a photograph of two young women who appear to be about to kiss each other on the cover of last week’s Celebrations issue.

The image, which was posted on Nexus's Facebook account, received scores of negative comments and ‘reactions’ in only a few hours.

Many Facebook users asked whether the magazine had obtained permission from the young women pictured in the image before the issue was printed.

The photo was taken by Leighton Trent Clarke at a public O Week party which took place at a private residence in Hamilton in March. It was one of many images sent to Nexus to accompany a Q&A article with Mr Clarke that featured in the issue.

Despite the negative response from social media users, Mr Clarke said he felt he had not done anything wrong and was surprised by the negative feedback the image received.

“I got a little bit of hate you know. But that’s publicity. I’m not a bad person, I was just having a bit of banter I suppose.”

Mr Clarke said the party's Facebook event listing specified the terms and conditions of attending, which included being photographed by him.

Individual privacy rights in public places are not protected under New Zealand legislation. However, court rulings in the past decade have demonstrated they are recognised under common law.

University of Canterbury dean of law Professor Ursula Cheer said because the party took place on private property, the women in the picture could argue they expected privacy and therefore did not realise photographs would be published.

“The issue would be with consent [to be photographed]. . . it depends what else they were told.”

Dr Allison Oosterman, a journalism law and ethics lecturer at AUT University, said she believed the magazine was partly accountable for the privacy breach.

“It was gratuitous of Nexus to choose that photo for the cover, if it was meant to reflect the quality of his work.

“[The photo] was chosen to attract attention because of the subject matter.”

Nexus declined to be interviewed by Te Waha Nui.

Laurien Barks, editor of AUT’s student publication Debate, said she would have published the image if she had been in the same situation as the editor of Nexus.

“It’s edgy. . . You always want to maintain controversy and edge in a magazine, but you don’t want to cross over into something unethical.”

Ms Barks said she previously would not ask subjects in photos for their permission before publishing images supplied by contributors, because she would assume that the photographer had done so. “We trust [our photographers] a lot.”

However, Ms Barks said that after hearing about the case in point, in future she would double-check before printing "candid" photos. "Live and learn eh?," she added.

Nexus removed last week's issue from online platforms and news-stands at the university hours after it was published.

The magazine also issued a public explanation and apology for publishing the image on its Facebook page three days later.

The 'Celebrations' issue has since been republished online with a plain black cover.

Read the 'Celebrations' issue of Nexus. Q&A with Leighton Trent Clarke is on page 19.