Privacy is your responsibility

The public should be personally responsible in the fight against privacy invasion, said Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

“If someone sends you a picture, delete it and don’t spread it around.

“The media also needs to play its part by not sensationalising the news,” she said at the council’s forum entitled “Privacy: Does it exist in Malaysia? Is it time to legislate?”

The MCA’s think tank Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research chief executive officer Fui K. Soong said privacy existed in Malaysia but it was everyone’s responsibility to protect it.

“Different societies have varied views on what morality is. It is a challenge to come up with a privacy law as we cannot just take one case and treat it as a norm,” she said.

The forum panelists called for speedy introduction of the Data Protection Bill to fight invasion of privacy and the abolishment of archaic laws, such as those against oral sex.

One participant suggested that the Federal Constitution be amended to include the words “right to privacy” and allow judges to interpret each situation.

Criticisms were also voiced against the invasion of privacy of Selangor exco member and Bukit Lanjan assemblyman Elizabeth Wong, who has tendered her resignation fromboth posts after pictures of her were made public.

Sonya Liew, who heads the initiative for privacy in the council’s Human Rights Committee, said there was no specific law to deal with privacy.

“We should have a Privacy Act, especially given the easy availability of surveillance and image-capturing devices in the market. The Act can fully encompass the different areas of privacy not covered in the Data Protection Bill,” she added.

Former Malay Mail online editor U-En Ng said the question to ask was where the line should be drawn if a person was elected on grounds of purity.

“I find it peculiar that so many preach a moral high ground yet so many are obsessed over whether she took her clothes off or not,” said Ng, who resigned as editor to make a stand over the Wong issue.

Bar Council Human Rights Committee deputy chairman Andrew Khoo questioned whether privacy laws could be used to legislate morality.

“Different people have different standards of morality. How do we decide which standard should be applied?” he said.

- THE STAR