Traditionally Australian law has not recognised any general
"right to privacy". A number of existing areas of law
deal with different aspects of what might generally be regard as an
individual's "private life". These include defamation
law, certain criminal laws such as those relating to stalking and
harassment, legislation dealing with personal information such as
the Privacy Act 1988, and laws relating to misleading and
deceptive conduct. Unless an action can be brought within the
requirements of one of these defined areas of law, there is no
established right on which an individual may take action for
invasion of their privacy generally.
In a media context, this means that there is no
"property" as such in a person's name, image or
personal information and background. A person cannot, for instance,
prevent a third party taking their photograph, even if it is taken
while the person is engaged in some "private" activity,
although the person may be able to prevent or
