Press Council: WC voyeur sufficiently anonymized

At the University of Basel in January, a female student photographed a peeping tom over the partition in the women's restroom and gave the picture to the university staff. The two online media then published the photo and anonymized the man's face with a black bar over his eyes. On the day of publication, the man was recognized by a reader and arrested by police as a suspect.

Felix Mätzler, head of the St. Gallen Media School, then filed a complaint with the Press Council, criticizing that the person had not really been anonymized "despite the bars. The reader was thus also turned into a voyeur. The publication not only violated the privacy of the person, but also Article 7 of the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists" (respect for privacy).

Tamedia's legal service responded on behalf of both editorial teams that the anonymization was sufficient and that identification was not possible for "any reader". The obligation to anonymize does not go so far that not even the close environment can recognize a person. In addition, the public interest in the reporting had been great.

The Press Council argues in the recital that it can never be ruled out that someone "with a particularly good memory for facial and body details, clothing, etc. recognizes a person by chance and despite the required anonymization" - unless a symbolic image is used. In this case, identification by any third person is not possible - the complaint is therefore deemed to be rejected.

However, the Press Council also points out that online media in particular, which increasingly work with images of so-called "reader reporters", would have to observe the same professional ethical standards when publishing them as with all other images. (hae)