Privacy Laws and the Case of Barry Spurr

PUBLIC
RELATIONS
LAW
B A R R Y S P U R R V N E W M A T I L D A

FACTS OF THE CASE
• Publication made by New Matilda in their website pertaining to certain sexist racist
comments made via email by the professor of the Sydney University namely Barry
Spurr.
• This racist and whimsical emails forwarded by the professor has been published by the
news website new Matilda.
• Being dragged to the Federal Court by the professor, the publication of such emails in
future has been barred, but there were no agreements that evidence the removal of
the already published emails.
• The publication of any such material in the future has been prohibited but as a result
of structure buzz within the media regarding the derogatory comments of the
professor he has been suspended from the university for the time being

LEGAL ISSUE
• The first legal issue on which the professor has based his case upon is the
breach of privacy and confidentiality.
• The tort of privacy has the chance of claiming enforceability in this case.
• The publication of his personal emails is a breach of confidentiality and can
be viewed as an exploitation of his privacy.
• The publication of such information and emails that has been personal to
him poses contravention of the laws relating to copyright

LEGAL ISSUE
• The tort of privacy is not enforceable within the precincts of Australia.
Moreover the defendants added that all the laws that lead to the privacy
and confidentiality has been lying in a suggestive and recommendation
based form.
• There is no hard and fast rule in Australia regarding the privacy and
confidentiality pertaining to individuals.
• Where the public interest and right to privacy comes in the way of each
other more weight age is required to be extended towards public interest
over the right of privacy.