Media between Public Watchdog and Greedy Pitbull: Free Speech versus Privacy

The primary aim of this Master thesis entitled "Freedom of the Media versus Public Figures' Right to Privacy" is to investigate and analyse the conflict between freedom of the media and right to privacy of public persons. The thesis is formally structured into eight thematical chapters and two parts- theoretical and analytical. The theoretical part of the thesis provides legal, philosophical and media background for further analysis in the special part of the thesis. The analytical part deals with selected case studies of media photography conflicting with right to privacy of public figures. First chapter focuses on the freedom of speech and freedom of the media in historical, legal and philosophical perspective, deals also with the problem of censorship and technological challenges in the postmodern electronic age of the internet. Second chapter critically examines the concept of watchdog journalism in democratic system with special interest in the debate on the current affairs of the British media system. Third chapter deals with right to privacy and reflects also on the fluid concept of privacy in the era of social networking. Fourth chapter analyzes so-called public figure doctrine, celebritization and mediatization of politics and also discusses the collision between free speech and privacy...