Movie Challenge #6: “Smash his Camera”

I happened to find this film very interesting. It was one of the first times I heard the paparazzi’s side in the debate over whether paparazzi taking pictures of celebrities is ethical or not. I see both sides of this debate and believe it depends upon the situation. If the celebrity chooses to put themself in the spotlight then I think there is nothing wrong with their picture being taken in public. They make a living off of having fans and those fans are interested in their lives and identify with them when they are photographed in public doing normal activities. However, I do see the celebrities’ side and I think there should be limits. For example, if they are with their kids or family members who don’t chose to put themselves in the spotlight, or if they are at their home or a hospital. However, Celebrities are public figures and since they have less protection under libel and slander laws, they should also have less protection with cases dealing with the paparazzi.

In our lectures we discussed freedom of the press in the First Amendment and congress shall make no law abridging that freedom. However, this says “no law”, not “absolutely no law.” Privacy is currently not protected in the constitution. In class we discussed private facts and “bedroom” privacy, but outside of the bedroom, little privacy protection exists. Based on this, I thing it is completely ethical for photographers like Galello to take picture of celebrities in public setting, which is what he did.

However, I do think there were times where Galello crossed the line. Forging credentials, sneeking into private parties and wearing disguises are all things that are unethical. Although he never physically harmed anyone, even though his actions and presence caused some emotional distress, I think he genuinely cared about his subjects and did not have any malicious intent. I took away that he had a passion for capturing celebrities in public settings and loved showing them to the public and I see no harm in that.

In the film it is asked, “what type of human being does it take to photograph people who do not want to be photographed?” I think the issue here is not the photographer but the subject. If someone puts themself in the public eye then they should be aware that paparazzi can come with the job. On the other hand, I think there need to be boundaries that prevent paparazzi from taking things too far. When paparrazi turn into gold digging animals and put people in harms way to get a picture then it impacts journalism in a negative way by making it seem like we are all horrible, selfish people just looking to make money. This can lead to the creation of laws that ruin opportunities for other journalists.

Senate Bill 606 was signed into California law by state governor Jerry Brown. It asked for increased penalties for anyone attempting to record or photograph a child because of their parent or guardian’s employment in a manner that “seriously alarms, annoys, torments, or terrorizes” them. Haley Berry and Jennifer Gardner advocated for this and I fully support this Bill. I believe it shows these celebrities realize paparazzi comes with their job, but that it should not affect their children’s lives and I agree with that.

Sources:

Lecture notes on Privacy and First Amendment

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB606

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *