RCFP: Letter from MySpace page not private, court rules

            In the RCFP reports in early April a California court ruled a high school principal who sent a copy of a MySpace journal entry to the local newspaper is not liable for invasion of privacy. University of California at Berkley student, Cynthia Moreno wrote on her MySpace page ranting about her hometown. She deleted the entry after about a week it was on her page. When the principal saw it he sent it to the local newspaper who, printed it. The printed article had Moreno’s full name and upset a lot of people in the community. The Moreno family received lots of death threats, which caused them to eventually move out of town. The family filled a lawsuit against the principle for invasion of privacy and for the intention of causing emotional distress. The courts dismissed the case because of, “the state’s SLAPP statute, which allows the media to move to dismiss lawsuits that target speech in an attempt to block it.”

            Winning a case like this a person has to show the privacy was actually invaded but, because Moreno but the post on her MySpace page for all to see the principle was not invading her privacy. Also, because her full name and picture were on her MySpace page it was not an invasion of privacy to include that in the newspaper article. In the article it stated the court said, “Cynthia’s affirmative act made her article available to any person with a computer and thus opened it to the public eye. Under these circumstances, no reasonable person would have had an expectation of privacy regarding the published material.”

            I don’t think the principal invaded Moreno’s privacy because she did post her rant on the Internet for all to see. For him to go and send it in to a newspaper to print seems a little extreme to me. Maybe he should have written a response to her rant rather than humiliate her intentionally. For the newspaper to print what the principle sent in is lazy journalism. I don’t think the journalist did any research by asking Moreno any questions about why she posted her rant on her MySpace page. Moreno should have taken responsibility for her actions and written an apology letter for the newspaper to print. Then, the members in her community might have been a little more forgiving.