Confidentiality - Breach of Confidence

What does confidentiality mean it ordinary every day language mean? A secret.

The law of confidentiality is between the parties in which a 'secret' is told.

The law depends on each person's expectation of the level of confidentiality. For instance, a doctor has complete confidentiality to a patient. A patient could tell a doctor they committed murder and the doctor would not be able to say anything, as the same with a lawyer.

A parent would breach confidentiality to their child if the child, for instance, the child told the parent they had a venereal disease and the parent proceeded to tell someone else. However, if a child told a parent they committed murder, the parent would be expected to tell the police. This is one way however, a child owes not confidentiality to their parent.

There are three main areas of concern for journalists when it comes to confidentiality;

• revealing state/official secrets (one)
• revealing commercial secrets (two)
• revealing facts about a person that they expect to remain private (three)

ONE - The Official Secrets Act protects state secrets, for instance information on a military base or anything that would be of use to an enemy. Be cautious when using pictures that could be informative to an enemy.

TWO - Commercial confidentiality is normally written in the contract between an employee and an employer. It will cover, for example, not giving useful financial information to competitors.

THREE - Personal confidences and privacy is also protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Journalists can publish certain information if it falls under the public interest. When a journalist thinks they've found newsworthy confidential information, they must decide whether to risk an injunction or having legal action taken against them for breach of confidence; perhaps even defamation if they allegations are inaccurate.