Ethical Issues

Many ethical issues arise surrounding the ways in which the paparazzi obtain their information and how they get their pictures. In some cases, the paparazzi are breaking the law and putting people in danger in order to get the right shot. Here are some examples of the lengths photographers have stooped to in recent times;

* A photographer intentionally drove into the car that Catherine Zeta-Jones was driving in order to force her off the road and out of her car.

* Photographers consistently provoked actor Sean Penn to create physical confrontations and give them the ability to capture it, and then, file lawsuits with evidence pertaining to the confrontations.

* When Catherine Zeta-Jones was rumored to be giving birth to her son, photographers posed as Michael Douglas' family members in order to get in to the hospital.

* A paparazzi camp was once set up in Susan Sarandon's garden without her knowledge.

* Many photographers have released the addresses of celebrities’ houses and places the regularly go.

Not only is it unethical to act in these ways, it is illegal in most circumstances. There are laws forbidding stealing peoples identity or lying about your own, trespassing and giving out secret information. Also, forcing a car to crash not only puts the passengers of that car in danger but also other motorists.

The most famous incident regarding the paparazzi is the death of Princess Diana in 1997. The Princess of Wales was spending a night in Paris, France with friends. The paparazzi had crowded the hotel the heir was staying at and followed their vehicle as soon as it left. The were multiple cars in the paparazzi convoy, all of them trying to get as close to the princess’s car as possible to photograph what was thought to be a secret relationship between Diana and Dodi Fayed. While driving through the Place de l’Alma underpass, the driver of Diana’s vehicle lost control and crashed straight into one of the tunnels pillars at approximately 60 miles per hour. While the victims lay injured in the destroyed car, photographers kept taking pictures and continued to do so the entire time the emergency team was at the scene. Seven photographers were arrested at the scene on the accident for failure to move out of the way. Following the accident, there was a non-formal rule of thumb that no pictures of Diana in her last moments were to be published in honor of the great things she did during her life. In 2008, after a long and grueling trial, the paparazzi were convicted of manslaughter as they contributed to the death of those in the vehicle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UERexDjgu4c&feature=related