I’ve noticed that on many of the real-life docu-dramas on cable television here in the U.S. that deal with undercover sting operations and say, shoplifters, robbers and other assorted unsavory types that they often have their identities digitally obscured, presumably out of privacy concerns. I don’t understand-- if you are in a public area, I’m not sure there is a ‘right’ to privacy. Is this a producers decision? My view is if they want to commit crimes, too bad. Don’t complain if you end up on TV for everyone to see.
Not privacy - liability (on the part of the producer of the show).
Under the ‘assumption of innocence’ concept, if the producer identifies an individual as a criminal, and said person is never convicted of the crime, the individual would have a lovely defamation case.
This was just discussed a couple of days ago, so I’ll close this thread and direct any remaining unanswered question to the previous thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=101076
bibliophage
moderator GQ