The Independent Media Council, of which Souspilnist Foundation is part, considers it unacceptable to publish addresses or any other personal data in the media allowing for identifying persons infected with coronavirus without their personal consent.
Specifically, we are talking about the list of addresses (house numbers on Kyiv streets), published on April 8 by the online resource vesti.ua under the title “Where Covid-19 has been recorded in Kyiv. Vesti publish the street names and house numbers.” With reference to vesti.ua, this material was disseminated by a number of online publications and telegram channels.
According to the editorial office, it received this list from medical circles. However, doctors do not have the right to disclose such information since it is the medical secret, the violation of which incurs criminal liability. Human health information is confidential, i.e. information requiring limited access. The Law on Information (Article 11, Paragraph 2) and the Civil Code (Article 286) guarantee a person’s right to secrecy of information about his or her state of health. Anyone has the right to decide for themselves whether to tell the public about his illnesses.
Disclosing health related information is also contrary to journalistic standards and principles of professional ethics. Violation of someone’s privacy is possible only with their consent or has to be justified in some other way. For example, if society’s interests prevail over the right of non-interference with private life. Journalists must strike a balance between society’s right to information and the potential harm this information may cause. It should also be kept in mind that individuals have more rights to protect their information than public figures. According to the Ethics Code of Ukrainian Journalists, “Journalists should respect other people‘s private life. At the same time, their right to investigative journalism is retained with regard to events or facts if the public significance of the information collected and disseminated is higher than other people’s private interests“.
It should be noted that the Security Service of Ukraine called false the published list (“this is another fake”). Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko also denied the list’s authenticity. However, regardless of whether people with coronavirus actually live at the addresses in question or the list is falsified, publishing it can increase anxiety and discord in society, provoke readers to panic or aggression. As it happened, for instance, in Novy Sanzhary, where residents, disoriented by inadequate messages on social networks and in the media, used violence against people taken there for observation upon returning from Wuhan.
On the one hand, publishing house numbers without apartment numbers does not allow for precise identification of those allegedly infected with coronavirus, but on the other hand, quite a few many people come under suspicion (and therefore, are in danger). Borys Zakharov, director of Charitable Foundation Human & Law, says the publication of the list, if credible, violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Disclosing this information will not improve anyone’s protection, nor will it make people follow quarantine requirements more strictly (it seems that it is not followed by those people whom no information will force to do so), and is directly contrary to public interests and human rights. Not to mention that this publication does not provide any new information about the virus’s spread. After all, we are talking only about clinically confirmed cases, which in the situation of an extremely small percentage of those tested does not indicate a real picture, but a little more than nothing,” human rights activist Maksym Butkevych commented on vesti.ua’s actions.
The editorial staff of vesti.ua motivated the publication by stating that it wanted “the residents of the houses where the clusters have been registered and those living in the vicinity to take effective measures to self-isolate, as recommended by the respective resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers. Simply put, to not ignore quarantine requirements as, unfortunately, is often the case in Kyiv.” Such motivation is questionable, as it implies that people living near those allegedly infected with coronavirus should follow quarantine requirements particularly strictly (while others should not). In reality, quarantine restrictions apply to all Ukrainians and they should be followed regardless of whether your street or house is on any list.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that some local politicians and authorities also resort to publishing the sick persons’ addresses. For instance, on March 24, the former mayor of Irpin (Kyiv region) Volodymyr Karplyuk, and Holos party representative in Irpin and media coach Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska published the address of the first covid-19 case recorded in Irpen. Zhytomyr Regional State Administration created an online map publishing the lists of streets and alleys in the oblast cities with confirmed covid-19 cases. Lists of streets and map links were shared on Facebook by Korosten City Council’s healthcare department. This practice is contrary to the WTO recommendations. The WHO registers an increase in cases of societies’ stigmatizing people from areas affected by the epidemic, which leads to their isolation and discrimination. The WHO emphasizes that governments, communities, citizens, the media and public opinion leaders play an important role in preventing and stopping health-related stigma. The WHO calls for careful communication about covid-19 on social media and other platforms.
The Independent Media Council emphasizes that the media should not follow the wrong practices of local politicians and officials contributing to stigmatizing and destabilizing the situation in the communities, as well as refrain from publishing the patients’ addresses, lists of streets or houses.
The Independent Media Council calls on the media to take a responsible approach to disseminating any information related to covid-19 patients and those allegedly infected who have died or recovered. When preparing our materials and deciding what can and what cannot be published, we advise that you should use Ukrainian and international law, the Ethics Code of Ukrainian Journalists, recommendations developed by the Institute of Mass Media and Detector Media.
We suggest the following list of useful resources on covid-19 and human rights to be used in the preparation of pandemic-related materials:
1) COVID-19 and HR guidance (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).
2) Respecting democracy, rule of law and human rights in the framework of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis: A toolkit for member states (Council of Europe).
3) Coronavirus Pandemic in the EU – Fundamental Rights Implications” (European Union).
4) Recommendations on short-term responses to COVID-19 that can support social cohesion (OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities)
