Should there be laws limiting the paparazzi - Research Paper Example

These laws are often meant to be punitive in nature, and this is because it is believed that the paparazzi have taken matter to extremes through their ensuring that they get shots of celebrities living their lines. One thing which is not often considered by lawmakers when making anti-paparazzi laws is the fact that most of these individuals only get involved in such behaviour because of the popular demand from the public, to see the private lives of their favourite celebrities. It has been stated that the paparazzi has to be contained because of the belief that they adversely affect the lives of celebrities and their families, who would otherwise prefer to live private lives.

The fact that quite a number of celebrities have ended up having accidents or even losing their lives as they attempted to escape the paparazzi are among the reasons why laws to curb paparazzi activities have been instituted. Most countries in the developed world are taking what is considered to be the paparazzi menace seriously, and they have come to put laws in place which have the intention of ensuring that celebrities and other important people are kept safe from the paparazzi (Neeley 36).

The justification for such arguments have been found wanting and this is because many of the celebrities who the laws are meant to protect, while they deserve their privacy, also need to understand that they cannot avoid the consequences of their fame. The paparazzi have been blamed for the death of Princess Diana, who, it is claimed, was attempting to escape them when the accident that killed her took place (Hindman 666). The strength of such arguments has been based on what can only be considered to be falsehood because while the paparazzi might have been following Princess Diana, it was not they who caused her accident.

On the contrary, it was her decision to run away from them which led to the accident that took her life. Thus, the laws limiting the paparazzi based on this argument can, therefore, be said to be unconvincing and an injustice on the paparazzi since they have a right to do their work under the protection of media freedom. One of the advantages of laws limiting the paparazzi that have been propagated is that they are meant to protect celebrities from the irresponsible behaviour of the paparazzi (Moreham 606).

This has created a situation where almost all the actions carried out by the paparazzi has been found to be irresponsible, and this is despite the fact that it is the best way through which they can do their work. As a consequence, in many countries in the western world, the ability of the paparazzi to competently do their work and satisfy the demand for the photographs of individual’s celebrities from all over the world has been curtailed. Instead, the large scale attempt to muzzle the paparazzi has resulted in the destruction of media freedoms as guaranteed by the laws of almost all the states in the developed world (Komperda 25).

It can be said that the passing of laws intended to curb the activities of the paparazzi is the first step in a process which is meant to limit the freedoms of media all over the world. It is a process which, despite the good intentions to protect the private lives of celebrities by lawmakers, might have a disastrous effect not only on the paparazzi, but also individuals all