About Private the Life of Public Figures

About Private the Life of Public Figures

In recent years, the media and the public have shown an increasing amount of concern for the private lives of public figures. For example, a few years ago the media paid attention to Faye Wong and reported that she had a baby with a cleft lip. In an interview, her husband, Yapeng Li, said the media has ceaselessly disturbed his and Faye Wong’s private life for more than two years. At the end of the interview, the reporters said they would wait two months to report the news about their baby. Yapeng Li calmly said that, after a discussion with his wife, they would give birth at home, where reporters cannot interfere with the birth. In fact, since 2004, the media reported that Faye Wong and Yapeng Li fell in love. Since then, the media and public have constantly disturbed Faye Wong and Yapeng Li’s life. Before the media discovered their love life, the couple successfully kept their relationship a secret. Once they got their marriage certificate reporters focused on their life up to the pregnancy. Even Hong Kong paparazzi came to Beijing to see Faye Wong; usually, they waited for Faye Wong outside the villa. No matter the photograph, the paparazzi would come back to Hong Kong, and make news headlines (Wu, 2006). Through this example, people will ask, “Does the public and media have the right to know and interfere with the private lives of public figures?”

Public figures are highly dependent on media publicity. There are many diligent public figures; only through media attention can they become famous. Public figures rely on media, so why do they have an opposite attitude concerning their privacy? Public figures said that, as people, they should have freedom in their private life. Media states that they have the responsibility to report news truthfully. Actually, the concept of public groups includes a public figure. The media’s responsibility is to meet the needs of the public’s desire for information. Therefore, the public plays an important role concerning the problem of public figures’ privacy and media reporting rights. The media, public and public figures have a delicate relationship, increasing the difficulty of solving the problem.

The public are interested in their right to know about public figures. Interest is a person's subjective psychological state. There are many comprehensive factors, which affect people’s interests, such as individual moral quality, cognitive ability, cultural degree, and social guidance. Due to everyone’s differences, their interests are different. During certain period, when the public is curious about the same information, they hope to know the truth through relevant channels, so the media gives priority to their interests.

Curiosity is human behavior, and one of the strongest motives. Freud's psychoanalysis theories confirmed that spying is a curiosity, but a variation form. This desire