1 Feb 2002, 09:00

A couple were shareholders and directors of a small publishing company. They complained to me that Fourth Estate Holdings Limited, publishers of the National Business Review, conducted unauthorised personal credit checks on each of them through Baycorp Limited. The couple also complained that Fourth Estate had refused to provide the name of the employee who had conducted the credit checks. I came to the conclusion that Fourth Estate was engaging in what the Privacy Act describes as a 'news activity' and, consequently, that the Act's provisions were not applicable.

News media exclusion

Before my staff could investigate the alleged breaches of principles 1 and 6, it was necessary to establish whether Fourth Estate fitted within the definition of 'agency' in section 2 of the Privacy Act. The definition of an 'agency' has certain exclusions. The news media are excluded from coverage of the Privacy Act in relation to their news activities.

I looked first at whether or not Fourth Estate was a news medium as defined in section 2. Given the weak state of the market, there had been a great deal of interest in ownership changes within the publishing industry and the National Business Review had published a number of stories on the subject. Fourth Estate submitted that it was interested in the couple's publishing company because it had received a tip-off that the company was to be sold.

Fourth Estate's policy was to carry out credit checks to test the accuracy of the information it received. Personal credit checks were conducted on the individuals owning the company in recognition of the fact that individuals who own small companies are often personally involved in the financial affairs of the company.

I formed the opinion that, as publisher of the National Business Review, Fourth Estate was a 'news medium' as defined in the Act.

I also considered whether Fourth Estate's activity was consistent with the definition of 'news activity' in section 2. I was satisfied that the credit checks undertaken by Fourth Estate were a bona fide 'news activity'.

Since Fourth Estate was a 'news medium', and its activities on this occasion constituted 'news activities', it came within the news medium exclusion provided under section 2 of the Act. Therefore I could not take any further action and closed my file.

Indexing terms: Collecting personal information - Newspaper publisher - Credit check performed - Definition of 'agency' - Definition of 'news activity' - Privacy Act 1993, section 2 - Information privacy principle 1

Access to personal information - Newspaper publisher - Refusal - Definition of 'agency' - Definition of 'news activity' - Privacy Act 1993, section 2 - Information privacy principle 6

May 2002