Hipsy Gypsy

In this section of the site I'm going to be posting several articles that I may write or anything interesting I may stumble upon on the internet and then give my feedback for.

 The date beside the article in brackets is the date that I'd posted the article on in this site, not necessarily the date that I wrote it on unless I say otherwise.

 Articles are going to either be in alphabetical order so it's easier for you to find or in chronological order (with oldest being last and latest being first) depending on how I feel about it. I'll worry about that when i've got at least four of them anyway.

 I'm going to try and have articles that you lot will actually be interested in rather than it being like a blog or an extra announcements page. Anything lengthy or that doesn't necessarily have to do with the actual site is going to be posted here and anything new in the articles will definately be mentioned in the Announcements section.

 Please enjoy reading the many articles soon to come. :)

This was for English. We had to do an essay on anything to do with celebrity culture. I decided to do the paparazzi because it's actually been annoying me for a while and it's been crossing my mind to write a wee blog about it. So here it is. This can also be found in the "Announcements" section of the site.



Celebrity Culture: Are celebrities treated the same as regular people when it comes to having rights to privacy and freedom from the press?


It’s illegal to and is perversion of a human right for privacy to stalk someone and take photographs of them without their permission or without them knowing and legal action can be taken against anyone who breaks this. Once someone feels under threat or fear that they are being followed they have every right to report this to the police and are even told to step forward even if there isn’t all that much to report – so why doesn’t it seem to apply to celebrities as well? They should be treated no differently to “normal” people as they all are human and all share the same rights. Who are they and what are they trying to achieve in doing this? They are the paparazzi and want nothing more other than to invade in celebrities’ every day or personal life to gain money – that’s why.

We would often hear about celebrity gossip in the newspapers and magazines about who certain stars are dating, where they are on holiday or even finding photos of them shopping in the supermarket.

The vast majority of us thrive to find out some of the most trivial things about their favourite celebrities for some reason. Some of us love to read about them and laugh at the embarrassing photographs which have been exploited. Sometimes even rumours are spread about celebrities. If such things happened at a normal person’s school or work the persons responsible for the exploitations would get themselves into trouble and even risk losing their job in some cases. If someone began to follow a regular person and even started photographing them without the person’s consent or their knowledge of them having their photo taken in the first place they could face getting into trouble with the police if the person reports it (It is, however, perfectly legal to take photos of public places but once that person begins to make a public disturbance or is taking photos of individuals without their acknowledgement or permission or their picture taking seems rather suspicious then that is when it becomes illegal and action can be taken against it). Once the person having their photos taken is a celebrity the police will do nothing about it because they are a celebrity and it is seen as perfectly fine. I have watched interviews of celebrities claiming that they have been minding their own business doing their weekly shopping when the paparazzi seem to just “pop out of nowhere” and start snapping away. If this happened to a regular person they would more than likely be very freaked out about it and probably even report it to the police.

Often we would find obscene photographs of celebrities or inappropriate photos of them unintentionally exposing parts of their bodies and not realising this until after they are posted up on the internet for all to see. Many of the normal folks find this hilarious and don’t really think much of this but if it were one of them it would be a whole different matter where the law can get involved.

Invasion of ones privacy is breaking one of the human rights where an individual has a right to their own privacy. In fact the paparazzi would be taking away two human rights with the other one being that everyone has the right to freedom of the press. The paparazzi should also be seen as the press because of how they exploit the information and/or images they have obtained. For a normal person if a photographer comes up and takes their picture without permission they can definitely expect to deal with the police. If you're in a generally public area - such as a public pavement, a footpath or a public highway for example – you are obliged to take photographs for your own personal and even commercial use as long as you are not causing a disruption or obstruction to any other members of the public. If someone is the main focus of any piece of photography then that person must also be well informed that a photo of them is planned on being taken and they also have the right to know what the purpose of the photo is.

It has been said that when one is bothered by someone else one should not react because if one does they will be the one who gets into the most bother. This is true for celebrities and the paparazzi as well. Welsh actor Rhys Ifans once got into trouble for throwing a beer bottle at the paparazzi after leaving a charity event. When he was leaving he began getting followed by some photographers who provoked him then pushed him over the edge where he then turned around and threw beer over them. He continued walking and they continued stalking after which the Welsh actor threw his beer bottle at them. It was then stated that the police had grabbed Ifans in an attempt to calm him down and escorted him elsewhere.

Where it can be understood that the photographers are just doing their job there are always limits. If one does not want to be photographed it is always best to respect their desires unless there is an important (and very intriguing) reason not to do so. Many individuals in most situations will respond very well to a friendly clarification, particularly if the photogrpaher shows them the photograph that they had taken. Regardless of that some people may argue that the photographer has perverted their rights and from that they had best be ready to explain themselves or just stay out of the person’s face entirely.

An awful lot of photography can be seen as harrassment in the average person’s eyes so why can’t this apply to celebrities as well? Some people would go as far as bringing out a restraining order from people they feel under threat from as can a celebrity.

We can see that celebrities are unfairly treated when it comes to the paparazzi and keeping their personal lives to themselves (no thanks to the paparazzi) and being free from the press – as do the rest of us in some cases where the whole world is becoming more and more like Big Brother every day.