Is it an intrusion on privacy to report Peter Crouch's girlfriend's pregnancy?

Here are some quick questions for you:

* Could you be intruding on privacy by reporting that Peter Crouch’s girlfriend was pregnant?

* What does the PCC say about reporting a pregnancy?

* If Crouch sued, would he win?

You can listen to Duncan Lamont’s view in the video or audio clips below:

Here's some more on the question of reporting pregnancy

There was a controversy over the reporting of Abbey Clancey's pregnancy. Here’s what Press gazette said about the story:

“England footballer Peter Crouch has accused journalists from The Sun of intruding on his privacy by revealing that his girlfriend was pregnant before members of their family were told.

“The Sun broke the story yesterday in advance of an official announcement.

“According to Abbey Clancy ‘intrusive Sun reporters’ followed her to a private clinic and then recorded a private conversation in a restaurant.

“Press Gazette understands that The Sun received a tip that Clancy was going to the clinic, and then overheard her talking loudly in a restaurant that she had just had her 12-week pregnancy scan and that everything appeared to be ok.

“Crouch told the Daily Mirror: ‘Abbey told me on 25 July that she was pregnant but we agreed to keep it private until she was ready to make an announcement.’”

Read the full story here: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1101

If the Facebook fits...

I was working with some French journalists today, and happened to show them the front page of The Telegraph with the pictures, lifted in part from their Facebook pages, of some of the gap-year victims of the bus crash in Ecuador.

They were appalled. "In France," they said, "we could never publish this."

I'd actually been intending to show them something entirely unrelated, so was caught off guard. Of course, I gave the standard British defence of using such pictures. But afterwards, I did wonder.

I wondered in part whether we can justify using images that the photographers and subjects intended to be shared purely among friends. Yes, I know all the arguments we can use to explain why we should, I'm just not sure I believe them any more. And I wonder how many of our readers believe them.