Abstract:
Broadcast of the image of the accused in the preliminary investigation stage is prohibited, except for the cases authorized in Article 96 of the Criminal Procedure Code. For this reason, the national media when broadcasting news reports related to the crime blurs the face of the accused. This raises the following question: Does the release of these images violate family rights? To get the answer, in the first step, we examined the rate of identification of individuals in the checkered images broadcast on television with an experimental method. Then, using the Cochran's formula, in the statistical population of Tehran, we determined a sample size of 103 people with an error coefficient of 0.1%. Afterwards, by sampling multi-stage clusters, we selected individuals for the experiment, and by photographing and rasterizing their images, the degree of their identification in groups of families, relatives, friends and neighbors was tested. The obtained data and information were analyzed using SPSS software and Pearson correlation coefficient test, and the identification of individuals in the checkered images broadcast on television was confirmed in the target groups. In the second step, with the rules and principles of Lāḍarar (harmlessness), Wizr (personal punishment), protection of honor and privacy of persons, and also by using legal Article 14, 40, 97 and 96, the right of families to claim material and moral damages was proved. In addition, the criminal prosecution of the publishers of these images was demonstrated for revealing business secrets.
Machine summary:
In the second step, based on the rules and principles of 'la darar' (no harm), 'wizarat' (responsibility), preserving reputation and privacy of individuals, and using legal articles 14, 40, 97, 96, the right of the family to claim material and moral damages, as well as criminal prosecution of those who publish these images for the crime of disclosing professional secrets, was proven.
On this basis, to preserve the consequences of the crime and the physical and reputational security of the suspect and their family from the harm of threats, the legislator has declared all stages of the preliminary investigation of a crime—from the time the case is referred to the investigating judge at the request of a judicial authority until the court stage—to be confidential in Article 591 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and violators of this article are prosecuted for the crime of disclosing professional and occupational secrets.
Therefore, the main question of the following research is: In cases where the national media publishes blurred images of suspects' faces, other than the aforementioned Article in the Criminal Procedure Code, could this action lead to the violation of their family's rights and endanger their honor and reputation, or not?
Unless necessity dictates, a person does not have the right to cause the loss of reputation and the tarnishing of their social personality by revealing people's hidden secrets (Qane, 1385: 127); especially since the disclosure and dissemination of the identity of the accused during the preliminary investigation stage of a crime is prohibited based on the principle of confidentiality in Articles 40 and 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code and is considered a violation of the privacy of the accused and their family.
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