privacy freedom-of-speech government-officers
Can I publish correspondence with a member of parliament?
<p>If I were to publish an email conversation that I have with a private individual then in many countries that could be found to be an invasion of privacy (it is a conversation that the other could expect to be private and as such I would require their consent to publish it).  How does this change when dealing with a publicly elected official?</p>

<p>Specifically, if I email an elected politician can I publish my email and their response without their permission?</p>

<p>Jurisdiction is Australia, but I'm interested in other country's laws as well (I won't accept something that isn't specific to Australia but will upvote them, thus I have delibrately avoided tagging this question as specific to Australia - please don't add it!).</p>

<p>Yes you can do this. Here are the ways you can be sued/prosecuted:</p>

<ul>
<li>if you are a government employee or contractor this is a breach of the duty you owe your employer</li>
<li>if you are a party to a NDA, this is a breach of contract</li>
<li>if the emails contain official secrets, publishing them is a crime</li>
<li>if the emails contain commercially sensitive information (e.g. about government tenders) you can be sued by anyone who suffers loss as a result of the disclosure</li>
<li>if your email defames the politician, you can be sued if you publish</li>
<li>if any of the emails defame a third party, you can be sued</li>
<li>if the emails were exchanged such that there was a reasonable expectation of confidentiality (e.g. It says so in the email) you can be sued for breach of confidence.</li>
</ul>
