Politicians personal lives should not be written in newspapers. To what extend, do you agree or disagree?

Some believe that personal information about what politicians do when they are not working should not be the content of newspaper articles. This essay disagrees with this as the public should know if their officials are doing anything illegal and this subject is only written about in exceptional circumstances. Firstly, a country’s citizens deserve to know if politicians are engaged in any illicit activities. During elections, candidates always promote themselves as honest and law-abiding citizens, so when this is not the case, it is necessary for journalists to reportthe truth for everyone to know, and this generally leads to the appropriate penalty being applied. For example, in Toronto it was reported that their mayor was partaking in the use of illegal substances and after the release of this news, an outcry from the public resulted in his dismissal. Furthermore, newspapers only report on the private lives of politicians if they have done something wrong. Unlike the lives of celebrities, there is very little interest in the day-to-day activities of members of the government and for this reason, they only see articles pertaining to their private lives when they have done something disreputable that will pique the interest of readers. For instance, I have read the Irish Times every morning for 12 years and have yet to see an article about a government official that was not either relating to their work or some wrongdoing that they had committed. In conclusion, this essay argues that newspapers should continue printing stories about what politicians do in their free time to ensure that voters are aware of any undesirable characteristics that these people may have and politicians have no reason to be concerned if they are behaving appropriately.