public interest

public interest (uncountable)

1. Common good.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!‎:

     The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.

   • 2011 January 11, Afua Hirsch, Max Mosley's privacy claim reaches the European court of human rights, The Guardian:

     The culture, media and sport select committee criticised the News of the World in its report in February, stating that the story had not been in the public interest. "We found the News of the World editor's attempts to justify the Max Mosley story on public interest grounds wholly unpersuasive, although we have no doubt that public was interested in it," it said.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: public interest.
   • 2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time‎:

     Given her complex history with public interest in her dating life, I say, it seems noteworthy that her relationship with Kelce has played out so publicly.

• Often expressed as the prepositional phrase in the public interest.