Assignment
1 – Legal and Ethical considerations
Within news
production there are many constraints on media producers. Here I am going to
explain each one.
Libel/
Slander
Libel and
slander are both defamations used within the media etc. to show that it is a
civil offence. Libel is a deformation via written words or images such as in a
newspaper or magazine whereas slander is derfermation via a spoken word such as
a news broadcast or radio. It is classed as a civil offence for reasons to
protect the reputation of an individual. For example of a slander case is that former
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon filed against Time Magazine. The magazine
had published a story on Sharon about during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon she
discussed revenge with Christian
Phalangist leaders right after the killing of their leader Bashir Gemayel. She
had filed 50 million dollars against the magazine however she lost due to lack
of proof, but the New York court did conclude that the times article was false and
defamatory. When in court, cases are
presumed false unless they are proven to be true. An example for a libel case
is when comedian Frankie Boyle sued The Daily Mirror for £55,000 after the
paper branded him as a Racist comedian.
Even though he used unacceptable language he proved to the dury that the
paper misunderstood the context of his joke. The court found him “a comedian
who makes jokes about race” rather than “a racist comedian”.
Court
Reporting
This is laws
that are designed to safeguard the accused rights to a fair trial. This is when
the defendant cannot be described as a killer but as the alleged killer. Court
reporting should provide a fair and accurate summary of what happened. Court
reporters can only write when in a case. Also reporters are not allowed to
identify under 16 years old and also victims of blackmail, rape and other
sexual offences. A example of a court reporting is Peaches Geldof named two
mothers who let their babies is abused by singer Ian Watkins on Twitter.
Publishing details which may identify the babies is a criminal offence. However
soon after the tweet was posted it was then seen deleted. Also Watkins admitted
that the Tuesday after he attempted to rape a baby. He then pleaded guilty to
two counts of attempted rapes and 12 other offences including sexual assault
and taking and distributing images of children. Another example of court
reporting is a man who tweeted images according to be James Bulger’s killer Jon
Venables who then received a 14 month suspended sentence after admitting
contempt of court. This is because there is a global ban on publishing anything
revealing the identity of Jon Venables. Within Radio two Beacon FM presenters
Mark Peters and Lisa Freame discussed Ian Huntley’s testimony
where Mark Peters said “It’s almost like the most unbelievably
made-up story in the world ever, really, isn’t it? Well, I personally think it
is. I can’t believe any member of the jury is going to believe that story.”
This pair were then immediately sacked from their jobs and the station ran the
risk of being held in contempt of court.
Privacy
In the UK there are no
specific laws to privacy however there is Article 8 of the Human Rights Act
1998 is designed to provide “the right to respect for private and family life, home
and correspondence.” This means people have different values on deciding what
is ethical and what is not. This is when
some celebrities etc. go to court to get injunctions on some stories in their
life. An injunction is preventing the media revealing certain information on
grounds for privacy. An example of this is Ryan Giggs having an injunction over
his affair with Imogen Thomas who was married to Gigg’s
Brother. This was posted over twitter then later on court was revealed by parliament
as this Manchester United star. Lib
Dem MP John Hemming named the Manchester United star during an urgent Commons
question on privacy orders. Using parliamentary privilege to break the court
order, he said it would not be practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter users who
had named the player. The footballer's
lawyers have also obtained a High Court order asking Twitter to reveal details
of users who had revealed his identity after thousands named him. Another
example is BBC presenter had an injunction with him believing that he had a
child to an unnamed journalist. It wasn’t till later after he paid maintenance
for several years before a DNA test revealed that he believed daughter was not
his. Andrew Marr was the first public figure to admit trying to cover up his
affair. When he was challenged by the Daily Mail he was embarrassed by his
order and didn’t want to prevent the story being published anymore.
Election Law
When there is an election there is a restriction that
applies to broadcasters. This is where they have to be impartial once an
election is called which applies to TV programmes and News coverage. However
this does not apply to newspapers, magazines, websites etc. as they have the
freedom to support who they want. Rich newspaper owners can have a big part in
the election due to helping elect the government they want. For example Rupert
Murdock owns The Sun newspaper and could write a lot about who they want to run
parliament. This becomes bad for the opponent parties as they haven’t got as
much publicity and advertising to try and win the election. Also the story that
became famous on the 11th April 1992 ‘The Sun wot won it’ which is
now a famous political catch phrase. This is as they campaigned against the
labour party about how not to vote with them which helped the Conservative
party on win the election. This is why they thank The Sun for persuading
readers to not vote for Labour.
Legal Constraints
Legal constraints are all about being equal to one another. It
is offence to feature racial or religious hatred within the media. This means
they have to be careful for what they print or say over the media aspect. They also
have to be careful through phone-ins as if something racist is said they could
be prostituted. Also they can’t even allow balancing anti-racial views as
racist remarks have still been said. An example of this is the John Terry case.
This is when he was heard to have said racial comments to Anton Ferdinand,
another footballer. This is where Sports news such as Sky Sports and Match of
the day had to pixelate his mouth and blur out the sound of what he supposedly
said as they could be prosecuted for featuring it live on air which could upset
some viewers. Terry was cleared for the racial attacks and was seemed to be
angry and upset over these claims.
The Official Secrets act
This was brought into the UK in 1911 due to concerns against
foreign spies or saboteurs trying to find out information about stories in the UK
such as the Royal Family. It was then brung back up in 1989 to decide on what
could be withheld from the public and what could not, it included things such
as security and intelligence, defence and international relations etc. An
example of a story of this is about the Phone Hacking. The Metropolitan Police
demanded a court order under the Official secret act to make the Guardian
newspaper reporter to come clean about the phone hacking scheme. This is due to
being involved in the phone hacking of Milly Dowler, the girl that was mudurded.
Another story is the Navy Submariner being locked up for breaching about the official
secrets act. This is because he offered information on a nuclear submarine to
MI5 agents that seemed to be Russian spies. This comes across as betrayal not
only to his colleagues but his Country.
Professional codes
OFCOM
OFCOM is a regulatory body which means it is accountable to parliament.
It is also funded by the government. It covers broadcasting and
telecommunications which the public can complain too if they are unhappy about
something they see/hear on the TV. They also cover rules on the content for
children, this is to make sure it is suitable for children to watch and that won’t
upset them in anyways e.g. Scary monster
on a programme. They also cover the watershed which means that no swearing or
inappropriate behaviour can be shown before 9pm. However parental control can
be added for programmes such as sky movies where they show movies that may not
be appropriate include pins.
