Media Law; An Overview

The Legal Framework In The UK
The highest court in the United Kingdom is the Supreme Court. There are 12 justices and it sits in the Middlesex Guildhall on the western side of Parliament Square. It deals with both civil and criminal cases.

The hierarchy of the courts is in order below from least important to most important; as well as the cases it deals with;

Magistrates court - civil and criminal; trys summary offences such as parking tickets, common assault and low scale shoplifting, family courts, youth courts etc. Maximum sentence is six months and maximum fine of £2,500.

County court - civil.

Crown court - criminal; trys indictable offences such as rape, GBH and murder, deals with appeals from Magistrates courts and also deals with sentencing. Minimum sentence of five years.

High court - family, chancery, Queen's Bench (civil and criminal).

Court of Appeal - civil division, criminal division.

    Supreme court - civil and criminal.

Civil law is disputes between individuals or organisations, i.e. divorce or property use disputes. The defendant can not be sent to jail in a civil matter, unless they don't adhere to the final ruling; then it is contempt of court and turns into a criminal matter.

CIVIL LAW TERMINOLOGY - claimant, defendant, admitting liability, denying liability, liable, not liable.

Criminal law is an offence against a person and/or a community, i.e. murder or theft. The defendant can be sent to jail in a criminal matter. Criminal matters always start in a Magistrates court. They can then be referred to a Crown court or the Supreme Court.

CRIMINAL LAW TERMINOLOGY - prosecutor, defendant, guilty, not guilty, convicted, acquitted.

The test of proof between criminal law and civil law is different. In criminal law, to prosecute it must proved it beyond reasonable doubt. In civil law, it comes down to the balance of probability.

Sources of law in the UK include;

• EU law
• Judiciaries
• Common law
• Case law
• Statutes

Reporting Crime and the Courts

Prejudice is where publication of certain information may compromise the fair treatment of the accused during a trial, for instance, if a jury learns background information about those on trial.

Contempt is where information is published in breach of the rules in crime or court reporting; it has a high risk of prejudicing legal trials.

A case becomes legally active when;

• a person is arrested,
• an arrest warrant is issued,
• a summons is issued or
• a person is charged orally.
  
  

 A case is legally closed when;

• the arrested person is released without charge - except on bail,
• no arrest was made within 12 months of the issue of an arrest warrant,
• the case is discontinued,
• the defendant is acquitted or sentenced,
• the defendant is found to be unfit to be tried, or unfit to plead, or the courts orders the charge to lie on file.

Four stages of reporting and processing a case are as follow;

ONE - The crime is reported, police are appealing for witnesses, descriptions are issued. All of this is okay to print with no risk of prejudice.

TWO - The case becomes legally active and there is risk of prejudice. Seek advice before you publish information.

THREE - A trial is a definite prospect and only definite, uncontested facts can be printed. You can print a community angle, 'colour' article, such a flowers at the scene etc.

FOUR - The magistrates court hearing; restricted to reporting seven points!

- Names, ages, addresses and occupations of defendants

- Charges faced

- Names of courts and magistrates name

- Date and place of where case is adjourned

- Whether bail is granted or not

- Whether legal aid is granted

There are three main types of offence;

• Indictable; murder, rape, GBH
• Either-way; aggravated theft, drugs, ABH
• Summary; minor shoplifting, driving offences, parking tickets

The purpose of a Section 49 Order is to give anonymity to under 18s in youth court.

The purpose of a Section 39 Order is to give anonymity to under 18s in adult court.

If the jury is not present in a Crown court, the proceedings must not be reported. Absolute privilege is granted to a journalist in court if the report is 'fair, accurate and contemporaneous'. Defamatory shouts from the public gallery are not to be reported.

You can not prejudice a judge or a magistrates court as there is no jury.

A jury decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty whereas the judge decides the penalty.

Libel and Defamation

Slander is when someone says something defamatory. 

Libel is when someone publishes something defamatory;

• Publication
• Defamatory
• Identification; even if jigsaw identification or innuendo.

A defamatory statement is something that would make a person 'tend' to;

• lower them in the eyes of right-thinking society
• causes them to be shunned and avoided
• discredits them in their profession
• exposes them to hate, ridicule or contempt

Libel defences include;

Justification - it's true and I can prove it.

Fair or honest comment - it's made clear that is only opinion and it is in the public interest for this opinion to be published.

Qualified/absolute privilege - court reporting etc.

TV journalists need to be extra careful because they may accidentally identify someone in a defamatory way with the shots they use; such as noticeable things like posters in a hospital on a documentary about malpractice.

Public interest means where it is to the advantage of the public to know certain information.

Privilege

Privilege is very important to journalists, it gives them protection when reporting day to day things such as; council hearings, public meetings, press conferences and police statements.

It allows journalists to publish material that may be defamatory or untrue without any legal worries as long as the information is printed 'fair, accurate, without malice and on a matter of public concern'.

There are two levels of qualified privilege, with or without contradiction and explanation.

An example of QP without explanation or contradiction would be proceedings of a legislature anywhere in the world.

An example of QP with explanation or contradiction would be material reported at a public meeting.

Copyright
Copyright - the exclusive legal right given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform film, or record literary, artistic, or music material and to authorise others to do the same.

Intellectual property is essentially work. Even if it is not a physical object, it is a person's property; unless they sell it. The entire purpose of copyright it to protect intellectual property. Without copyright, journalism as an industry could not exist.

Undeveloped ideas, however, are not protected by copyright statutes. This also includes brief slogans and catchphrases.

Fair dealing allows some media outlets to lift journalistic material IF;

• It tells the news and is intrinsic
• It is not passed off as your own
• The usage is fair
• The material is in the public interest

Copyright is criminal conspiracy, it is not a civil case.

Material taken from the Internet is still subject to copyright and you can not fair deal photographs.

Confidentiality

The law of confidentiality is between the parties in which a 'secret' is told.

The law depends on each person's expectation of the level of confidentiality. For instance, a doctor has complete confidentiality to a patient. A patient could tell a doctor they committed murder and the doctor would not be able to say anything, as the same with a lawyer.

A parent would breach confidentiality to their child if the child, for instance, the child told the parent they had a venereal disease and the parent proceeded to tell someone else. However, if a child told a parent they committed murder, the parent would be expected to tell the police. This is one way however, a child owes not confidentiality to their parent.

There are three main areas of concern for journalists when it comes to confidentiality;

• revealing state/official secrets (one)
• revealing commercial secrets (two)
• revealing facts about a person that they expect to remain private (three)

ONE - The Official Secrets Act protects state secrets, for instance information on a military base or anything that would be of use to an enemy. Be cautious when using pictures that could be informative to an enemy.

TWO - Commercial confidentiality is normally written in the contract between an employee and an employer. It will cover, for example, not giving useful financial information to competitors.

THREE - Personal confidences and privacy is also protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Journalists can publish certain information if it falls under the public interest. When a journalist thinks they've found newsworthy confidential information, they must decide whether to risk an injunction or having legal action taken against them for breach of confidence; perhaps even defamation if they allegations are inaccurate.

Regulatory Codes

This covers how journalists should go about getting a story and general journalistic etiquette. There are three different regulatory codes used in journalism.

These are;

OFCOM - can impose large fines, can take shows offline, covers radio and television but not Sky, requires absolute accuracy and impartiality.

BBC Editorial Guidelines and Press Complaints Commission (PCC) - self regulatory, quick, cheap and easy but also has limited fines.

Reporting Elections

Impartiality and accuracy is vital around elections times as journalists could influence the public on who to vote for.

The danger area for journalists when it comes to reporting elections are;

• False statements about candidates
• Maintaining impartiality
• Reporting opinion polls or exit polls

Major party and minor party candidates do not have to be treated equally.

It is an offence to refer to exit polls until the polls are closed.

There must be no coverage of political debates or arguments by the candidates or parties on polling day.