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.

Defamation

"To be a journalist is to publish - that's what we do."

In publishing you have to aware of so many different laws & today I am going to write about one of three most important laws for a journalist to know inside and out - defamation.

Defamation is a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions. Everyone has the right to their reputation, defamatory statements could take this from them.

Under the catergory of defmation is slander and libel; slander being defaming someone in a non-permanent form such as a spoken statement which isn't recorded, libel being defaming someone in a permanent form such as broadcasting a statement on a radio station, television or in a newspaper.

Libel requires:

• The statement is defamatory
• It has been 'published' to a third party i.e. a letter or comment on the internet
• That particular identified person has been defamed 

A defamatory statement is anything that causes any of the following:

• Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt
• Causes them to be shunned or avoided
• Discredits them in their trade, business or profession
• Generally lowers them in the eyes of the right-thinking public 

If you get sued for libel. it has to the potential to destroy you and whoever you work for. You have the potential to kill that publication stone dead so it is vital you check everything you write or publish is 100% accurate.

If you libel someone, even if they're dead, you've broken the law - but hopefully you have a very good defence. Remember, being a student is not a defence. A student could say they have no money but the university would have to pay the fine on their behalf.

There are three main defences:

• Justification - the statement is not only believed to be true but is 100% fact. It may be necessary to have witnesses willing to stand in court.
• Fair comment - it's simply comment and not fact, however, it was honestly held with no malice. The Freedom of Speech Act gives journalists a lot of scope to say hurtful or controversial things as long as it is made clear that it is only COMMENT and not FACT. For example, "Thomas Jones is ugly" is presented as fact, even if it is opinion - "I think Thomas Jones is ugly" is comment as 'I think' is in it.
• Absolute privilege and qualified privilege - it's fair, accurate and contemporaneous. In certain cases, public interest demands that there should be complete freedom of speech without any risk of proceedings for defamation, even when statements are defamatory and turn out to be untrue. Absolute privilege is the complete answer and bar to any action of defamation. It doesn't matter whether the statement is true, untrue, malicious or not.

The Essential Dos and Don'ts in Media Law

Do you want to become a journalist? A celebrity feature writer? A news reader? A travel journalist? An investigative journalist like the great Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein? Or even a modern day William Rees-Mogg?

If your answer is yes, then you'll need to know the essential dos and don'ts of media law.

So let's get started.

THE DON'TS

• DO NOT write/say/publish anything that you know to be untrue or if it is purposely to harm another without any justification or without just cause.
• DO NOT dishonestly present sources or information. Avoid interviews or information directly from family members or friends.
• DO NOT pay people to pretend to be a source. That's not cool.
• DO NOT make up sources, interviews or any other content you wish to publish unless clearly stated it is fictional.
• DO NOT purposely cause disrepute or disruption. It is not wise or even funny to edit your work after it has been cleared by your editor or superior, all you will get is a bollocking.
• DO NOT publish discriminatory or racially offensive material. Not only is it not socially unacceptable, it is against the law.
• DO NOT publish your work without checking the simple attributes such as grammar, spelling and sentence structure.
• DO NOT even consider publishing your work if you are not sure if it complies with the law.
• DO NOT be stupid. Don't breach any privacy, confidentiality, trespassing, copyrighting or child protection (and so on and so forth) laws. That'll just get you in trouble.

That's about it with the don'ts. Now to the more positive side - the dos.

THE DOS

• DO try and detach yourself from the subject you are writing about. Disinterestedness is key.
• DO get out into the industry and find yourself some useful sources. A lot of journalism is to do with who you know, not what you know.
• DO be professional and responsible at all times when presenting yourself or your publication. If you want to be taken seriously in the media industry, you must make yourself appear to be someone who can be taken seriously.
• DO check your facts over and over again. Facts are brilliant in publications if they are 100% accurate.
• DO maintain an up-to-date working knowledge of media law and media regulation. Unfortunately, not knowing if changes have been made isn't an excuse for breaking the law.

Although media regulation can put you 'in a box' and limit you as a journalist, it is there for a good reason - to try and regulate the media. 

What would happen without media law? Would the newspapers be full of lies? Would the radio be more interesting? Would publications start growing legs and walking around the streets throwing news at us?

Probably not.

However, we'll never know.

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KEY WORDS AND DEFINITIONS IN MEDIA LAW

DISREPUTE 

A low standard of esteem or credit.

i.e. Unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch brings disrepute into the journalism industry.

MALICE

The intentional allowing, publication or creation of a wrongful or harmful act with no justification.

i.e. The newspaper was full of malice, it wasn't even worth reading.

DISINTERESTED

Being unbiased, unattached and not influenced by exterior motives.

i.e. He was perfect to write to article as he was disinterested in the subject.

DEFAMATION

A false accusation of an offence or act by another which could result in damaging their reputation.

i.e. Her soul intention of that article was defamation of Lady Gaga.

SLANDER

Defamation by saying the accusation.

i.e. Stop with all the slander, I'll sue you.

LIBEL

Defamation by writing the accusation.

i.e. With all this evidence, you have a definite libel case on your hands.

RECKLESSNESS

Disregard and paying little attention to produced work.

i.e. He wrote the article with complete recklessness, the spelling mistakes were atrocious.

MEDIA REGULATION

The use of legal means to regulate and control the media industry.

i.e. Your knowledge of media regulation must be kept up to date in order to pass this course.