Media Law 6

Freedom of Information (FOI)

The freedom of information act 2000 gives the general public the right to information from public authorities including the government.

The freedom of information act is seen as a good thing for journalists as it allow them to uncover truths about subjects that the public otherwise wouldn't have known. Tony Blair's government brought in the act to give the government more transparancy however Mr Blair has openly regretted the move as many journalists have used it against the governments favour.

Public services covered include;
. Government departments
. Local authorities
. National health service bodies
. Schools, colleges, and universities
. The police
. The houses of parliament
. The Northern Ireland assembley; and
. The National assembley for Wales

McNae's Essential law for journalists states;

Any person (icluding a journalist) who makes a request in writing to a public authority for information must be told wheter the authority holds that information and must be supplied with the information he is seeking, unless an exemption applies. However, in the majority of cases where an exemption applies, the public authority will then have to consider whether the information must be released in the public interest.


Reference: McNae's essential law for journalists 19th edition.

Media law 5.

Copyright

A short but sweet lecture and helpful nonetheless!

Copyright, according to McNae's, covers people's: skill, creativity, labour or time.

For a journalist this will cover video output as well as written articles.

It is important to note that a whole varitety of things are covered from; music, dance moves, written words, adverts, costume designers and so on.

Copyright gives the person rights to whatever it may be, for example music will belong to the artist and producers.

Fair dealings

Copyrighted work can be used for the uses of criticism or review, for example when reviewing a movie and this does not infringe the law. However people must be careful that they credit the makers of the film in this case, you must make it clear that the work has been done by somebody else.

media law 2

Reporting in courts.

The two main issues you want to stay clear of are; contempt of court and prejudice. Basically if anything is reported that may sway the juries mind for example calling the defendant a thug could make the jury (who are supposed to be impartial) think differently. This would be contempt of court which is punishable by jail. so don't do it.

Before a trial has begun however, you can report on some aspects of the case such as:

Names, age and occupation of the defendant.
Magistrate and courts name
Bail arrangements
Barristers/lawyers
Wheather or not there was legal aid

When the case is active you can then be found in contempt of court, the case is active when;

A person has been arrested, or a warrant for his arrest has been issued, or a summons has been issued, or if a person has been charged orally.

The case ceases to become active when;

.The arrested person is released without police charge (except on police bail)
. No arrest is made within 12 months of the issue of the warrant
. The case is discontinued
. The defendant is acquitted or sentanced
. He is found unfit to be tried, or unfit to plead, or the court order the charge to lie on file.

The courts are keen to stress that everybody has the right to a fair trial and that the media should not affect this.

Court reporting must be as always; fast, accurate and fair. The story must be printed without prejudice it must have accurate details and be printed on the first available issue.

People who are victims of sex crimes such as rape, and children involed in sex crimes should be treated with caution as they are guranteed anonimity and their names should never be reported.

Magistrates courts can give out these sentances;

.6 months Jail time
. Fines up to £5,000
. Suspended sentance
. Community orders
. Asbo's

References; McNae's Essential law for journalists 19th edition

Media Law 1

Basic court structure, Basic Law.

In England and wales:

At the lowest level you have;

Magistrates court - Tribunals

Crown Court - County Court (Split in to criminal and civil respectively)

High court

Court of Appeal (split in to Civil and criminal divisions)

The supreme court - The top of the pile where for all appeals.

Break Down

Magistrates court:

All criminal cases in England and Wales start in the magistrates courts.

Indicitable offences are sent to the crown court

Triable either way cases can be at crown or county court.

Cases heard by JP (Justice of the peace)

Crown Court;

The most serious offences are sent here, for example; Murder, Rape, Section 18 wounding etc.

Cases heard by a Judge and Jury.

They hear cases from magistrates court
They deal with cases sent for sentance from the magistrates court
They try indictable offences such as those mentioned above.

County Court;

Deal with civil law.

Cases such as contracts and common law torts are dealt with at country court, such as claiming compensation money.

High court;

Deals with civil cases, and listens to appeals from the crown court. It is split up in to the following divisions;

Family Divison - Deals with divorce, adoption etc.

The Queens Bench Division - Deals with large compensation cases also listens to some appeals from crown or magistrates court

Chancery Division - Deals with wills, winding up orders etc.

Court of Appeal;

Deals with Criminal and civil appeals from crown courts and County courts respectively.

Supreme court;

Deals with cases that are appealed from the court of appeal in civil and criminal cases.

The European court of justice is what cases are reffered to when involving Eurpean law, this is the only court above the supreme court that cases can go to. The European court of Human rights is a court which deals with cases of human rights, where someone thinks a case can't be solved in the national system.

References;

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/courts_of_law.htm#high_court

McNae's essential law for journalists 19th addition

Winol 16/11/11

Good headlines.

The in studio debate was a good idea and made a change from the usual introduction of a package. The questions are good however it didn't come across as natural coverage like Gareth and Becky were having a conversation. I think this was the idea however it was just Becky reading from a sheet and came across a bit strange to me.

Lou's Package is very good, however to a simpleton like myself it is a big confusing. I'm not really sure about services being cut and merged I think it is a bit hard to explain to your average Joe. The first interview is framed well, however the second is a bit awkward the man is sort of staring in to no where towards the camera he needs to turn to his right to be better framed. But over all a good package.

The pedophile story is a bit long, Flick delivers the information needed very well and is well framed in the shot. However there is a lack of cutaways which is understandable, but it makes the package drag out a bit, possible better in a OOV. Also there is a shot of the court that pops up after Flicks sing off, maybe a technical issue.

The parking story is a good local story, all be it a bit dull it is relevant to our audience a good mix of shots keeps the viewer interested. Lee has done well to get the interview, who gives a good quote asking why the prices are being raised giving his opinion. The interview with the councillor gives balance explaining the reason for the rise.

The festival story Good use of natural sound at the start. And lets face it, it is a shameless promotion for Winchester University.

The University App is an interesting story, and maybe could of been made in to a longer package maybe with some vox-pops as this story directly affects students. This appeals directly to our target market.

SPORT. The Totton package had to dominate sport as it was such a big story. It was well covered and edited. Stefan Brown interview was good, but as Angus said, he had set a world record for the fastest goal ever scored off the bench so this could have been focused on more. Possibly with a follow up feature after scoring the hat trick.

The final story is good again some shameful self promotion but still a interesting story. The shots of Aaron talking into the microphone then talking over that from the first part of his interview was a bit confusing. The interview with Joy carter was well framed and it is good to get her opinion the charity radio show.

ICE HOCKEY- Much of the same from me again. I feel I am starting to master the ice Hockey packages. As it was low scoring game I didn't get a chance to use a score counter in the corner. I did a feature where I travelled to the Bison's home ground and did two interviews and got on the ice myself. I decided to make it funny as it will be better to watch. I did a fast paced scene of of me putting the gear on then cut to a slow motion of me walking out of the Bison curtains. Then a few shots of me falling over! I made sure that I over did it with the comedy side so that it was obvious it was a jokey thing rather than serious as it couldn't be half serious and half funny as I think this wouldn't look right. For one of the interviews I asked about the fighting aspect of the game as this allowed me to put archive footage of fighting over the interview. This made it a little bit more light hearted as the cut aways were interesting as the subject of fighting isn't too in depth and I think is interesting to the viewer. The only thing that I was not happy with was the amount of time I had on the ice. I would have liked longer and to got more shots of me doing different things on the ice but we simply did not have time. Furthermore I tried to get some shots of the camera being sprayed by skates but it didn't work and again we didn't have time to film it because we could only be on the ice for 15 minutes.

Winol 09/11/11

Another good bulletin The top story in London, very good that Tom recored a peice to camera to use in case the live feed didn't work which of course it didn't! Always good to have back up and the information was short but sweet.

Julie has done very well again to get an MP on the bulletin. A good mix of interviews with shots of him talking at what looked like a press conference. The news team have been told to get quotes e.g. Huhne saying 'we can't go around having referendums every week' and Julie has done this again and seems to be very good at doing this, aspiring journalists take note! It is all about the quote.

Lou's housing story starts with his explanation which is very clear, the shots of Barton farm are in all honestly a bit boring but there isn't much else that can be done as this is what the story is about. Technically the second interview needs to be decentred and could be tighter, but over all the story is a good local story explained well by Lou who has a very interesting voice which is nice to listen to and keeps you interested.

Lee has done very well again. Another interesting local story which is well put together. The second interview is very good as it follows the structure of information in Lee's voice and comment from the school teacher who is very happy about schools receving money and gives her opinon. And it is a nice shot to finish on with the teacher drawing on the board.

On to sport.

The Map graphic for the olympic story is a good idea as it is much more interesting that just saying it over some shots of sport. A good idea to have Mikey presenting it as having somebody physically talking about it and showing the route makes it much more interesting. A nice link in to the fencing story, well done on getting the interview. Hoever it is a bit short, and as Chris said it would have been nice to see Mikey getting involved putting the gear on and having a go himself, but some nice shots of the fencing taking place is interesting to watch.

The OOV's are good, I think that not showing the long football highlights is better for the show in general as I'm sure a lot of people don't like football (I Can't understand why) and could switch off if it's too long. I think in the past it has been and having it shortened down keeps those who are predominately watching for the news locked on.

Flicks story as mentioned probably missed out on focusing more on the twins graduating, however I think she did well to get the twins graduating together on the same course etc. for an interview. This is still very interesting to hear, and although it didn't focus on them Flick did well to get them in the package. Technically some of the pictures look a bit too white, but the story is well put together again and has some good shots of happy students throwing their hats up which is good to see!

My contribution for the week was Ice Hockey again this time the Peterborough Phantoms were in town to face Basingstoke. Not one of my best and probably one of my worst! Looking back over the package I think that my voice over is not as enthusiatic as it could be and has been in the past. I think that I could swell up the sound a bit more when the Bison score, the only problem being that the crowd are sometimes too loud... which will need me to turn downt he sound on the actual recording. I think it is important to get crowd sound in as it gives the viewer an idea of the atmosphere that was at the game. Unfortunately I ran out of tape and when in over time I missed the game winnng goal that the Bison scored with only 19 seconds left. I had old tapes but did not check if they were re-wound which meant my tape cut out about 10 seconds before they scored. I managed to cover it with some clever commentary but I was very dissapointed that I missed it as it was completely my fault, however you live and you learn and I will make sure this doesn't happen again! Over all it was not my best work and I shall look to improve and be more enthusiastic with my next package.

And a special mention to George for presenting very well especially for his first time. And Cara very well done again very natural you don't ever seem to look nervous, impressive stuff.

Media Law 4

Confidentiality/Privacy

1.Confidentiality - Official secrets act and test of condfidentiality, You cannot diclose information without lawful permission. People may pass on information to journalists in confidence, and they have the right to expect this not to be passed on to anyone else.

2. Privacy - Dispute between Article 8 of the human rights act; the right to respect for private and family life, his home and correspondence And artcile 10; the right to freedeom of expression

3. In the public Interest - NOT just the interest of the public. Article 8 says that you have the right to privacy, however when you discover something that is in the interest of the public they have the right to know for example when;

.Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety
.Protecting public health and safety
.Preventing the public from being mislead by action or statement of an individual or organisation.

For example it could be argued that if an MP is portraying themselves as a family man for which they have a private life to, however if they are caught having an affair then this may be of interest of the public. The people who voted for the MP have a right to know as they are representing their constituency.

Also it is important to remeber that people have the right to privacy so you should always be sure that you have permssion to use what someboday has said or film them. In situations such as demonstrations such as we have seen recently, these people are in public looking for attetion for their cause so to a degree they can expect to be filmed. This is what is known as implied consent as staging big public events is not a private matter.


The Official secrets act (1911) ELIMINATES the public interest defence.

If somebody reveals secret information to a journalist, this has the potential to be ' third party breech' injuctions can be put on to stop publication. An injucntion gives the person anonomity. A super injuction means that nothing can be said at all, there is effectively no story.

A Breech of confidence happens when;

- It has to be ''the necessary quality of confidence''
- There has to be circumstances imposing an obligation
- There was no permission to pass on information
- Detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave the information.

Winol 02/11/11

WINOL a good show once again with some very interesting stories.

The pick of the bunch being the Steve Brine interview by Julie, my personal opinion anyway. The Brine interview made the show look very professional with a MP talking about his 'rebellion,' great stuff! One criticism I would have is the headline strap said ' he's a rebel' and in the clip of Brine talking he says ' I don't see myself as a rebel '. Brine gives his opinion on Europe; saying it's bad and the facts are in Julie's voice; talking about the MP's voting on Europe. Good work Julie on getting the interview in the first place outside parliament, It can't have been easy.

The Farage interview is good, the story of question time coming to winchester is not package worthy but it's good that we have followed the story and spoke to Farage linking it with the European referendum. He says some interesting things 'it's a disaster for the north and south of Europe' very good!

The occupy Bournemouth story is good as it's a global issue on a local scale. The shots of the sign with lots of writing on it was a bit confusing however the shots of the protestors painting the signs were good as we actually see people doing things. The interviewee's were good and added a personal feel to it. Also the update is a good idea and worked well, however I think that although it is obvious Ali is reading it would look better if the paper was actually in the shot to make it really obvious for the battery chickens as chris would put it.

The Rubbish story lacks a variety of shots for me. There are only a few bins outside a house and some big red ones. I think that if the rubbish situation is so bad we need to see laods of bins over flowing and if possible more than one house on a street with uncollected rubbish. However the base of the story is good, the facts in Lee's voice and the resident saying how bad it is. George Beckett apolagising is priceless! to get a councillor saying sorry is great and it doesn't happen every day!

The Laser story is interesting, and explained well without being too technical so that everyone can understand it. Would have been good to see Tom suited and booted but the story is good and the interview, however I think that the interviewee is facing too far away from the camera. It looks good when the person your interviwing is at a slight angle but I think he is facing too far away.

Well presented by keegan and Champion very natural and calm.






SPORTS good stuff once again; a lot of footage and some interesting cup ties! The non league teams progressing that far is great for their fans and draw in much more viewers than our normal league matches (or at least it should do). I think that the sport is possibly a bit too long for the bulletin, and believe me from an aspiring sports journalist this pains me to say it! But realistically I can see how people tuning in for news would get bored of watching premiership football let alone blue square south football and Ice Hockey! As mentioned in the de-brief the winol woodwork is probably too long. A short clip and a advertisement to sportsweek would have been better.






BASINGSTOKE BISON. A decent game with seven goals making it much easier to make interesting that the 1-0 fiasco I had the week before! I Was happy with the over all package and am continuing to try and improve my voice however I feel that it was maybe lacking a little bit. I want to get the variation in my voice that is interesting for the viewer to listen to. I also left slightly more in the build up play to show the viewers more of the game. Also I think this would make it less confusing to what is going on and what the score is! I had toyed with the idea of using a goal counter in the corner so that the viewer doesn't get confused. The reason I haven't is that I think it could look a bit tacky but may experiment with it in the future! I had a slight problem with the sound leading up to the last goal as I tried to blend it in with the last clip but it didn't work as well as I had hoped and there was a slight jump in the volume. I don't think it was that obvious but I noticed and I was not happy with it.

Winol week four

A one nil thriller was my exciting game for this week action packed and full of chances......or not.

For the first time we had two cameras at the Planet ice arena to see the Bison take on the Milton Keynes Lightning. I was accompanied by the beautiful and talented Henry 'the hoover' Lewin-Titt.

OF COURSE, this would be the only game I have been to so far that ended in at the least with five goals on the board. The extra angle provided us with a shot from behind the goal which I think improves the coverage very much giving it a much more professional feel. Once again I had a problem with my auto focus, it seemed to be focusing itself and when I moved sharply it was taking to long to re focus and I couldn't seem to get it off. This is something I'm sure I will have figured out when I am fully HD trained for next week. FORTUNATELY the only goal of the game was at the end that Henry was set up with his camera which I used for a slowed down replay. I feel this gave a much more professional feel, and it gives the viewer much more visual stimulation. It was hard to make in to an interesting package, through the lack of goals, but there were a few decent chances and I picked my best looking pictures only for the highlight reel. Again I didn't use shots of the teams warming up as I thought that this looked too much like a feature intro, instead I just extended my first highlight; showing more of the build up to the chance and putting my introduction voice over on that. On the whole I feel I made it pretty interesting considering there was only one goal I managed to stretch it out over a minute!

Michael Connolly, Winchester News Online