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.