Media Law Revision: Possible Questions

What is the highest court in the UK?  Where does it sit? How many justices?

Supreme Court, Middlesex Guildhall near parliament, 12 Justices

Three functions of Crown Courts? 

Trys indictable only offences, appeals from magistrates, longest prison sentencing

Three functions of Magistrates courts? 

Trys summary offences, committals, power of up to 6months sentencing

What is the difference between a civil and criminal offence?

Criminal offence is an act against society as a whole

Civil offence is a dispute between two citizens or a company.

Is the legal test of proof the same or different?

Criminal = Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Civil = On the balance of probabilities

Give 3 sources of law in the UK.

Common Law, Case Law/Precedent, Statute law/Acts of Parliament, European Law

What do journalists mean by the public interest?

Public interest is a justification to breach certain codes of conduct. The public interest does not mean is merely interesting to the public, it means it is of real value and concern for the public to know e.g. to expose crime, protects their health and safety, prevent the public from being misled and disclose imcompetence.

Briefly explain what is meant by ‘prejudice’ and ‘contempt’ in the context of media law.

Prejudice = publishing certain information which may prevent the accused person the right to a fair trial, e.g. portraying them in a negative light.

Contempt = breaching the rules surround crime and court reporting, leading to a high risk of prejudice.

When does a case become legally active?

When a person has been charged, the police make an arrest, an arrest warrant has been issued or magistrates issue a summons.

After an arrest is made what sort of facts – in general terms – can be reported?  (Those which won’t be at issue at trial)

Facts which cannot be contested at trial, e.g. community colour – there is risk of prejudice when an arrest has been made so it’s important to seek legal advice.

The accused appears before magistrates – in general terms what can you report? List them…

1.       Name, Age, Address, Occupation (Identification)

2.       Charges faced

3.       Name of Court and Magistrates Name

4.       Names of Barristers and Solicitors

5.       Date and Place as to whether it was adjourned

6.       Whether legal aid was granted

7.       Whether bail was granted or not

8.       If reporting restrictions apply

What is meant by an ‘either-way’ offence

It can be trialled at both a Magistrates Court or Crown Court

What is maximum sentence magistrates can impose?

6 months, they can also impose fines up to £5k

What is meant by a conditional discharge?

This is where there is insufficient evidence for it to be sent to the crown court

What is the purpose of a ‘Section 49 order’?

To give anonymity to juveniles (under 18) in Youth courts

What is purpose of a Section 39 order? 

To give anonymity to juveniles (under 18) in Adult courts

What do we mean by ‘jigsaw identification’?

This is where a combination of details are published which identify someone that was granted anonymity.

One morning you arrive at court and barristers are making legal arguments about crucial evidence. You notice the jury isn’t there.  Can you report the proceedings?

No – When the jury are out, you cannot report anything.

What is required of your court report for it to attract absolute privilege?

It must be fair, accurate and contemporaneous

In this context explain what is meant by ‘fair’.

Fair means it has balance from both sides. (Accurate means as heard in court, and Contemporaneous means it must be published as soon as practicable)

During a murder trial a family member shouts at the defendant from the public gallery. “You lying bastard – you killed our boy!”  Is that safe to report?

No defamatory statements heard in the Public Gallery do not tract absolute privilege

How would you define libel?

 Libel = Identification + Publication + Defamation

It is a civil wrong doing if a defamatory statement is published which identifies a person or company.

How do we know when a statement is defamatory (4 tests used by judges)

A statement is defamatory if it tends to:

1.       Lower them in the estimation of right thinking people

2.       Causes them to be shunned and avoided

3.       Exposes them to hatred, ridicule and contempt

4.       Disparages them in their business, trade and profession

What particular danger is there of libel for TV journalists?

 Danger in broadcast is Picture libel – this is careless use of shots against a juxtaposing voice over.

What are the 3 major libel defences?

 It is the truth

 It is Honest Opinion (based on facts known at the time and without malice)

It is in the Public Interest

Others defences are:

Absolute privilege – protects court coverage and inquests

Qualified privilege – protects public meeting e.g. council meetings

The new Defamation Act 2013 – the claimant must now prove that it has caused serious harm e.g. losses

Something re the McAlpine affair

 BBC Newsnight broadcast a statement that implied McAlphine was involved in the sexual abuse of children; although he was not named he was subject to internet speculation. Sally Bercow tweeted “Why is Lord McAlphine trending? *Innocent Face* which the high court ruled to be libellous due to Jigsaw Identification.

Why is the legal principle of privilege so important to journalists?

 It provides them with a defence and justification to report defamatory statements that may be untrue.

Give examples of occasions when reports may attract QP with, and without, explanation and contradiction.

Without = reporting on legislature anywhere in the world, e.g UK Parliament

With = reporting on public meetings, police statements, council meetings

 Why was a public meeting in 2000 about the jailed paratrooper Lee Clegg so significant?

 Lord Bingham ruled that in regards to a public meeting whereby the press have been invited with intention to addressing a large audience, then journalists will act as the eyes and ears of the public

What’s the purpose of copyright law?

 To protect out intellectual property and creative content

You use a photo off the internet.  Is it free of copyright? 

 No, photographs are not free of copyright; you have to look for photos under creative commons.

Why is the principle of fair dealing important and what are its limitations?

 Fair dealing is important because it is when journalists can ‘lift’ other media outlets material. It must be a purpose of reporting on a current news event.

Limitations include:

 1. It must be attributed to the original source

2. Of fair usage

3. In the public interest.

What is the purpose of the law of confidence?

 Purpose is to safeguard information that has been given in confidential circumstances

What are the danger areas for journalists?

 Revealing state secrets (Official Secrets – protects information relating to defence of the country)

Revealing commercial secrets (Commercials Confidentiality – protects contracts between employers)

Revealing information that is private to someone (Privacy = Article 8 ‘everyone has the Right to respect for his private and family life’)

What dilemma does a journalist face when newsworthy information comes into his or her possession?

 The dilemma they face is to either publish the information and risk legal action being taken, Or to get a response to the allegations giving the accused person the risk to reply and risk an injunction (legally stopped) being imposed.  

Privacy is now better protected under Human Rights Act Art 8. Give an example of where public figures have won cases where they have claimed breach of privacy or confidence.

What bodies are responsible for regulating the professional conduct of journalists?

 Max Mosley Vs The News of The World – The NoTW published an article detailing Mosley’s ‘Nazi-themed’ orgy with five woman. The high court ruled this was not a matter of public interest.

Naomi Campbell Vs The Mirror Group –The Mirror published photographs of Campbell leaving narcotics anonymous meeting, and reporting on her drug addiction therapy.  The House of Lords ruled that she has reasonable expectation of privacy.  

Which body has most power and why?

 OFCOM has the greatest statutory power, they can prevent the repetition of a programme, revoke a licence, fine up to 5% of revenue or request for an apology or statement to be issued. It has the greatest power because it is independent of the Government.

Define impartiality.   Would there be any difference in your approach to this if you were working in newspapers or broadcasting?

 Broadcasters must be accurate and impartial; impartiality means that they are not biased. In newspapers they can be partial according to whether they are left or right wing.

Why is accuracy and impartiality especially important at election times?

 During election periods our reports assist the democratic process helping voters to make their choice, therefore it is essential that all major parties receive equal coverage

What are the danger areas for journalists during campaign reporting?

1.       Maintaining impartiality, coverage of Major and Minor parties, log of coverage should be kept.

2.       False statements about election candidates (Phil Woolas Case)

3.       Exit polls and Opinion Polls

Must all candidates standing in a constituency be covered equally?

 All the major parties – Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats must be reported equally but the minor parties do not.

In the context of the upcoming European Election – OFCOM have ruled that UKIP is a major party.  

On polling day when can we start reporting exit polls?

 When the polls have officially closed

On polling day a candidate makes a final plea to voters – can we report this?

No, there is no reporting of political issues or arguments on polling day. The main aim is to urge people to vote. 

Search Engine Optimisation

The basics of SEO

Understand how the search engines work

Googlebot is Google's web crawling bot. Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google Index (Googlebot - reads HTML, begins with list of URLS, follows links, user agent)

The crawler will go to a website, follow the link and go to another website.

Links became the most important factor for SEO, if one website links to another it's saying that it thinks it is useful, but these days people cottoned on to this idea, and began spamming links.

If you're running your own website it's important to keep an eye on who is linking to your website: Google master tool will give you a long list of places that link to your site, sometimes it may be negative SEO.

Once it finds the server, it gets logged in the Google Index - this is the filing cabinet essentially.

Tags - need to be kept concise and simple.

Three types of SEO
Technical  - letting the search engine come to the site and move around
On page - make it clear what it is about, the content you are writing
Off page - what Google knows about you and whether it is trust worthy, good authors, social media etc.

Why should I care about all this?
Google shows people things they like, the results are tailored to the user, localised and biased towards fresh content. This is useful because it makes sure they like you, connects directly with them (authorship & social) writes for you audience and stays up to date.

Search Engines - most popular are Google 80% and Bing 20%

Responsive - This is where you can still view the entire screen when altering the size of the screen, it will be beneficial to make it responsive across multiple devices, e.g mobile phones, tablets etc. The theme which the site uses will need to be responsive, otherwise it requires lines of code.

Technical

XML Sitemap - a long list of pages on your website which can be used to submit to a search engine so that they can discover pages on your site they may not other have seen. 

Robots.txt - Use to guide crawlers / robots around parts of you website. Can be used to stop robots accessing unnecessary parts of your website.

HTTP Status Code
200 OK - page works
404 Not Found - Page not found (broken link)
301 Moved Permanently - URL has permanently moved to another location
302 Found - URL moved temporarily to an alternative

Schema Marker

On page

It needs to be accessible and have good user experience, e.g responsive. 

Target Keywords - keyword research, and understanding what people are searching for and using these keywords on the page increases the chances of getting into the Google Index filing cabinet. 

Include Keyword in page title.

Elements of optimised page

• Website is easy to use
• Content is created to be shared and social sharing is a feature of the page
• The page targets one clear 'theme'
• Content can be viewed on various devices
• Context added by including authorship information / Schema.org markup etc
• Page provides genuinely unique and valuable content

Google plus authorship, it lets you post pages and history of articles you have published. 

Off page

Once you have a site that is well optimised, you need to build links to the site, so that Google can begin to rank you form trust to fake. 

Link Building - Links from trustworthy related websites, factors include Number of links, Quality of links, and Anchor Text. (Negative factors include being paid for links, and spam).

Trust - Verify who is behind a website and where it is based, local factors include how old the site/domain is? Has the site been flagged for spam?

Social - Social media can become primary source of traffic to your website, factors include reputation, shares and authors. 

Reporting Elections

The Election period is a highlight for journalists, we are relied upon by voters to educate them on the upcoming elections and party campaigns. As journalists, it is an expected role to cover elections, it has the biggest impact to the people as governmental changes are imposed.

For broadcasters, they must be completely impartial when covering elections, giving all the major parties equal coverage, whereas Newspapers are allowed to be partial depending on whether they left or right wing.

To maintain impartiality, we have to keep an accurate log of party coverage, in keeping with the distribution across major and minor parties. Ofcom have ruled that UKIP is to be treated as a major party in the context of the European Elections, to ensure that they receive equal coverage as the other main three parties: Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat.

As broadcast journalists we have to keep a reporting stance, ensuring that we check the facts and challenge statements that we hear. The Representation of The People Act 1983 makes it a criminal offence to make or publish a false statements about election candidates. This refers back to the Phil Woolas case, who was thrown out of Parliament and the Labour Party after breaking electoral law. He made up damaging allegations about his main general election opponent, implicating false statements. We should constantly think in disbelief to ensure everything is accurate and precise, we are the messengers, therefore we have to double check that we are not spreading the wrong information.

There are dangers with reporting on elections, in particular it is important to be careful with opinion polls. Forming a poll helps to create a sense of how people are voting, however it is extremely crucial to notify viewers that it is in no way scientific. With polls we have to understand that they are subject to error, and it is important to take into consideration how big the sample is, the time it was taken and the age range or social economic position of those involved in the poll. These factors are important as we do not want to give a false view of where the parties are standing.

An Exit poll is a survey taken when people are leaving the polling station to find out which party they voted for. It is a criminal offence to publish before a poll has closed any statement about how people have voted or any forecast of the election results. Rules follow that an exit poll can only be published after the polls have officially closed. It is legal to publish at any time opinion poll informationon voting intentions which was gathered before voting began because this information is not based on how peope sya they have actually voted. When we covered the Eastleigh By-Election last year, we carried out an exit poll at various different stations, which we broadcasted live after the 10pm cut off. As you can see from the video below, we warn the viewers that the poll is not conclusive and it is well within the margin of error. 




News organisations can cover election periods in multiple ways, for example following campaign trails, providing that there is a balance of party coverage. There are other ways such as a question time style by bringing in guests to discuss party policies or covering profiles of certain candidates or areas.

On polling day you will see minimal reporting of policies from the campaigners and journalists, the main aim of the day is to urge people to vote.

Press Regulation

As a journalist working in either broadcast or print, there are important regulatory regimes that we must follow. The code relating to print is currently the subject of scrutiny following the Leveson Inquiry, however in broadcast the relevant codes are BBC and Ofcom.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)

This is the regulator for magazine, newspapers and written publications. Prior to the phone hacking scandal, the PCC was already widely regarded as no more than 'a toothless tiger', it was a body that could be easily discarded by editors and journalists, without imposing any threat to ones career.

Currently, the newspaper regulation is in limbo, following the phone hacking scandal. The press want their own regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) but the government want a royal charter and a statute regulation. For print journalists, this was deemed to be too much state intervention, and invading the freedom of the press.

The PCC does still exist but it is soon to be replaced. The damaging issue to the PCC is that they did not address the corruption of phone hacking, this ethical scandal was continuing while the PCC was in operation, therefore they failed to hold the editor and journalists involved to account.

The fact that the PCC is a self regulatory body is problematic, it results back to the argument of who guards the guardians?

Ofcom

This is the licensing authority that applies to TV and radio broadcasts. It is independent of the Government and broadcasters cannot transmit without a licence from Ofcom. this regulator has statutory powers to impose sanctions "when a broadcaster deliberately, seriously, or repeatedly breaches the code...".

The body can stop the repetition of a programme, make the broadcast issue a correction or statement, impose a financial penalty of up to 5% of qualifying revenue or revoke a licence that is not applicable to the BBC, S4C or channel 4). There is an absolute requirement for "due accuracy and due impartiality"

The Ofcom code has 10 sections outlineing rules for broadcasters to follow.

Section One - Protecting children and those under 18
Section Two - Avoiding harm and offence
Section Three - Covering Crime
Section Four - Covering Religion
Section Five - Due Impartiality and due accuracy and undue prominence of views and opinions
Section Six - Covering elections and referendums
Section Seven - Fairness
Section Eight - Protecting Privacy
Section Nine - Commercial references in television programming
Section Ten - Commercial Communications in Radio programming

BBC Editorial Guideline

This is for BBC staff and license payers, the BBC guidelines are designed to be a working tool for programme makers and journalists, and to act as a benchmark of good practise when considering complaints.

The BBC Editirial Guidelines sets out standards for its journalism, including uncover investigations. The BBC College of Journalism  is also accessible to all, helping to train it's journalists in laws and ethics.

The BBC is he biggest broadcasting organisation in the world, it has an editorial complaints unit so that complainants unhappy with its decisions can appeal to the Trust, if it is alleged that material broadcast was unfair or offensive then complainants can directly contact Ofcom as they also regulate the BBC.

National Union of Journalists

This is a useful guide to good conduct, but without the possibility of serious sanction, this body will do little to help reassure the public of their scepticism towards journalists conduct.

Why do codes matter?

Codes are required in order to keep us in line, making poor ethical judgements can cost a journalist their reputation, audience trust and ultimately your job.

With the codes of best practise in place, we an think about
How far we can go to get the story?
Will our behaviour damage or enhance our reputation?
What practises are legitimate? 
Do circumstances make a difference?
What is acceptable language and violence? 

Reputation matters because we want to be able to develop and nurture a relationship based on trust with our audience, we are representing the news brand that we work for, therefore if we lose the trust with our audience there is nothing to stop them flicking channels.

Codes of practise tend to concentrate on areas such as:
1. Ethical behaviour expected from journalists
2. Fair treatment and respect for privacy
3. Requirement for accuracy and impartiality
4. Protecting children and young people

They offer an avenue of redress to members of the public who wish to complain about their treatment at the hands of the press, alternatively to the time and expense of going to law.