Rebuilding Reputations Law & Ethics assignment

TASK A:

https://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/legal-help/definition-of-defamatory
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/contempt+of+court
https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/human-rights-act
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Regulation-of-Investigatory-Powers-Act-RIPA
https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/childrenandyoungpersonshl.html
https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary

TASK B:


Ethical intro report

Firstly starting off with the Leveson inquiry, it was set up back in 2011 once the News of The World newspaper closed, linked to the phone hacking scandal. Once this happened Lord Justice Leveson was appointed as chairman for the Inquiry, this examined the culture, practices/ ethics of the press itself and the relationship between both the public and the press, as well as the police and politicians.

The press then decided to go ahead and establish a new regulator, IPSO was then established in September 2014. IPSO is the Independent Press Standards Organisation. They hold newspapers and magazines to account for their actions within each story, the try and successfully protect peoples human rights as well as holding upholding high standards towards journalism to help maintain freedom of expression for the press. IPSO also handle with complaints, conducts its own investigations into editorial standards- they are financed by the Regulatory Funding Company (RFC) which is funded by member publications.

IMPRESS are the only press regulators who are independent within the UK. They award a trusted journalism mark to news publishers who meet certain standards, they give the publishers the freedom to report hard hitting stories, and ensure they have supported both sides and complaints fairly. IMPRESS are funded by Press Regulation Trust (IPRT), a charity who promotes high standards of journalism and they accept donations from anyone who wishes to support.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15686679

Task C:
In order to be a great journalist they all have to have a good understanding of the law and how it could effect their work, for example Defamation and Contempt of Court. Defamation allows many individuals or companies to sue for any damage of their reputation. "The major aspect of defamation is its effect upon right-thinking members of society or the community generally, and what is causes them to feel towards the subject of the alleged defamation. The key terms here are ‘right-thinking’ and ‘generally’ – if the defamation has an effect upon merely a section of society then this is not regarded by law as defamation. The defamation has to have an effect upon right-thinking people generally."

In september 2004 the News of The World wrote an article on David and Victoria Beckham portraying how their relationship was on the break and the only main reason they were still together is because they could earn more money when they are together and they could not afford to live without each other as their business would soon begin to fade. The couple were going to take the News of The World to court however later dropped the charges and eventually came to an agreement with News of The World in what the outcome would be over the defamation charges. 

Contempt of Court law is often referred to as "contempt" it is the offence of being disobedient towards a court of law. There are two categories of contempt which are being rude and disrespectful to legal authorities in the courtroom, or failing to obey someones orders. Proceedings like these are used to enforce equitable remedies. When a court decides that and action shows contempt of court, it can issue court order that in a court trial or hearing declares a person or organisation to have disobeyed or been disrespectful then it is taken into consideration by the strongest power to then impose sanctions for acts that disrupt the courts normal process. 

In June 2011 a women named Joanne Fraill was sentenced to 8 months in Jail for contempt of court after contacting an offender on social media. She was a juror in a drug trial involving the defendant Jamie Stewart and a few others but went against the judges instructions. She then contacted Stewart when the charges against her were dropped and then revealed information about the other charges to the offender which is considered as contempt of court. 

Task F

From reading the article about how the mainstream media failed democracy I do agree that writers and journalists have a legal obligation to report news accurately because they need to send out information when it is needed to allow the public to know the latest news wherever they go- this is where online news sources like social media allow people to view any latest news whenever they like. On the other hand I do believe that it’s wrong for journalists or writers to post false information because then the public will assume certain things which can create controversy between people when majority of the time most things are either partly not true or it’s completely false news.

From reading this article/ post from The Huffington Post along with looking at the images from The Sun & The Guardian I can see that people are genuinely happy with the result according to The Sun whereas a couple of people were portrayed as being shocked from the final decision. When reading the post about mainstream media it seems to be as if the writer is speaking for a range of people without stating their own view at the same time; the journalist then slates two articles written previously about immigration, using quotes to back up their point. Personally I think that this is ok to some extent but think you should always think about what you’re writing about.

The reason a say that Journalists and writers have a legal obligation to report news accurately is because news is part of everyone’s lives whether it’s about Brexit or the latest news on “Branjelina” making headlines. I do believe that the writer of this piece has the right to be saying what they are saying along with backing up their points because of the situation- I also believe that the contrast in images between the two papers is important because it portrays the two sides of how people feel. It’s almost a question of whether people actually knew what would happen if we stayed in the EU comparing to the fact that technically we’re not part of Europe right this moment. The writer speaks to a Labour MP who actually represents the Northern Constituency and with the points and validity she was commenting on that this article in particular holds some good views and it supports different views and covering all aspects.