Media Law

I haven't been able to update my blog at all since last week or so due to problems with my internet connection so I plan to try and do a pretty hefty blog on all the interesting stuff I have learnt about the laws and protections in place that Journalists must obey and take advantage of.
....I think a lot of people are perhaps (and I was one of these too) very ignorant to the sheer number of laws in place that Journalists have to obey when reporting news. A combination of reading 'McNae's Essential Law for Journalists' and attending Media Lectures have enlightened me about some of these.

So far, we have covered Malice (something which if done is pretty much the end of your career as you are likely to have a huge army of those involved suing you for every penny you are worth!) Although,  I suppose this is probably a reasonable punishment if you are to go around publishing lies....
We have learnt a lot about courts and how a Journalist must approach a story about court room issues, for example 'Presumption of Innocence'. That very well known saying - 'Innocent until proven guilty' is very important here. I did not realise just how much vocabulary can either make or break a story especially when written about events that have happened within a court room. An example of this would be the use of 'theft' and 'robbery'. Theft obviously means the removal of another individuals belonging's whilst robbery, despite being very similar requires the use of force or violence. If you were to use one of these in the wrong context, the individual that was accused could sue for libel.

As Journalists, our job is to serve the public with information that is in their best interest and must be 'good for society'. This links to the idea that 'Justice must be seen to be done' and as Journalists it is our job to inform the general public of events happening in court on their behalf.

The next big issue to be weary about when writing is 'Defamation'. This simply means publishing a story about an individual or group of people that either exposes hatred, ridicule or contempt; causes him/her to be shunned or avoided or lowers him/her in the minds of right thinking people.
 This if course, when thinking about  National News is extremely difficult to avoid (there probably wouldn't be much news at all without Defamation!) This is why there are three very important defences in place to try and protect Journalists from getting sued with libel action.
The first being 'Justification' or in other words 'Is the story true and can it be proved?' If so, the Journalist is fully protected as the events happened and the Journalist is simply reporting in the interest of the general public.
The second defence is 'Fair Comment'. This is an opinion, although for this to be a suitable defence it is usually used on much more subtle defamatory statements. If you were to perhaps label someone as a rapist or murderer without Justification, it is very doubtful that you could use Fair Comment as your defence!
And the final defence when all else fails is 'Qualified Privilege'. This gives Journalists exemption from the law so long as certain regulations are followed, the story must be completely flawless and 100% accurate. If errors are found, QP is lost. The story must also be free from Malice.
'Absolute Privilege' belongs to honourable people within  society such as the Queen, Judges of the court etc. and they are totally exempt from all laws.

In all National newspapers and television, when a story is being reported 'Positive Identification' will be used especially when discussing one individual in particular. Quite frequently age will be used, along with occupation and address. This is to protect the Journalist from libel should there be another individual under the same name, as they too would have been defamed. 'Accidental Libel' occurs when Positive Identification has been used but due to unfortunate chance, another individual still matches the identification listed. In this rare situation, the Journalist is fully protected. When a photograph can be used this helps to lower the chances of another individual suing over identification.

I am excited to learn more about laws that Journalists are required to follow and fascinated by them.
For now....Watch this space!