Recent Cases - Media Law

Lily Allen v Daily Mail
Singer Lily Allen took legal actions against the Daily Mail alleging invasion of privacy and copyright infringement after they published pictures on their website of her home in September, 2010. Lily Allen has earlier won damages against French sports magazine 'So Foot' over an article where they claim she has called Cheryl Cole 'stupid and superficial' and Victoria Beckham a 'monster' and also received an apology from the Sun and £10.000 in damages for repeating some of the claims made in the same 'So Foot' article.

The Spycatcher Affair
The controversial book 'Spycatcher' contains information aquired by Peter Wright, senior officer of MI5, and was published in 1987. The British Government lost the battle to stop the publication of this book. Law Lords ruled that extract from this book could be used by media as any damage to national security had already been done by publications abroad. But it was agreed that Mr. Wright had committed a serious breach of confidence by publishing this book.

In 1991 the European Court of Human Rights found that Mr. Wright's freedom of speech had been violated by the government's actions.

Bill Goodwin Case
Trainee reporter Bill Goodwin refused to hand over the documents that would reveal his source as he investigated the financial difficulties Tetra Ltd faced. Mr. Goodwin's risked imprisonment by refusing to reveal his source - but ended up paying a £5.000 fine.

In 1996 the European Court of Human Rights held that the fine and the court order violated Mr. Goodwin's right to freedom under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Catherine Zeta Jones Case
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones were awarded £14.600 for breach of confidence and an additional £3m in costs after paparazzi pictures of their wedding were published in Hello! magazine.

Campbell v MGN Ltd
In 2002 Naomi Campbell sued Mirror Group Newspapers for publishing a story about her receiving treatment for a drug addiction at Narcotics Anonymous and publishing photographs of Ms Campbell emerging from a treatment session. The paper argued it was in the publics interest they published the story and the photographs - Ms. Campbell had earlier stated that she was not taking drugs, and therefore disclosure was necessary to correct a false public image.

In 2004 it was ruled that it was in the publics interest to report the fact of Ms. Campbell's drug addiction and the treatments she was receiving - but there was no justification for reporting on the details of her receiving it at Narcotics Anonymous, neither of the photographs published alongside the story.

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Further reading on:
Lily Allen v Daily Mail - the Guardian
The Spycatcher Affair - BBC
The Spycatcher Affair - MI5
Bill Goodwin Case
Catherine Zeta Jones Case - BBC
Campbell v MGN Ltd - McNae's Essential Law for Journalists, chapter 23

Confidentiality - secrets and secrecy

'Breach of confidence is based upon the principle that a person who has obtained information in confidence should not take unfair advantage of it' (p.381 McNae's)

Information is not generally confidential but information already in the public domain cannot always be published with impunity

Until 2000, English law recognised no right to privacy

Three areas of concern:

§ State secrets

o Official Secrets Act

o Details of military or intelligence operations

§ Commercial secrets

o Common Law Confidentiality

o People have the right to keep secrets as long as it is not against the public interest

o If somebody who is not allowed passes on secrets – a doctor or a lawyer for example –he/she commits ‘breach of confidentiality’ = crime

o A journalist might get caught between commercial secrets and the urge to reveal and report them – third party breach = crime

§ Might just have to accept the fact that you cannot report – legal duty to respect the confidence

§ Privacy

o ‘Privacy’ law

o Human Rights Act, section 8

‘A person is in breach of confidence if they pass on information that:

- Has 'the necessary quality of confidence'

AND

- Was provided in ‘circumstances imposing an obligation’

AND

- There was no permission to pass on the information

AND

- Detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave in the information’

http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=229

If a journalist tries to publish confidential information, and the person who has passed on this information finds out that the information is to be disclosed before it has been published– he/she may be able to get a temporary injunction which will prohibit the publication of that material.

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Further reading on Confidentiality:

http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=229

Still a very long way to go...

Even though this week turned out to be a bit of a disaster and a catastrophe, we did manage to pull something together and in the very last minute broadcast our weekly bulletin. It was unfortunately not a bulletin up to the standards we have produced before, and hopefully we will not see one like this again. The week started off with a news meeting where not even half of all our reporters showed up - which makes it really difficult to plan the week ahead of us, seeing as noone knows what is going on, and if the reporters not present are working on a story, or not even awake yet...

It is vital that everyone attends the news meetings, the Monday morning debriefs and anything else that concerns us as an organisation, and us as a team. If we aren't fully updated on what is going on from week to week, I don't think we can contribute and produce material up to the standards as we did before the summer. It is understandable that things to happen that concerns for example your private life and due to this you cannot attend a meeting, or even a whole news week - but if this is the case you need to be sure that you catch up on what you might have missed while away, both for your own and everyone elses sake.

The bulletin, as I said, was far from perfect. The few things that sort of saved it was Andy's piece, concerning GBH (Grevious Bodily Harm) and his interview with the victim whos attacker pleaded guilty to the charges, and the sports teams packages that holds the standard week in and week out.

When we are accompanied by guests in the studio, which is a really good and interesting thing that also looks professional, we have to think about the backdrop and the greenscreen, because it looks quite random and sloppy when the same backdrop appears all the time and it looks as if the presenter and the interviewees are jumping between the shots. Is there anything we could do about this?

Also, we need to pay attention and work even harder to improve our technical skills, such as pictures and sound - it is important, once we have got the story put together and the interviewees on camera, to make sure the sound quality is usable. One of the worst things ever is listening to something that you find interesting but you cannot hear the interviewee due to for example wind. In addition to this, I personally think we use too many zooms and need to cut down on these as the human eye is not used to this movement. Rather get more general views, than using the zoom - unless the zoom adds something to the piece.

I think it was a good choice to change presenters to give others a chance to try it out, even though Claire and Tom always make a brilliant job! Seeing as we are at Uni and want to learn everyone should get a shot to try this, and other things they desperately want to try out, as this is really the only opportunity we get to try these things out and find out whether or not we enjoy doing this.

Even though we all felt a bit defeated and quite frustrated after this week, I am sure we will be in next week again, giving it our best and hopefully producing a bulletin we can be proud of again!

Social networking, libel and defences

Defamation occurs in two different forms:

*Libel - which is the written form of defamation

*Slander - which is the spoken form of defamation

When a claimant is suing for libel he or she has to show three things

1) the publication is defamatory
2) it refers to him/her – he/she is identified
3) it has been published

DEFAMATION + IDENTIFICATION + PUBLICATION = LIBEL

So, once a journalist publishes an article that defames Mr. X, who is clearly identified in the publication – the journalist has libelled Mr. X and the outcome is that not only the journalist who has written this article, but also everyone else involved (from journalist, to editor, to publisher and so on) is responsible and can be sued.

This means that the claimant does not have to prove that the statement is actually false or any proof of damage – only that the statement tends to discredit and harm the reputation of him/her.

What is defamation then?
• Lowering someone in the estimation of right thinking people
• Cause them to be shunned or avoided
• Disparage them in their business, trade or profession
• Expose them to hatred, ridicule or contempt

Don’t forget that defamation doesn’t only take place in written format – defamation with pictures, juxtaposition, is just as common. It is important that the journalist pays attention to what he/she includes in their publication so that individuals and companies aren’t identified in the wrong context. Also cropping and altering pictures so they change their meaning falls under the defamation category, and this is quite a common problem today with the new technology that people all over the world use to share their pictures over the Internet - see this Facebook case.

Innuendo - a published statement that might seem perfectly innocent for people who does not have special knowledge about the subject published but will be seen defamatory by people with this special knowledge.

But there must surely be some sort of defence?

Justification – this defence applies to the statement of facts and the matter must be proved true ‘on the balance of probabilities’

Fair comment – an honest held opinion that is clearly recognised as an opinion where the subject commented on is in the public’s interest

Absolute privilege – exists under law and statute and to report this the journalist must be fair (balance) and accurate (no substantial inaccuracies)

Qualified privilege – a defence where the material and the facts are thought to be freely known in the public interest (for example police quotes)

Accord and Satisfaction – an apology or a correction that has been accepted by the claimant – no defence just to publish an apology or correction though – the claimant must prove that he/she is satisfied with it

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Further Reading:

What is defamation?

BBC College Defamation

McNae's Essential Law for Journalists Chapter 17-21

Third time lucky...?

Our third bulletin went quite well. I was unfortunately not involved in the final output, but from watching the bulletin, it looks as if we are doing better and better from week to week, but there are still small things to pay attention to, to make our work the best possible. The presenters this week was our ‘standard duo’, Claire Ijsbrandij (news) and Tom Otrbeski (sports), who always do an excellent work!

Overall, the bulletin ran over quite some time, instead of our scheduled golden 10 minute slot. I am not quite sure why this happened, as I was not in class for the actual debrief after our output on the Wednesday, but when I was scripting last semester I was told to closely keep an eye on the 10 minutes as you can never go over or under a time slot in a TV schedule.

The headline sequence was ok, but could have been polished as Julie Cordier did not look quite sure what to do or where to look when she was in shot, she would probably have needed some guidance on this before we went live. The running order could have been slightly changed – personally, I would not have lead with an investigative story. This type of story can usually be published in a bulletin at any point, and is not as sensitive to being published straight away, as breaking news are.

So the leading story of the bulletin, Jack Courtez’ piece on homelessness in Winchester and how they will be affected by the cuts that the government announced, was like I already mentioned sort of an investigative piece. I enjoyed seeing and hearing the guy in the piece playing the guitar, nice actuality, but I am not sure whether he is a homeless man or if he has got anything to do with the story at all. The interviewees were both good and adding to the story, but could have been framed a bit better, zoomed in on. It is also important to pay attention to things that might seem unimportant, such as buzzing noises in the background, because they do add to the experience of the viewer and they can easily be distracted by this. Also, it’s worth remembering, for everyone, to get enough general view shots when out filming so that you don’t run out of shots and end up with the same pictures twice in one piece!

Following this our finance reporter Julie Cordier appeared in the studio as studio guest, giving an update on the situation with tuition fees and how this will effect students at the University of Winchester, the University of Winchester and students around in UK as a whole. It would have been nice if the studio discussion would have either been after or just before a news package dealing with this subject to big it up even more.

Our third story was a court report delivered by Andrew Giddings from Winchester’s Crown Court. This was a strong story, and obviously hard to turn into a package due to lack of pictures. It turned out well, even though most of it was just a PTC (piece to camera) from outside the court, maybe a bit too long.

Julie Cordier’s piece focused on the increase of train fares and could have done with more than only one vox pop, to make the view of the public fair. When doing PTC’s it is important to pay attention to your surroundings, especially when it is windy outside. Preferably bring someone with you who can keep an eye on sound levels and also keep the headset on to recognise any sort of existing problems with the sound, as the microphones are very sensitive and will pick up anything, even the slightest wind, that comes their way.

I haven’t yet spoken about the links, because I think most of them actually worked quite well this week, but when Claire read Stuart Appleby’s link leading into his news package she seemed to struggle. Whether or not this was because of the links complexity, I do not know, but it seemed as if she was struggling more than she did for the links leading into the previous stories. Also, the story seemed a bit rushed but I liked the alternative way of introducing the news story, diving straight into the action and the interviewee.

Sport was as always good, starting off with some football action from our reporter Karen Purnell. This was a nice up-tempo piece and a cheerful ending with Karen handing over a bottle of bubbly to Winol’s Man of the Match. This was followed by a graphic, which then lead into James Fraser’s basketball piece which basically consisted of the one interview and cutaways of the team playing basketball. It would have added to the piece if you could have actually heard the guys playing, running around and shouting at each other when the pictures were shown, would have been nice with the actuality coming through as the interview was ongoing.

Finally Michael Connolly finished off the bulletin with a puff piece which contained an alright interview although the camera should have been set up in eye line, and not tilted down at the interviewee. Also we have to remember to not use too many zooms while shooting general views, as the human eye is not used to this movement and therefore it can confuse the audience’s eyes when watching it.

After everyone’s goodbyes in the studio, we offered our audience a preview on our feature teams autumn fashion trends package, which looked really good and fun, and this is definitely a great way to keep the viewers at our site. As Chris Horrie always says, the audience comes for the news, but stay for the features.

'Beyond reasonable doubt'!

The second week we focused on crime and how as a journalist you can cover this issue and be legally protected at the same time. Something that may seem simple and quite straightforward when you think about it, but definitely is a bit more complicated than that. We also refreshed the hierarchy of the English court system, how it works and who can do what where. With all the different instances and divisions that lead to others it is important to remember which one does what, and what the different terms for the different people involved in a specific case are at a specific time – also what type of case you are reporting on, whether the case is still active or not, and the most important of all, whether the case has been proven in court ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ (McNae’s p.21).

A case is legally active when:
- police make arrest
- an arrest warrant has been issued
- magistrates issue summons
- a person is charged
(Glenn Hutt’s blog)

When a case becomes ‘active’, you as a reporter need to watch out for what you can report and publish, and what you cannot to avoid contempt of court. For the pre-trial you can report on the defendant’s name, age, address, occupation, charge(s), date and place of court hearing, bail, legal aid conditions and names of counsels. But, if the defendant or the witness is under 18 he or she cannot be identified in any reports.

As the case is active there are certain things you can report on without being in the risk zone of breaking the law, as you as a reporter has Qualified Privilege, which means that you are allowed to report on anything that is said within the court while the jury is present, and as long as you stay within the rules of court reporting (Chris Horrie’s notes, Media Law Web). However, if your report is not fast (published in the next edition/bulletin), accurate (shorthand!) and fair (free from malice), the privilege is lost. Also, you cannot record anything within a court!

Usually police have 24 hours to question a suspect – in certain cases this can be extended, for example when dealing with terrorism suspects. A case remains active even when the suspect is released on bail, and does not close until the bail ends without arrest or charge (McNae’s p.24).

Most cases are being tried at a Crown Court, but some minor cases are tried at a Magistrates Court. Depending on which category a case falls under, this decides which court it ends up being tried at. There are three different categories of offences;

Indictable-only offences – these are the most serious crimes and they are being dealt with by a Crown Court with a possible sentencing of +5 years

Either-way offences – crimes that can be dealt with in either a Crown or a Magistrates court, depending on what the magistrates decide, or on the decision of the defendant

Summary offences – minor offences that stays with the Magistrates court

If a defendant is convicted in Crown Court, he or she can appeal to firstly, the Court of Appeal and then secondly, to the Supreme Court. In certain cases the High Court works as an appeal court as well.

Further reading:
Glenn Hutt’s blog
Jon Hopley’s blog
Chris Horrie’s notes
BBC College of Journalism: Reporting Court Cases in England and Wales
Week 1 - Introduction to Media Law

Second week Winol - this is how it went

Once again we managed to produce a bulletin that we were all quite pleased with - still a few things that went wrong, but that's what we all learn from in the end - right?

The bulletin as a whole had a good balance to it with hard stories about tuition fees, international students and problems they face in Winchester, and the fluffier stories highlighting the Queen in Southampton and WINOL winning BJTC innovation award. A good mix with lighter and darker stories, and of course also the sports, which contributed to a well nuanced bulletin.

Mistakes that aren't allowed to happen, but did happen : Spelling mistakes! Spelling is a fact. A name, a place, anything you can prove is a fact and this cannot be misspelled. If it's a fact, check it or leave it out. Those are your only options. So misspelling three team names in a sports graphic is not acceptable...

One of the big things we're trying to keep an eye on is our Alexa rating- this tells us how big an audience we've got and how frequently our website is visited, and how it compares to other websites. Something that would spur us on even more would probably be a rival that works in a similar way as we do on a similar scale, so we could compare ourselves to how other organisations the same size as us get on out on the Internet - because after all, if there's no audience, no one knows you exist - and therefore you sort of non-existing...

We still have to work on our links and scripts and how we tie these together to make the package even better and especially tighter. With a tighter script the story is easier to understand for the viewer and the package as a whole seems to run smoother than it would with lots and lots of information that don't really connect to the core of the story. So, focus on what we actually want to tell - on the actual news! Remember, news is about people doing things.

Don't forget the W's;

ho

hat

here

hen

hy

Eyes and ears of the general public - an introduction to media law

It is quite different having studying a year of History and Context of Journalism where we have been encouraged to think, philosophise and engage with the ideas of famous thinkers such as Nietzsche, Zola, Rousseau – then going on to our third year and studying Law for Journalists, where nothing is left to think and speculate about for yourself as everything follows strict lines and patterns; law.

It is essential to know how the law works in the UK, otherwise you as a journalist would probably defame and slander people, report illegally on court proceedings and other serious incidents, as you wouldn’t know how it all works with identification issues, the public’s interest, freedom of expression and so on. So this is what we will be focusing on throughout this semester, and make sure that we can be journalists of top quality and report fairly and accurately on what is going on in our society.

Our course book, McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists 20^th Edition, goes through the major points in law that is necessary for a journalist to know by heart before graduating as a qualified journalist. Obviously, law as everything else, do slightly change from time to time with new media expanding and as new ways of exposing people’s life become available – this is why we do law in our third year as well as in our first year – to properly keep updated with what’s the latest we need to know as journalists. Also, graduating from a university doesn’t mean that you can let go of the law and remember is at it was while you were still studying. You need to keep on top of it and make sure you always follow the latest changes as the outcome can be devastating if you don’t.

So throughout this semester I will keep my blog updated with the latest course material we have gone through, with ongoing cases that deal with the points of law that we are and have been taught throughout the lectures. I will also try to explore different areas within the law more than others with additional reading, as this to me is as important to me to get the bigger picture – otherwise it is much harder to understand the reading as a whole if you have nothing to compare it with or stand it up against.

Recap of major points from course book:

· The media are the eyes and ears of the general public

· A free media are an essential element in maintaining parliamentary democracy

· In general journalists in the UK have no legal rights to gain information, or to publish it, beyond those enjoyed by other citizens

· The European Convention on Human Rights has codified fundamental freedoms, including that of freedom of expression

· Journalists must be alert to challenge unreasonable or unlawful restrictions on this freedom

· Two constitutional bulwarks protect freedom of expression in the UK – jury trial and the rule against prior restraint

· Sources of UK law include custom, precedent, equity, statutes and statutory instruments, and European Union regulations

· The two main divisions of the law are criminal and civil law, and journalists need to use correctly the legal terms appropriate for the type of court they are reporting

· Codes of ethics guide journalists in their work

(McNae’s, p. 38)

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Week 2 - Crime and Court reporting

WINOL back on track

So third year is kicking off with some more WINOL action. This year we're joined by the second year students, and we are an even bigger team working with our weekly bulletin than we were last year - so potentially we can expand, improve and be an even better success than last year! With extra resources, we will also expand on features and make this an area just as intense and exciting as the news area.

When I myself started off my secon

d year I had basically no camera and editing skills and therefore WINOL couldn't take off until middle of October last year, and we all lost out on precious time where we could have produced material for bulletins, if we had only had the experience. This year the second years already have the technical skills and only after the first week of the semester we're off producing material. Very exciting and a lot of fun to be working with the new guys just joining our team.

This semester my role is chief news reporter. Sounds very fancy. Maybe. It b

asically means that I am the one supposed to cover the main stories of the week - hopefully I can turn them into good reports and be able to top the bulletins with them.. Expectations, expectations, expectations.. Should be lots of fun!

For the news meeting Monday morning I had a story idea I was eager to go for. Seeing that Primark opened in Winchester yester

day, I wanted to cover this event but not turn it into a puff piece - rather find out how local businesses look ahead on the future with such a massive low price company in town - would they potentially face a hard time loosing out on customers because of this? As Monday morning went on, we decided to pass on my story to one of the second year students Jack, as he was not assigned to anything, and seeing it is a dummy week we decided it is better the second years get the camera and editing training so they're all ready to go when the live version kicks off next week. So I ended up helping the news reporters out with filming, sound issues, editing skills and other tips and tricks I have come across throughout my last year working as a news reporter for WINOL.

I guess it's only Tuesday and too early to predict how this weeks bulletin is going to turn out, but I feel confident and hope that the reporters taking on this weeks stories realises how important it is to keep track on time, on all the technical things and practical things at the same time while putting your piece together. It is not an easy job, and I hope we all realise this during this week so that next week will be a success for us all.

Tip of the day: Save your editing in Final Cut every second. You don't want it to freeze on you. Again.