ethical and legal considerations

chapter 2:Understanding the ethical and legal considerations when working in the creative media sector

libel law


There are two versions of defamation, libel and slander. Libel is when the defamation is written down (including email, bulletin boards and websites), and slander is when the incident relates to words spoken.


In the UK, if someone thinks that what you wrote about them is either defamatory or damaging, the onus will be entirely on you to prove that your comments are true in court. In other words, if you make the claim, you've got to prove it!

David Beckham's $25m claim for libel and slander rejected:

A US federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed David Beckham's claim for libel and slander against a celebrity magazine that alleged he slept with a prostitute.
Beckham's lawyer, Richard Kendall, said the former England captain would appeal. Beckham, 35, who plays for Los Angeles Galaxy, began the legal action in September after In Touch magazine published a story that he had an affair with Irma Nici, 26, described as a former prostitute. Beckham has denied the allegation, and was seeking $25m (£15.5m) in damages.

Quoted from : http://www.david-beckham-fans.info/tag/claim/

Libel can also be when something is published in print or online which is not true or may harm that persons  reputation and may bring hate or scorn towards them.

In this example, a comedia called Freddie Starr filed a libel case against the Sun newspaper for this story which he claimed was false and damaging to his reputation:

Laws-are written, approved and enforced by a particular government. If you break a law you could face police investigation, court appearance and fines.

Ethics are rules of conduct, and responsibility [not the law. If you break an ethical code you are breach of certain ethical consideration - in other words the difference betweeen "right" and "wrong" ot "acvceptable" and unacceptable". This means ethics change over time, and what was once ok to show on TV, will no longer be acceptable.

Extract from the Black and White Minstrel show 1978 - once a highlight of TV, but now considered bad taste and ethically not acceptable.

privacy law is a regulation that protects a persons right to be left alone.

• people are allowed to lead their lives without public scrutiny
• the right to privacy

For example, a snaek photo of Prince Harry at a private party, shows him dressed as a Nazi. Should this photograph of something carried out in private have made the fornt page of all nespapers?

Intellectual Property is something that is unique to you  if physically created. i.e an idea is not your intellectual property but the words you write are. Intellectual property however, can be bought an sold

In this example of the computer game, The Thing, the designer, William Latham paid for game designers to create the game, and for a one off payment, had their names removed from the credits, and all intellectual property for the game bought by him.

Copyright is a type of intellectual law that protects your work, Copyright can also be bought and sold. The book, Peter Pan, by JM Barrie  has its copyright passed on in the author's will, so all future sales of the book, film and play adaptations have royalties paid to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments)

Obscenity in the UK is very vague as it is any material that is likely to "deprave or corrupt" and specific details change with ethics over the years. Recent cases, include the Human Centipede 2, which although given an official release, was declared obscene in many countries.

Some material which was declared Obscene or offensive is now quite commonplace.

This example from a Victorian advert for the drink, Bovril, would now be considered ethically offensive.

Official Secrets Act 1989

The Official Secrets act protects information which could be sensitive to a countries safety or defence, and to publish such material can lead to major jail sentences.

The site below, links to a series of articles often leaked from Government secret files. The publishers have been frequently prosecuted for this!

https://wikileaks.org/

Health and Safety Act
Te Health and Safety Acts of 1974 and 2008 ensure that publishers follow safe working practice in terms of safety of equipment, printing presses, and working conditions.

Ethical considerations are important for media producers and publishers to take into account as they need to be aware of the law, but also what is considered, good or bad taste, acceptable or unacceptable and popular or unpopular with their audience.

Major publishers follow their own codes of practices, rules that they have drawn up themselves to ensure that their published material does not cause offence or upset.

Here is a link to the BBC's code of practice:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/code_of_practice.pdf

Of course, sometimes the publisher's get it wrong, and publish or broadcast something which does cause offence:

http://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/strictly-come-dancing-2015-viewers-voice-disapproval-as-bruno-tonioli-turns-nasty-and-swears-before-a3098511.html