Legal and Regulatory Constraints
Handling of stories involving minors;
When using stories about or
involving minors the BBC guidelines and state that they “must ensure that the
physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of children and young people are
protected during the making and broadcast of our content”. Their main concern
when covering a story involving minors is that their physical and emotional
welfare, and that the young people are protected, their interests and safety
must take priority over any editorial requirement. Ofcom (Office of
Communications) states that the whole purpose of the guidelines that are in
place is to ensure that people under the age of eighteen are protected. The
guidelines also state that some news stories should be shown at appropriate
times which are judged by the nature of the content, the age range of the
children in audience, the nature of the station, the time of the day and the
start to finish time of the programme. For example, if a show was inappropriate
for children it will be broadcasted after the watershed time, or a warning will
be shown before being aired.
Radio news broadcasts have legal
constraints that are taken into consideration before airing. For example, if a
news story is about someone that has committed a crime and they are under 18,
their names are not allowed to be shown/spoken in order to protect them.
Another principle of the BBC is
that they must ensure that children and young people (under 18’s) are not
caused any unnecessary anxiety or distress by their involvement of the news
story or by the output of the story. Any involvement of children or young
people must be clearly editorially justified, consent must be obtained as appropriate
to the circumstances of the child/young person and the nature of the
contribution and output, and support must be given to them when and if
necessary.
Contempt of court;
Contempt of court is the offense of
being disobedient to or disrespectful towards a court of law and its officers.
An example of contempt of court is the story of the newspapers The Sun and The
Mirror being fined for contempt of court when speaking about Christopher
Jefferies in their articles. The Daily mirror was fined £50,000 and The Sun
fined £18,000, the court ruled that both the tabloid newspapers had breached
contempt laws when reporting the arrest of Christopher Jefferies, who was later
released without charge and entirely innocent of any involvement. The attorney
general stated "They breached the Contempt of Court Act and the court has
found that there was a risk of serious prejudice to any future trial. This
prosecution is a reminder to the press that the Contempt of Court Act applies
from the time of arrest."
Libel and defamation;
The law of defamation protects a
person's reputation and good name against communications that are false and
derogatory. This basically means when something is saying or writing something
false or damages a person’s reputation purposely. For example, the tabloid
newspaper The Daily Mail published a story that Kiera Knightley had an eating
disorder, and that had been responsible for the death of a young woman who
suffered with anorexia. Kiera then went to court and was awarded several
thousand dollars. Another famous libel and defamation case is when a magazine printed
an article claiming that the famous footballer David Beckham had hired a
prostitute. Beckham took action however he could not prove that the magazine
had acted maliciously, which lead to him losing the court ruling along with his
£25 million lawsuit.
Coverage of elections;
The BBC guidelines state this; "On
polling day the BBC, in common with other broadcasters, will cease to report
campaigns from 06.00 until the polls close. Coverage will be restricted to
uncontroversial factual accounts, such as the appearance of politicians at
polling stations or the weather. Subjects which have been at issue or part of
the campaign, or other controversial matters relating to the election, must not
receive coverage on polling day, to ensure that nothing in the BBC's output can
be construed as influencing the ballot while the polls are open." This
relates to broadcasting on elections and referendums, and is applied at the
time elections or referendums occur.
Official Secrets Act;
The official secrets act provides
for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to
national security. It is a criminal offense for anyone to disclose or leak
information, documents or other articles of information relating to national
security or intelligence. For example, a former Royal Navy Petty Officer Edward
Devenney was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for breaches of the Official
Secrets act. He was arrested in 2012 after attempting to pass on classified
information about nuclear submarines to who he thought were members of the
Russian intelligence services however they were actually officers of the
British Security Service.