Media Law

Considering I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6:30am, I'm very proud of myself to say that I discovered that I am actually capable of understanding Law! Well..some of it at least! First of all I was fascinated to discover that it is possible to have a half an hour conversation about a crazy little guy who eats bricks and Rhianna's new pair of melons. From that moment on I knew this was going to be a memorable lecture.

I always knew that a Journalist couldn't just make up any old story from nothing, but then again I didn't realise that there was so many laws which restricts a Journalist from having the freedom to create a story in order to sell newspapers. For instance I learnt that Criminal Law such as Contempt of Court places grave restraint on what Journalists can write or broadcast.

In Britain we have no written constitution or 'Fundamental Law', the closest thing we have is the Human Rights Act. This means that it is part of the Human Rights Act to allow every single person to have a right to privacy which therefore can prevent a Journalist from plastering aspects of an individuals' private life across the tabloids. We all have a Code of Conduct which is voluntary, therefore note my use of the word 'prevent' because although it is part of the Human Rights Act it doesn't necessarily mean that Journalists follow it!

There are two types of Law:

• Criminal Law
• Civil Law

These two types are both very different; Criminal Law deals with offences against society as a whole such as murder and violence etc. or are offences against another person which are abhorrent to society as whole such as Fraud.

Civil Law deals with disputes between citizens such as marriage and divorce, no offence against society is committed.

As well as there being two types of Law there are also two types of crime these are:

• Non-Indictable offences
• Indictable or 'arrestable' offences

An Non-Indictable offence are minor crimes such as Car Parking ticket fines. Summary Justice is Parking Ticket worthy, for these crimes no jury is needed. Whereas on the other hand an Indictable offence carries a sentence which means that once arrested the person under arrest must be brought to a Magistrate court within 24 hours.
There is also an evidence gap between the two types of crime; A confession, forensic evidence and witnesses are all vital pieces of evidence that are needed to charge someone in a Criminal Court. Whereas no Categorical Evidence is needed to convict someone of a crime in a Civil Case. A method of balance of probability is the preferred type of evidence.

Last and certainly not least, it is essential that there is a clear understanding between opinion and fact. For instance if i was to call someone a 'murderer' in the press I need to ensure that I have the evidence to back up that the person is a murderer. Therefore journalists need to ensure that they keep their own personal opinions on cases  out of their writing, unless they have the evidence to prove their opinion is in fact a fact!

Well that's my shortened version of an hour and a half lecture so hopefully I didn't send you all to sleep! Who knows what we're in store for next week but back to dedicating to the most important man in my life right now.. MCNAE and his essential law for journalists!