Through out this blog post i will be looking into the legal side of media. It is extremely important for producers to have an understanding of the legal constraints when working in media because if they are not made aware of these laws they are more than likely to break them which can lead to fines and imprisonment.
There are many laws that must be followed by all media sectors to avoid court and prison sentences.
these laws are, Libel, Obscenity,copyright,privacy and official secrets act.
It is extremely important that producers whether it is producer of film, TV, Newspaper any form of media to follow the legal constraints as if they didn't there production would likely close, they could be issued a prison sentence and fined
When breaking libel law you can be sued for damages if you publish or broadcast things about a person which are untrue and damage their reputations. This law was created to protect individuals or organisations from unwarranted, mistaken or untruthful attacks on their reputation by members or the public or hate fans. The main resource for this law to take place is through social networking sites, mainly twitter. With the ability to speak your mind on the social networking site opinions can be taken into account and out of context. Although if you were to say for example "i cant stand Katy Perry" you would not be breaking laws as it is right to your opinions, but if you were to say "i cant stand Katy perry, ever since she spat on a fan" this accusation could give the singer a false opinion of herself to other people this can lead to the libel law being taken into action. Earlier this year the QI presenter Alan Davies falsely accused Lord McAline over child sex abuse allegations. Davies tweeted to his 450'000 followers "any clues on who the Tory paedophile is?". to later re-tweet a response naming McAlpine. He later tweeted an apology and agreed to pay £15'000 in damages and issued a warning to users of the social media service about being careful with what they say.
The Obscenity law is where something is overly obscene.
"So, obscenity means the use of an offensive word or expression or depicting
something vulgar or morally unacceptable. The society is continuously exposed to violence and obscenity in one way or
the other. We see violence and obscenity in movies, music videos, news channels,
newspapers, novels, comic books, music, etc." - http://andynoronha.wordpress.com/tag/violence-and-obscenity-in-media/
An example of the obscenity law taking place was with the film 'The Davinci Code'. A short while after the Da Vinci code was released in cinemas the producers or the film were taken into investigation as they were breaking the Italian penal code. The broke this as in the film it suggests that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married with children. this centres the on obscenity on religious grounds. it names 10 people including writer of the book Dan Brown and the director of the film Ron Howard. Another example of the obscenity law taking place is with the gory horror film sequel the human centipede 2.
"Horror movie The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence has been effectively
banned from British shores after the BBFC deemed it
“unacceptable material”. The film was submitted for classification but was found
to be “sexually violent” and “potentially obscene”.
The original
film, directed by Tom Six, saw a mad scientist stitch
together victims from 'mouth to anus' creating the 'human centipede' of the
title.
Speaking about the first film, BBFC director David
Cooke stated, "Although the concept of the film was undoubtedly
tasteless and disgusting it was a relatively traditional and conventional horror
film and the board concluded that it was not in breach of our guidelines at
‘18’.”
http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/human-centipede-sequel-too-obscene-to-be-re/217692#u876qkFjfTXJIWtS.99
The privacy law occurs when people take information without consent, take photographs of private life without permission. the most well known example of privacy law in action is from the news of the world phone hacking scandal.
"Nine years ago, in March 2002, Amanda “Milly”
Dowler (aged 13) was on her way home from school. She was kidnapped and
murdered and her body was found in September 2002. In June 2011, Levi Bellfield
was convicted of her murder and sentenced to a “whole life” tariff. When Milly
went missing, journalists of the News of the World newspaper “hacked” into her
voicemail. The fact that this had happened came to public prominence in July
2011 when The Guardian
newspaper revealed the story." - http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2011/09/18/is-the-official-secrets-act-about-to-be-used-to-gag-journalism-obiter-j/
When the news of the world hacked into the missing girls phone it was already breaking the privacy law but to then deleted messages left by worried parents of the girl making room on the already full answering machine and then revealing the story with information that could of only been provided from people first hand with the situation. the result of this hacking taking place led to the closure of the newspaper being closed
The official secrets act is a criminal offence which occurs when you obtain or publish and information from a serving or former member of the security and intelligence services, where the information could be damaging. An example of the official secrets act taking place is when a foreign office official was charged under the official secrets act after a series of stories appeared in the new statesman and observer. Derek pasquill provided information about suspected terrorists as well as various revelations about government policy towards radical Islam.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/oct/08/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia
copyright is the most known law all around the world. copyright happens when you take credit for someone else's work. it has occurred many times by millions of people whether it is known or not. it can occur by taking photos off of Google images and posted them as if they are your own or it can be serious by taking something that was created by someone else and earning money from it.
an example of copyright taking place is the case between Google and Viacom over YouTube. Viacom accused Google of posting videos without permission. Google were accused of unauthorized posting clips from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "South Park," "Sponge Bob Square pants" and other programs that viewers had uploaded to YouTube.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/entertainment-us-google-viacom-idUSBRE93H17S20130418
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20008636-261.html
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