Assignment Two - Law - Rosie Kinsella

Assignment 2 

In the digital age of media, their are 3 important area's of law that are important for every journalist to follow and learn. These are; Defamation, Contempt and Reporting Restrictions. In the world of Media it is important that people that work within the creative sector have rules and guidelines to follow, for example; A journalist is not able to release information in a  story they have written revealing the identity of a murder suspect before the court and the judge have allowed them to do so. But to break it down; 

Contempt of Court:  Contempt of Court (covered by the CCA - Contempt of Court Act 1981) exists the protect the running of court. It occurs when somebody is being disobedient to the administration of justice. Within CoC; contains a 'strict liability rule' which is there to prevent any publication or broadcast from affecting the decisions from the court. The maximum prison sentence in the UK is 2 years. 

• An example of an interference with Contempt of Court would be revealing someone's identity that had been protected by the court. To prevent this from happening, their is something that exists called "Super Injunctions". When a SJ is granted it is due to the judge believing that an individuals privacy needs to be protected. Following this, if a newspaper was to then publish a story including the name of that individual, then they could be summoned to Contempt of Court and could face possible imprisonment. 
• A second example of interfering with Contempt of Court would be if you were to partake in Jury service. At the end of a trial everyone that takes part in Jury service will be sent to deliberate over the case and will then have to put forth a vote deciding whether the suspect is guilty or not. All the information discussed between the other members of the Jury and in the court room MUST be kept confidential. The punishment for discussing the case or information with anybody else besides the Jury can result in being sent to prison.

Depending on what has happened, the judge does not always sentence prison time and may sometimes just sentence a fine, and before a fine there is sometimes just a warning - depending on how disobedient an individual has been towards not following the law.

Reporting Restrictions: The main reason for Reporting Restrictions is to protect someones identity. However, there are different types of Reporting Restrictions, and these are:

• Automatic - They will always exist
• Discretionary - The judge will make a decision 

An example of a Reporting Restrictions case study is the James Bulger case back in 1993 where the 2 year old was abducted and tortured to death. Throughout the murer trial the two suspects, both aged 10 were refered to simply as "Boy A and Boy B". Their identities were protected at all times. This is the general rule that all journalist's must follow and obtain throughout their reports when covering a story of this type.

An example of restrictions being lifted is back in may 2014, 61 year old Ann Maguire was stabbed infront of pupils by one of her 15 year old students. By November 2014, the judge decided the lift the restrictions and reveal the boys identity due to there being a public interest in naming defendants who are convicted of murder. 

"The judge agreed with the media that “there’s a potential deterrent effect” in naming him, “but I do not put it as high as the general interest in open justice”. He said: “There is a public interest in open justice. There is a public interest in naming defendants who are convicted of murder.” - The Guardian 

Proceedings in the Youth Court are not allowed to be open to the public and press are automatically restricted from reporting on anyones identity or any details that would reveeal the identity of the young person involved. 

The media have full right to attend all court hearings and are also allowed to report on those proceedings. The public have the right to know what is currently happening in a criminal court. 

Different cases may be under different levels of protection and different reasons. Some may be under automatic protection this also can be dependent on the case itself. If a journalist does not know the level of protection that is placed on a particular case they need to check with the authorities.

The Open Justice - This is the central rule of law. This procedure helps to ensure that trials are all properly conducted, and this must be done in public. 

Acts such as The Young Persons Act 1993 bans the public from attending youth court proceedings. This is to ensure their is as much protection as possible for the suspect. Their are many rules and regulations that come with hearing these trials - one example being that when it is ever necessary to hear parts of a case in private, the court will make efforts to exclude the public from that part of the trial. 

Journalist's and reporters are banned from discussing in the media the name of the suspect, their school, the address or anything that would reveal the identity of the suspect. 
However, the automatic reporting restrictions may be lifted over time, with the reasons only being;
- If the court are satisfied it is appropriate to do so
- To assist in the search for a missing, convicted or alleged young offender

Victims of sexual offences are given a life time of anonymity. 

Defamation

This is the action of damaging a good reputation of somebody; slander or libel. Slander is the use of  spoken words or a shared message to create the damage for example gossip or the spread of harmful rumors. Libel is instead the use of the written word used most typically in print media such as Magazines and newspapers. This area of law deals with the protection of reputation, it gives people a chance to take legal action against those that are responsible for damaging their reputation. This law attempts to balance both sides, for example, one should not be able to ruin other people's lives by spreading false information around about them, but within reason they should have the ability to speak freely without the fear of getting into trouble. 

If someone believes they have been defamed, to prove that you usually have to show evidence of a statement that is usually:

- published
- false
- injurious
- unprivellaged

The statement vcan be written, spoken, pictured or even gestured. 'Published' means that a third party had heard or seen the statement. This is someone other than the person who made the statement, and who it was about. 'Published' can mean on anything, social media, a newspaper, radio, magazines, or even a loud conversation.

A defamatory statement must be false - otherwise it isn't considered damaging. Its becomes tricky as most opinions cannot be counted as defamation as they cannot be proved false. For instance, when a reviewer says 'that's the worst film ive ever seen' she's not defamaing the director, because there's no evidence for it to be proven false. 

An example of a false case of Defamation was back in May 2004, The Mirror published photos that showed British soldiers torturing Iraqi POW'S. It was then discovered that these images turned out to be fake. The consequences of this resulted in a damage to the reputation of the Soliders from the Queens Lancanshire Regiment, along with editor at the time, Piers Morgan, being sakced. Sources clearly were not check before the newspaper went on to publish this story and that got them in a lot of trouble. They then publised a front page with the headline 'Sorry...we were hoaxed'. 

Journalists are not the only cause of defamation, as the digital age has progressed it has brought active community with it allowing people to share a whole range of wider opinions that can break many of the laws. This has lead to reoccurring cases involving statements said on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites allow anyone and everyone to have an opinion that could be read by thousands. 

This becomes a problem, because everyone has to be cautious with the type of things they are posting online. It is understood that an individals social media is their own private and personal way of communication, but people still have to be cautious with the type of things they are posting. Katie Hopkins is a perfect example of this, as she seems to voice her opinions on absolutely everything and anything all over twitter, without a care in the world about how it will effect other people. 

In 2013 The Defemation Act of 1996 was replaced due to its lack of protection covering the new cases caused by new media, especially social networks. These updated Act changes that were made include changing the court proceedings which has resulted in any and every victim has to show series harm or damages.

Conclusion

Defamation, Contempt of Court and Reporting Restricions are all put in place to protect the proceedings of the court and everybody involved within them. These laws and regulations allow Journalist's to know what they are allowed to publish and discuss in public, due to general interest. Journalist's today in our modern age should be fully trained and be able to follow Journalism laws. This then balances out the protection on not only their careeres, but the those in the courts. 




bibliography:

http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/james-bulger

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3716151.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27250270

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/04/ann-maguire-will-cornick-reporting-restrictions-judge