Legal, Ethical and Representation

Issues

Legal

Legal issues - Defamation of character is when a publication or

spokesman creates a false statement about an individual that
is deemed to be damaging to their character. This can come in
two forms, slander and libel. Libel is when this false statement is
written and printed, slander is when this false statement is spoken. Another legal issues is contempt of court UK legislation, this
is when an article is published that contain information that could
sway the outcome of the trial. A very serious crime that is sometimes overlooked by independent publishers is copyright. Since
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 since this law without explicit permission you cant copy a piece created by someone else. This can be anything ranging from books to just written
ideas. To obtain permission to use someone elses work usually
youll have to pay a small amount of money. Discrimination can be
another big issue that can sometimes be overlooked. It is illegal
to discriminate against someones sex, age, disability or ethnic
origin.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 this UK copyright law
gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.
In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified
as the author and to object to distortions of his/hers work. This
rights at this current moment in time last for 70 years after the
original creator dies. However someone else can write their own
piece centred around your idea so long as they dont copy or adapt
the original authors piece

Data protection act (DPA) this defines the UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main
piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal
data. The act by itself however does not mention privacy, it was
enacted to protect peoples fundamental rights and freedoms
in particular their right to privacy in regards to the processing
of their personal data.

Ethical

Ethical issues - After the Leveson Enquiry in 2011 to late 2012 the
ethical issues regarding the news and media needed to be addressed. Can and should newspapers be allowed to publish anything they wished, no matter how personal the articles topic is. Up
until the Leveson enquiry complaints to do with articles would be
dealt with through the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) this
was a voluntary body for British printed newspapers and magazines, the PCC consisted of representatives of major publications.
The PCC closed on Monday 8th September 2013, one of the major
flaws of the PCC is that is doesnt really have that many powers to
intervene and have any substantial negative effect on the magazine publication. In 2008 the PCC received 4,698 complaints out
of these only 45 were resolved. This deemed a new system to be
put in place, this was IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) established on Monday 8th September 2014. This new
independent organisation promised to deal with the flaws and
issues that the PCC had. However IPSO also has debatably bigger
flaws one of these being that reporters can publish anything in
The Public Interest creating a failsafe for reporters. Journalists
should consider what is right and wrong and that sometimes it is
not morally right to print certain material. Journalists need to also
consider how they portray certain individuals. The official secrets
act (only in the UK and Western democrats have such a law) prevents the publishing of confidential and sensitive material.

Another law, is the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964

this law makes it a criminal offence to publish any article that
will corrupt anyone that reads the article. Contempt of Court
Act 1981 if any article is published that could possibly affect
the outcome of a trial, this is deemed a criminal offence. Sometimes the government will ask newspapers to temporarily not
report on a certain news story or topic, this is called a D-Notice.

Representation
Representation issues to ensure that my magazine/newspaper
does not offend or discriminate against individuals be it by age,
gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity or disability. I will have to make
sure that what I write does not secularise any individuals. I will
also read all of the Acts that I just mentioned to try and familiarize
myself with the various offences that you could possibly commit
when writing and publishing an article. The media more than ever
before has the power to twist and manipulate th truth, the wya in
which men and women are portrayed be it positive or negative is
due to a direct correlation of the power media has over the consumer. Whenever you see something in the media about a certain
individual or group of individuals. Consider what is the article
trying to portray about these people or person. this will help you to
make an informed descision as to wheteher the article is slanderous or genral informative news.