Social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, eg BBC producers’ guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards.
Legal
content, interpretation and application of laws relating to media, eg
Broadcasting Act 1990 (and later amendments)
The aim of the Act was to reform the entire structure of British broadcasting; British television, in particular, had earlier been described by Margaret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices".
In simple terms the Broadcasting Act is what is illegal and legal to be shown on TV. An example of breaching this act would be to show explict material, such as raunchy dancing on Strictly Come Dancing.
Official Secrets Act 1989
If somebody knows a secret about royalty it is illegeal to break confidentiality, if the governmennt thinks the secret could harm royalty for instance if terrorists was to find out where the queen was at a certain time it may place her in danger.
Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments)
The Act created a new offence for publishing obscene material taking into account that what your doing is best for the public. Breaching this Act would be to show obscene material on television, magazines and newspapers.
Films Act 1985
Legislation concerning film finance and defining 'British films'
Video Recordings Act 1984
The video recordings act states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office.
Breaching this Act would be to sell pirated DVD's that have not been age certified.
Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments)
In the Race Relations Act of 1976 covered discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin in the fields of employment, the provision of goods and services, education and public functions.
Breaching this Act would be for an employer to employ only one race or to exclude a race.
Human Rights Act 1998
An Act to give further effect to rights and freedoms guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Human Rights Act makes it unlawful for any public body to act in a way which is incompatible with the Convention, unless the wording of an Act of Parliament means they have no other choice. Everyone has the right to freedom of speech an example of breaching this act would be to restrict somebodys speech.
Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments)
The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. In relation to media this act ensures all dvds sold by a licensed shop are not illegeally copied.
Privacy Law
Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use. An example of breaching privacy laws would be if somebody spread private information to other people for example across the internet on social network sites.
These laws are designed to regulate specific types of information. Some examples include:
· Health privacy laws
· Financial privacy laws
· Online privacy laws
· Communication privacy laws
· Information privacy laws
· Privacy in one's home
Copyright and Intellectual Property Law
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. An example of breaching copyright would be if a band used lyrics written by someone else and did not give them any credit.
Libel Law
libel is defamation by written or printed words, pictures or in any form other than spoken words or gestures. An example of breaching this act would be if somebody had a idea written down and somebody else copied it.
This is an example of a famous Legal Act of Privacy Laws.
The News Of The World fought a legal battle against a number of celebrities due to hacking into their phones in a quest to receive newsworthy information, they achieved this with the knowledge of senior staff. The main victims of the phone hacking scandals were celebrities however one major case was the death of Millie Dowler. By the News of The World doing this it means thats any victims are entitled to being able to sue them for breach of confidentiality and or privacy.
In my opinion I think privacy laws have many grey patches. Breach of privacy is not a good thing however some celebrities dwell on the breach of privacy act, but paying people to tip off paparazzi photographers in order to get publicized in newspapers and magazines, a good example of this would be Katie Price.
Ofcom
Ofcom stands for the office of communications; it is the Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. Ofcom is the regulator of TV, Radio and Internet, this means when production companies want to add content to the TV, Radio or Internet they have to have it regulated by Ofcom. As the regulatory body for media broadcasts, part of Ofcom's duties are to examine specific complaints by viewers or listeners about programmers broadcast on channels that it has licensed. If a member of the public has a complaint to make about a programme such as Big Brother, they would file this complaint to Ofcom.
BBFC
The BBFC is an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media content regulator. They operate the classifications of films, TV, adverts and video games. They have a set of rules that they look at whilst watching a programme and then they tick off things such as swearing, blood or obscene material which then gives the programme they correct age verification.
Code Of Practice
A code of practice is a set of written rules which explains how people working in a particular profession should behave. An example of this would be editors code of practice, which is for the newspaper and magazine industry. The Press Complaints Comission (PCC), which is mostly made up of members, is charged with enforcing the Code, which is then used to adjudicate complaints. It was ratified by the PCC in september 2009. Exceptions in the code of practice are marked by ", these relate to public interests.
A duty to maintain the highest professional standards is expected by all members of the press. The Code, which covers the preamble and the public interest, sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the individual and the public's right to know. It is a main aspect of the system of self-regulation to which the industry has made a binding commitment.
Media Representation
Representation is the way in which a broadcaster company represents a group of people. For example the adverts for washing machine powder years ago used to be advertised as a woman using it whereas nowadays, the adverts make quotes like "even men can use it" this gives a bad representation on men.
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