28/01/2014

Law Lecture #2

Reporting crime 

It is a busy time for court stories at the moment in the news:

  • Mikaeel Kular murder 
  • Greenslade’s media blog in the Guardian. ‘surprised this article was published’ - article on the mail on sunday about how Mikaeels mother was a party girl etc. Prejudicial to Rosdeep Kular. 
  • Lord Renard (MP) - six women have come forward saying he is sexually harassing them and that he’s always been inappropriate. It won’t be a criminal case as itt has to be beyond reasonable doubt that he has done this crime. 
    Ultimately, they can go to the civil court to seek damages. It is potentially better for them to do this because of balance of probabilities, beyond reasonable doubt that you can convict this person in criminal but in civil you can use balance of probabilities. 


The fade factor - we published an article now, the trial will be taking place in months time, people who will be on the jury by then would of forgotten about what’s been said now. It’s a get out. This may of given the Mail on Sunday a reason to publish this article although it is slightly prejudice. 


In the UK we have open hearings.
Civil standard of proof to win the claim - balance of probabilities


Always use the basics in a news story: *who, what, when, where, why*


Risks with reporting crimes

  • Prejudice
  • Contempt

When is a case legally active?

  • When police make an arrest
  • Issue of an arrest warrant
  • Magistrates issue a summons
  • A person is charged

Detention without charge
  • Police have 24hrs to question
  • Senior officer can extent by 12hr
  • Magistrates can extend by 36hr
  • Cannot exceed 96 hrs
  • Terror suspect limit - 28 days

Pre-trial reports - 7 points (points the law says that you can say - page )
  • Names of defendants, ages, addresses, occupations
  • Charges faced or a close summary
  • Names of court and magistrates’ names
  • Names of solicitors or barristers present
  • Date and place to where case is adjourned
  • Any arrangements as to bail
  • Whether legal aid was granted

Categories of offence
  • Indictable offence only: possible sentence of 5 years +
  • Either-way: can go to Crown Court or Magistrates

Magistrates powers
  • 6 months jail - fines up to £5,000
  • Suspended sentences
  • Conditional discharge
  • Community orders, Binding over
Key stages of trial
  • Prosecution opening
  • Key prosecution witnesses
  • Defense opening
  • Key defence witness
  • Judges summing up
  • Jury sent out, deliberation and verdict

Court reporting rules
  • Fair
  • Accurate
  • Contemporaneous (Fast - publishing it on the first opportunity e.g. online)
  • No recording
  • Can now tweet?

Children and Young People

  • You are legally juvenile until 18

21/01/2014

Law Lecture #1

In our first year of our Journalism course we studied Media Law and specific things which will potentially effect us as Journalists throughout our career. Before we finish our degree, we are having one last module on Law as a recap on things that may have changed in the last 2 years.

Topics that will be covered:

  • An outline of the legal system (England and Wales)
  • Crime reporting and the courts
  • Libel and Defamation
  • Investigative Journalism and Privilege
  • Confidentiality and privacy (such news stories as Wikileaks)
  • Freedom of Information
  • Copyright and codes of conduct ('who's pictures are they and where are they from')
  • Reporting elections
It is highly important as Journalists that we have a good understanding of the Law as in many occasions we will come across a story that may need to be checked for things such as defamation etc before being broadcast/printed. 

For libel to be used there has to be serious harm involved for someone to use libel. Under the new law it has to be proven that serious harm has to be done to their character. Libel is often used in many cases seen in the news on a day to day basis as often people are seen to be in the wrong and if Journalists use information that isn't in the public interest, libel can often be used. 
'Mclibel' is the term used from when over 10 years ago, two campaigners handed out sheets to people about how bad Mcdonalds was, so Mcdonalds took them to court for libel. The campaigners had no money so they defended themselves in court. Mcdonalds lost a lot of money through this process but obviously won. It is unlikely a similar case will ever occur in the future due to there being more libel laws.
This new law is extremely beneficial for smaller business. 

A massive news story that has effected Journalists now and future is the Levison Inquiry. Relating to the two part investigation into the role of the press and police in the phone hacking scandal in 2011. A massive debate is to whether the press should been regulated by themselves or should someone regulate them? Ultimately the press is a prime example of a necessity when it comes to police, who polices the police? Under qualified privilege we as journalists have the right to report exactly what is in court and as long as there is no malice involved then we are safe. Qualified privilege is different to absolute privilege where the publishers motive is irrelevant. For qualified privilege what is saying must be fair and accurate, without malice and also be in the public interest. Privilege is often the let out and can sometimes get us out of saying bad things. Many MP's and Parliament use names etc under qualified privilege. We as journalists have an important role within society, despite negative claims made by many. 

Recently there have been many cases in the media which reflect the laws previously mentioned. Many include celebrities such as Nigella Lawson, Rolf Harris and William Roache (Coronations Streets Ken Barlow). A good example of witness protection is Nigella Lawson. To begin with, Nigella was there as simply a witness to the case however throughout many heads turned to Lawson and her private life. The press began to focus on Lawson herself and what she has been doing in her private life i.e. taking drugs etc. Should witnesses also have lawyers when in court? 

Hierarchy in UK Courts
  • Supreme Court
  • Court of appeal - criminal and civil division
  • High Court - queens bench division, family and commercial chancery division
  • Crown Court - criminal division
  • Magistrates (deals with such things as employment tribunals etc)
  • County Court - chancery division


16/01/2014

Magazine Lecture #1

It's finally starting to dawn on me that in a few months, my time at University will be over. In these final months we are carrying on with our dissertation, starting our new magazine module and  recapping on law that we starting in the first year.

Jacqui Thornton, our new lecture who is teaching this module has been in the business for many years and has had experience in a wide variety of journalism jobs.

Lecture 1

Important Factors 

  • Contacts and Ideas are the two most important things in the Journalism world and they can help you make a career. 
  • Lead time relates to the time from when the article is prepared, to when it's printed. 
  • Magazines are picture lead and a lot of the time in journalism, you will need to write to the picture. 
  • Trade magazines are often good starters when looking for a job in print journalism.


History
Gentles Magazine - 1731, London
Dress + Vanity Fair - 1913
Vogue UK - 1916
Marie Clare - 1988
First - closed 2008
Maxim + Arena - closed in 2009
More! - closed 2013

Vogue UK was started in London in 1916 as there was a high demand for US Vogue but as the US couldn't ship the magazines over due to the war, the UK decided to set up there own.
In 2007, Vogue ran 2,020 pages of advertising at an average of £16,000 a page. This made them an income of £32 million. As an avid Vogue and fashion magazine reader, in some ways, this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. A large chunk of the magazine is full of high fashion advertisers and the fact that they make such a high profit through this does not surprise me.

Print sales of Marie Clare have dropped by 14% since early 2009 and now the figures start at 230,973.

The Independent Newspaper was set up in 1986 with the first copy being printed on the 7th October of that year. Originally it was a broadsheet and was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephan Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper was created at an extremely important time in newspaper history as Rupert Murdoch was challenging old practices of the print unions and defeating them in the Wapping dispute. The Wapping dispute was a significant turning point in the history of the trade union movement and UK industrial relations. It relates to 6,000 newspaper workers going on strike.

There are 3,000 magazines in total in the whole of the UK. When thinking of what magazine would have the biggest readership in the whole of the UK, in my mind, along with many others, I would think of such publications as Vogue, Mens magazines and other similar magazines. However Tesco in fact has the biggest readership, overtaking The Sun in 2012.

Differences between newspapers and magazines:

  • Subscriptions
  • Paid for/free
  • Lead Times
  • Importance of Advertising
The future of journalism
  • Ipad/Smartphones
  • Make your own magazines - this can already be done in some ways on things like Flipboard and some newspaper applications
  • New launches such as Guardian Technology
  • Online - Radio Times triples website traffic
  • Conde Nast - release things at different times of the day to get the most traffic





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