Reporting on Crime

Reporting on crime is a tricky business. It is necessary for journalists to report on on-going cases as it is in the public interest but it can cause all kinds of problems for the reporter, so it is critical that you know the law inside and out (or that you have a handy lawyer on staff that you can badger with questions).

A recent example of a legally questionable article is this one by the Daily Mail Rosdeep Kular - Daily Mail (and yes I’m only putting the link to cover my back).  This report was regarding Rosdeep Kular who has been charged with the murder of her son Mikaeel Kular. The article is headlined “Party lifestyle of Mikaeel’s mother who called herself the dancing queen” and Rosdeep Kular is pictured with an apparently alcoholic drink in hand.  As this is an “active case” this report could be damning on her character and therefore effect how she is viewed by the jury. An article like this is prejudicial to an ongoing case which could result in contempt of court.

It is crucial for a journalist to understand when a case is “active” as this drastically changes what is able to be reported. A case is immediately made “active” from the point of arrest. It is also made “active” by a charge, summons, or an arrest warrant.

The Daily Mail would be able to defend their article on Rosdeep Kular by referring to the “fade factor”. The case is still in its early stages and there is still isn’t a jury, therefore there isn’t a jury to influence. By the time of the trial the article will be old and will have faded from the memories of the public. However this was still a questionable article to publish and if I were in their situation I think I would have chosen not to publish (but this may just be because I am young and forever fearful of making mistakes).

The Mikaeel Kular case is very different when it comes to reporting the case, as it is being carried through in a Scottish court. The first hearing was a private hearing in the “sheriff court” which meant journalists weren’t allowed in. This differs to English courts where journalists are allowed to report on every stage of the trial.

There are opportunities to slip up everywhere you turn. If the media discovers that a person is being investigated by the police or another agency and then publishes this, identifying the person, then that person could sue the publisher for libel if that investigation doesn’t then lead to a prosecution. Even though it is factually correct that this person is under investigation, it is defamatory as it suggests guilt. An example of this is Chris Jefferies in 2011. This is also an example of how wrong the media can get it.

In 2011 Chris Jefferies won substantial settlements against eight newspapers for articles they published about him. Joanna Yeates who was one of Chris Jefferies was found dead and he was then subject to an investigation, arrested and released. Newspapers published defamatory material about him repeatedly and his face made the front page on several occasions. However another man was charged with murdering Joanna Yeates. What was published about Chris Jefferies resulted in two newspapers being charged with contempt of court.

Sometimes in high profile cases publications may choose to publicise a suspects name before charge, for example if it concerns a celebrity. This is because the celebrity may not wish to alienate the media or cause any more negative publicity so will choose not to sue in order to avoid making it into the limelight once more.

7 things to include in a court report:

1.       Name of the defendant

2.       Age and address

3.       Name of the court

4.       Plea

5.       Any applications for Bail

6.       Charge

7.       names of solicitors

It is also important for journalists to understand the different types of cases; civil and criminal;

Civil Cases are disputes between two individuals or organisations and will be shown as a name V a name e.g. Brown V Smith. In a civil case the person is “liable or not liable”. The standard of proof in a civil case is “on the balance of probability”.

Criminal Cases are offences which harm the whole community and are therefore against the sovereign. Criminal cases are shown as R V a name (R represents the sovereign) e.g. R V Smith. In a criminal case a person is “guilty or not guilty”. The standard of proof in a criminal case is “beyond reasonable doubt”.

The main thing to remember when reporting on crime/ court cases is that you cannot be too safe. You should be conscious of anything that represents itself as being a fact and you need to consider whether anything you report could be contested in court.

If in doubt, call the lawyer.

Magazine Lecture #1

The first magazine was the “Gentleman’s magazine” which was launched in 1731 in London. This wasn’t your stereotypical “lads mag” like we’re familiar with today, instead it consisted of more political and economic content.

It took longer for women’s magazines to appear, with “Dress” and “Vanity Fair” both launching in 1913. “Vogue UK” wasn’t released until 1916, and was only launched due to the fact that during wartime “American Vogue” couldn’t be shipped to the UK.

There are around 3,000 print magazines in the UK today, covering four different markets; business, professional, consumer and specialist consumer. However there is very little brand loyalty when it comes to the consumer “glossy” magazines. People are fickle and advertising on the front page is key, an article on the front saying “100 ways to have an orgasm” is enough to make a reader switch publication. This is evident across the magazine industry where publications are closed down frequently, for example “Maxim” and “Arena” closed in 2009 and “More!” closed in 2013. Whereas in specialist and business publications loyalty is key, people want accuracy and reliability which requires the publication to have a strong reputation.

Magazines are led by advertising in a very different way to newspapers. Magazines will regularly print articles entirely focused around advertising or reviewing certain products. They also print large full page advertisements throughout their publication. A perfect example of this is “Vogue”, in 2007  it ran 2,020 pages of advertising at an average of £16,000 per page, providing an income of £32million. “Vogue” is infamous for its high end advertisements, and in many cases this provides another incentive for the reader to buy it, it’s an opportunity to see the newest high end items.

As the industry changes and becomes more digitally focused magazines need to adapt to keep up with the trends. This is often done through supplying online subscriptions and Ipad editions, however this can have a backlash as it can cause print sales to fall. For example “Marie Claire’s” print sales have dropped by 14% since 2009. It could then be presumed that this would have been offset by digital sales, however they were just 1,764 in the first half of 2013.

The future of magazines is clearly going to be digitally based, and this is only going to be accelerated by the development of applications such as “Flipboard” which give the reader more choice and freedom to build their own magazine collection adapted to their specific tastes and needs.

Two surprising facts:
1) The top 3 selling magazines in the UK are; “TV Choice”, “What’s On TV” and “Radio Times”
2) Tesco magazine over took “The Sun” in terms of readership in 2012.