Law Revision

The legal framework in the UK
1) What do Crown Courts do?  What is an indictable offence?
Indictable offence = most serious offences- attract a prison sentence of five years or more e.g. rape, murder. 
Crown courts have 3 functions = 
1. Trial indictable offences
2. Hear appeals from magistrates courts
3. Sentencing

2)What do Magistrates Courts do?  What is a summary offence?
1. Summary  Trials
2. Commital Hearing
3. Youth Court
Summary Offence = minor offence dealt with by magistrates.

3)What is the highest court in the UK?  Where does it sit? How many justices?
The Supreme Court, Located in Central London, there are 12 justices.

4)Three functions of Crown Courts?  (Trys indictable offences, appeals from mags, sentencing)
1. Trial Indictable offences
2. Hear appeals from magistrates courts
3. Sentencing

5)Three functions of Magistrates courts?  
1. Summary Trials
2.Commitals
3. Youth Court

6)What is the difference between a civil and criminal offence?
A Civil offence is against an individual or an organisation e.g. Brown V Smith. A Criminal offence is against the community as a whole and therefore against the Sovereign e.g. R V Smith.

7)Is the legal test of proof the same or different?
No:
Criminal = beyond reasonable doubt
Civil = on the balance of probability

8)Give 3 sources of law in the UK.
1. Common Law
2. Statute
3. EU regulations and directives. 

9)What do journalists mean by the public interest?
Reynolds Defence – the subject is of real public concern

Reporting Crime and the Courts
1)Briefly explain what is meant by ‘prejudice’ and ‘contempt’ in the context of media law.
Prejudice is to have pre-conceived ideas about the defendant or subject prior to trial, that could be detrimental to their right to a fair trial.
Contempt is the publication of material that is in breach of the rules on crime or court reporting and has a high risk of prejudicing legal proceedings.

2)When does a case become legally active?
Once an arrest is made, a warrant has been issued, a person has been charged or when a summons has been issued by magistrates. 

3)After an arrest is made what sort of facts – in general terms – can be reported?  
Facts which are indisputable at trial, ie name, age, occupation and other forms of positive identification. 

4)The accused appears before magistrates – in general terms what can you report? List them… 
7 Things:
1. Name, age, address of defendant.
2. Name of solicitor/barrister
3. Name of magistrates
4. Whether legal aid was granted
5. Appeals for bail and terms of bail
6. Date and location of where the trial is deferred to
7. Charges faced

5)What is meant by an ‘either-way offence?
Can be tried in either a magistrates or crown court.

6)What is maximum sentence magistrates can impose?
6 months for one offence but can be up to 12 for more than one offence if the magistrates choose to impose consecutive sentences. 

7)What is meant by a conditional discharge?
The defendant will not receive punishment unless they re-offend within a specific time period i.e.1 year. They can then be punished for the original offence plus re-offending. 

8)What is the purpose of a ‘Section 49 order’? 
To protect under 18s in Youth Court

9)What is purpose of a Section 39 order?
To protect under 18s in Adult Court

10)What do we mean by ‘jigsaw identification’?
When someone given anonymity is identified due to a collective number of facts being published, either over time or by different publications, which enables them to be identified. 

11)One morning you arrive at court and barristers are making legal arguments about crucial evidence. You notice the jury isn’t there.  Can you report the proceedings?
No – if the jury is not present then you are not protected by any privilege.

12)What is required of your court report for it to attract absolute privilege?
It must be fair, accurate and contemporaneous

13)In this context explain what is meant by ‘fair’.
The report must contain both sides of the trial, not favouring one over the other. Must contain no substantial inaccuracies. 

14)During a murder trial a family member shouts at the defendant from the public gallery. “You lying bastard – you killed our boy!”  Is that safe to report?
No – outcries from the public gallery are not protected by privilege. 

Libel and Defamation
1)How would you define libel?
When a defamatory statement is published which is damaging to an individual, or organisation and their ability to conduct business.

2)How do we know when a statement is defamatory (4 tests used by judges)
In the mind of reasonable people it must:
1. Causes them to become the victim of hatred, ridicule or contempt.
2. Damage their ability to conduct themselves in their chosen profession
3. Lowered them in the eyes of right thinking people
4. Causes them to be shunned or avoided 

3)What particular danger is there of libel for TV journalists?
There is the risk of libel within the use of background or “wallpaper” shots, as you can implicate individuals through inference or innuendo, e.g. if you are covering a story on insider trading, then just use a blanket stock image of city commuters, there is the possibility that you could accidentally identify someone who partakes in that profession but acts legally, therefore damaging their credibility through inference. 

4)What are the 3 major libel defences?
1.Its true
2.It is covered by privilege
3.It is in the public interest

5)Something re the McAlpine affair
BBC had to make a payout to Lord McAlpine following a Newsnight programme regarding child sex offences. They did not name him in the programme, but the programme lead to speculation all over twitter by third parties, through which Lord McAlpine’s name became trending, and inferred that he had involvement.

Qualified privilege
1)Why is the legal principle of privilege so important to journalists?
It allows you to report on matters that are in the public interest without fear of legal repercussions. 

2)Why was a public meeting in 2000 about the jailed paratrooper Lee Clegg so significant?
Lord Bingham ruled journalists would act as the eyes and ears of the public.

Copyright
1)What’s the purpose of copyright law?
To protect original artistic, musical and literary pieces from being used freely without any credit given to its creator and without their consent, it provides you with control over how your creation is used.

2)You use a photo off the internet.  Is it free of copyright? 
No everything on the internet is still subject to copyright restrictions,  you may only use creative commons photos from the internet, providing you follow their terms of use and credit the owner, otherwise you need explicit permission from its owner. 

3)Why is the principle of fair dealing important and what are its limitations?
It allows you to use images in news broadcasts covering current events to illustrate the story you are covering, however you cannot take unfair commercial advantage of the copyright owner. You are also allowed to fair deal images for the purpose of criticism and review, however the subject must have been released to the public with the explicit consent of the owner for fair dealing to apply (i.e. it does not apply to leaked works).

Confidentiality – breach of confidence
1)What is the purpose of the law of confidence?
To protect information that is obtained during confidential circumstances

2)What are the danger areas for journalists?
1. Exposing state/military secrets
2. Exposing information which a person would reasonably expect to remain private
3. Exposing confidential information regarding a business or organisation

3)What dilemma does a journalist face when newsworthy information comes into his or her possession?
1.Whether to appeal for a response, risking the imposition of an injunction
2.Or whether to just publish the information risking legal action

4)Privacy is now better protected under Human Rights Act Art 8. Give an example of where public figures have won cases where they have claimed breach of privacy or confidence.
Max Mosely V News of the World – 2008 NOTW had to pay out after publishing a story regarding Max Mosely partaking in a Nazi-themed sadomasochistic orgy. The Judge ruled that the publication of this story was not in the public interest. 

Press Regulation
1)What bodies are responsible for regulating the professional conduct of journalists?
Ofcom, Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the BBC Trust which is self-regulatory.

2)Which body has most power and why?
Ofcom as it has statutory power and can impose fines of up to 5% of their revenue, revoke or postpone licenses, prevent the re-viewing of a programme, and can enforce that a public apology takes place.  

3)Define impartiality.   Would there be any difference in your approach to this if you were working in newspapers or broadcasting?
Impartiality is to maintain neutral without bias. Newspapers are permitted to be partial to a particular political party, however broadcasters must maintain complete impartiality. 

Reporting Elections
1)Why is accuracy and impartiality especially important at election times?
Broadcast journalism is heavily influential and the lack of impartiality could have the ability to alter the way individuals vote, therefore undermining and damaging the democratic process. Without impartiality it could simply become a battle of which political party has deeper pockets.

2)What are the danger areas for journalists during campaign reporting?
1. False statements about candidates
2. Providing equal coverage of all major parties- maintaining impartiality
3. Reporting opinion or exit polls

3) Must all candidates standing in a constituency be covered equally?
No – minor and major candidates do not have to be treated equally, however all major candidates must be covered equally. 

4) On polling day when can we start reporting exit polls?
When the polls have closed.

5) On polling day a candidate makes a final plea to voters – can we report this?
No – the final day cannot be used for reporting political arguments, its main objective is to encourage members of the public to vote.