When creating a media product, the producers of the product must take into many legal constraints, these are the rules and regulations that must be obeyed when creating products, if they do not obey these it may lead to prosecution, and other actions. These include if broadcasting or publishing something that is not true, damaging someone reputation means that the producer could get sued by the person the information was broadcasted about.
The can also not produce anything that may deprave or corrupt, as they cannot produce something that lawyers haven't checked over before being released in-case of to much sexually explicit, violence or drug taking as if it is and it is broadcasted the film can be banned from the country and also the producers can be took to court.
They also need to make sure they don't
publish anything that will break the Privacy Human Rights Laq as this can lead
to the producers company being shut down. Also making sure they do not copy any
work from other producers without permission as they other producers can take
them to court and get them sued for not having copyrights. They also need to know is not to publish information from someone's phone or hack into
something that is private and none of their business as this could lead to
company closure also.
Obscenity Law
The definition of this is content that is "likely to deprave and corrupt" the audience for which it is intended. Lawyers may need to check whether a production breaks this law before it is released. Content such as sexually explicit, violent and/or drug taking is reviewed for suitability. Decisions are made dependent on factors such as age range of the audience, the time a production is broadcast. An example of this is the Human Centipede 2 was band in the UK for being related to sexual violence, graphic gore, breach of law relating to obscenity.
Libel Law
You can be sued for damages if you publish or broadcast things about a person which are untrue and damage their reputation (defame them) The law was created to protect individuals or organisations from unwarranted, mistaken or untruthful attacks on their reputation.
An example of this is Lord McAlpine as someone tweeted that he was part of a pedophile ring which targeted children at a care home in Wrexham, he pursued Sally Bercow wife of commons speakers John over comments she made on a social networking site.
Privacy Human Rights Law 1998
If a media company publishes information about someone which is information that should be considered private, that is to say, information in respect of which you had a 'reasonable expectation of privacy', then legal action for misuse of private information can be brought under the Human Rights Act 1998.
An example of this is a French magazine breaking a law as they put a picture of the Duchess of Cambridge in their magazine and she was topless sunbathing.
Official Secrets Act
It is a criminal offence to obtain or publish any information from a serving or former member of the security and intelligence services or from certain categories of civil servants or public contractors where that disclosure would be damaging.
An example of this would be News of the World phone hacking scandal were they hacked into Millie Dowler's phone.
Copyright and Intellectual Property Law This law exists to protect people's creative endeavors so that they can properly benefit from their work. If such protection didn't exist and people were able to copy or sell or profit from another's work, there would be little incentive for people to create in the first place. Program-makers are responsible for ensuring that all necessary clearances (copyright, trademarks etc.) have been obtained for their programs.
An example of this would be I tunes film breaking the copyright law as Russian films are being made available through Apple's I tunes service without the consent of the copyright holders, the films were old favorites Gentlemen of fortune, Assa, The diamond arm, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka despite their age the films and cartoons are still protected by copyright.
Media Ethics
Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton advertising.
The ethical constraints are listed below with descriptions and examples:
Protecting Under 18's : protecting the privacy of children and getting the parents of the child's consent, for example shows such as celebrity juice and big brother, which include drinking, offensive language, smoking and adult topics are always shown after 9pm. Also if a child is being featured on a TV show, such as the news the company must have the parent of the child's consent allowing them to be featured.
Power to influence the public: where the company can twist sound or video clips to make the public something that is possibly not true. For example when interviewing people for publication, television or radio they are boundaries that need to be met so peoples opinions cannot have an impact on the public's opinions.
Interviewing vulnerable people or children : The should know when the time is right to interview someone, for example if someone is grieving from a loss and they're is going to be an article written about the person who has passed away, they should give the grieving person time to cope with the loss before interviewing them about a sensitive subject. This also applies to children because they will not know any better.
Intruding on individuals privacy: this means knowing their boundaries, and knowing not when to disturb a member of the public. For example when images of The Duchess of Cambridge topless where taken whilst on holiday this was an invasion of her privacy.
Anything that would cause offence or harm: this means understanding what could cause viewers or listeners harm. For example at the begins and ends of shows there are warnings if it something that could cause distress to the viewers. For example at the ends of Hollyoaks and EastEnders they're are helplines that help people who have been upset or effected by topics featured in the show.
I will now apply these constraints to different TV genres:
Reality TV Shows: Protecting Under 18's is main constraint that must be followed in this genre, as they include drinking, bad language and adult themes. Such as shows like Made In Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex talk about topic such as sex and relationships, aswell as showing nudity, drinking and sometimes drug taking. Also these shows always have to be shown at 9pm.
Drama: Shows such as EastEnders, Call the Midwife and Sherlock must be careful when showing things that might cause offence or harm to people, for example showing violence they must be careful not to take things to extreme. They must also warn viewers before showing the programme that some parts of the show may cause offence.
Comedy Shows: these shows must be careful so they're content does not cause harm to certain individuals or groups of people, for example comedian Frankie Boyle does not take this into consideration, as he cracks jokes that have caused offence to difference cultural groups, and many celebrity's including Jimmy Savile and the royal family. The must also be careful when using bad language, as this can also cause offence.
Talk Shows and Current Events shows: These shows must both follow constraint of intruding privacy and the privacy of individual people, for example shows such as Watchdog must ask peoples permission to be included in the show, if they do not do so they have intruded peoples privacy and could be fined by that person.
