Legal and Ethical considerations when working in the Creative Media Sectors (Adams Assignment)

Legal and Ethical considerations when working in the Creative 

Media Sectors.

Ethics- Rules on conducts, responsibility (not the law). If you break an ethical code you may be forced to act with ethical disapproval from your peers or professional body.

Privacy Law (human rights law)- Privacy law is a regulation that protects a persons right to be left alone. People are allowed to lead their lives without public scrutiny. ' The right to privacy'. 'The right to being left alone'- 'harassment and data protection'. Example-News of the world phone hacking scandal.

 Another example would be when the paparazzi where harassing princess Diana

Copyright and Intellectual property law- Intellectual property is something that is unique to you if it is physically created.i.e. an idea is not your intellectual property but the words you write are. Copyright is a type of intellectual law that protects your work. by knowing your rights and have the right type of protection you can stop people from stealing  or copying: 

• The names of your products or brands
• your inventions 
• the design or look of your products 
• things you write or produce

Examples- hangover 2 'tattoo'/ avatar and William Roger Dean.

safeguarding- An example of this would be when we wear our lanyards to college so then we know who is meant to be going to college who is not.

Official secrets act- The official secrets act is a term used in Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom, and formerly in Canada and New Zealand for legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security.

Why is it important for producers to understand the legal considerations when working in the creative sectors?

Its important for producers to understand the legal considerations when working in the creative sectors because if they don't consider the legal laws then the company and the people who are working in it will get in a lot of trouble. When companies have gone against the media laws they have been banned from their shows, put to prison or been fined. Also if they don't pay attention to the laws then people might not watch the content the company makes or even take part in it and that will not be good for the company because then they will be not getting any profit.

 Laws- Are written approved and enforced by a particular  government. If you break a law you could face police investigation, court appearance and fine.

Libel Law-To publish in print something which is not true or may harm that persons reputation and may bring hate or scorn towards them. It must be a statement which claims to be fact and is not clearly identified as an opinion.

For example on Twitter a tweet can be libellous which means it can be potentially ruins someone's reputation.

This example of libel law. This is about when a celebrity magazine printed an article about David Beckham saying that he allegedly slept with a prostitute behind his wife's back. People then reacted badly to this and started sending David a lot of hate. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/feb/15/david-beckham-magazine-libel-judge



Privacy Law (human rights law)- Privacy law is a regulation that protects a persons right to be left alone. People are allowed to lead their lives without public scrutiny. ' The right to privacy'. 'The right to being left alone'- 'harassment and data protection'.

Example-News of the world phone hacking. This is when  scandal.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14045952 

Another example would be when the paparazzi where harassing princess Diana. Some people believe that its the paparazzi's fault that Diana got killed. http://www.wherearetheynow.buzz/charles-spencer-recalls-how-paparazzi-traumatized-his-sister-princess-diana 

Obscene Publications act 1959 (and later amendments)-  Not to publish any content that 'may deprave or corrupt' those who read/ see it i.e. torture/bestiality and its also for  the protection of literature and to strengthen the law concerning pornography. It strengthens the law for preventing the publication for gain of obscene manner.

Example- Last year the BBFC issued 1,159 films with an R18 rating, of those, 27% required cuts.

A Clockwork Orange  banned from 1973-1999

Here are a few reasons why Clockwork Orange was banned:  'a boy beats a homeless man to death for a few pennies; a 16-year old dressed like Alex and his droogs savagely beats and kicks a 15-year old; a 17-year old Dutch girl is gang raped by a group of Lancashire boys as they sing Singin’ In The Rain.'-http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2013/08/01/the-disappearance-of-a-clockwork-orange

A New York Ripper banned from 1982-2002

http://creativemediaassignment1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/legal-and-ethical-considerations-within.html  

Copyright and intellectual property law-

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (IP) is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trade marks, which enable people  to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. 

Having the right type of intellectual property protection  helps you to stop people stealing or copying: 

• Name of your products or brands.
• Your inventions.
• The design or look of your products.
• Things you write, make or produce.

What counts as intellectual property?
 An intellectual property is something unique that you physically create. However an idea alone is not intellectual property. For example, an idea for a book doesn't count, but the words you've written do.

Owning intellectual property-
You own intellectual property if you:

• Created it and it meets your requirements for copyright, a patent or a design.  
• Bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner.
• Have a brand that could be a trade mark e.g. a well-known product name.

Official Secrets Act (1989)-
The official secrets act 1989 makes it a criminal offence to obtain or publish any information from a serving or former member of security and intelligence services or from certain categories of civil servants or public contractors where that disclosure would be damaging. There is no public interest defence. If it is anticipated that a project will stray into this complex area of law, referral to your commissioning editor and programme lawyer should be made immediately.  (  http://www.channel4.com/ )

Protected categories of information- 
 Under official secrets act 1989 it is an offence for crown servants or government contracts to disclosure of information without lawful authority in relation to the below 6 categories:

1. Security and Intelligence.
2. Defence.
3. International Relation.
4. Information useful to criminals.
5. Interception and phone tapping.
6. Information entrusted in confidence to other states or international organizations.

( http://www.inbrief.co.uk/  )

An example of when this act got breached would be when in 2011 The Guardian revealed the hacking of Milly Dowlers phone. This means that they have taken and used personal information with no permission and Scotland Yard said that when The Guardian did this they breached the Official Secrets Act.


Health and Safety Act-

What is the Health and Safety Act?-
Often referred to as HASAW OR HSW, this Act of parliament is the main piece of UK health and safety legislation. It places a duty on all employers "To ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work" of all their employers.

Among other provisions, Act also requires:

• Safe operation and maintenance of the working environment plant and systems.
• Maintenance of safe access and egress to the workplace.
• Safe use, handling and storage of dangerous substances.
• Adequate training of staff to ensure health and safety.
• Adequate welfare previsions for staff at work.

Employers  must also keep and revise a written record of health and safety policy and consult with employees or their representative on such policies (this only applies to those employing five or more).- ( http://www.healthyworkinglives.com/ )
 An example of something that breached the health and safety act would be when Anthea Turner set on fire in 1989 on the set of UP2U programme whilst they where filming with a pyrotechnic display. This is why they needed an health and safety act so then they can keep everyone safe whilst filming.

Explain why is it important for producers to understand the ethical considerations when working in the creative media?
It's important for producers to understand the ethical considerations because if they don't they might offend someone or it might be inappropriate for the people who could be listening e.g. children. 


Social issues and sensitivities-
They are many issues within 'social issues and sensitivity issues' but one of the most popular ones is the way gender is shown in the media industry. For example in video games they might sometimes show a man looking more 'masculine' but they will make the woman look more sexualised. The media industry do this because it will attract more boys/men to buy their games. An example of one of these games would be Grand Theft Auto (GTA) which is a very popular game that teenage boys buy.


Here's some examples:

As you can see in this photo there is a young woman who is in a bikini so then it sexualises the game and this helps attract a lot of young teenage boys. This is on the opening credits which will also help attract more young men.

However in this photo you can see that they are three male character that are carrying a baseball bat and a gun which makes them look 'tough' and 'manly'.

Not causing harm or offence-

Producers have to make sure that children/ young people do not see any inappropriate content that will offend or mentally scar them. For example there is a thing called watershed which means that any shows that can upset children will be shown after 9 which is when many children will be asleep. Plus when TV channels are broadcasting some shows they have to suit the channel. For example Geordie Shore would not be suitable for BBC 1 but its great for MTV. Also another example for not showing any harm or offence would be when the 'Sachsgate' scandal happened in 2008. Johnathan Ross and Russel Brand where pre-recording a radio show and they called Andrew Sachs' but it went to his answer phone and they left a bunch of rude, nasty and crude comments about Sachs' granddaughter. Some of the comments that where left caused people to phone in and complain because even after all of the bad comments the radio station still let the episode air.

He told BBC Breakfast: “They broadcast it and it was filthy, not funny, nothing, it was disgusting.” - Andrew Sachsgate

However BBC did apologize but understandably Sashgate was still not happy.

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10648168/Sachsgate-Fawlty-Towers-actor-still-disgusted-by-Russell-Brand-and-Jonathan-Ross.html )

Adhering to the professional body codes of practice-

These are some of the codes that radio stations and TV company's follow:

'1.3 Children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.' - Although the girl Ross and Brand where talking about was not underage the people they where people listening to the radio which means some children could be in that large audience and that is inappropriate for young children to hear. 

'2.1 Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material.' Ross and Brand gave away the girls name who they where talking about and they where talking about sexual matters that might have happened between her and Brand. This could have offended her because it might have happened and she didn't want everyone to know or it might not have happened and she might just be angry about the false information hes spreading.

2.3 In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context (see meaning of "context" below). Such material may include, but is not limited to, offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation). Appropriate information should also be broadcast where it would assist in avoiding or minimizing offence.

( http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ )