Law lecture 10- Codes of conduct

Law lecture 10- Codes of conduct

Despite this lecture being on codes of conduct, the lecture started with a look at a winol package which included defamation, perfect for a law session. It showed me how easy it can be to include defamation in a news report on purpose or accidently, and how careful a reporter has to be to ensure that this is not done.

Looking into this report i was also made aware of malicious falsehood and slander of goods; if a reporter has said in a report that they feel a company will go bust  and the company  do go bust they could sue with the argument that this report caused them to go bust. I was also made aware of accidental libel and the fact that this is only the case if it is someone who looks the same, with the same name, and in the same area if this is stated.

Finally using innuendo in a report to suggest something either with images used or the commentary by the reporter, could lead to a libel case, as a person involved in the report may feel that the report is defamatory against them.

Moving onto the codes of conduct, we looked at 4 different codes of conduct used by journalists and took a quick look at the codes themselves

·         NUJ Code of conduct- Agreed to by journalists

-Not used by any of the papers owned by Rupert Murdock

- Used for TV, radio and newspapers

- Against bringing journalism into disrepute

·         PCC Code of conduct- Papers such as the News of the world and the Sun use this code of conduct

-          Tribunal used

-          Owned by the establishment

-          Can be sacked for breaking it.

·         OFCOM code of conduct-TV: ITV and SKY

-          Watershed used- no swearing, sex or crime before 9 o’clock.

·         BBC Producer guidelines

-          Cover the same areas as the other codes

-          For the BBC