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Legal & Ethical Issues Prepared for: Mr Crafts (Publisher)

Prepared by: Miss del Mar (Tune iN Representative)

Candidate Number: 4028

Centre Number: 64135

20th March 2015

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LEGAL & ETHICAL ISSUES

Table of Contents

Introduction

PCC/IPSO

Intellectual Property/Industrial Property/Copyright

Safe Working Practices

Introduction This document will explain about a problem or situation that requires a person or

organisation to choose between alternatives that must be evaluated as right or wrong

such as committing crime towards Press Complaints Commission (PCC)/ Independent

Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Intellectual Property /Industrial

Property/Copyright and lastly, Safe Working Practices.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)/ Independent Press Standards

Organisation (IPSO)

Press Complaints Commission was the exiting legal and regulatory framework for

British printed newspapers and magazine, which contains of representatives of the

major publishers. However, the PCC closed on Monday 8th September 2014, and was

replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation also known as IPSO.

IPSO is the independent regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry. IPSO

promote and uphold the highest professional standards of journalism in the UK, and to

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support members of the public in seeking redress where they believe that the Editors'

Code of Practice has been breached.

The Editor’s Code

From looking at the editors code of press complaints commission the standards that my

magazine need to reach to be fair and not break any rules of publishing. The benchmark

within the editor’s code is to never upset the public by publishing appropriate content.

It is also to publish fair and suitable content with in the magazine. Established in 2003,

the Code of Practice states that:

• Accuracy – the press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or

distorted information, including pictures. A significant inaccuracy, misleading

statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due

prominence, and – where appropriate – an apology published. A publication must

report fairly and accurately the outcome of an action for defamation to which it has

been a party, unless an agreed settlement states otherwise, or an agreed statement

is published.

• Privacy – everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home,

health and correspondence, including digital communications. Editors will be

expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent. It is

unacceptable to photograph individuals in a private place without their consent.

• Harassment – journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or

persistent pursuit. They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or

photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on their property when

asked to leave and must not follow them. Editors must ensure these principles are

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observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-complaint

material from other sources.

• Children – a child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues

involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or similarly

responsible adult consents. Pupils must not be approached or photographed at

school without the permission of the school authorities. Minors must not be paid for

material involving children’s welfare, nor parents or guardians for material about

their children or wards, unless it is clearly in the child’s interest.

• Clandestine Devices & Subterfuge – the press

must not seek to obtain or publish material

acquired by using hidden cameras or

clandestine listening devices; or by intercepting

private or mobile telephone calls, messages or

emails; or by the unauthorised removal of

documents, or photographs; or by accessing

digitally-held private information without

consent.

• Discrimination – the press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an

individual’s race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or

mental illness or disability. Details of an individual’s race, colour, religion, sexual

orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless

genuinely relevant to the story.

• Financial Journalism – even where the law does not prohibit it, journalists must

not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its

general publication, nor should they pass such information to others. They must not

write about shares or securities in whose performance they know that they or their

close families have a significant financial interest without disclosing the interest to

the editor or financial editor. They must not buy or sell, either directly or through

nominees or agents, shares or securities about which they have written recently or

about which they intend to write in the near future.

Confidential sources – journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential

sources of information.

Example Here is an example where the editor of Mojo Magazine is being accurate, not being

misleading and not produced unfair information. The photo below illustrates that Mojo

paraphrase the pull quote to be able to keep it interesting for the reader; also selected

most of the words in bold to ‘signify’ the importance of the word itself.

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What can readers complain about?

IPSO can deal with complaints from readers from either printed or online content such

as;

• Print and digital articles,

• Print and digital images , which also includes videos,

• Audio found on both magazine and newspaper websites,

• Letters which fellow readers have sent to a magazine or newspaper

What can the IPSO not deal with?

However, IPSO cannot deal with TV and Radio who are dealt by Ofcom, advertising,

books, content that is not featured in magazines or newspapers etc.

What can readers complain about within Tune iN magazine?

Within my magazine, readers can complain inappropriate visual images, the use of

language such as swearing depending on what it is. Lastly, finding certain facts

offensive, for example, ethnicity, stereotypes etc.

How to make a complaint through IPSO

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When making a complaint through IPSO, there are three ways you can do this. They can

either do this electronically by filling in an online form or sent an email. Lastly, write a

letter.

The photo on the left demonstrates on what the online form looks like. Within the

online form they asked the person what they are complaining about such as;

Are you complaining about behaviour of a journalist and or/ photographer

OR are you complaining about material published in a newspaper or magazine

Lastly, complaining about material published on a newspaper or magazine website

And then, it asked the ‘Name of Publication’, ‘Date of first article’ and lastly, they ask you

to upload a documents that ‘must be’ in one of the following formats – JPG, PNG, PDF or

DOCX; also the person is allowed a maximum of 5 headlines.

Press Complaints Commission Case Study (28th May 2015) On 28th May 2015, the Press Complaints Commission ruled that Rod Liddle has been

censured for crudely mocking a woman’s gender identity and her disability. Having a

sustained complaint against the newspaper, IPSO required it to publish its ruling on the

same page as Liddle’s column; also it appears today at the foot of his latest column and

online.

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This complains should be seen as a landmark decision as it is the first complaint IPSO

has accepted from a representative group rather than an individual. Moreover, under

IPSO’s rule it may consider such complaints if “an alleged breach of the editor’s code is

significant” and there is a “substantial public interest” for doing so.

The complaint against Liddle was made by Trans Media Watch, which acted with the

consent of Emily Brothers. It contended that items in Liddle’s columns on 11 December

2014 and 15 January 2015 discriminated against Brothers because of prejudicial and

pejorative references to her disability and gender.

In the first instance, Liddle reported that Brothers was hoping to become Labour’s first

blind transgendered MP by standing for election in Sutton and Cheam. “Being blind”, he

wrote, “how did she know she was the wrong sex?”

When Trans Media Watch complained to the Sun about the remark, the paper accepted

that it was tasteless but denied that it was prejudicial or pejorative. However, it did not

accept that Liddle had criticised Brothers or suggested anything negative or

stereotypical about her blindness or gender identity. Instead, it had been a clumsy

attempt at humour.

In conclusion, this article portrays how serious the damage that Rod Liddle has done

towards the victim which reflects on how the Press Complaints Commission will dealt

with this impairment. Moreover, the fact that it was accepted from a representative

group rather than an individual denotes how important the public’s reaction towards

this Act.

Intellectual Property/Industrial Property/Copyright What is Intellectual Property?

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Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary

and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

Industrial Property

Industrial property such as inventions, industrial designs, trademarks which is afforded

protection under national and international intellectual property laws.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country,

which grants the creator of original work exclusive

rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited

time, with the intention of enabling the creator to

receive compensation for their intellectual effort.

Before producing the magazine, I need to be aware of

laws and regulations such as the copyright law because

this will help me to protect my content from people

trying to copy it and use it for other purposes.

When advertising my magazine or any other products that I am going to conclude as

part of advertising in my magazine, I need to be aware of defamation, privacy, and

publicity issues. The reason behind this is because when publishing the interviews and

gossip pages, the magazine needs to make sure that they do not break any privacy rules

of the subject’s life. As an editor I have to make sure the magazine will contain any

information that is true to the word and no false accusations to gain more money.

To make sure my magazine does not break any copyright laws, my magazine will ask

permission from the social network sites that will be on the front page to use the logos. I

will do this by contacting them and asking them for the permission by explaining what

the use would be. The word “copyright” and copyright symbol should then be followed

by the date (the year the work was created) you r name and then the statement “all

rights reserved” (as in the example below)

Copyright © 2015 Megan del Mar. All Rights Reserved.

Finally, when advertising within the magazine, the advertisers or magazine must have

the permission of everyone within the advertisement involved to publish the advert.

This could be the product or service label, a celebrity etc.

Safe Working Practices

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The HSE provides risk management and risk

assessment. Every work place has to have a risk

assessment in place on how to deal with

potential risks and perform work tasks safely.

It is important that every employee is aware of

potential risks and how to deal with them if

they do occur. Moreover, the Health and Safety

at Work Act 1974 will come handy as it is

providing the health, safety and welfare of

persons at work, for protecting others against

risks to health or safety in connection with the activities of persons at work, for

controlling the keeping and use and preventing the unlawful acquisition, possession and

use of dangerous substances.

The way I will prevent potential risks at the workplace is creating a risk assessment

where evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or

undertaking. The purpose of creating a risk assessment is to enable the employer to

take the measures necessary for the safety and health protection of workers.

These measures include:

Prevention of occupational risks;

Providing information to workers;

Providing training to workers;

Providing the organisation and means to implement the necessary measures.

Sources PCC/IPSO

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https://www.ipso.co.uk/IPSO/

http://www.pcc.org.uk

https://www.ipso.co.uk/oxbxApps/app/complaint1.html

Intellectual Property/Industrial Property/Copyright

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office

http://www.bauerlegal.co.uk/website-terms.html

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/may/28/the-sun-censured-by-

ipso-for-rod-liddles-discriminatory-columns

Safe Working Practices

http://www.hse.gov.uk/printing/index.htm