Chapter 3 understanding the regulation of the creative media sector

Who are the BBFC?
The British board of film classification is an independent, non-government organisation and responsible for the classification and censorship of films and videos in the UK. They have the power to cut or reject work. They have been around since 1912, and they are funded by the film industry. legal requirements to classify videos, DVD's and, to a minor extent.

The BBFC are not a profit organisation. It is only meant to adjust the fees only to cover the costs. The BBFC never receive subsides from the film industries or even the government. The BBFC income is solely charges  for it's services, by calculating and measuring by running the times of the films or even the DVD's submitted for classification. The BBFC consults the department of culture, media and sport before making any changes to the fees that the BBFC have made.

Before the DVD's are released to the public, they have an examiner who will examine the film to see whether the film is suitable to watch and we'll be suitable and appropriate for the audience to buy and take back home for them to watch. The examiner looks out for these types subjects in the film violence, drugs, sex, racism, swearing, sexual violence etc.

The BBFC had to band one film which was ''Clock work orange'' from the public because the BBFC believed that the film was too inappropriate with all the sexual violence and all the violent scenes it contained in the film. This is what the BBFC had to say about the film "Disturbed though we were by the first half of the film, which is basically a statement of some of the problems of violence, we were, nonetheless, satisfied by the end of the film that it could not be accused of exploitation: quite the contrary, it is a valuable contribution to the whole debate about violence".

Another example would be a Serbian film. This film is banned and is still banned today as there were disturbing scenes such as a man raping a baby and violence while the actors are having sex with each other.Here is a quote from the BBFC on what they had to say ''Recognising that the film was intended as a political allegory which intended - and needed - to shock as part of its overall thesis, the BBFC attempted to construct the cuts carefully so that the message of the film, as well as the meaning of each individual scene, would be preserved.''

Who are Ofcom?
 Ofcom are also a communications regulator in the UK. They regulate the TV industry, radio industry and video's that are on the demands sector which are fixed to line telecoms, mobiles, postal services and the airwaves over wireless devices operators. They make sure that people in the UK are to get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, when they are make ensuring that competition can thrive. They also operate under a number of acts such as the act of communications in 2003. Ofcom also need to work within the powers and the duties set by parliament in legalisation.

This the stuff that they do within the ofcom company:

• They have to make a wide range of electronic communications services, which could include a high speed services such as broadband.
• The do a wide range of high quality television and radio programmes which are provided appealing to a different range of tastes and interests.
• the television and the radio industry services are provided by a range of different organisations.
• People who watch TV and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material.
• People who are protected from being treated unfairly in TV and radio programmes, and from having their privacy invaded by other users.
• People who watch videos on demand are protected from harmful content for example pornographic videos.
• the universal postal services is provided in the UK. What this means is that is is a six day a week, universally priced delivery and collection service across the country.

Here is list of what Ofcom is not aloud to do:

• They are not aloud to dispute between you and your telecoms provider
• Premium rate services, which includes a mobile phone text services and ringtones
• The content of television and radio adverts
• Complaints about accuracy in the BBC programmes
• The BBC TV licence fee
• They are not aloud to post offices or newspapers and magazines.

Here is an example from Ofcom about the complaints about Top gear about the racial language that has been said by Jeremy Clarkson. This happened during a Tv show when the cast were in Burma. the word he said was slope to describe the asian person. this is been called casual racism. Clarkson has been accused of referring to people of different races in pejorative terms.



Here is another example as X factor has attracted most of the ofcom complaints of the year. Ofcom have researched that over 5,975 were complaints about Dannii Minogues about making remarks about Danyl Johnsson. Dannii Minogues made a judgement about Danyl Johnsson about his sexuality.

Understanding the ethical and legal considerations when working in the creative media sector

Understanding the ethical and legal considerations when working in the creative media sector

Why is legal considerations important?
Legal considerations is important because it stops the media industries from selling and producing products on the streets and selling them to the public, which will get the media industries into trouble as they may be disturbing to watch, or they could be illegal to watch. Also it stops the media industries from telling lies about people which aren't true or even saying horrible stuff about them. Which could get the company sued or even shutdown from the stuff they have been producing.

Privacy 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 be left alone'- harassment and data protection

For example News of the world phone hacking scandal

Privacy law refers to the laws that deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals, which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organisations and it's storage and use. Privacy laws are considered in the context of an individuals privacy rights or reasonable expectation of privacy.

In privacy law the person has the right to be left alone. Privacy law are considered to be in the context of an individuals rights or expectations of privacy. It's to ensure broadcasters avoid any infringement of privacy in programmes and in connection with obtaining material included in programmes. Any infringements of privacy must be warranted.

Classification of privacy law

• General privacy laws that have an overall bearing on the personal information of individuals and affect the policies that govern many different areas of information.
• Specific privacy laws that are designed to regulate specific types of information. Some examples include:
  • Communication privacy laws
  • Financial privacy laws
  • Health privacy laws
  • Information privacy laws
  • Online privacy laws
  • Privacy in one's home

The effect this has on the radio: This means that they can't tell listeners peoples full names or any private details they don't want revealed. For example  if a viewer calls in but they don't want their name to be revealed then they can't say it.

The effect this has on TV: This is also basically the same as radio, they can't use peoples full names without their consent. This also means that if they take footage of someone they need to get that persons permission before they air it on television.

Privacy law example:Data protection act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998  is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland which defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK. Although the Act itself does not mention privacy, it was enacted to bring British law into line with the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive, which required member states to protect people's fundamental rights and freedoms and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data. In practice it provides a way for individuals to control information about themselves. Most of the Act does not apply to domestic use, for example keeping a personal address book. Anyone holding personal data for other purposes is legally obliged to comply with this Act, subject to some exemptions. The Act defines eight data protection principles. It also requires companies and individuals to keep personal information to themselves.

Prince of Wales vs Associated newspapers Ltd
The prince of Wales was trying to win the case against Associated newspaper Ltd which is an English legal case brought about when the mail on Sunday published extracts of a dispatched by Charles, the prince of Wales, the heir to the British throne. The extracts published from the dispatch; titled ''The great Chinese takeaway'', wee personally embarrassing to the prince. The dispatch had been written on the flight back from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom from the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, and had been handed out to friends.

Copyright and intellectual property law
Intellectual property is something that is unique to you if 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 having the right type of protection you can stop people stealing or copying:

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

For example Hangover part 2 'tattoo'/ Avatar and William Roger Dean

Protects written works including musical, theatrically and artistic. Also protects films, books, layouts, sound recordings and broadcasting's. Copyright is an automatic right that you don't have to apply for.

The effect this has on radio: They can't play certain music without getting permission from the people that created it.

The effect this has on TV: They can't play music or show clips without getting permission from the people that created it.

Libel law
 Libel law is a method of defamation expressed by print, writing, pictures, signs, effigies, or any communication embodied in physical form that is injurious to a person's reputation, exposes a person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or injures a person in his/her business or profession.

Laws stating that no slander or defamation shall be aimed at one particular individual or group etc. The libel law is a law which states that someone can't give out false information about someone that could potentially  cause them harm. Such as writing a quote that someone said when they didn't actually say that, or portraying someone in a negative way when that wasn't what happened.

British libel laws were already complicated enough before the internet came along. Their aim is to balance the right of free speech against protection for the reputation of an individual from unjustified attack.
In law, a person is defamed if statements in a publication expose him to hatred or ridicule, cause him to be shunned, lower him in the estimation in the minds of "right-thinking" members of society or disparage him in his work.
Juries are told that the measuring stick of a libel being committed is whether any of this would affect how a "reasonable man" views the complainant.
There are defenses in law for libel. The publisher could prove the statement to be true, it could be fair comment - so long as the opinion is based on true facts, is genuinely held and not influenced by malice - or it could be protected by privilege (reporting of comments made in parliament, courts and other official arenas are, generally speaking, protected from libel actions).
Here is an example of Cameron Diaz sued the newspaper ''The Sun'' company for defamation. The reason she sued the company was because they thought she was having an affair with a friend called Shane Nickerson.

Obscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene materials was governed by the common law case of R v Hicklin, which had no exceptions for artistic merit or the public good. During the 1950s, the Society of Authors formed a committee to recommend reform of the existing law, submitting a draft bill to the Home Office in February 1955. After several failed attempts to push a bill through Parliament, a committee finally succeeded in creating a viable bill, which was introduced to Parliament by Roy Jenkins and given the Royal Assent on 29 July 1959, coming into force on 29 August 1959 as the Obscene Publications Act 1959. With the committee consisting of both censors and reformers, the actual reform of the law was limited, with several extensions to police powers included in the final version.

Laws relating to obscene material being published. For example, if a magazine or newspaper published images that were in bad taste, then this would breach the obscene publications act.

Obscene publication example would be the film ''The human centipede'' and ''The Persian film''. The reason that these films are obscene publication is because these films contain very disturbing scenes in The human centipede it has a scene with people's mouth's sewn to people's rear end which put people off as it is a disturbing film and in the other film The Persian film was very disturbing as it had a scene off a man raping a baby as it was just born. This was an illegal film to be sold on the streets as it caused many problems and got the director arrested for an obscene and inappropriate film to watch.

Official Secrets Act 1989 
The Official Secrets Act 1989  is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repeals and replaces section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, thereby removing the public interest defense created by that section.
Lord Bingham said that the white paper "Reform of Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911". June 1988 was the immediate precursor of this Act and that its recommendations bear directly on the interpretation of this Act.

It is illegal to disclose information regarding national security. If a newspaper published a story about the technical capabilities and short comings of England's latest warships. This would then threaten the safety of the country and it's people, and therefore endanger national security.

The Official Secrets Act 1989 makes it 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. There is no public interest defense. 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.

Here is an example of an official secrets act 1989. The Metropolitan police are seeking a court order under the Official Secrets Act to make Guardian reporters disclose their confidential sources about the phone-hacking scandal.

Health and safety act
Health and safety act is important in the media industry because it stops people who work in the media industry from getting hurt or even getting themselves killed. Which may get the company into trouble as the person who got injured could get a lot of money off the company and it could leave the company bankrupt.

An example of what maybe considered reasonably practicable would be if a location filming was taking place in a warehouse with poor lightning. It would be appropriate to ensure that lightning is used and that all sharp or otherwise hazardous is made safe enough to use.

Why is ethical considerations important?
Ethical considerations is important because it is to stop the media by being racist or offensive to people who are a different race, different gender, different religion or people who have problems so for example the media could take the mick out of people who are in wheel chairs, which would be offensive to people who can't walk and have to live in wheel chair for the rest of their lives. That's why it is important for ethical considerations to be in the media industries because it will stop them from paying a fine and also stopping them from getting shut down.Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, 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.

Social issues and sensitivities
Social issues and sensitivities, eg: representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, eg BBC producers’ guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium accessibility standards.

representation of gender
The masculinity and the femininity which is effected and created by social and cultural influences about what it means to be a male or female. Masculinity is another word for maleness, and femininity is another word for females.

representation of religious beliefs
There is a lot of stereotyping of religious beliefs in the media industry. For example television, film, radio, music and games etc. Most of these media industry companies use a lot of racist words and making jokes about people's religions because they are different to other people in this country. For example Quintin Tarantino films has a lot a racist's words about black people and it also has some sexiest moments about women in some films. The film Django has a lot of racists words as it is set in the wild west in the 19th century. In music 50 cent is rapper and uses racists terms and sexiest terms is well in his songs. 

Linguistic usages
Media linguistics is the linguistic study of media speech. It studies the functioning of language in the media sphere, or the modern mass communication presented by print, audio-visual and networked media.
Media linguistics is being formed in the process of differentiation of linguistics as a general theory of language, and its term turned out to be in line with psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, developmental linguistics, legal linguistics, political linguistics, etc.

Modern media linguistics examines not only the language of media, but also media speech. Media linguistics includes such discipline as media speech studies that examines the speech behavior of mass communication participants and specific areas, textures and genres of media texts. Thus, in principle, media linguistics seeks to explain the particular case of the functioning of language in mass communications with its complex structure and diverse trends of change  amid the overall trends of language and speech culture. Media linguistics is closely related to the contemporary media practices and intends to impact on them, in particular, by means of media education.

Not causing harm or offence
The BBC apply generally accepted standards so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion of offensive and harmful material. The BBC use the 9pm television watershed to ensure material that might be unsuitable for children that are under the age limit. They must balance and have protection over the children and young people from unsuitable content with their rights of freedom of expression and freedom to receive information. This may include violence, strong language, sex, nudity, portrayal of alcohol, smoking, drugs etc. This means they have to have a good idea of what could cause the viewers or listeners harm. Lot of the time there are warning if it is something that could cause distress to the viewers.

Television in harm and offence
The primary subjects of research have been children and young people, as they are thought to be most vulnerable to negative influences which may, in turn, affect long-term attitudes or behavior. However, there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that there are also vulnerable groups of adults who may be negatively affected by certain types of media content; for example, people with particular personality disorders.

Radio in harm and offence
Research shows that radio is found to be offensive on occasion by a substantial minority of the audience – particularly in relation to the treatment of callers by presenters, offensive language and racism.

Music in harm and offence
These studies reveal consistent messages in music lyrics that may be considered harmful and are considered offensive by some – including messages promoting violence among boys/men, homophobic messages, or those encouraging early sexuality among young girls/women. Some argue that these are particularly damaging for ethnic minority audiences.

Film, video and DVD in harm and offence
 Public attitudes to film content are, generally, more tolerant than for television. This is partly because the public is aware,and supportive of, current levels of regulation in film, and partly because people understand the decision process behind choosing to watch violent or sexual content. Tolerance is lowest (or offence is greatest) for the portrayal of sexual violence. Studies of audience interpretation of potentially harmful or offensive content in film throw some light on the complex judgement made by the public in this area.

Games
Although research on electronic games is relatively new, it is strongly polarized between the psychological/experimental approach that argues that electronic games have harmful effects, and the cultural/qualitative approach that defends games as merely entertaining, even beneficial on occasions.

Adhering to the professional body codes of practice, e.g. Broadcasters Code, BBC producers’ guidelines

Broadcasters code

There are 10 sections about the broadcasters code. There is:
Section 1: Protecting the under-eighteens
Section 2: Harm and offence
Section 3: Crime
Section 4: Religion
Section 5: Due impartiality and due accuracy and undue prominence of views and opinions.
Section 6: Elections and referendums
Section 7: Fairness
Section 8: Privacy
Section 9: Commercial references in television programming
Section 10: Commercial communications in radio programming

There was a problem in the BBC that the Ofcom company had to charge the company for £150,000. The reason for this is because Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were disrespecting Andrew Sachs about him and his family and saying inappropriate stuff about his grand daughter. The type of sections that would involved with this would be privacy, harm and offence and commercial references in television programming. Jonathan Ross was suspended from the BBC company and did not get paid for 12 weeks as he said mean stuff to Andrew Sachs, and Russell Brand had to resign from his show 'The Russell Brand show' which was aired by BBC 2 radio.

Another problem had happened between James Franco and a girl he met on Instagram. The problem was that she started to speak to her and started to ask her to meet up with him when she was only 17. The section that this will be protecting under-eighteens. The reason for this is because James Franco tried to be in a secret relationship with a 17 year old girl who was under the age limit.

Ofcom is the office of communications. It operates under the communications act 2003 to, and their main duties further the interests of citizens and of consumers. They check that programmes are suitable for viewing and if any complaints were to occur, then Ofcom are people that would investigate into the complaints, so basically they sound like the police.

BBC producers guidelines

The BBC's Producers' Guidelines 

A code of practice is a set of written rules or guidelines which explains how people working in different industries and environment should behave. This means stuff like having to wear a uniform or have to act a certain way towards customers and colleagues. It is issued by a professional body to it's members to help them comply with it's ethical standards.

Audiences rightly expect the highest editorial and ethical standards from the BBC. The BBC's Producers' Guidelines are a public statement of those values and standards and how we expect our programme-makers to achieve them. 

They detail the BBC's approach to the most difficult editorial issues and provide guidance which programme makers at all levels need to be aware of and follow.Inside BBC Journalism features over 40 reports by journalists who reflect on the many challenges they face when aiming to apply the BBC's Producer's Guidelines to reporting and programme making. In each of the five sections of this website – Impartiality, Accuracy and truth, Fairness and privacy, Respect, and Independence - BBC journalists explore the art of reporting. They use concrete examples and real-life situations to explain the difficulties they have encountered; in some cases they offer solutions. The aim of the Producers' Guidelines is to equip journalists and programme-makers to take risks but within the parameters that protect the BBC's global reputation. The Producer's Guidelines apply to all BBC broadcasting, both in Britain and internationally  whatever the medium, be it television, radio or online.