Legal Considerations

Legal constraints are laws which control the media sector and it is extremely important that producers understand and follow these laws, as it could result in serious fines and even police investigations.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 - It created a new offence when you publish material which is deemed too obscene. It warrants the police to be able to seize such material , however in some cases it is viewed acceptable if it is made for educational purposed.
The first offence was in 1972. When Penguin Books published Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was seen to be too graphic and obscene for readers as it contained sexual scenes. It was therefore banned in England and Wales after the trial.

Official Secrets Act 1989 - This law provides that state secrets, official information or anything related to national security should be protected. It is currently in use in Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, and formerly also in Canada and New Zealand.
A Ministry of Defence official had to appear in court, as he was charged with breaching the official secrets act. He was accused of communicating information which seemed useful to an enemy state. In the act it states that if an official discloses any information, document or article relating to the security of the nation, that official is unlawful and can therefore be charged.

Health and Safety Act - This defined the fundamental structure for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of health, safety and welfare within a workplace. It is obliged that each workspace is regularly assessed for any dangers and then managed to prevent these accidents.
A good example of this would be an incident which happened live on TV. Anthea Turner was struck by a fire explosion as a motorcycle was meant to drive out of the back of a truck. There was a misunderstanding in the timing and communication, and the driver flew out too early. This could have been prevented by doing a risk assessment and find a way in which the reported would have been undamaged.

Copyright and intellectual property law - This gives the creator/author of an original piece of work, the rights on how and who uses their work. Once the creator/author has died however, the Copyright on that piece of work will still last for another 70 years.
Copyright is huge in the Media industry, and often a producer will be incapable of using and idea due to copyright.
An example of copyright infringement would be The Associated Press vs Fairey, in which street artist Shepard Fairey created a poster during Obama's first run for presidential election. In 2009, a photograph, which Fairey allegedly based his design on, was revelaed as a shot by AP freelancer Mannie Garcie. The AP demanded compensation for the use in Fairey's work.
The final outcome was that the artist and the AP split the profits of the work.

Libel Law - This is when false statements are published, which damage a person's reputation. Often these statements are influences by malice, and unless the defence has proof that the statement is true, the case would be won by the "victim".
Daily Mail accused Kiera Knightley of having an eating disorder, they had also claimed that she was responsible of the death of a young girl who suffered from anorexia. This statement could change the way the public and also the industry view her, thus damaging her reputation, which could lead to her not being able to find any more jobs. In the end, Kiera won the case as the Daily Mail didn't have proof for this statement.

Privacy Law - This is the legal right to the protection of your person or private information from being misused or from unauthorized disclosure.
The first celebrity case of Privacy invasion was with Sara Coxs, who filed a lawsuit against The People newspaper, who had printed naked pictures of her whilst she was on her honeymoon. The case happened to be settled outside of the court, so there wasn't a verdict on this case.

Ethical Considerations

Ethics is different to legal constraints. Ethics is about the opinion of the society and what people view as right or wrong, this means that often enough people will disagree with producers, and in a sense, nobody is right or wrong, it all depends on how the individual views the situation.
It is important though, to respect the views of others, and not purposely and solely focus a statement on an individual or group of people.

A good example is when the BBC Radio Show host Jonathan Ross and guest Russell Brand called Andrew Sachs. The left a message on his answering machine where they used strong language and offensive language about Russell Brand having had sex with Andrew Sachs' granddaughter. There was nothing illegal about their actions, however many people were offended and filed complaints to the BBC, others thought the broadcast was funny, it just depends on how individuals see it.

In this scenario, they broke the privacy norm, by releasing personal details about Andrew Sachs' granddaughter and other information regarding her. The producer could have ordered to edit this recording so that all these things were left out, but he decided to keep them in. By doing so he also broke the "protecting children and vulnerable people" norm, as she had no reason to be mentioned and talked about, as well as having all the information about her being released.
This resulted in a suspension of twelve weeks without pay for Jonathan Ross, and the BBC being fined £150,000 from OFCOM.

Another example is when the News of the World had hacked the phone of a girl who had gone missing, Milly Dowlers. They cleared her voice mail and announced to the parents that she was still alive, when in fact, she had died. This is not a criminal offense, but it gave false hopes to the parent of Milly, and many people thought this was wrong and harmful.

Producer Guidelines

OFCOM Broadcasting Code - This code has nine key sections:

• Protection of under 18s
• Harm and Offence
• Crime
• Religion
• Due impartiality
• Elections and referendums
• Fairness
• Privacy
• Commercial references in TV programming

Offence in either one of these sectors can result in fines and job loss. This could affect a producer's future career as it will scar their reputation and make it harder for them to find a job elsewhere.

BBC Editorial Guidelines - This is a longer list, as the BBC is intended for the public:

• Audience are at the heart
• Respect privacy
• Be fair
• Avoid offence
• Protect our audiences from harm
• Trust
• Truth and accuracy
• Impartiality
• Editorial integrity and independence
• Harm and offence
• Serving the public interest
• Fairness
• Privacy
• Children
• Transparency 
• Accountability
• Royal charter

Channel 4 Producers Handbook - Their viewer trust guidelines are:

• Honesty and integrity
• Openness and trust
• Bond of trust
• Duty to our audience
• Programme makers should never stage, construct or re-enact and pass it off as the real thing
• Viewers not to be mislead

They also have a set of nine other sections:

• Factual programme guidelines
• Competition guidelines
• Secret filming guidelines
• Fair dealing guidelines
• Hostile filming guidelines
• Live programme filming
• Producer data protection & security guidelines
• Disclosure and barring service guidelines
• Working and filming with under 18s guidelines