Reporting Elections

Public media has a duty to inform the public about relevant matters during the general election and to inform the public on how to go about voting. Parties and candidates have a right to airtime and to be treated fairly and indiscriminately. The media has to make sure that they give each party an equal amount of airtime to ensure that they come across as impartial.

During elections, special laws exist to protect the democratic process. Not only is there the civil law on libel which need to abided by journalists but there are also criminal penalties which may result from false statements being made about candidates. It is a criminal offence to make or publish a false statement about the character or conduct of an election candidate under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. It is also an offence to publish a false statement that a candidate had withdrawn from the election.

Journalists are not protected by any privileges when reporting what candidates have said about one another. They are still open to being sued for libel and defamation. However journalists are covered by qualified privilege when reporting public meetings and press conferences if it is done accurately and fairly.

It is an offence for anyone but an election candidate to pay the expenses for an election advert. This includes publishing an advert in a newspaper on behalf of a candidate without them being aware of it. Doing such a thing is of course going to disrupt the democratic process and bias the election. Journalists and media organisations are required to remain impartial during the election period in an effort not to bias the election.

Freedom of Information

Under their 31 year old manifesto commitment to give people a legal 'right to know', the Labour Government passed the Freedom of Information act in 2005, giving people the right to access information from public bodies.

There are now approximately 100,000 requests made every year, which costs £34m of tax payers money. This means that the public are paying for this information to be produced by civil servants, and to be disclosed on demand. These bodies are required to publish a schedule of all information, and requests should be responded to in a reasonable amount of time (20 working days). Charges apply if it requires over 4 hours of labour to retrieve information.

130,000 bodies are covered by this act, and out of the 100,000 requests per year, only 12% of these are made by journalist.

Kingsnorth Climate Protest -

In Aug 2008 climate change protesters sat a 4 week climate camp at Kingnorth power station in Kent. It was claimed in the house of commons that 70 were injures, however, when the Liberal Democrats put in a FOI request it was revealed that only 12 were injured, and only 4 out of the 12 need medical treatment.

The BBC published:

'And the then police minister, Vernon Coaker, apologised in the House of Commons for telling parliament that 70 officers were injured dealing with the protests. His comments came after it was revealed that injuries Kent Police claimed during the climate camp included insect stings, toothache and heat exhaustion.'

Although in the case, it was politicians that used the Freedom of Information Act to their advantage, most politicians hate FOI requests as it causes the 'chilling effect'. The FOI Act has resulted in politicians feeling like they can't discuss things openly which could later be revealed in a FOI request.

Politicians hate FOI requests

In his biography, Tony Blair regards the FOI act a bigger mistake than the war in Iraq

Journalists believe we are in the golden age for FOI requests. Before the act was published in 2005, everything was documented. However, because of the 'chilling effect', nothing is now being documented by civil servants.

Matthew Davis-

Matthew Davis makes a living out of FOI requests. He constantly puts in requests for all different bodies, trying to find something interesting to sell to a newspaper. His work includes an FOI request into the NHS worst hospitals based on suing statistics. This is called FOI farming. This is also an effective technique for journalists trying to find stories. In order to farm FOI effectively, it is essential to plan ahead. For example, in the run up to winter it might be advisable to plan a request about the gritting of the roads.

MP's Expenses -

The recent MP's expenses scandal was revealed by an FOI request put in by Heather Brookes. It took just over a year and half to reveal the facts. However, instead of releasing all the facts at once and allowing a bomb to go off, the Government decided to leak them so that they had control over the situation.

How to put in a FOI request -

To put in a FOI request, you need to write to the council's nominated FOI officer. An easier option is to use www.whatdotheyknow.com - a website dedicated to making and browsing FOI requests. The website list all the bodies covered by the act. The latest they can leave it to reply is 20 working days.

If they say no you can take it to internal review, then to an information commissioner, then a information tribunal, and if they still say no to releasing the information it can finally be taken to the High Court.

FOI exemptions -

There are some exemptions to the FOI Act. There are 23 qualified exemptions and these include such things as the Ministry of Defence, national security, and information the government intends to release in the future.

Confidentiality restricts FOI. For example, it would not be possible to make a request for information about a patient's health, as that information is confidential between the patient and the doctor.

Employees that earn under £100,000 per annum are also exempt from requests made about them.

If an FOI request costs too much to process, it will also be exempt.

The only defence available to these exemptions is public interest.

Copyright

The history of copyright has existed since the early C18th, when privileges and monopolies were granted to publishers of books. Copyright law was reformulated in 1988 by the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, which has been until then governed by the Copyright Act 1956. The main amendment of the 1988 Act was that copyright lasts for 70 years after the originator has died.

The purpose of copyright is to protect products of skill, labour or time. Copyright was the reason that journalism flourished, seeing as journalism as a business could not survive without it. An originator can print, publish, perform, film, or record and literary, artistic or musical material and authorise others to do so. When you sell it you surrender all your rights to ownership of that intellectual property. However, undeveloped ideas, brief slogans and catchphrases are an exception to copyright laws, and are not protected. Getting copyright wrong could cost you money, embarrassment, or your reputation.

Breach of infringement of copyright is 'making beneficial use' or exploiting someone else's intellectual work without permission.

When a new film comes out a broadcast company can use the trailer footage for a time window of approx 3 weeks.

Many will know that all the papers normally have the same headline stories. Papers lift each others stories and have done for years. Rules of fair dealing allow stories to be lifted up to a point.

Fair Dealing

We can lift the thrust of stories and quotes from rivals for the purpose of 'reporting current events'. Anything lifted must be attributed, be in the public interest and the usage must be fair. Newspapers regularly have the same stories, however normal they each take a different angle on the story than their rival.

We can also use short clips (about 3 secs) for reviewing purposes, however this is not a definite rule in fair dealing. Recently, on WINOL, we interviewed Chesney Hawkes. We wanted to use a short clip from his music video for song 'The One and Only'. To do that without gaining copyright authority, we had to use to clip for purpose of review. This meant that the presenter was required to talk over the clip, commenting on it.
Broadcast news obituaries of film stars can use famous movie clips for free

Fair dealing allows for wider reporting of stories in public interest, and criticism and review of copyright material.

Photographers are unable to take advantage of fair dealing, as it does not apply to them.

Creative Commons

Although photographers or journalists cannot lift other peoples photographs through fair dealing, there is creative commons. Creative commons issues no charge for the use of pictures, however only insists that the original photographer and their website are credited with the publication of the photograph.

DANGER AREAS
The internet - youtube, facebook etc (use book)
Sports coverage - News access rights
Photographs and film archive

Points to remember
Recognise copyright issue early
Contacting rights holders takes time
Tell others if you have copyright cleared
Don't lift material without referencing up