Media Law: Week 2

So, the second week of Media Law started to expand on a lot of the teaching points that were made in the first week to a much greater extend and became much more in-depth. The subjects covered in this weeks lesson ranged from The Risks of Prejudice and what can and can't be used in an article depending on how far along a court case is, all the way through to which parts of the court have the authority to distribute out different punishments and deal with which kinds of cases.

For the most part of the first hour of the lesson, we were working on an exercise that proved to be quite interesting, as we were working on writing a newspaper article about a fictional robbery incident. We were first asked to write out an article using as much information about the incident as we liked, so it was good to see the different creative ways people phrased their articles, but it was also interesting to see how much information you can use comparing between before and after a case gets taken into a court. This is mostly due to the fact that anything that was said before or happened before a case enters the courts is information on the incident, but after the incident enters a court that information is considered evidence and can no longer be used in print.

To start with, my own version of the article read as follows:
"Mrs Ivy Jones, 62, never expected to be held at gunpoint when she went into work at her Cross Stores post office shop in Kings Somborne, Winchester, this Thursday. But, at 10am, that's exactly what happened. By a man wearing a Batman mask.
Det. Insp. John Evans is leading the case in finding the masked robber and his sidekick who escaped with £4,090 from the shop, but only after shooting Ivy and her husband John's dog Millie.
Police say that the masked thief and his accomplice escaped in a Silver Mondeo with the money after forcing Mr and Mrs Jones into a cupboard, leaving them shocked, shaken, but thankfully unharmed. Police urge people to not approach the men, as they are considered armed and dangerous."

At this point, everything is fine because all the details used are true and there is no chance of any occurring prejudice. This also means that the more details that get released about the incident, the higher chance there is that there is a certain amount of incorrect facts, or facts that will then change, or prejudice.

However, as events progress, there is less information that you are allowed to have in the article. For instance, if the robbers were to be charged with the crimes they committed, certain information is then considered evidence and only the absolute facts of the situation (i.e. names, dates, places or the Who, When, Where of the incident) will be allowed into print. Therefore, the article changes as such:

"A man has been charged with armed robbery today, and another has been charged with conspiracy. The two men were involved in a robbery this morning that left Ivy and John Jones shaken and their dog Millie dead. The men escaped wearing Batman masks, with £4,090 in cash."

You'll notice that certain phrasings and facts change to reflect the current situation. Now, there can be nor elaboration of facts, no accusations of any kind, and the situation is treated with somewhat more integrity than before, as it has now become a serious court case.

The subject of the trial will be the main points of the news story (again, this brings us back to the Who, What, Where facts). The main body of the news story would act as evidence in a trial, and therefore can't be used since they have been charged and taken into trial. So therefore, you would need to think of the following before writing a new article:
--> What material will be UNCONTESTED in court?
--> Sometimes, things will lend themselves to journalistic cliches, and this is down to a narrow amount of usable information.
-->By the time it reaches court, there is only a certain amount of information that can actually be used, and this is the undeniable facts of the case.

When a case becomes legally active, it is restricting on what you can put in an article. To know this, it is useful to know when a case becomes legally active. This happens when:
--> Police make an arrest.
--> there is an issue of an arrest warrant.
--> Magistrates issue a summon.
--> someone is charged with the crime.

What can then be printed or said will change between what tabloids are reporting, so the coverage of any court case will differ from outlet to outlet depending on which aspects each tabloid is most likely to report on. So, for instance, The Times might report on the fact that it was an elderly couple that got robbed, where as The Sun might report on the fact that the men robbed them in Batman masks. The focus of the article is dependant on the style of the outlet.

In cases where there is a detention without charge, things tend to change. The rules for detention without charge is that:
--> Police normally have 24 hours to question the suspect.
--> this can be extended by 12 hours by a senior officer if there is suspicion of withheld information.
--> a further 36 hours can be given if Magistrates agree.
--> but times of detention CANNOT exceed 96 hours.
--> A terror suspects limit of detention, however, is 28 days.
--> Police bail is a short term, paid release to which the suspect returns later to face court charges.

Another interesting point of any trial is which categories of offence they fall into (which, by the way, can also be an undeniable fact of the case unless they decide it should be changed):
--> Indictable-only: can result in possibly 5 or more years
--> Either-way: usually in charges involving assault, these cases can go to Magistrates or even Crown court.
--> Summary: Not too huge of a sentence, and will mostly stay with Magistrates.

The powers of the Magistrates courts are varied, but consist mainly of the following:
--> 6 months in jail and fines upto £5000.
--> Suspended sentences.
--> Community Orders.
--> Binding Over - an order to keep the peace and be on good behaviour or there is a penalty fine.
--> ASBO's - or Anti-Social Behavioural Order.

So this leaves us with the questions of exactly what we CAN use in an article by this point. Well, the information that is most useful in a article that can tell readers the most about the case (that you CAN print) consists of information from the pre-trial reports. This can include a number of things, such as:
--> Names of defendants, ages, occupations, etc.
--> The charges they are faced with or a close summary of them.
--> Name of the court and the Magistrates leading the trial.
--> Names of the solicitors or barristers present at the case.
-->Date and place to where the case is adjourned.
You will notice that all of these are the undeniable facts of the case, which means there is very little to no speculation over the proceedings, which keeps journalists away from printing anything that can be read as prejudice.

Certain cases can last for weeks or even months at a time, which means that sometimes journalists have to pick which days are going to be the best to get coverage of the trial in order to get the most information from the trial. One way of keeping up to date with what is happening with the trial proceedings is to keep in contact with someone on the prosecuting team. This way, you are able to get information about which days will be the most useful to get coverage of and which ones won't be. Different stages of the trial will be more useful than others as well. The key stages of any trial are:
--> Prosecution Opening.
--> Key prosecution witness.
--> Defence Opening.
--> Key defence witness.
--> Judges summoning up.
--> Jury sent out, deliberation and verdict.
--> Sentencing.
It will obviously be useful to cover certain stages more than others as there will be stages of the trail that give more information on the case than others, so it's useful to know which stages are likely to give you the information you're looking for depending on what your kind of coverage is.

There are rules that must be stricly followed for reporting from court. Some of these may seem like common sense, but a couple are things you might not think of straight away that can have serious consequences. Some of these rules are:
--> FAIRNESS in the coverage. This means giving an unbiased report of the proceedings and not bending any truths to suit the style of your article.
--> ACCURATE representation of what is happening during proceedings. If something happens during the trial that you put into an article, make sure it actually happened the way you remember it!
--> CONTEMPORANEOUS - it goes without saying really that anything you report on from the case should be reported as soon as possible. You can't report on one days events 2 weeks from that day (for one thing, by that point it would be old news anyway and something more interesting might have occured!), so make sure everything is as up-tp-date as possible.
--> NO ELECTRONIC RECORDING! Any electronic recording of any kind in a court case is not allowed, and if it is found out that you have you are held in contempt of court and can face upto 10 years in prison. Recording of a case is considered evidence of the trial, and removal of that from the court is removal of evidence, which is highly illegal.

With cases involving Children or Young people, certain new rules apply. For instance, anyone is legally juvenile until they are 18 and Under-18's have the priveledge of anonymity during a case - so beware of accidental identification, as that can lead you into even more trouble!

Also, it is not just Young people that can be given ASBOs - they apply to people of any and ALL ages! ASBOs have only been introduced within the last 10 years, but it already seems like they are on a downtrend as it is now the "done thing" amongst certain groups of people to be given an ASBO. A "badge of honour", as some might call it. An ASBO is a Civil Order from a Magistrates Court to appear for court charges, and they are designed to prevent repeated behaviour of harrasment or disturbing the peace. All of this can also include exclusions from certain areas or places (i.e. shops, clubs, parks, streets...) and can even incur curfew orders as well.

And that wraps up Week 2 of the Media Law module. I'll blog again next week when we discuss Defamation and Libel, which should prove to be very useful to all areas of journalism!