Legal & ethical issues

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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