The scary part! - Law Revision

There is only one week to go before our Law exam and we have just had our final lecture to prepare us! Law is one of the topics I do feel more confident in, however there are a few parts I need to go back over to remind myself exactly what they mean.

• The highest court in the UK is the Supreme Court
• The 3 functions of a Crown Court are: 

1. Hear criminal cases (indictable)
2. Hear appeals
3. 

• 3 functions of a Magistrates Court are: 

1. Summary Offence such as a parking fine (non- indictable)
2. Either way cases (where the case could go to Crown Court- minor drug offence
3. Committal (will go to Crown Court but has to go to the Magistrates first)

• Criminal Offence

This offence is against society as a whole such as a murder.

• Civil Offence

This is a dispute between two people such as a divorce settlement.

• 'Statute Law' is Law that has been in acted in parliament.

Prejudice

This means to pre- judge someone with no direct evidence (racial) which could stop them from having a fair trial.

Contempt

Denying people a fair trial or stopping it from running smoothly.

•  We are unsure when a court case becomes legally active however it is nearly certain a case will become active if it is likely to go to court. When someone is charged a case is active.
• After an arrest is made we can report the name and age with positive identification, the charge, and if bail has been given. Also we can report weather the person is found guilty or not. Note: No identification can be given in murder cases due to jigsaw identification.

Absolute privilege is required for a court report when it is published Fast,Accurate & Fair.

Libel and Defamation

Libel = Publication, Identification and Defamation

A defamatory statement is one that: Damages someones reputation, defames them, causes them to be shunned or avoided, exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt or reduces their chances of getting a job.

Picture Libel is when someones picture is associated with a bad headline even if they aren't anything to do with it.

3 major libel defences are- Justification (it is true) Fair comment (it is your honest opinion based on fact in the public interest) and Qualified privilege.

There are certain occasions when your report would be covered by Qualified privilege these include:

• In court
• In Parliament
• Local government subject to refutation (other persons denial in full covered in the same report)
• Common Law e.g. the cricket club where they are all defamatory to each other
• The UN subject to refutation
• Foreign courts (Germany, France)

Copyright

• Fair dealing means you can take a snippet of someones work to review etc however you need to credit them and make it obvious that it isn't your own.
• NO material even if it is on the Internet is free of copyright as it always belongs to someone.
• The purpose of the copyright law is to promote the work of people. By using the law we give the work protection which prevents other people from using it as their own.

Law of confidence

The things that should be kept secret and not be reported are:

1. State- This means we cant mention the military such as where they are, where they are going as this should remain a secret. Photos are also prohibited.
2. Commercial secrets- This is vital for B2B (business to business) e.g. health, fast food international, GP Magazine, the business secrets remain within.
3. Privacy- Tabloid and Celebrity journalism, Privacy law, Human Rights Act an example of this is the Ryan Giggs story.
4. Confidentiality- People such as doctors are expected to keep your records and state of health private.

Breach of confidence

• The PCC is the Press Complaints Commission who deal with any complaints made towards something published in a newspaper.
• Ofcom deals with any complaints made about anything that has been broadcast on the television. 
• Impartiality means being obviously politically one sided. A newspaper can be either left wing or right wing and express their views freely. On the television it needs to be politically neutral where each party has the same amount of time to speak in general elections etc.

There is a danger zone for journalists when covering elections as they need to remain fair to all parties and cant reveal how the election is going. They need to keep their own views to themselves in order to prevent bias which could cause one party to gain more votes than others.