How International Journalism and Media Laws Differ from the Legal Systems in England and Wales - Case Study Example

Compare the media law of England and Wales with a European country Grade 12th April, Media law of England and Wales. Introduction Media laws vary from country to country, and the context or circumstances, in which, they are set or applied. Laws covering the media, the underage or even the criminals vary depending on the context (Merrill, 1998, 1). Laws of privacy or defamation are put in place, to govern the media from invading a person’s privacy, or defaming them by publishing information about them. England and Wales laws differ with other European countries like Italy and Australia, depending on privacy and defamation laws governing the media, as well as regarding the age of criminal responsibility. For example, the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 8, 14 in Italy, 18 in Belgium, and 16 in Spain. This paper will critically analyse how the international journalism and media laws differ from the legal systems in England and Wales, using case studies. The media laws The freedom of speech should be provided to the media, yet, the people have rights which need to be protected; the exact opposite of the media’s rights (Banks and Hanna, 2009, 2). France has been lagging behind in the freedom of the media, it being the last European country to launch the use of television, UK being the first, followed by Italy, then Germany (Katisrea, 2008, 13). In France, broadcasting until 1982, was a state monopoly, controlled by the minister of information and culture, and this ushered in a lot of manipulation from the government (Katsirea, 2008, 19). A law passed in 1982 is what brought about the abolishment of state monopoly in broadcasting. In Greece, the media law prohibits advertising children’s toys between 7am and 10 pm. NCRTV is the only independent authority governing the media in Greece. The media law prohibits any display of violence when broadcasting, unless it is necessary aiming at educating the public about an occurrence (Katisrea, 2008, 20). Comparing the defamation law in England and Wales with Defamation law in France Privacy and defamation laws are used when trying to protect information from leaking to the public through the media. Defamation is an action which is civil, and which allows a victim of harm through publication of materials, word or any other means, to sue the responsible party (Banks and Hanna, 2009, 305). The aim of the laws of defamation is to strike a balance between promoting freedom of speech, and that of protection (Quinn, 2009, 183). The injunctions and super injunctions applied by England’s and Wales’s legal system to protect people from having their information published in the media, are not applied in all European countries, yet, some countries like France have adopted the trend and privacy is incredibly common. The case of Ryan Giggs injunction on Imogen of Big Brother and against the Sun Newspaper is an indication of England and Wales’s regulations on media laws. Ryan Giggs managed to get an injunction in April 2011 against the Sun newspaper mentioning his name as the person involved in the sex scandal with Imogen Thomas (BBC, 2012). The privacy cases arise from the 1998 Human Right Act, which gives people the right to protection (Quinn, 2009, 251). Injunctions are issued giving rights to them being known, yet the presence of super injunctions is not supposed to be known. Francois Mitterrand’s physician, Claude Gubler, published book in 1996, two weeks after his death revealing his last secret. Mitterrand had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer in 1981, and not in 1992. The family obtained a temporary injunction against the selling of the book, after 40, 000 copies of the final secret had been sold. The injunction was aimed at preventing the selling of the books or even the publishing of the book by the media houses and news papers (Tiersky, 2003, 220). In France when Mitterrand was the president, the media was gagged lot and its freedom restrained. This is evidenced by the fact that he gagged the media from 1983 to 1994 from publishing a story about his affair with Anne Pingeot. It took fourteen years before the story could be published or run by any media house, until it was published by the Paris-Match in November 1994, showing pictures of Mazarine, their daughter, and Anne Pingeot. This publishing was authorized by Mitterrand himself. An investigating judge in 1994 revealed that Mitterrand had tapped over 2,000 telephones belonging to journalists, lawyers, actors and even ordinary people in order to protect his private life (Tiersky, 2003, 224). Since the year 1970, France has had a privacy law giving every person the right to privacy and for respect. It comes with serious penalties for people found interfering and intruding in other people’s privacy. The penalties range from damages to 1 year jail term. French laws have been consistent on people’s privacy, and this law have been use to protect the rich, unlike English and Wales liberal laws Cecilia Sarkozy request for an injunction against the sale of a book titled Cecilia, and published by Flammarion, which she is quoted to have called Nicolas Sarkozy a womanaiser, was rejected by the judge who claimed that since several copies of the book had already been sold, it would be pointless to issue an injunction since the information in the book had already leaked to the public. Cecilia Sarkozy, the French president’s former wife, was seeking the injunction on the grounds that it was going to invade her privacy, which was against her right to privacy, as provided by the French constitution since 1970. In the book, Cecilia is said to have been saying that Sarkozy is a man who loves no one, even his children (Litchfield, 2008). Some European countries like Italy have laws governing the internet. In 2006, Italy sued Google for running a video of an autistic student being bullied by the fellow schoolmates on YouTube. Four executives were cleared of criminal defamation charges but, were found at fault of breaching Italian privacy laws. However, the European Union has directives aimed at promoting growth on the internet. If passing such a ruling violates the European Union guidelines, then these countries are bound and crippled from making independent decisions (Quinn, 2009, 360). Levenson Inquiry in England investigates the role of the police and the press, in a phone hacking scandal. The inquiry looks at ethics, culture and practices of the media. Its establishment is based on the Inquiries Act 2005, and it has the power and authority to summon witnesses (BBC, 2011). Lord Justice Levenson made an order preventing any publication of witness statements given to the inquiry, prior to being turned into evidence. This order is aimed at protecting witnesses who give information under oath from the media, although, the hearings are open to the public. The French President Sarkozy seeks to expand the law against child pornography sites to cover terrorism, hate and violence sites. The law if implemented will constrain the internet use in France. France, however, has never been known to withhold any broadcasting station’s license because of the adverse economic repercussions, as is the case in England and Wales. Caroline Spelman’s son took banned steroids after sustaining an injury, and an injunction was made to prevent the Daily star Sunday newspaper from publishing the story (BBC 2012). Spelman dropped the injunction when the judge ruled in favour of the public’s right to know and the press freedom. Despite the gagging court orders, England and Wales still value the right to know, and press freedom as illustrated in Spelman son’s case. In 2004, Martha Green filed a case seeking an injunction against Associated Newspaper Ltd barring it from publishing a story about her alleged links and Peter Foster, who was a fraudster convicted by then. Greene won an injunction against defamation according to Human Rights Act 1998 (Wadham, 2007, 250). Issuing injunctions gags the press freedom, and it hangs between granting the media its freedom, and granting the public the right to privacy. According to the Sun newspaper, another footballer Wayne Rooney had also got an injunction against the Sun Newspaper from having his name published as the married footballer in an affair with Helen Wood (Moriarty, 2011). Rooney injunction was on the grounds that mentioning him was going to invade his privacy. This led to the press watchdogs calling for reforms of the human rights in order to stop the judges from issuing the injunctions which gag the media. Conclusion England and Wales have an independent legal system governing the media, and so does France. All the European countries like Italy can make decisions basing on the laws governing the media, but these laws cannot be universally applied all over Europe. However, all the independent laws made regarding the media are required to follow the European Union’s guidelines (Banks and Hanna, 2009, 23). As long as a county is a member of the European Union, it can be sued by other member countries to the European Union, in case it passes legislations not agreeing with the EU guidelines and requirements (Nikolinakos, 2006, 580). Injunctions and Super injunctions, which are incredibly common in England and Wales and France, act as a tool for protecting people’s rights to privacy and against defamation, yet at the same time, they inhibit the media freedom by gagging the media, and denying the public the right to information. References Banks, D. and Hanna, M., 2009. McNae’s Essential law for journalists. 20th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/McNaes-Essential- Journalists-David-Banks/dp/0199556458#reader_0199556458 BBC, 2011. Phone- hacking inquiry: Draft terms of reference.[online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14141365 [Accessed on 10 April 2012]. BBC, 2011. Strauss- Kahn: what went right and wrong? [Online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14637807 [Accessed 23rd Aug 2011]. BBC, 2012. Caroline Spelman’s son took drugs after sports injury. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17233866. [Accessed 2 March 2012]. BBC, 2012. Ryan Giggs loses Damages claim against the Sun.[online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17230443 [Accessed 26 March, 2012]. Katsirea, I., 2008. Public broadcasting and European law: a comparative examination of public service obligations in six member countries. 1st ed. The Netherlands: Kluwer law international. Available at: http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Q8vT8ZVkhX0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs _ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Lichfield, J., 2008. Sarkozy is mean, cold and a serial womanaiser, says ex- wife Cecilia. The Independent, [Online] 11 Jan. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sarkozy-is-mean-cold-and-a-serial- womaniser-says-exwife-ccilia-769447.html Merrill, J., 1998. Global Journalism: A survey of international communication. 1st ed. London: Allyn and Bacon. Available at: http://ejournalist.com.au/v1n2/cass.pdf Moriarty, R., 2011. Give yourself up. The Sun, [Online] 26 May. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3601320/Wayne-Rooney-hooker-Helen- Wood-urges-actor-who-gagged-Sun-to-come-clean-over-romp.html[Accessed on 26 March 2012]. Nikolinakos, N., 2006. EU competition law and regulation in the converging Telecommunications, media and IT sectors. 1st ed. The Netherlands: Kluwer Law international. Available at: http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=KGDG- kzt5VYC&pg=PA580&lpg=PA580&dq=Nikolinakos,+N.,+2006.+EU+competition+law +and+regulation+in+the+converging+%09Telecommunications,+media+and+IT+sectors. &source=bl&ots=vPKVV7jRXv&sig=MC7NItfVqnCruilQQ5r05NzRQnM&hl=sw&sa= X&ei=XqKGT8XIOaGf0QXXvMipBw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Quinn, F., 2009. Law for journalists. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education Ltd. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Law-Journalists-Frances- Quinn/dp/1408204703#reader_1408204703 Tiersky, R., 2003. Francois Mitterrand: A very French President. 1st ed. Boston: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Available at: http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=LiHLZQ6XtzEC&pg=PA407&lpg=PA407&dq=Tier sky,+R.,+2003.+Francois+Mitterrand:+A+very+French+President.&source=bl&ots=ScrP jp55f4&sig=GnqJx2XdF9JnF_vCqRFGU1iGe0I&hl=sw&sa=X&ei=CqCGT9naCerU0Q XfvbXBBw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false Wadham, J., 2007. Blackstone’s guide to the human rights Act 1998. 4th ed. London: Oxford University Press. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackstones-Guide-Human- Rights- 1998/dp/0199299579#reader_0199299579 Read More