A Comparative Analysis of Media Law and Ethics - Coursework Example

Media Law and Ethics

Media law is one of the legal fields that involve the regulations of telecommunication industry, the entertainment industry, advertising and broadcasting industry, information technology industry, the internet or online services and so forth. On the other hand, media law and ethics is an area of study that deals with the relationships and interactions between the freedom and the legal rights of the media along with the professional responsibilities of the professional in the media. In the past media comprised of live performance and the print media. In the contemporary world, the media has developed to accommodate other new types of media such as televisions, radios, mobile devices among others. All countries in the world have distinctly established laws that regulate the media activities and their professional responsibilities. Here we focus on analyzing the media laws in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and those in the United States of America.

UAE media law provided for the freedom of speech and also freedom of the press to convey information that is authentic. Medea law is categorized into two including the national media law and the federal media law. The law entails the professional media ethics that guides how journalists and other media professional should carry out their activities responsibly. However, the UAE media law includes serious regulations that pose a risk to the media, especially to the social media users. For instance, the UAE penal code makes defamation a serious offense. Defamation involves the publication of another person’s information that shows contempt or public hatred and also making accusations that discredit another person. Moreover, the UAE cybercrime law also prohibits such information. The penal code also criminalizes the exposure of a person’s private information without their consent. Also, UAE penal code (Federal Law No 3 of 1987) makes an offense the act of transmitting a person’s images without their consent especially in the social media. The UAE media law provides for the freedom of the press with various types of limitations (Goldsmith and Posner, 2005).

On the other hand, the United States media law also provides for the freedom of the press and also freedom of expressions. However, the law provides various limitations including defamation, false information, and infringement of personal privacy. This causes the media professionals or the media users in the social media to bear civil liability which the main objective at compensating the injured party. Moreover, the American penal code under chapter 33 categories the computer offenses by the media as computer crimes which are punishable under the criminal law. Also, the American media law classifies the media into two areas. The areas include the print sources including articles, journals, newspapers and so forth and the telecommunication area. Furthermore, American media regulations are divided into the federal regulations and also the state or national regulations also governing the media (Deibert, Palfrey, Rohozinski, Zittrain and OpenNet Initiative, 2010).

In contrast to the American media, UAE press faces various challenges as a result of the strict media law in the country. The media law prevailing in UAE provides punishments to journalists for various violations that are disparaging the government officials, and upon publishing misleading information that negatively affects the economy of the state. However, the draft law that was passed by the Federal National Council on 20th January 2009 seemed to mitigate the previous existing media laws that were extremely harsh to the journalists. The law abolished all the criminal punishments for any violation of the media law taking them under the civil law, and it also reduced the number of infractions that the media organizations were previously held liable (Goldsmith and Posner, 2005).

Furthermore, the law also requires that the government institutions facilitates the flow of information to the media and also provides that the journalist should not be forced to reveal the sources of their information. However, the law also imposes hefty civil penalties for media laws violations with a potential of rendering media companies bankrupt. Defamation laws serve an imperative role in the society. As such the UAE media laws also provided punishments for journalists or media users who publish defamatory information against another. The law prohibits any libel or written defamation and slender or spoken defamation that can harm another person or even business (Deibert et al., 2010).

Defamation cases under the UAE are tried under the criminal law system for instance; in 2011 a court in Dubai fined a famous Emirati TV and radio broadcaster for having defamed a preacher on air. The approach of defamation by UAE is different compared to other countries. In the United States, for instance, there also exist criminal defamations. However, it is very rare for the prosecutors to invoke them often. Instead, the American authorities rely widely on the civil law to control defamation. One of the benefits of decriminalizing the defamatory speech is that it creates a public area where issues can be discussed freely and more openly. Due to the strict nature of the UAE media law, journalists usually fear to cause a criminal libel case, observing the high level of caution that causes them to underreport the news (Deibert et al., 2010).

The UAE prime minister 2011Shaikah Muhammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a CNN interview held in 5th December stated the UAE media has the legal freedom to execute its activities as long as they do not state anything negative about a person. In other words, the media freedom is provided with limitations from the government and therefore denies the media absolute freedom of spreading information. The idea of media reporting information freely with defamation limitations is widely held in the world as one of the journalist professional values. In other countries such as the US however, provide protection to journalist from any harassment so that they can perform their jobs freely. However, they also take punitive measures upon the journalists who infringes on the privacy and reputations of individuals. However, the UAE law does not provide any protection against harassment for the journalists to provide them with a good environment for their work (Goldsmith and Posner, 2005).

The UAE media laws are founded by the Press and Publishing Act of 1980 which may be a possible cause if the immense challenges facing the media and its users in the current times. The law was established in a very distinct media environment before even the coming of the social media and when the country was less developed. The law bears difficult media restrictions on the media freedom that are hard to implement in the current times. For example, Article 76 of the Press and Publishing Act of 1980 prohibit the blemishing of the Islamic, Arab or any other friendly state president. Article 77 of the same Act, on the other hand, prohibits the defamation of all the Arabs together with their civilizations. Article 81 of the Act also prohibits the publication of information that negatively affects the national economy. Therefore reporting on any negative information such the loss of the company finances or a drop in the number of tourists may be illegal. Moreover, the Act also prevents the journalist from defaming a public official or any individual performing public work. That is, a journalist exposing the faults in the government agencies infringes the provision regardless the genuine nature of the information (United Arab Emirates, 1980).

On the other hand, the US media law also provides for media freedom without major restrictions. The law provided for the professional ethics where journalist are required to publish True information and avoid defamatory information that may lead to civil liability. However, the media in the US is not prohibited from faulting even the president or his government and state economy even by way of opinions unlike in the UAE. Freedom of expression and freedom of speech are enshrined in the US media and constitutional laws and thus allowing the people in the social media and the media to communicate freely without limitations. However, the law also prohibits inciting information and defamatory as well as false information that which renders one liable to the affected party (Moore and Murray, 2007).

The First Amendment to the American Constitution prevents the government from curtailing freedom of the press and that of speech. The clause of the free press allows the publications of opinions and other information and also applies various types of media. In the case of Times v United States (1971), the Supreme Court in the US ruled that the first amendment safeguarded the prior censorship and pre-publication censorship almost in all instances. The petition clause shields the prerogative to petition all agencies and branches of the government for action. Apart from the other right of assembly assured by this clause; the court also stated that the amendments also protect the implicit freedom of association. Besides other legislations including the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act also supports the freedom of the media in giving the journalists and other people using the media to communicate freely without revealing the sources of their information as well as provides their opinions (Siegel, 2011).

For the UAE to enhance transparency and increase social, political and economic development, it should consider repealing some of the provision in the operational Press and Publishing Act of 1980. Responsible media freedom is a key factor in the development, and without media freedom, people may be afraid of faulting the government and other authorities in the government even when things are not proper. The US have made tremendous improvement toward allowing freedom of expression and freedom of the speech creating a good environment for journalists to report freely leading to a better society.

In contrast to the American media, UAE press faces various challenges as a result of the strict media law in the country. The media law prevailing in UAE provides punishments to journalists for various violations that are disparaging the government officials, and upon publishing misleading information that negatively affects the economy of the state. However, the draft law that was passed by the Federal National Council on 20th January 2009 seemed to mitigate the previous existing media laws that were extremely harsh to the journalists. The law abolished all the criminal punishments for any violation of the media law taking them under the civil law, and it also reduced the number of infractions that the media organizations were previously held liable (Goldsmith and Posner, 2005).

Furthermore, the law also requires that the government institutions facilitates the flow of information to the media and also provides that the journalist should not be forced to reveal the sources of their information. However, the law also imposes hefty civil penalties for media laws violations with a potential of rendering media companies bankrupt. Defamation laws serve an imperative role in the society. As such the UAE media laws also provided punishments for journalists or media users who publish defamatory information against another. The law prohibits any libel or written defamation and slender or spoken defamation that can harm another person or even business (Deibert et al., 2010).

Defamation cases under the UAE are tried under the criminal law system for instance; in 2011 a court in Dubai fined a famous Emirati TV and radio broadcaster for having defamed a preacher on air. The approach of defamation by UAE is different compared to other countries. In the United States, for instance, there also exist criminal defamations. However, it is very rare for the prosecutors to invoke them often. Instead, the American authorities rely widely on the civil law to control defamation. One of the benefits of decriminalizing the defamatory speech is that it creates a public area where issues can be discussed freely and more openly. Due to the strict nature of the UAE media law, journalists usually fear to cause a criminal libel case, observing the high level of caution that causes them to underreport the news (Deibert et al., 2010).

The UAE prime minister 2011Shaikah Muhammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a CNN interview held in 5th December stated the UAE media has the legal freedom to execute its activities as long as they do not state anything negative about a person. In other words, the media freedom is provided with limitations from the government and therefore denies the media absolute freedom of spreading information. The idea of media reporting information freely with defamation limitations is widely held in the world as one of the journalist professional values. In other countries such as the US however, provide protection to journalist from any harassment so that they can perform their jobs freely. However, they also take punitive measures upon the journalists who infringes on the privacy and reputations of individuals. However, the UAE law does not provide any protection against harassment for the journalists to provide them with a good environment for their work (Goldsmith and Posner, 2005). Read More