Legal and Regulatory Constraints

There are a lot of guidelines when broadcasting on radio shows when using the OFCOM broadcasting code and the BBC Editorial-

Stories involving Minors:
 Broadcasters must take all reasonable steps to protect people under the age of eighteen, Radio Broadcasters must have particular regard to time when children are most likely to be listening to their show. When the broadcaster is handling a story involving a minor (under 18's), but according to the BBC this is people under the age of 15 years, they would have to organize their schedule appropriately. When they're scheduling they should consider the nature of the content, the likely number and age range of the audience, the start time and finish time of the programme, taking into account school times, weekends and holidays and the nature of the channel or station. They shouldn't speak about specific subjects and have to be careful if they are some of these are drugs, solvents,alcohol , violence and dangerous behavior. These subjects generally have to be avoided and in any case must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorized in programmes likely to be heard by under eighteens unless there is editorial justification. The broadcaster also has to avoid using offensive language and sexual material, but there is some exceptional circumstances when using offensive language.
An example of this is the 'Rochdale paedophile grooming gang' some of the victims were never named in the press as they were under the age of 18 and they were trying to protect her.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9253250/Rochdale-grooming-trial-Police-accused-of-failing-to-investigate-paedophile-gang-for-fear-of-appearing-racist.html

Contempt of Court:
 This bans the Media from broadcasting comments or information that can create a risk to a serious ongoing court case. This is a criminal offence and carries serious penalties such as an unlimited fine and/or two years imprisonment. There is a variety of different ways which is classed as 'getting involved' with a ongoing court case these include obtaining or publishing details of Jury deliberations, reporting restrictions of a court order, making payments to witnesses, filming or recording inside the court building without permission and publishing information from confidential court documents.
An example of this is when the daily mirror and the daily mail, over their coverage of Levi Bellfield's conviction for the abduction and murder of Milly Dowler, they ended up with fines of £10,000 and legal costs of £25,000. Another example of this with the same news paper is from July 2011 when the daily mirror was fined £50,000 and £18,000 respectively for publishing articles about Christopher Jefferies, who was mistakenly arrested for the murder of Joanna Yates.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/nov/29/contempt-of-court-newspapers

Libel and Defamation:
'Libel is a published/ recorded false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.'
'Defamation is a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual'
Reporters aren't allowed to broadcast false accusations about people that can damage a persons reputation. If this happens the person who started the 'rumor' can be sued by the person who's reputation has been damaged.
For example Tom Cruise suing reporters for saying lies about his relationship and family. His lawyer are trying to force Bauer publishing group to disclose any sources to do with the headlines and stories that have been published. His lawyer sent two letters telling the publisher that the headlines are false and demanding them to take them down, but he refused to, so Cruise is suing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2488188/Tom-Cruise-says-wonderful-relationship-Suri-defends-parenting-skills-lawsuit.html

Coverage of Elections: 
Of com guidelines state that broadcasters aren't allowed to be bias when publishing about elections. An example of this is when A bitter battles broke out between senior Cabinet ministers and the BBC, with claims that the corporation is "biased" and "too close to Labour." The BBC is known as not being biased so the audience would most likely listen to what they have to say about each party.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9890162/Conservatives-go-to-war-on-bias-at-the-BBC.html

Official Secrets Act:
This is a short title used in a variety of different states which provides protection of state secrets and offical information, this is mainly related to the national security.
For example 'Vindictive met uses official secrets Act to force paper to reveal source on hacking stories.' Scotland Yards were seeking an order under this act to make the guiardian newpaper close the confidential sources of its reports on the 'News of the world phone hacking scandal.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038406/Met-uses-Official-Secrets-Act-force-Guardian-reveal-source-hacking-stories.html

Ethics And News Values

Introduction

In this blog I will be looking into legal and reglatory constraints in radio news production. I will also look at the ethics and news values when producing radio news.