Legal and Regulatory Constraints

1. DeclanTyldesley
Legal and Regulatory Constraints
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) has multiplicities of legal and regulatory constraints which
television and radio must comply to so the company or specific television programme is not shut
down.The particularcode commercial broadcastersmustfollow or comply with by Ofcom is named
the;broadcastingcode. The broadcastingcode by the Office of Communications has a total amount
of tensectionstoit such as; SectionTwo:Harm and Offence. Inaddition,despite the fact Ofcom has
ten broadcasting code sections, public service broadcasters do not have to comply to all of these
particular codes as they have their own guidelines. The BBC’s guidelines are the; BBC Editorial
guidelines. The BBC’s guidelines comply with their values and standards on television and radio it
alsostates,‘Theyapplytoall our content,whereverandhoweveritisreceived’. Additionally,bothof
these constraintsdisplayedare usedonradionewsproductiontoprotectthe listener’s tuning into a
certain radio station and hearing aspects they may find offensive. Moreover, some on-going legal
and regulatoryissuesthatare prominentlyfocusedonbythe BBC and Ofcomare; handlingof stories
involving minors, contempt of court, libel and defamation, coverage of elections and the official
secrets act.
Furthermore,Ofcom’sfirstsectiononthe broadcastingcode states;Protectingthe Under-Eighteens.
The principle of thiscode isto ensure thatpeople under-eighteen are protected. Within this aspect
of the broadcastingcode theyshowschedulingandcontentinformationwhichmight offend people
underthe age of eighteenandtheyalsoshow appropriate broadcastingschedules forradio stations.
In reference,toappropriate broadcasting schedules these take into account aspects such as school
timessothere is much less chance of children listening to offensive material broadcasted on radio
particular radio stations. In conduction, I believe when handling stories involving minors radio
broadcasters must take into account even the slightest amount of content which might offend the
youngergenerationwithinthe UnitedKingdom.Aspects,whichmightoffendthe youngergeneration
presently, could be a mention of children’s mental and physical abilities. In addition, the Ofcom
regulations also look out for radio stations broadcasting contempt of court. Therefore, if radio
stationsbroadcastsomethingthatgoesagainsta recentparliamentelection Ofcom have the power
to remove a certain presenter from the radio station as an example. So broadcasters on the other
hand must not broadcast material which will place them in contempt of court. Broadcasters or
licence holders must also be aware of the law on defamation and of what may consume a
defamatorystatement. The law on defamation enables individuals and companies to protect their
reputations.Therefore,if aradio station was purposely talking about someone in an offensive way
the Ofcomregulationsonce againhave a rightto suspendorsack the presenteratwrong. Therefore,
a defamatory statement is treated as libel; a libel is a form of defamation.
In addition, when coveringelectionnewsstories,radionewsproducersneedtofollow certain terms
and conditionssotheywon’tbe affectedinanywaybypresentingthe wrong, harmful or misleading
information. For example, the BBC Radio stations need to support what multiple parties stated
withinthe electionas the BBC radiostationsbroadcastout to everyone inthe UnitedKingdom. They
have to supporteachparty because different people within the UK might support different parties
whether it be the; democrat party the conservative party or the labour party. However, radio
stationssuchas Capital Fm might only support the Labour party as demographically the majority of
their audience support the labour party. I can tell this because the Capital radio station attracts
social classprofiles;C1,D and E followedbythe exceptionof the C2 class.Also,intermsof age range
theiraudience will be varied from young adults to teenagers. To conclude due to these facts some
radio stations may have more flexibility depending thoroughly on their demographic target
audience.The official secretsact consists of sixteen different sections which imply different terms
and conditions. For example, section eight covers ‘safeguarding of information’ whereas; section
eleven covers ‘Arrest, search and trail’. Furthermore, the Official Secrets Act 1989 is an act of the
Parliamentof the UnitedKingdom. Itsjobisto protect more limited classes of information by using

2. DeclanTyldesley
the provisions stated in the act. For example, The Official Secrets Act 1989 protects particular
informationby presentingpitfallsforjournalistswho come upon matters covered by the provisions
of the Act. They are also prominently prudent to check carefully on the nature and status about
current political or crime affairs.
In conclusion, I think it is thoroughly essential for radio news producers to look at these particular
legal andregulatoryconstraintsbecause if theydonot there might be a higher chance of their radio
show being suspended for a certain amount of time from either The Office of Communications or
the BBC Editorial Guidelines.