The document summarizes several key laws that constrain the media in the UK: The Race Relations Act of 1976 prohibits discrimination and stereotypical portrayals of race in TV productions unless necessary for the story. The Human Rights Act of 1998 codified protections from the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, allowing individuals to pursue human rights cases in domestic courts. The Licensing Act of 2003 established a single licensing system for premises selling alcohol, providing entertainment, or late night refreshment.

1. Legal Constrains in the media
Race Relations Act 1976
The Race Relations Act of 1976 started off with the fact of all different backgrounds of people being
given the same rights and equal power towards everything. Saying this it means that within a TV
production the management team can't show discrimination against any kind of race, or show a
stereotypical view of that race or culture, unless it’s necessary to the story line.
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 (also known as the Act or the HRA) came into force in the United
Kingdom in October 2000. It is composed of a series of sections that have the effect of codifying the
protections in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
All public bodies (such as courts, police, local governments, hospitals, publicly funded schools, and
others) and other bodies carrying out public functions have to comply with the Convention rights.
This means, among other things, that individual can take human rights cases in domestic courts; they
no longer have to go to Strasbourg to argue their case in the European Court of Human Rights.
Licensing Act 2003
The Licensing Act 2003 came into effect in November 2005. It established a single system for
licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, providing regulated
entertainment or late night refreshment.
Subject to qualifying conditions, and exemptions, the definitions are contained within the Schedule 1
of the Act and are:
A performance of a play
An exhibition of a film
An indoor sporting event
A boxing or wrestling entertainment (indoors or outdoors)
A performance of live music
Any playing of recorded music
A performance of a dance
Entertainment of similar description to that falling within the performance of live music, any playing
of recorded music and the performance of dance
Where the entertainment takes place in the presence of an audience and is provided for the
purpose, or for purposes which include, entertaining that audience. This reference to an 'audience'
also includes 'spectators'.

2. Privacy Law
It regulates the way agencies can collect, store and use information, and gives us rights of access to
it. It also creates a complaints regime. Broadly speaking, agencies that come under the Act usually
have to tell you when they’re collecting information about you keep it secure, try to make sure it’s
right, and only use or disclose it for the reasons it was collected.
Copyright & Intellectual Property Law
Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of
intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works, words, phrases, symbols, and designs.
Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial
music without the right from the owner.
Libel Law
Libel is published defamation of character, as opposed to spoken defamation of character, which is
then slander. Libel is when the defamation is written down, which includes email, bulletin boards,
websites e.g.: social media sites. Which can then be taken to court as evidence. An example of this
is when the Comedian Frankie Boyle won £54,650 in damages after he took the Daily Mirror to court
after they had libelled him by describing him as ‘racist’.
Obscene Publication Act
This act made it illegal to publish any form of work which is obscene; this was then extended to
include films and videos in 1977. An example of this act is David Britton’s ‘Lord Horror’ which was
banned under the act, but then later overturned.
Broadcasting Act
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, often regarded by both its supporters
and its critics as a quintessential example of Thatcherism. The aim of the Act was to reform the
entire structure of British broadcasting; British television, in particular, had earlier been described by
Margaret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices". It led directly to the abolition of the
Independent Broadcasting Authority and its replacement with the Independent Television
Commission and Radio Authority (both themselves now replaced by Ofcom), which were given the
remit of regulating with a "lighter touch" and did not have such strong powers as the IBA; some
referred to this as "deregulation"