Media Law and Ethics is a comprehensive overview and a thoughtful introduction to media law principles and cases as well as related ethical concerns relevant to the practice of professional communication.

1. Ms. Bushra Siddiqui
Assistant Professor
FIMT, New Delhi

3. Mass media have the
Power
to MAKE or UNMAKE
Government

5. What is Law?
 Laws are rules and regulations that have
specific penalties and consequences
when violated.
 Laws have punishments, fines or
associated penalties when people fail to
abide by them.

6. Press Laws
Before Independence

7. Major Media Laws Before
Independence
 First press regulations, 1799
 Gagging act, 1857
 Press and registration of books act,
1867
 Vernacular press act, 1878
 Indian press act, 1910
 Official secret act, 1923

8. Father of Indian Press

9. First Press Regulation,
1799
 13th May 1799, Lord Wellesley.
 In this law it was mandatory for the
newspaper to print Names and
Addresses of Printers, Editors and
Publishers.
 Abolished in 1813 during the
administration of Warren Hastings.

10. Gagging Act, 1857
 This act introduced mandatory
licensing for running or owning a
printing press.
 It allowed the government to ban the
publications or dissemination of
statements or news stories, which had a
tendency to cause hatred.
 Abolished in June 1858.

11. Press and Registration of
Books Act, 1867
 Enacted with a view to evaluate the
present position of Books, Newspapers
and Magazines in the country at any
given time.
 Every copy of a newspaper shall contain
the Names of the owner, Publisher and
Editor printed clearly on all the copies.

12. Vernacular Press Act, 1878
 Enacted on march 1, 1878
 Under this act, British government
exercise more strict control over
publications in the Indian languages
and the way the story is written.

13. Indian Press Act, 1910
 Under this act, owners of presses were
required to tender security deposits.
 These securities were to be forfeited if
they printed any objectionable matter.

14. Official Secret Act, 1923
 It relates to official secrets and deals
with offences like spying and wrongful
communication of secret information.
 Makes any Sketch,
Plan,
Model or
Note
which is intended to be directly or in
directly useful to an enemy.

15. Press Laws
After Independence

17. Major media laws After
independence
 Copyright act, 1957
 Contempt of court, 1971
 Cable television regulation act, 1995

18. Copyright act, 1957
It provides the author with protection against
unfair appropriation of his or her work.
 Literary,
 Dramatic,
 Musical
 Artistic works
 Producers of films
 Sound recordings.

19. Contempt of Court
 Enacted in 1971
 Contempt of court means:
Civil contempt (willful
disobedience to any judgment)
Criminal contempt (Whether
by words, spoken or written or by signs,
or by visible)

20. Cable Television Regulation
Act, 1995
 No person shall operate a cable
television network unless he is
registered as a cable operator.
 No person shall transmit or re-transmit
through a cable service any programme
unless such programme is in conformity
with the prescribed programme code.

21. Media Ethics

23. What is Ethic?
 Ethics are social guidelines based on
moral principles and values.
 Ethics do not have punishments, fines or
associated penalties when people fail to
abide by them.

24. Media Ethics
 Truthfulness
 Accuracy
 Caution against defamatory writing
 Privacy
 Conflicts of interest
 Sensationalism
 Authenticity and appropriateness of
photographs

25. Media Ethics
 Victims of sex crimes- caution against
publication of names or pictures.
 Heading must not be sensational.
 Governing communal disputes.

27. Thank You