Defamation involves communicating false information about a person to harm their reputation. Journalists must be careful not to publish untrue claims due to personal biases. Copyright law protects creators' ownership over their work and prevents others from stealing and claiming it as their own. Journalists are given guidelines for handling stories about children to prevent exploitation, such as not interviewing or photographing them at school without permission. Confidentiality restrictions apply to protecting sensitive sources from potential risks if their identity is revealed.

1. Legal
Defamation
Defamation is very similar to libel. Defamation means to communicate false information about a person or
people that could harm their reputation.
Some journalists may be inclined to publish false information about a certain person or group of people because
of their own bias or prejudice. They may want to encourage their readers to share their views.
Magazines and newspapers usually produce stories that agree with their political views. Journalists may want to
tell a story in a way that agrees with their views. They may end up giving false information in order to make their
story match with their own views.
Earlier this year, Scarlett Johansson won a case agains French writer Grégoire Delacourt. He had used her for
a character in his book. In the book her character had multiple affairs. Johansson claimed that her name had
been exploited, and her reputation could be damaged.

2. Copyright
Copyright is the law that protects work from being stolen and claimed as someone else's other than the
creators. Copyright gives the creator of a piece of work exclusive rights to their work.
Journalists are bound by law to only publish their own work, and to not steal the work of others publishing it as
their own. In some cases clearly referencing where they got their information can prevent copyright
infringement.
Copyright can be damaging to the creator of the original work. It can result in huge losses of money for them as
consumers purchase the work from somebody else. It can also cause the original creator to lose respect from
the consumer as they are being lead to believe someone else is the original creator.
As well as being damaging to the original creator, it can be damaging to the journalist.Copyright infringement
can result in huge fines, and so should be taken very seriously by all journalists. Being found guilty of copyright
infringement can be detrimental to a journalist. They may lose the trust of the consumer and could lose their job.
In September of this year there was a dispute between the BBC and collecting society Eos over how much the
BBC should pay to be allowed to broadcast the Welsh-language music. Eos said the fee should be £1.5 million,
though the BBC argued that it should only be £100,000.

3. Children and Young Persons
Journalists are given very clear guidelines on the way in which journalists must handle stories about children.
These rules are put in place to prevent children from being harassed exploited by journalists.
One of the rules put in place is that journalists must not interfere with children at school. Meaning that they cannot
approach a child to speak to them or to take their photograph while they are at school. This is unless the school
gives consent to it. This is to protect children from being harassed by journalists.
The second rule states that children under 16 cannot be interviewed on their welfare or that of another child,
unless consent is given by a responsible adult. Children must also not be funded for giving information on the
welfare or that of another child. By giving a child money in exchange for information could be seen as exploiting
that child.
These rules can be found in the Editors Code of Practice.

4. Confidentiality
Confidentiality is a set of rules put in place that restricts access to certain information.
Journalists will sometimes be speaking to people who could be at risk if their name or any information about
them were to be published. They could be at risk of arrest, or attack from another member of the public.
Journalists have a duty to protect all of their sources who may be at risk. They have the right to keep the
names and other information about their sources confidential.
Official Secrets
Official secrets are secrets regarding the government, the military or MI5. Official secrets are protected under
the Official Secrets Act. The Official Secrets Act was put in place to prevent people from speaking about
matters to do with the government, the military or MI5 that aren't in the interest of the public. It has also been
used to force journalists to reveal their sources if they think that it is in the interest of the public.
In some cases a journalist will have to sign a contract to the Official Secrets Act before and after their
employment, preventing them from publishing particular information. Journalists must make sure to abide by
these rules. I Journalists who do not abide by these rules could face prison.
Back in 2002, David Shayler, a former MI5 officer was convicted of disclosing secret information to a national
newspaper. He then faced six months in prison for it.

5. Ethical
Codes of practice
The National Union of Journalists have
guidelines put in place so that journalists
know how to work as ethically as possible.
These guidelines are the codes of practice.
This includes 12 rules that are not legally
binding, however are recommended to
journalists to work by.
To the right, you can see these 12 rules.
They can be found on the national union of
journalists website.
These rules are often used to protect the
certain social groups or individuals from
harm that could be caused by a journalist
who promotes hate or lies. It prevents the
public from being deceived by journalists. It
also protects children.

6. Privacy
Everybody is entitled to privacy, and journalists must always abide by that right. It is important to not publish
information that could be regarded as being private as it could possibly be damaging to the person. It may result in
the arrest of the journalist, or a fine, depending on the circumstances.
There was a case a while ago involving some paparazzi and Kate Middleton. The paparazzi took photographs of h
er topless of a private beach while on holiday. The photographs were published in a French magazine, though
Kate and William won a court order that banned the magazine from selling or republishing the photographs, with
risk of a 100,000 euro fine. The court called this case a brutal invasion of privacy.
A journalist may publish something about someone’s private life that could be seen as in the public interest. The pu
blic interest meaning that it could be damaging to the public to not be informed. This could be that an
individual or group of people are being deceiving to the public.
Intrusion
Intrusion is referring to someone being present when they are not wanted. It is intrusive for journalists to pry into s
omeone’s private life, or perhaps to be on someone’s property when not invited. Journalists must always
consider whether they are being intrusive into someone’s life.
A journalist may want to intrude on someone’s life in order to get the opportunity to ask them for information. The j
ournalist may know that the person would disagree to speaking to them in person, so the journalist may see
intrusion as the only way to get information on a story.
The example case I gave before about Kate Middleton and the paparazzi is a good example of where someone ha
s been extremely intrusive. Kate was on a private beach, so was obviously avoiding being seen by other
people.

7. Harassment
It can be extremely distressing to be a victim of harassment. A journalist may harass someone in order to
pressure them into providing information for a story. A journalist might continually visit this person, ask questions, o
r take photographs. The journalist might even continually publish negative stories about the person.
Many celebrities suffer great amounts of harassment by journalist wanting stories and photographs. Someone who
has been continually harassed by journalists and paparazzi is Britney Spears. The huge extent of the harassment
drove Britney to have a breakdown in 2007.
Another example of a more recent case is Tulisa Contostavlos. She was a victim of entrapment by journalist
Mazher Mahmood, who claimed that she was dealing drugs. After these claims were published, she had
journalists waiting outside her house day and night, meaning that she had to leave her home.
Though it is not technically illegal for a journalist to continually approach someone, the victim may see it fit to get a
restraining order against the journalist to prevent them from approaching them again.