.government decided that media industry should be regulated independently and media bodies were set up to do this. This led to the radio industry no being regulated directly by the government.
PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISON.
The Press Complaints Commission is an independent body which deals with complaints from members of the public about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines. Our service to the public is free, quick and easy. We aim to deal with most complaints in just 25 working days - and there is absolutely no cost to the people complaining.
The PCC received 3,654 complaints in the year of 2005. Of the complaints that were specified under the terms of the approximately two in three were about accuracy in reporting and approximately one in five related to intrusion into privacy of some sort. All complaints are investigated under the editors' Code of Practice, which binds all national and regional newspapers and magazines. - drawn up by editors themselves - covers the way in which news is gathered and reported. It also provides special protection to particularly vulnerable groups of people such as children, hospital patients and those at risk of discrimination.
Our main aim with any complaint which raises a possible breach of the Code of Practice is always to resolve it as quickly as possible. Because of our success in this, the Commission had to adjudicate on only 30 complaints in 2005. That is a sign not of the weakness of self regulation - but its strength. All those which were critical of a newspaper were published in full and with due prominence by the publication concerned.
As well as dealing with complaints, the PCC deals with a substantial number of calls from members of the public about our service and about the Code. In 2005 we dealt with approximately 8,550 enquiries by telephone, fax and email. This is an encouraging sign of the accessibility of the Commission to members of the public.
The success of the PCC continues to underline the strength of effective and independent over any form of legal or statutory control. Legal controls would be useless to those members of the public who could not afford legal action - and would mean protracted delays before complainants received redress. In our system of self regulation, effective redress is free and quick.
Task 1 B
Voluntary Codes of Practice
UK Laws
Control and regulation of the media
Self regulation of the media
This is done through:
- Voluntary codes of practice
Each media industry draws up its own rules on what they will or won’t do
This means that media companies will not use information or talk about certain people or topics that they feel are inappropriate
For example
- In order to self-regulate the BBC relies on a variety of instruments and codes.
- The codes are the royal charter and a complimentary licence and the secretary of state for culture media and sport.
- The BBC is controlled by a board of government with 12 members appointed by the government.
- The board has two duties in regulation of the BBC: it defines corporate strategies and acts as trustees of the public interest they approve targets of services and monitor its performance and are responsible for ensuring that the public funding received through the licence fee is spent correctly.
Legal framework
Media companies can not publish what ever they like are also bound by law.
Human rights legislation (human rights act 1998)
Freedom of expression! Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression however you can not publish blasphemy obscenity, racial hatred and the official secrets act.
Data protection act 1998 information must be:
Obtained and used fairly and lawfully must be adequate accurate and revenant kept no longer than needed and confidential only transferred to other companies that offer data protection.
Censorship (obscene publications act 1964) this act makes it an offence to publish material that will deprave and corrupt those likely to read see or hear the information published
Why self regulate the media
The rationale argued for the regulatory bodies is that to maintain the freedom of the media
This is virtual in an open and democratic society
The industry has to regulate itself or else the door is opened to government influences censorship or even control
Ownership of media
Declaration and privatisation has lead to the growth of media
Media empires are:
A very large and important business or organisation with in newspapers, magazines, radio and television which are independent
Examples of a media empire:
Bskyb: owned by Rupert Murdoch
The media empire of Rupert Murdoch has become one of the biggest and most valuable media empires in the world in resent years
Over the years he has created a huge media empire through his own business activities and enterprise
His company news international owns the times newspapers, the sun and he also owns publishing company Harper Collins, The New York Times, One tell, Sky TV and numerous newspapers and television companies in the far east.
Other media empires
BBC - The BBC is funded by the TV licence, Therefore BBC doesn’t do any outside advertising only in house advertising e.g. advertisements for programs or radio stations, The BBC broadcasts two national free to air channels BBC1 and BBC2. Five national radio stations are also broadcasted and 38 regional, Minor BBC channels are also broadcasted in packages e.g. BBC News 24, BBC Choice but you have to pay an additional fee for these as well as the TV licence. BBC online is one of the most hit sites in the UK with News, weather, revision, TV listings, features, music, sport, science and nature, health and much more.
Ulster Television
Broadcasts the ITV franchise for
Problem with media empires
Domination of news coverage
In the 1980s and 90s there were continual alliterations and roomers that Murdoch used his ownership of the times and the sun to influenced what was published in these two key UK newspapers although editors rapidly denied that Mr Murdoch interfered in there editorial decisions
Power of the media to dictate what we see and how we see it
It was clamed that Murdoch had a publication halted as he was keen to develop his business interest in china and did not want to appear supportive of the Chinese government
Power of individual media giants to exert influence
The sun and the times did not gossip about Rupert Murdoch private life when he split from his wife
Global media ownership
Lots of media empires buying lots of similar media companies lead to global media ownership which has happened on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Independent of the media from politicians
- Why is it important for the media to be independent from politicians?
- The media is not 100% independent from the government. E.g. BBC has politicians on the board of directors
- In an ideal world the media should be independent from politicians to encourage an unbiased opinion and view on stories
- The media does not represent the balance of political opinion on what people vote e.g. the number of people who by papers who are pro government does not represent the number of people who actually support the pro government
- News do not confine their political bias to the editorial column. The political comes across in every story within the paper
- Broadcast media (radio and TV) have more of an obligation to remain politically unbiased this is due to stricter regulation from ofcom
- Broadcast media also have to broadcast party political broadcasts from all parties
- The reporting of new will be bias, however television should be a means of communication not persuasion
