ANALYSE THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST TIGHTER CONTROL OF THE BRITISH PRESS

The first 200 words of this essay...

Media Studies

ANALYSE THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST TIGHTER CONTROL OF THE BRITISH PRESS

When looking at the issue of whether or not the control of the British press should be tightened or not, there are many different arguments, both for and against. In this essay, I will discuss issues for both sides of the argument and make a personal conclusion at the end.

Some people believe that giving the press tighter control will restrict offences caused to individual people. If the press were to make up a story that was not 100% true, and print it in a paper, certain individuals may be upset and the paper/editor could get in trouble and accused of libel. Libel is a published false statement damaging to a person's reputation: a false and defamatory written statement. An example of a case where a certain individual got offended was when it was published that Elton John had been sexually intimate with an underage boy. These claims turned out to be untrue and Elton John sued the newspaper that printed this.

This leads to the next argument, newspapers may write untrue statements and get away with it, thus leading to