Media Law and Ethics ACC213 Assignment
Added on 2020-03-16
10 Pages2875 Words687 Views
ASSIGNMENT 221.Privacy is something which is gives a person the right to keep their person affairs as personal.When these affairs of a person, are presented before the world, it breaches the privacy of suchindividual. The media is such a body, which is often blamed of beaching these privacy laws(Smith, 2011). In the given case study, Bubbles had explicitly asked the Tansy, the ‘Woman’sDigest’ reporter that she would be ready to give an interview on the condition of no photographs.And yet, a freelance photographer was hired by Bubbles, which raises both legal and ethicalissues against Tansy. With regards to ethics, in a general manner, by not keeping the promise which had been made byTansy to Bubbles was a breach of ethics, where there is a need to uphold the promise which ismade by one person to another. MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics provides that the journalists arerequired to respect the truth and the right to information of a person. This code requires that thecitizens are to be informed and the democracy has to be animated. Most importantly, it providesthat while scrutinizing and exercising power, the journalists have to be both accountable andresponsible (MEAA, 2017). In this case, this code was breached by Tansy. This is because wasnot honest to Bubbles and brought a photographer along with her, which was not fair. She failedto respect the rights of others, which was required as per this code. Hence, she failed to beresponsible which posed an ethical issue. More importantly, there was breach of PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) Code ofEthics. This code provides that it is a responsibility of the media professionals to be responsible
ASSIGNMENT 23towards their clients (PRIA, 2017). This code of ethics was flouted by Tansy when she chose toignore the condition set out by her client and brought the photographer with her.Apart from the ethical issues which were raised in this case, there also had been some legalissues. Firstly, there was a breach of contract. A contract denotes a promise which has to be keptby both parties (Paterson, Paterson and Duke, 2012). In this case, the promise was for Bubbles togive the interview and this interview, as had economic value fulfilling the requirement ofconsideration, was to be taken by Tansy. However, a condition was made of no photographer.When a condition, which is a key part of the contract, is not fulfilled, it can lead to a breach ofcontract (Clarke and Clarke, 2016). Also, taking this as otherwise, this condition was a promiseof the oral contract drawn between Bubbles and Tansy, which was not upheld. Hence, a legalissue was born from the conduct of the journalist for the breach of contract (Latimer, 2012). Another legal issue here relates to the right of privacy. Even though right to privacy is notabsolute in the nation, it is nonetheless upheld in the nation. The Privacy Act, 1988 (Cth)provides the manner in which personal information of a person can be collected (The LawHandbook, 2017). If the freelancer clicks any photograph in this case, it would result in legalobligations being raised against Tansy for breaching the promise and collecting the informationbreached the privacy act. 2.This scenario also raises both ethical and legal issues. As per the PRIA Code of Ethics, themembers are required to safeguard the confidence of their clients including the confidentialinformation which they have about the affair of the clients as per Code 4. Also, under Code 9 of
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