Ethical Regulations and Legal Provisions in Law Media Communication

This essay examines the compelling influence of ethical regulations and legal provisions on professional communicators in the realm of law and media. The essay begins by highlighting the crucial role of media in democratic societies, emphasizing its function in informing, educating, and enabling informed public decision-making. It then acknowledges the challenges facing media, such as political pressures, bias, and misinformation, which necessitate ethical and legal frameworks to govern communicators. The core focus is on how these frameworks, including codes of ethics and legal provisions, compel communicators to prioritize public interest. The essay delves into key principles of professional communication, such as the right to information, ethical conduct, and considering the audience's perspective. It uses the context of India to illustrate how media autonomy and the absence of strict regulations can lead to unethical practices. The essay emphasizes the importance of authentic information and the need for regulations to ensure communicators convey genuine messages, protect privacy, and avoid bias. It also discusses the role of media ethics in guiding communicators, highlighting issues such as corruption and conflicts of interest, particularly in the context of political influence. Furthermore, the essay touches upon the impact of social media and the necessity of controlling the spread of misinformation. Overall, the essay argues that ethical regulations and legal provisions are essential for ensuring that professional communicators act responsibly, provide accurate information, and consider the public's interest as their top priority.

Running Head: Law Media Communication
Law Media Communication
Essay
System04104
8/5/2019

Law Media Communication
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How do Ethical Regulations and Legal Provisions Compel Professional
Communicators to Consider the Public Interest?
Role of media termed as the one of the important part of democratic societies. The role of
media is to inform and aware about the information and educate them about their rights. For
example, the media can deliver relevant information that voters need to make informed
choice in the election. The media can provide information to the public that how they are
going to vote in an election. However, in current and modern days the role of media is
affected with so many factors such as political pressures, biasness of one party, false news,
espionage, and spin doctoring (Toledano and Wolland, 2011). These terms are supposed to be
unethical ways in public relation. In such scenario, the role of legal provisions and ethical
regulations are so important to control the unethical practices of communicators or mass
media channels. The central purpose of this report is to provide an overview of ethical
regulations and legal provisions in public relations, discuss the effect of these factors on
communicators to consider the public interest.
The professional communicators refer to those people who are very professional in their field
and follow the basic principles of communication in their way of communication. Hundreds
of thousands of communicators worldwide engage in communication activities that affects
the lives of millions of people worldwide. This is the reason that the communication power
carries various social responsibilities. The International Association of Business
Communicators (IABC) developed the code of ethics for the professional communicators to
control unethical and unusual practices of professional communicators (Chaturvedi and
Gupta, 2014). However, the role of ethical regulations in the professional communication is
necessary that determines the role of a professional communicator to consider the interest of
public. Some experts also say that a person will became as a professional communicator with
increasing knowledge and experience. A professional communicator always understands
what they are delivering to the people and which types of audience is the target for the
delivered information. Communication is an art and it must be known by the professional
people before delivering the message to the audience (Ferguson, 2018).
The democratic principle ‘freedom of speech’ states that every people have right to freely
express their opinion, views, and ideas. People have also right to raise the questions against

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the government or criticise them for their actions (Happer and Philo, 2013). These features of
democracy enable the media as free and independent media. The professional communicators
in the journalism and PR are also free to investigate, debate, reports, and discuss the matter,
which is necessary for the society. The media is also free to cover new stories. Role of
professional communicators in both print and electric media is so crucial. The professional
communicators not only need to honest with others rather they should also responsible and
honest with themselves. It is the primary requirement of any professional communicator
(Eisenlohr, 2011). However, in the modern time of tough competition in the journalism and
TV channels, media forget the actual role of it. In such a scenario, compel the professional
communicators to deliver authentic and real information to public is necessary for a strong
democratic country like India. Indian is a one of the largest democratic country in the world
and the role of media in this country is so crucial as it helps the people to knew about their
ethical and constitutional rights and know about what happening around them. However, it
has been noted that autonomy of media and professional communicators leads to some
unethical journalism practice in the country (Kent, 2013). The professional communicators
forget their role and they are following the TRP and publicity in the public. Therefore, it is
really important for the ethical regulations and legal provisions to guide, control, and compels
the professional communicators to consider the public interest with only authentic and true
information (Jones and Pusey, 2010). A professional communicator is responsible to tell truth
and convey authentic message or information to the public. However, if the communicator
forgets its responsibility and convey biased or false message to people then it really affect the
democracy principles of a country. For the example, media in India is so called free and
independent. Indian is one of the large democracies in the world and its population is more
than 1.3 billion. The large number of people watching TV and reading newspaper and these
two are the major sources of providing information to the people (Hansson, 2017). In such a
scenario, if the media share fake news and unauthentic news to the people then it really
affects the interest of people and lead to misshapen in the country. There are so many
professional communicators in Indian print and electronic media. However, the independency
of these media channels and flexibility in law and regulations enables them to provide false
and inappropriate news to the people of India. A strict regulation in the country related to
professional communicators is really necessary because it helps the country to convey only
genuine and real information to people, which is necessary to provide them. To analyse the
work of Indian media and professional communicator, it is essential to know about the

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professional communication principles. There are some key principles that apply all over the
world on the professional communicators. The first key principle said that the communicator
should provide legal information to the person that is the right of people to know about. For
example, a professional communicator cannot open the secrets of Indian army secrets and
their war plan on a new channel because it is unethical and illegal (Lipschultz, 2017). The
person should follow the legal compliance and check the legality of information before
conveying the message or information to the mass. This principle is often violated by the
Indian electronic media channels where professional communicators can say anything
without checking the legality of the information. It has been seen that privacy of people and
secrecy of an information almost ignored by all the mass communication channels in India.
To assess the conditions of professional communicators, it is really essential to know about
the role of professional communicators in India. This also shows how these people follow the
ethical regulations and legal provisions in the country. The second principle is focuses on
ethics in the professional communication. It is responsibility of a writer or a news channel
anchor to present relevant and precise information to the people, which is the right of people
to know. However, it has been seen that if the legal frameworks not applies on the
professional communicator, the people can almost hide the real information and only think
about their personal benefit. Another principle in professional communication is to consider
the good taste of people (Murray, 2015).
Media ethics and ethics for professional communicators are crucial because it bounds the
professional communicators to follow the ethical principles and standards of media.
However, the increasing corruption in the PR industries and conflict of interests almost stock
the newsroom in India. The professional communicators such as News anchors, auditors,
writers, and the owner of different media channels misuse the liberty of freedom in the
country (Meng, Stavros, and Westberg, 2015). The influence of big political leaders and
corruption in the media channels almost abolished the right of information of the people and
it is really a worst thing for a democratic country. In the last election of prime minister in
India, it has been seen that the media channels were divided in the country in two parts. One
group of communicators, writers, and news channel anchors were supporting the Narendra
Modi leaded Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), while other group of media channels were
supporting Rahul Gandhi of National Congress Party (NCP). In such scenario, media forget
the actual role and only focus on improving their TRP rather than delivering the actual
information about the election to the people. In such scenario, it is essential for a government

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and regulatory bodies of the country to control such type of unethical practices in media. This
is really important for a healthy democracy that media do not favour a specific party or
person. The communicator should display only those information and news to people that is
necessary to gain the attention of people (Waters, Tindall, and Morton, 2010).
The basic principle of professional communication states that the communicator should know
their audience and they must select the proper message or information and the format that
most considers the interest of people (Russell and Lamme, 2016). However, the ethical
regulations help the communicators to perform their job in specific and professional ways
that not only help the people to get right information rather they can also considered the
interest of people that what they want from the communicators. Media is a powerful tool in
any democratic country and through this the communicators not only help the people to
aware about their surroundings rather they also help the people to get specific knowledge and
information what about they want to know. The use of ethical regulations and legal
provisions protect the right of common people and control and direct the practices of
professional communicators to consider the interest of public as a first priority. A good
communicator always tries to be credible and authentic to its audience and focuses on only
provide the real and genuine information for the public (Kant and Krishnan, 2010). The
professional communicator always knows the exact ways the how they have to represent the
information in front of the audience and what will be the effect of the message or information
on the audience. In such scenario, the ethical regulations compel the communicators to act in
a professional ways and provide information to people in proper and genuine form rather than
in modified form (Sofyan, 2015). The media channels in recent days convert unspecific news
in hour-long newsbreak and trying to attract the customers with some spicy script on the
news rather providing them exact and actual news. This type of communication in journalism
and mass communication are so usual in a country like India where the media enjoyed the
freedom of independency. In such a scenario, it is necessary for a country to impose legal
provisions on professional communicators so they understand their responsibility to deliver
their work in professional ways. The legal provisions in the Indian constitution compel the
professional communicators to convey only relevant and specific message to the people. The
fear of penalty or jail may affect the unethical intentions of the professional communicators
to do not represent the worn or illegal information to people or misguide them. However, it
has been seen that such type of restrictions and legal provisions are not strictly followed by

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the social media communicators who post any type of message in the public and attract their
attention with unlawful or illegal messages.
The recent example of such issue was arise when some professional communicators twits
against the government and their actions to abolish the article 370 and article 35(A) in Jammu
and Kashmir. There were many people and professional communicators sharing their view
and opinions on the social media without being any authentic information source (Times of
India, 2019). The increasing use of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube applications has increased the number of bloggers and professional writers.
However, the young generations in India are the major adopters of these source of media and
technologies and therefore the impact of negative or illegal information can create a negative
mind or thinking among these young people (Times of India, 2019). However, the number of
old generation people who are using social media is also increasing every day (McCombs,
2017). If the government had proper machinery to control such type of communicators and
activist then it will definitely help the people of the country to get only relevant information
rather than rumours or unreliable information of professional communicators. To control such
type of ethical practice on social media and electronic media, role of legal provisions and
ethical regulations is crucial for the communicators to control their unnecessary activities and
increase the interest of public (Parikka, 2012). However, the legal provision can also engage
the professional communicators to engage in the truthful, accurate, and fair communication
that facilitates the communicators to get respect and mutual understanding of people.
Although, it is also included in the principle of IABP code of conduct Ethics that all the
professional communicators should follow the ethical regulations and communication
principles during their jobs (Manyozo, 2012). However, it has been seen that the way of
communication also change with the changing scenario in the country. It has been seen that
despite being representing the facts or true news about the government or about a specific
person of the country, media biased with their duties because of some corruption and political
interferences. In such scenario, the ethical regulations and legal provisions restrict and control
the professional communicators to do such type of thing in the journalism and mass
communication industry. It is the requirement in professional communication that person
should be credible and honest in their expertise are or in their work of communication.
Candid and timely communication is also an important requirement in professional
communication. The laws and regulations related to professional communication enables the

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communicators to fostering the free flow of essential information in accord with the public
interest.
The ethical regulations and legal provision also ensures that communicators disseminate
accurate and promptly correct information to the people for which they are responsible. The
law and regulations related to communication also ensures that communicators follow the
basic principles of communication and support the basic humanity rights of people in getting
the information and access the open marketplace ideas, opinion, and views and act
accordingly. The ethical regulations and legal provisions also forces the professional
communicators to do not involve in a biased communication or in an dishonest
communication business that affects the democracy of the country and violates the law
related to right of people to access information. However, it is also important that the law and
regulations related to professional communicators should be strictly applied because it has
been seen that countries like India ignore the risk of irrelevant reporting of unethical public
communication by the professional communicators like news anchors, auditors, and writers.
These are the professional peoples and these people should understand their responsibility
towards the society. These people must deliver right, specific, true, authentic, and real
information with the people rather than diversifying them towards the false or inaccurate
information. One should not forget that media is the soul of democracy and media and its
professional communicator has responsibility to protect the rights of people and should do
their job to fulfil their social responsibility.

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