Media Law Case Study: Melbourne Media Law and Ethics Issues

This case study examines a media law scenario involving a Melbourne Channel 4 TV journalist, Allen Keys, and the Melbourne Mirror newspaper, highlighting ethical and legal issues. It explores breaches of the ABC code of practice, specifically regarding accuracy and the handling of confidential information. The case delves into privacy violations under the Privacy Act 1988, including unauthorized photo-taking and disclosure of personal information. Additionally, it analyzes potential contempt of court charges and copyright infringement related to news reporting. The assignment discusses the balance between the public's right to know and the right to privacy, analyzing the actions of media personnel and organizations in relation to these principles and copyright laws.

Running Head: MEDIA LAW
Media Law
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1. Media has a very important role to play in the society. The functions of media personnel
in order to ensure that best practices are observed, has to be based on the code of ethics
and the existing law of the land (Herring 2014). Media personnel have various
responsibilities towards the society and the subjects they deal with. It is there duty to
maintain standards and accuracy when it comes to the reporting of facts. It is expected
from the reporters that they are accurate as much as possible with respect to the allocated
time for story preparations along with available spaces. It is the duty of media reporters to
always seek reliable resources to base their assertations (Davis and Taras 2017). The role
of journalists is to gain information and often they are prevented from accessing it.
Journalists even sometimes die trying to collect information as it is not possible for them
to function without it. According to the ABC code of practice the media reporters have a
dual obligation of high quality and accountability (ABC 2017). In relation to accuracy the
code states that presenting and gathering information has to be accurate and based on the
recognized standards. According to the standards, the media personnel have a duty to
ensure that they accurately present material facts in context and do not indulge in
presenting factual content in a way which likely to materially mislead the audience. The
reporters are also expected to include explanatory information and other appropriate
labels. In the case in hand it has been provided that Allen Keys who is a Melbourne
Channel 4 TV journalist has been informed by one of his police sources that a women
aged 35 years is probably going to be arrested with charges of her husband being missing.
The name and address of the women has also been provided by the source. When the
reported reached the address he was in good faith allowed by the women to conduct an

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interview. During the interview it had been provided by the women Mrs. Jones that she is
still hoping that her husband will come home who is missing since two weeks. However,
keys in this case had not followed the guidelines of the code of ethics and had tweeted
which is followed by 240 followers, that the husband is likely dead and his wife is the
primary suspect. In this case it is clear that the information provided by Keys is not in
accordance to the code of practices which provides that an information has to be accurate
as far as possible. Although given the time the husband had been missing it can be
interpreted that he is likely dead, it was not appropriate on the part of Keys to provided
on twitter that the wife is the prime suspect as he did not have any basis to support this
tweet. Moreover according to the interview which was allowed in good faith by Mrs.
Jones he should have included in the tweet that the wife is still waiting for her husband.
2. According to the privacy fact sheets as provided by the National Privacy Principles which
is based on Schedule 3 of the Privacy Act 1988 information must not be collected by an
organization unless it necessary to collect such information for its activities or functions
(Oaic.gov.au 2017). The information which is collected by an organization has to be done
in accordance to law and by fair means and not in a way which is unreasonably intrusive.
Whenever any information is collected by a reported it must be insured that the person
whose information is being collected has knowledge about the identification and contact
of the organization, the fact that access can be gained by him or her to the information,
the reason for which the information is getting collected, the organization to which the
person will disclose the information, legal rights of the person while collecting
information and the consequences if any if true information is not provided. It is further
provided that information has to be only collected for the person about whom the

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information is being collected as far as possible (Overbeck, Belmas and Shepard 2015). It
is also the duty of media reporters to keep data confidential which have been collected by
them through sources which have requested them to do so. In the given circumstances the
interview has which was done with Mrs Jones was broadcasted by the channel that night.
In that broadcast a Police PR statement had been included which stated that the police is
still searching for Mr. Ted. However it had been provided by Keys in that broadcast that
it has been provided to him by police sources that the prime suspect for the presumed
death of the person is Mrs. Jones. In such situation it was wrong on the part of the Keys
to disclose information which was totally provided to him on a confidential basis by the
police source. In addition the information collected by reporter sent by Melbourne Mirror
newspaper is not in accordance to the provisions of the privacy act. It is clearly stated in
the Act that information must not be collected in a way which accounts to unnecessary
intrusion of privacy of the person. The photo was clicked through the window even after
an interview had been rejected by Mr. Jones. In addition there was no necessity of
clicking her photo as she had already given an interview which was broadcasted at
channel 4. Thus it can be stated that the photo click in an illegitimate manner was not
necessary on the part of the reporter. Another issue which has is present in the scenario
was the presence of Key on this footpath. In such case it would be considered by Mrs.
Jones that the reporter is a part of Channel 4 as she recognizes Keys working for Channel
4. Further no information was provided by the reporter to Mrs. Jones while collecting
personal information (Her image). Such action would further result in the breach of the
provisions of the Privacy Act by the reporter.

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3. According to the privacy fact sheets as provided by the National Privacy Principles which
is based on Schedule 3 of the Privacy Act 1988 a reporter or an organization must not
disclose any information about any person for any other purpose other than for what it
has been collected unless the secondary purpose is connected to the primary purpose or
there would be a reasonable expectation on the part of the individual that there
information would be used for such reasons (Lipschultz 2017). Further the fact sheets
provided it is the duty of a media organization to takes steps which a reasonable person
would take towards protecting personal information. Australians are provided a
guaranteed right of privacy which has been included in the commonwealth constitution.
Laws have also been included to protect a person from secret recording and trespass.
However there is balance between the right of public to know and the right to privacy
(Pearson and Polden 2014). In the given scenario it has been provided that the photo
which had been taken by the reporter of Mrs. Jones in an illegitimate manner had been
published in the Mirror News Paper with the heading that “Missing Man Feared Dead”.
Media has a significant role to pay in the society and what they show has a serious effect
on the subject. As the news has been published by the newspaper the police had arrested
Jane on the charges of murder. This was done even before anybody had been found and
while the search of the body was still on. Thus it establishes that the police were
persuaded by the report in the newspaper to make an arrest. This was against the code of
ethics for media reports as they are not supposed to present a story in such a way so as to
persuade a public authority to have a different view about the case. In addition Keys
further tweeted that the case had been solved but the body has not been found even
before Mrs. Jones had been taken to court . This action of Keys is to be considered as

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contempt of court as it may prejudice the fair chances of Mrs. Jones towards a trial
because Keys has also signified to the public that Mrs. Jones is guilty of the murder. In
addition the tweet made by Keys had been re-tweeted by Mirror through its only story
reporting adding up the tweet the words “risky move”. The actions of Mirror cannot be
considered to be a contempt of court as it signifies that the move of the police to arrest
Mrs. Jones before the body has been discovered based on the reports of mirror can be
risky. This is not a contempt as it does not prejudice the chances of Mrs. Jones to a fair
trial and moreover it is not infringing copyright as it has been used for the purpose of
criticism.
4. Media organizations are also subjected to copyright laws. In Australia a creator of an
intellectual property is given copyrights as soon as the work is created. This is to ensure
that innovation and creativity can be promoted and people who create original works are
given due protection of their work (Conger, Pratt and Loch 2013). Copyright provisions
are also applicable on the information which is generated by the media. Section 41 and 42
of the Copyright Act deals with fair dealing. As provided by section 41 of the CA, a
dealing in a fair manner with respect to dramatic, artistic, literary or musical work or the
adaptation of such work does not establish a copyright infringement in case the work is
used for the purpose of review or criticism in relation to that work or any other work
along with sufficient acknowledgement of the work. Section 42 further states that the use
of dramatic, musical artistic or literary work does not constitute copyright if such work is
used for the purpose of reporting news and adequate acknowledgement in relation to the
work is done. In addition the section provides that the amount to be copied has to be fair.
In recent case daily mail refused to pay a journalist for republishing her work in part. The

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journalist had conducted investigation which was rewritten by the newspaper which
claimed that there is no copyright on idea. However the mail realized the significance of
the case as it was subjected to immense criticism on twitter and an out of court settlement
was reached between them and the journalist. In the provided circumstances it has been
given that Mrs. Jones had been provided bail by the court as she had pleaded not guilty in
relation to the alleged murder. While the court trial was going on the police found the
body of Mr. Ted. As Mrs. Jones stepped outside the court she was questioned by a bunch
of reporters. She had been questioned by the Mirror reporter that “How do you feel about
your husband’s body being found at a dump?”. Mrs. Jones replied to the question by
stating that she did not know that her husband was dead until the question was asked. As
the question was asked by the Mirror reporter it is deemed that the information has been
created by him. However the news had been broadcasted by another organization Radio
3VT. Although the work of the Mirror reporter had been copied for the purpose of news
reporting it has to be considered that the entire and not merely a fair amount had been
copied of the work and there was no acknowledgement that the question had been asked
by the reporter from Mirror. The actions of 3VT are thus considered to be an
infringement of the copyright laws and mirror is entitled to claim compensation for such
actions. Further the presence of several reporters while the information was collected
from Mrs. Jones does not have any effect on the situation which would be considered as a
breach of the copyright provisions.

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References
About the ABC. (2017). Code of Practice 2016. [online] Available at:
http://about.abc.net.au/reports-publications/code-of-practice [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].
Babcock, W.A. and Freivogel, W.H. eds., 2015. The SAGE Guide to Key Issues in Mass Media
Ethics and Law. SAGE Publications.
Butler, D.A. and Rodrick, S., 2015. Australian media law. Thomson Reuters (Professional)
Australia Limited.
Carron, X., Bosua, R., Maynard, S.B. and Ahmad, A., 2016. The Internet of Things and Its
Impact on Individual Privacy: An Australian Privacy Principle Perspective. Computer Law &
Security Review, 21(1), pp.4-15.
Conger, S., Pratt, J.H. and Loch, K.D., 2013. Personal information privacy and emerging
technologies. Information Systems Journal, 23(5), pp.401-417.
Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
Davis, R. and Taras, D. eds., 2017. Justices and Journalists. Cambridge University Press.
Herring, J., 2014. Medical law and ethics. Oxford University Press, USA.
Lipschultz, J.H., 2017. Social media communication: Concepts, practices, data, law and ethics.
Taylor & Francis.
Oaic.gov.au, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy.../privacy-fact-sheet-
2-national-privacy-principles [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].

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Overbeck, W., Belmas, G. and Shepard, J., 2015. Major principles of media law, 2016. Nelson
Education.
Pearson, M. and Polden, M., 2014. The Journalist's Guide to Media Law: A handbook for
communicators in a digital world. Allen & Unwin.
Privacy Act 1988