究竟英國「體育新聞人」考 media law 同 court reporting 考 what9 呢👇❓ (Patreon)

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ESSENTIAL MEDIA LAW

QUESTION 1

​Answer questions (a) to (d) below.​

(a) Explain what the following terms mean in a civil law case:

(i) claim form

(ii) claimant

(iii) settlement

(b) Are juries used in civil trials? Briefly explain.

(c) Does a county court deal with civil cases or criminal cases?

(d) There is a general right of privacy set out in an international convention which the UK has incorporated into its own law. What is that convention?

15 marks

​

QUESTION 2

The Treswick Bugle newspaper publishes online an exclusive interview with a local climber John Aldriche about how this week he survived a 100 metre fall from a mountain because he landed in a snow drift.

The editor of the Treswick Courier -- a rival to the Bugle, which has different owners - tells one of her reporters he must write an article now about Aldriche’s fall and survival. The editor tells the reporter: “Do this by using the best quotes from the Bugle article but don’t mention where they came from.” When the Courier publishes this online article it has 600 verbatim words of Aldriche’s quotes, copied from the Bugle’s article.

​Read the information above and answer questions (a) to (d) below.

(a) What is the name of the main statute in copyright law?

(b) What is the name in that statute of the defence most relevant to news reporting?

(c) From detail given above, say whether the Bugle would win damages if it sues the Courier for breach of copyright because of the content of the Courier’s article about Aldriche. Your answer should explain whether the defence you name for (b) would protect the Courier in such circumstances, giving reasons.

(d) Before finishing the Aldriche article, the Courier reporter found on the internet a photo of Aldriche showing him at a family wedding, taken by a commercial photographer. The reporter includes a copy of this photo in the article, and did not ask anyone’s permission to do that.

Under the statute you named in (a) can anyone successfully sue the Courier for damages for use of the copy of that photo? Explain, including by reference to the defence you named in (b).

25 marks

QUESTION 3

Answer questions (a) to (d) below.

(a) Under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 a criminal case becomes ‘active’ if there is an arrest or the suspect is told orally he or she is charged. Give two examples of other events which make a criminal case ‘active’.

(b) What does the Act say must not be published about an ‘active’ case?

(c) Why might the law you set out for (b) be broken if a news organisation, reporting on a robbery after the case becomes ‘active’, publishes a description - given by someone who says they saw a robbery – that the robber had long, brown hair and a tattoo of an anchor on his left arm?

(d) A criminal case may cease to be ‘active’ for one of several reasons. Does a case cease to become ‘active’ when:

(i) a suspect who was under arrest is not charged and is released on police bail?

(ii) a suspect who was under arrest is not charged and is not under police bail but is released ‘under investigation’?

(iii) when a jury has found the defendant guilty?

20 marks

​

QUESTION 4

A group of residents is campaigning against Koshinge Ltd’s plans to build 700 houses on what is now farmland. Brogton council approves these plans at a meeting. Within hours the residents’ group holds a public meeting in a church hall near where Koshinge plans to build the houses.

At this public meeting Sheila Khan, chair of the ‘Say No to Koshinge’ group says: “Earlier today at the council meeting Councillor Albert Hendrick spoke strongly in favour of and voted for Koshinge Ltd’s plans for a huge housing estate. But he did not reveal that for a year he has been living in a house which Koshinge has gifted to him. We discovered this in the last three hours. By failing to declare this massive gift from Koshinge at today’s meeting, Hendrick has breached the council’s code of conduct and shown himself to be very corrupt.”

In a report of the public meeting, Brogton’s daily newspaper publishes what Khan said about Hendrick there, as set out above. Nothing else was said about him at that meeting.

In a phone call to the newspaper’s editor, Hendrick says he will sue for defamation because their report published that quote from Khan. The only other thing Hendrick says in the call is: “To reduce the defamation damages which you will have to pay me you must publish what I say now about Koshinge planning application, which is that I have acted honestly at all times in my council duties.”

​Read the information above and answer the question below.

If Hendrick does sue the newspaper for defamation in these circumstances, will he win that case? Your explanation should name the most relevant defence in defamation law and set out what that defence requires.

20 marks​

QUESTION 5

A feature writer attends a Crown court trial in which a businessman is accused of offences under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The charges state that he allegedly transported men to the UK to work on farms and allegedly threatened them with violence if they wanted to leave or asked for better wages. The judge does not make any order affecting reporting of the case.

​​Read the information above and answer questions (a) and (b) below.

(a) Because her shorthand is poor, the feature writer plans to use her mobile phone in the courtroom to record what is said in the trial. What advice should be given to her about this plan, referring to the most relevant law?

(b) After the businessman is convicted in the trial the feature writer interviews one of the men who was a victim in that case. Can that man be named in a published feature about the case? Explain, including by saying what the most relevant law is and setting out what it says about publication of detail.

20 marks

QUESTION 6

A journalist hears rumours that last month a Government Minister instructed officials to include a businesswoman in a party of leading UK company executives which went on a trip to China, subsidised by the Ministry, to seek trading opportunities for their companies and so to help increase UK exports.

Reliable sources in the Ministry tell the journalist that the businesswoman’s company is so small that – according to the Ministry’s usual criteria – she should not have been invited on this subsidised trip, but that the Minister intervened so she could go. He went on it too.

The journalist rings the Minister and then the businesswoman, at their places of work. In these calls the Minister says he did not intervene for her to go on the China trip, and both deny they are lovers.

The journalist then tracks down the businesswoman’s ex-boyfriend Henry Argost. He tells the journalist that last week he ended his relationship with the businesswoman after discovering text exchanges on her private phone, which Argost has copied and shows the journalist. In these genuine texts between the businesswoman and the Minister they reminisce in intimate detail of sex they have enjoyed with each over the last three months, including when on the China trip.

Read the information above and answer the question below.

If the journalist’s media organisation publishes a report about the Minister’s affair, which includes what these phone texts say, and about his alleged intervention for the businesswoman to go on the China trip, would that breach the Editors’ Code of Practice or the Ofcom Broadcasting Code as regards protection of privacy?

Your answer should start by setting out what the relevant code says about protection of privacy, including by setting out the criterion in it which the relevant regulator would use – if the Minister or businesswoman complained about such a report – to assess if it breached their personal privacy. Make clear which code you refer to.

20 marks

Essential Media Law: 120 marks

COURT REPORTING

QUESTION 1

​A man charged with theft from a shop appears for the first time in a magistrates’ court. A trainee journalist sends the following draft report of the hearing to her newsdesk. The draft report is correct as regards what was said in court. The court did not make any order affecting what can be reported.    A teacher charged with stealing an expensive watch from a High Street store appeared today in Lowton magistrates’ court.

Roger Wundston, 34, of Green Road, Lowton, is charged with stealing the watch from the town’s Maple Brothers store on November 11. The charge says that the watch is valued at £5,000.

He told the court: “I am definitely not guilty. That will be my plea.”

Prosecutor Jane Eldkirk said: “A store assistant took the watch from a secure case after Wundston asked to try it on. She briefly turned away to serve another customer and then looked up to see Wundston going out through the doors to the High Street. It is not possible that in that very short period of time he forgot he was wearing the watch.”

The magistrates sent the case to Crown court for trial, and remanded Wundston to custody.

Their chair Ken Oldfield said they believed that if Wundston was bailed he might not turn up for his trial, after Ms Eldkirk told them that police were unsure if Wundston is his real name, because they had found at his home two current passports which both bore his photo but which were in different names.

​Read the information on the left and answer questions (a) and (b) below.

(a) A statute automatically restricts what can be published from such a preliminary hearing. Name that statute and state what its purpose is.

(b) What needs to be deleted from the draft report, shown on the left, so that it complies with that statute? Refer to each relevant paragraph in sequence, explaining your decisions by reference to what the statute states and its purpose.

20 marks

QUESTION 2

​Answer questions (a) to (c) below.

(a) The principle of open justice is protected in law because of the societal benefits of open justice. Give two examples of the societal benefits of open justice.

(b) Rules governing criminal courts allow anyone to obtain some types of information about a recent hearing.

(i) What is the name of those rules?

(ii) How recent does the outcome of a case have to be for the court to have a definite obligation under the rules to supply such information?

(c) A journalist is unable to attend a four-hour trial at a magistrates’ court, in which a city councillor denies assaulting a barman. Can later that day the journalist, under the rules you referred to in (b), obtain from the court, without making a written request:

(i) the barman’s name?

(ii) the names of other witnesses in the case?

(iii) the evidence of what injuries the barman is said to have suffered in the alleged assault?

(iv) the verdict in the case?

20 marks

QUESTION 3

An accountant Barry Unnington, aged 53, is being sentenced at a Crown court after admitting he stole £200,000 from the company which employed him.

In mitigation, his barrister says in this hearing to the judge: “Mr Unnington, who suffers from depression, spent much of this money on Joan Trentte, who is 20 and with whom he was infatuated. Detective Sergeant Roger Heath led this fraud inquiry. His diligent report states that Trentte exploited Mr Unnington by demanding and getting very expensive gifts from him, including a new Audi car.”

Later that day a news website publishes a report of Unnington being sentenced. This includes the above quote from his barrister. Nothing else was said about Miss Trente in the hearing. The report says nothing else about her.

In a phone call to the website’s newsdesk, Miss Trentte says of this report: “What you have published about me is totally untrue. I did not exploit Barry. All he ever bought for me was fish and chips.” She threatens in this call to sue the website for defamation because of what the report says about her.

​​​Read the information above and answer questions (a) and (b) below.

(a) If she does sue the website because of this report, will she win that defamation case? Your explanation should name the most relevant defence in defamation law, and set out all its requirements.

(b) During her call to the newsdesk, Miss Trentte also says: “I will not sue for defamation if you publish now that I say I did not receive any expensive gifts from Barry. You must publish that to be fair.”

Should the website publish what Miss Trentte wants, as set out above? Explain, including by reference to the law you set out for (a).

20 marks

QUESTION 4

An inexperienced reporter files the following report after attending a youth court case. It accurately records what was said there. The court did not make any order affecting reporting.

A 17-year-old girl robbed a 55-year-old man by threatening him with a hammer, Lowton city youth court heard today.

The girl took the hammer from her father’s toolbox that morning, prosecutor John Fielding said.

“She then waited on Scotland Road, which is near to where she lives. Mr Kepler got off the bus there, to go shopping,” Mr Fielding told the court.

“Wearing a mask, she emerged from behind a bush, demanded money from Mr Kepler, and raised the hammer to threaten him. This made him hand over his wallet, containing £170,” Mr Fielding added.

Anne Beatonne admitted to the court that she robbed Mr Kepler of this sum on June 5th.

Amy Browne, her lawyer, said: “My client is very remorseful. She does have good traits. She has won woodwork prizes at her school. She knows she must be punished for this robbery.”

The magistrates adjourned sentencing on the girl until a report on her family background has been finalised. She was bailed until January 10th.

​Read the information on the left and answer questions (a) to (c) below.

(a) What is the name of the most relevant statutory power as regards what can legally be reported about youth court cases?

(b) Set out what the law you named in (a) says about publication of detail in reports of youth court cases.

(c) In view of your answer to (b), explain what content in the report set out on the left about the robbery case needs to be changed before publication. In your answer, refer to each of its relevant paragraphs in sequence, saying what change is needed and why. Assume that the girl’s age will remain in the report.

20 marks

Court Reporting total: 80 marks

Total paper: 200 marks