Todays lecture featured mainly the Press Complaints Commision (PCC) Code of Conduct.
The function of the code is to provide a set of principles, and a clear, consistent framework in which journalists may work.
These guidelines do not constitute the law, but it is a serious issue if the guidelines are broken.
The code is reviewed by the Code of Practice Commitee, who constantly review and develop it to adapt to changing practices and advances in technology.
The committee is made up of members from across the industry, such as magazine and newspaper editors via nomination.
The original code was published in 1991, and has been changed approximately 30 times since:
http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/evolving.html
PCC Code Of Conduct
1. Accuracy: All information must not be inaccurate, misleading or distorted, including images. In the event of such inaccuracy, it must be rectified immediately, and if required, an apology made. The Press must also clearly distinguish between comment and fact.
2. Opportunity to Reply: A fair opportunity to reply to inaccuracies must be given.
3. Privacy: Everybody is entitled to privacy regarding their family life, health etc. Intrusion without content must be justified.
4. Harrassment: Once asked to stop, journalists must not continue to interview, question, telephone or photograph, nor remain on the property or follow the individual.
5. Intrusion into Grief or Shock: Approaches and enquiries must be made with sensitivity and discretion.
6. Children: Children must be allowed to complete school time, and must not be photographed or approached at school without consent. Minors also must not be paid for their part in any material, and editors must not use the fame or publicity of parents to publish details of a childs private life.
7. Children in Sex Cases: Children in sex cases must not be identified, and the report must not imply a relationship between the accused and the child.
8. Hospitals: Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission before making enquiries at hospitals.
9. Reporting of Crime: Only relevant relatives to a crime can be identified. Other relatives must not be mentioned without consent.
10. Clandestine Devices and Subterfuge: Material must not be obtained using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices, or by intercepting telephone calls, messages, or emails.
11. Victims of Sexual Assault: Such victims must not be identified.
12. Discrimination: Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.
13. Financial Journalism: Journalists must not use it financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass such information to others, for their own profit.
14. Confidential Sources: Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.
15. Witness Payments in Criminal Trials: Witnesses must not be offered any form of payment.
16. Payment to Criminals: Payment must not be offered for information relating to a crime, including stories, pictures or information.
There may be exceptions to some of the points above, with regard to public interest.
1. The public interest includes, but is not confined to:
i) Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety.
ii) Protecting public health and safety.
iii) Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.
2. There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.
3. Whenever the public interest is invoked, the PCC will require editors to demonstrate fully that they reasonably believed that publication, or journalistic activity undertaken with a view to publication, would be in the public interest.
4. The PCC will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain, or will become so.
5. In cases involving children under 16, editors must demonstrate an exceptional public interest to over-ride the normally paramount interest of the child.
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