Winol Life with Lorelei Reddin

It has been three weeks since last Winol Life. The delay is due to my going away to Estonia for a week, but also the lack of packages last week. Fortunately, we managed to produce it this week with the help of Lorelei Reddin who kindly agreed to join our show this week. She has been the entertainment editor of Southern Daily Echo for the past 6 years and she is still really enjoying it. Lorelei was very friendly and bubbly and provided our features reporters with a good, constructive criticism and good advice for their future video features.

There were no technical problems at all this week. Not major ones anyway. Lorelei came in at 11.40, as I went to meet her the rest of the team stayed in the gallery and rehearsed the script. We used three video packages this week: The re-edited Giraffe restaurant review, games review and an exclusive interview with the marketing manager of Coldplay- Alex Eden-Smith. Lorelei really enjoyed watching the packages and she thought they were really good.

I feel that Winol Life is getting better and better, the team knows the show well now and understands what it needs to look like. We also work really well together as a team, I think this is really important that we know how to communicate with each other. Everyone is always supportive and positive. Well done everyone, great job this week!

Enjoy watching Winol Life.

Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of Information Act allows people, including journalists to have the right to access any information held by public authorities, such as Government departments, local authorities, the police and hospitals. It can be any any information. This is important for the citizens to know everything they need to in order to make democracy work. By having a access to essential information they can plan for the future, as well as choose which politicians to vote for.
This is also an interesting source of information for investigative journalists. The Freedom of Information Act allows them to produces free exclusive news stories. We had one of them at WINOL a few weeks ago produced by Julie. She investigated the number of previous convictions of police officers in Winchester, by sending a request to Freedom of Information Act. 

The frustrating thing that journalists have to go through while investigating is the fact that they information can be really delayed, so the story has to be planned in advance. If a public authority receives a request for information it must make a response within 20 working days, either giving the requested information or explaining why it can not be supplied. 

There are various reason for why the information may not be supplied. That includes the possibility that the public authority does not hold the information, or the request would exceed the cost limits for the provision of free information or that the information is covered by exemptions under the Act, and therefore need to be supplied.

The information that is held by the public authority will be provided free of charge if it costs government department £600 or less to provide, or any other public authority £450 or less to provide. 

Law lecture- Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality – official secret act and test of confidentiality

Privacy - Disputed territory between Article 8 (right to private family life) and Article 10 (right to freedom of expression)
In the public interest- not just of interest to the public.

Confidentiality

Here is yet another rule to the selection of important rules that Journalists have to obtain every day of their work life while reporting on current affairs. Confidentiality is run by Common Law

Everyone is allowed to keep secrets as long as it is not in the matter of public interest ( as long as it doesn’t have an effect on the public)

If confidential secrets given to somone, that don’t affect the public were passed onto the third party without a permission then they committed breach of confidence which is a crime that may be a subject to a civil action for compensation.

If the secret information is revealed to a journalist then this has the potential to be Third Party Breach of Confidentiality.

Breach of confidence is committed when someone passes on secret information that has:
1. The necessary quality of confidence
2. There has been no permission to pass on the information
3. The detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave info.
4. The information must have been imparted in circumstances imposing an obligation of confidence

All of above must be used for the information to be confidential.

In order to stop confidential information from being published the person to whom the secret belongs to has to get a temporary injunction preventing publication of confidential material. An injunction against one media organisation is an injunction against all publishers.

Super injunctions are different. They have been broken by MPs using parliamentary privilege – and journalists using qualified privilege.

Privacy

Also known as personal secrets.

Article 8 of the human right states that everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence.  It is unacceptable to photograph anyone in a private place without their consent.

Privacy mainly affects tabloid and celebrity Journalism.

As in every other set of rules, there are expectations in the privacy code set on grounds of public interest:
1. Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety
2. Protecting public health and safety
3. Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.

Consent is an essential part in video and photo journalism. There are two types of consent. A journalist has to get one of them to be able to either film or photograph the scene/person.
1. Explicit consent: is when someone signs a written permission/ contract that allows to publish a picture or an article
2. Implicit consent: understanding of being filmed, for example in the crowed when everyone knows that the camera has a purpose to get shots of the crowed. If a person doesn’t want to be included in the shot they can just move away from it.

Public Interest

There is no legitimate public interest in knowing the whereabouts and behaviour of individuals generally in their private life despite appearing in public, regardless of their private live. A legitimate expectation of protection of one's private life is to be extended to be the criteria for assessment. A fair balance is to be struck between the right to privacy and the freedom of press

WINOL LIFE with Elizabeth Barnett

The new episode of Winol Life is now ready for you to watch. This week has been a high success compare to our last show. The organisation, preparation, and the overall outlook of the show improved dramatically. We should all be proud of our hard work and great effort.

This week we were honored to have the editor of Hampshire Life magazine on our show. Elizabeth Barnett kindly took out of her busy schedule to join our on-sofa discussion. Elizabeth was very nice and chatty, which made the show look so professional, relaxed and informal, which is what we are aiming for. She gave a very good constructive criticism to our features reporters but also gave all of us a really good advice on how to get into the industry after we graduate. I think many of us felt more confident about the future after our lovely chat with Elizabeth.

We used a variety of shots this time. We used 4 cameras instead of 3. The fourth camera was a PD170 that we had plug into an OB box outside the studio to make it work. That camera was set especially for the short yoga show. I thought it would be a good idea to have one of the presenters demonstrate yoga. I thought it would look like one of big morning shows such Daybreak. We also used radio mics, rather than long poles with gun mics on the top of them. The studio as a whole took a long time to set up, as in terms of production I would consider this show to be the most complicated one out of all the other things we do, which is Sportsweek and the news bulletin.

I also slightly changed the style of WINOL LIFE, trying to give it a little bit more character and making it look like a professional chat show. I knew we were lacking something last time we filmed it. This time I added headlines- a 'coming up on the show' character, which I think is essential to keep the audience interested and intrigued. I also made new WINOL LIFE strap lines for the in studio guest as well as the reporters, which I think also looks quite effective, but please do give your opinions.

The problem of the sofas:
THERE IS NO PROBLEM! No longer, anyway. We had a slight issue in the first show, as there were no sofas on the campus available for us till I spoke to Tommy Geddes, and who kindly let us borrow the sofas for the first show. However, he wanted us find out own sofas after that which was impossible. We even tried to get some money which would allow us to go to IKEA and choose our own perfect sofas, but that wasn't an option. After negotiating with Tommy, he allowed us have the sofas for the rest of this term, so for the next 3 episodes of WINOL LIFE

Elizabeth arrived at 1.30 and I took her to the news room where our WINOL LIFE team was waiting to meet her. I introduced her to everyone and showed her around our news rooms. Soon after we went through the script explaining what the show was going to look like. We explained the questions that we were going to ask her about her and we also showed her our features packages to help her get an idea of what feedback she would be giving live in the studio.

Once we were in the studio we didn't have any technical difficulties in the gallery (Hallelujah!) therefore the show went smoothly and fairly   quickly. Elizabeth is a natural speaker so she seemed like the task of giving feedback was a simple task and she did it brilliantly.

The post production was a simple process once again. The show was 15 minutes long and my aim was to have only 13 minutes which would be simple to upload onto, whereas 15 minutes is too long and we would use the good quality like last time and I wanted to avoid that. Cutting over 2 minutes seemed almost impossible. But with Chris' help I managed to cut out the most unnecessary bits.

Overall, brilliant show and brilliant production work so WELL DONE everyone and thank you for your hard work.



Hope you enjoy the show, please leave comments, critics and thoughts.

Winol 26/10. My first go at Live presenting.

Here it is. I finally found the courage to have a go at ENGLISH and LIVE presenting. Only a few people know how much of a big deal it was for me. But I can proudly say that I've done it. Tick on the list.

Only a few sentences about the bulletin:
There have been, as usual, many technical difficulties, especially when we went live. After my third link, the VT machine broke and the package didn't play, leaving me in the studio 'Add -libbing'. Fortunately, in the post production we got rid of the link and the package, leaving the bulletin looking tidy.
George directed this week. For his first time directing, he did an extremely good job. It almost felt like he has a natural talent :) So very well done for that. The production was as usually perfectly organised, which kept me calm till the very end of rehearsals. George, previously moved the deadline to 3.05, but rightly so, changed it back just 40 seconds before we went live.  It was the counting down before we went live that made me nervous. I unfortunately showed it in the first 3 links, but then the nerves went and the rest of the bulletin went smoothly.

The quality of news packages unfortunately decreased, comparing to last week's bulletin. The pictures need to be improved in packages and in headlines. They need to attract the audience, they have to be memorable. The script, of course, still needs improving. We need to use less complicated sentences and words. This week's script was in fact quite complicated and difficult to read, but it can definitely be improved in the future.

I think that's it for this week. It was an unusually enjoyable experience.

Hope you enjoyed the bulletin.!

Law Lecture, week 4 -Copyright.

Today's law lecture was taken by a guest from the BBC- Peter Hodges, who is an expert in copyright.  It is a very short, but very important chapter. Copyright protects intellectual property, which include products of other people's creativity, effort and skills. It covers music, lyrics, films, pictures, design rights, graphics, etc. For work to be under copyright protection it has to be original with lots of effort and research put in to the work. The piece of work has to be shown to someone as well; otherwise, if the work is hidden or had never been seen by anyone, then it is not protected. Copyright prevents from stealing somebody else's work. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right in the UK to: make copies of the work, issue copies to the public, perform the work in public and broadcast the work.



When it comes to Journalism, there is no copyright in facts, news, ideas or information. It is the way the fact has been expressed and the news has been presented that makes it be protected by copyright, because it involves skill and labour. 


There are numbers of cases, where a reporter CAN reproduce someone else’s work without permission and without and without infringing copyright.

1. Defence of Fair Dealing.

Coping facts or news stories from another newspaper can be seen as stealing, because of labour, skill and judgment involved into the research. A reporter can use the defence of fair dealing for reporting on current events, which will sometimes allow quoting from another newspaper.
Reporters can use facts and information from another article, as long as  they don’t use the picture used in the article, as they are excluded from fair dealing defence. The author of the article/ information has to be mentioned and has to be made available to the public.

If you write an article, or take a picture you own the copyright to the work you have done. If someone buys a copy of your work, they can look at it or read it, but they cannot make copies of it. They can sell the copy they bought to another person, but they cannot legally sell copies they make.



2.Private study or non commercial research, which is not very relevant to Journalists.

The key that makes work infringe copyright is publishing it. Researching and rewriting someone else’s work just for your own educational benefit is not a crime, as long as the work doesn’t become open to the public.

3. Criticism and reviews.

This is another exception where it is fair to have limited use of copyright in work that includes a photograph. The work must have already been available to the public before you a reporter can use this defence. This allows for reporting which quotes from books, plays, films, and broadcast when writing a criticism, story or a feature. The reporting has to be FAIR.

4. Incidental use

‘Use is incidental if copyright work is in the background or subordinate to the main focus of the work in which it is contained’. It is an exception when a reporter honestly had no idea that the work was a subject to copyright. This exception can be deliberate in any case, except in the case of music.

Who owns the Copyright?

The very first owner of a copyright work created after 31 July 1989 is the author. However, in the case of work done in the course of employment- the employer is the owner. 


The copyright lasts for the life time of the author plus the next 70 years. When it comes to music it is the same but after author's death there are 50 more years of protection.

REFERENCES:
McNae's - Essential Law For Journalists

BBC College of Journalism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/collegeofjournalism/law/copyright/)

Media Law, Week 3, Qualified Privilege and other defences.

There are numbers of defences that journalists can take in order to avoid a costly libel action against their stories.

One of them, justification, as a defence means that a journalist has to prove in court that the libel statement is true. To justify their point they need to use relevant evidence. The reason for why justification is a difficult defence is because the claimant who started a defamation action against the publisher doesn’t have to prove whether the statement is true or false, it is in a publisher’s business to make sure they have a proof to defend their story.

Fair comment, however protects published articles which were just pure comments, rather that factual information. In order to be able to seek this defence, the comment has to be recognisable as opinion. It should not be perceived as factual allegation, but it has to be based on true facts. The subject commented on has to be a matter of public interest.

Qualified Privilege is a type of defence again libel taken in defamation actions. It is also available in situations where it is considered important that the facts should be known in the public interests. There are two types of QP: Statutory qualified privilege and Common Law qualified privilege.

Statutory qualified privilege can be used in certain circumstances, such as court reporting, public and council meetings reporting and reports of police statements. The published report has to be accurate, fair and free of malice. There is also a requirement for Statutory qualified privilege which states that the matter published must be a matter of public concern, the publication of which is for the public benefit.

However, Privilege at common law can be applied in situations where the law protects defamatory statements that are untrue, for the convenience of the public. For example, it applies when a person makes a defamatory statement in the performance of legal, moral, or social duty to a person who has corresponding duty or interest in receiving it.

The Reynold’s defence includes 10 points, which protect published material, which was then taken as defamatory, provided that it was a matter of public interest and that it was the product of ‘responsible journalism’

10 point test includes:

1.The case has to be serious- the more serious allegation, the more protection will be applied.

2.The nature of information

3.The source of information

4.The status of information

5.Evidence is essential

6.The urgency of the matter

7.A comment from the claimant is needed

8.The tone of the article- it has to be written in a balanced language

9.It has be to published immediately

10.A claimant has to have a chance to deny it.

The Galloway case:

The Daily Telegraph lost the case after making serious defamatory allegations against George Galloway, including elements of malice with no Justification, comment or QP. The reason for losing the case was that journalists failed the ’10 point test’, mainly because the paper did not put all its allegations to Galloway for him to deny before the information was published.

Here are just rough notes taken in the last law lecture. I also used McNae's- Essential Law For Journalists to help me write and understand the notes.