You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you!
Journalism’s Law and Ethics. How to stay clear or prepare for a libel case filed against you.
Welcome to our first stop on the tour. Post number one. Before we begin to specify our journalism tour to primarily football, it’s important we cover an aspect of a topic that applies to all forms of journalistic outlets. Law and Ethics.
Without a basic understanding of this, a journalist can easily find themselves ‘held libel to a case’ for something they may have published without realising. At this point, some of you may be asking what does terminology such as ‘libel’ mean and how do I avoid being held accountably?
Let me explain.
You can only be held libel for a published piece of work you’ve written. Libel is a word used to describe a defamatory statement made in a permanent form. For example, an article published either online or in print. This could be something as simple as a picture used that you may own the rights to. However, if it’s visably clear to identify a face within a crowd, this may leave you libel!
A statement can only be revered to as defamatory if it has an effect on an individual’s/organisation’s reputation and seen to potentially cause serious harm to them moving forward i.e. financially. The burden of proof is always the responsibility of the journalist/publisher to make. The defendant must always be prepared with a defence to show why they felt the need to share this publication with the world.
You must always be extra careful whilst publishing any original content because if you are subject to a libel case and lose, you have to pay for law representatives from both parties!
So the moment you’ve all been waiting for. How do you prevent/defend a libel case held against you?
Areas to take care with whilst preparing a publication to prevent a potential libel issue.
Innuendo — Whilst you may be looking to cleverly picture your story without the use of a particular set of words, if it can still be clearly identified and seen as defamatory, you may have a big cheque to write.
Identification — Firstly there’s mistaken & inaccurate identification. Always know the face pictured across your publication. Make sure you have the correct permission or the person is made aware. Don’t associate someone with something that isn’t true. Secondly, ‘Jigsaw’ identification. An identity issue more commonly addressed with words. When you may be looking to be talking about a person without revealing their identity, it’s important you don’t give enough information for the reader to ‘put the pieces together’ to clearly work out who it is. Presume your audience are all geniuses, be clever with your words
Use of Words — This starts with the headline or caption. It’s important to only use words when they are applicable to a topic and not to misuse it. For example, danger words, when describing a death as a ‘murder’ without confirmed evidence. Even if it was commonly known without official confirmation, this word can not be used and only be referred to as a death at the current point. State the facts with the correct selection of words.
Juxtaposition — The layout of your publication needs to fit with other surrounding text or materials. It’s important you don’t lay two publications together that don’t create a whole new meaning between them without you realising! Make sure from afar, you can make out what headline or image is correctly placed with its text.
How to set up the perfect defence.
Truth — You solemnly (swear/affirm) that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The truth always wins!
Honest opinion — A defence of your ‘own’ opinion or review. It must be recognisable as comments and based on true facts … ALWAYS.
Privilege — Allowing the right of knowledge to be made aware to the public of particular meetings or events. Examples of this include parliamentary debates and company meetings. Just because some may not want information commonly known doesn’t mean it isn’t allowed.
Innocent dissemination defence — A defence that was for whoever wasn’t the author, editor or publisher of the defamatory statement. It can also account for someone who removed the problem once made aware or a user that accepts the blame and will be sued. Once you’ve published your worked, your unable to backtrack your steps so be careful!
One of the biggest cases to be brought into the limelight in recent times involves multi award winning actress Rebel Wilson, who had a number of false claims and information published about her in 2017. Rebel and her lawyers battled this case as she’d seen these articles to have had a detrimental effect on her career.
As a result of taking this to court, she won £2.7 million in damages following the lengthy defamation case against Bauer Media. It is said to be Australia’s largest-ever payout for defamation in history.
“Far too often I feel the tabloid magazines and the journalists that work for them don’t abide by professional ethics. I can only describe their conduct as disgusting and disgraceful and I’m very glad that the jury has agreed with me. And with the unanimous and overwhelming verdict they have sent a very clear message.” Rebel Wilson
From this example, you can see the sheer amount of chaos it can cause without doing the correct research. So as a lesson to every journalist, BACK UP THE FACTS and keep all evidence to potentially prepare to prove your innocence. It’s ok to publish the correct news as long as it’s done in a professional manner.
With that concluded, we shall now make our way onto post number two. Don’t worry guys, if your here for the football talk, this next one involves the big round ball.
