What is the BBC doing to adapt to the digital era?

Media giants have all been subjected to this world wind of media communications in the last few years. But what problems has the BBC faced and how have they been overcome?

With more than 40,000 hours of television available each week mass audiences are no longer being connected through a central meeting ground. This is just one problem that broadcasters face – not forgetting the explosion of internet based interaction. Media organisations and professional journalists have worked hard to maintain certain ideologies and viewpoints – but are audiences now accessing their news elsewhere, starting to reject or question what they are being told?

Fran Unsworth the head of news gathering at the BBC says “I think people will always come back to us when they want trusted reliable sources. People should feel confident with being able to trust the BBC, the potential and need for public value broadcasting has never been greater. I think people generally think that new media is a threat and is going to be a problem for us – I think it’s a great opportunity. We are using new media, such as the internet and working them together. I would say it has been an evolution that has benefited media. We have used it in many productive ways and have had no real difficulty adapting. It’s made things a lot easier”

The BBC is the most successful public broadcasting company in the UK. Since the start of the digital switch over back in 2008, the pressure has hit hard as the BBC prepare to make some changes in order to keep up with the forever changing and fast moving digital era. That’s not the only problems that face the BBC, as well as the BBC’s competition with other commercial stations (ITV) and the constant the supply and demand for more programmes.

Making sure their programmes stay at an exceptionally high standard is just one of the ways in which the BBC has continued to keep its audience reach. The BBC’s website is one of the most popular websites in the world. With 17.2 million users a week the content including, news, current affairs and the weather is updated frequently as well as a specialised services section that includes the BBC Bite Size which is often used in schools to help with exam revision.

The British Broadcasting company is renowned for supporting its British interests and sharing them with the rest of the world. To ensure its programming and aims to; inform, educate and entertain are kept the BBC has devised many strategies to keep its audience. Back in 2005, the BBC announced thousands of jobs cuts to fund more quality programming, BBC news channel being the first of many. Because of the jobs cuts the BBC heavily relies on the work of freelance film makers and ‘private sector providers’ for its programming.

“Public broadcasting offers the best quality programmes”, said Miss Unsworth, “Yes ITV will provide programming that’s well suited for individuals but the BBC will provide its audiences with a nationally shared TV experience!”
The BBC are essentially legally obliged to commission a minimum of 25% of its programming from independent production companies, “Don’t tell the bride, Life on the Transplant List and Russell Howard’s good news” are but a few of the extremely popular experimental range from the BBC.

There are reasons to believe that the BBC will not survive the digital age, with evidence to show that audiences are turning to a more complex multi-channel environment, with so much choice that viewers would rather watch a channel that matches their individual needs, interests and personality. The result is that in 2004 for the first time, ‘multi-channel television has attracted higher overall viewing figures than either BBC1 or ITV1’.

Despite the opposition of commercial channels, research has shown that the BBC still reaches 86 per cent of the population – the highest reach of any of the other big channels. The BBC always does a great job with bringing families together at Christmas. Take Christmas day in 2008 for instance, the BBC secured a resounding ratings victory with nine of the top 10 shows, at its peak reaching 14.4million people.

The rise of the internet and online sources has spiralled over the last decade resulting in a worrying decline of trust and accuracy within news reporting. Critics are now worried that the BBC will become venerable because of the values it has worked hard to maintain throughout the years is now being questioned or rejected by viewers accessing information elsewhere.

Simon Bucks associate editor at BskyB thinks that it is possible, “As long as news organisations are prepared to embrace digital technology and digital platforms and transfer their brands then people will trust them. If you look at the most successful news brands on the web, there still the same old brands you were used to seeing on old media whether on TV or in newspapers, just converted. So people are still getting their news from conventional brands. In some cases people are getting their news from what we like to call aggregators – there new brands but there just aggregated content from old media producers. Trust is all about trusting the brand and the organisations producing the news”

“I think what people are doing is not getting their hard news from newspapers anymore or not in very large numbers, it’s something people get from either rolling news channels or they get it from some form of the internet – it might be on the web itself or through mobile apps and it might be on some radio. All journalists and news organisations must understand the principle of multi-platform journalism, so that means journalists need to learn and understand how to use new media for their newsgathering but also for distribution. They need to be able to use new media to be able to get the stories, obviously understanding how Twitter, Facebook, Google and Youtube work and in what ways you can use it. Journalists now have to produce news in a variety of different formats. I would say that this is both challenges and opportunities. Now is the most exciting time to be in the business.”

So what’s next for the BBC?

Even though there is more choice in digital channels this does not always mean that there is more diversity or better programming. Many of the digital programmes are imported in from the USA because they are usually rerun that are cheap. With this in mind it is unknown as to how long the public are going to tolerate a compulsory “television tax” particularly because many people also pay for satellite or cable subscriptions such as Virgin Media and Sky. The popular service The iPlayer is a new way that the BBC has created in an event to modernise its broadcasting service, this service is also free. Some people have even gave up there television set just to watch their programmes online for free. Research shows that since the iPlayer was established more that 220 million requests have been made for programmes online.

As it stands the BBC’s future is said to look bleak as the governments long awaited proposals on the future of the BBC will reportedly enclose the conclusion that licence fee funding for all its programmes will not survive into the age of digital-only television. It is suggested that the public will be less inclined to pay the licence fee and, with the advances of digital television; people will start to become increasingly hesitant to paying a compulsory charge for a few channels that they don’t watch or don’t watch very often. The result might be that ‘as public support for the licence fee fades, so public respect and affection for the BBC may also decline’.

Critically evaluate the extent to which key challenges and opportunities facing quality political journalism in the UK democracy are comparable across on-line, print and broadcast ...


This essay will look at the different media platforms that have access to the public enabling them to maintain information about what’s going on and more importantly how it will affect them. What one must look at within these different media platforms is with so many companies now competing with each other, what lengths will they go to get you that news? Over the last couple decades socio-economic, socio-cultural and technological advances have come together to now change a journalist’s role forcing them to be able to be qualified in all fields (i.e being able to now use a camera and online skills).

Quality news platforms are constantly losing readers and audiences because of an ongoing development in technology. Because of this, across the different media companies they will become a less controlled audience and select what they what from news, such as social networking sites – they have become very popular with the younger generation.

The World Wide Web plays a substantial role in this new change. When the internet came along there was an explosion of information available to anyone, any time. This resulted in a sudden occurrence of Citizen Journalism in recent years. One may suggest that this is because of facilities like mobiles and ‘I Phone’s’ for instance, they are everywhere and at a click of a finger, information can be shared with the rest of the world. The information now available to us is not always from a professional journalist. And because of this It has now become more of the case of ‘supplier driven’ to ‘consumer driven’.

Nowadays the concern from the public, journalists and politicians’ is how such a change can be managed – if necessary can it be managed at all?

Politics play an important and substantial part in everybody’s life, continuously. Politics determines different areas across the spectrum, from what we are allowed to earn right down to how we can treat animals. As this area is important and will have an effect on not just communities and regions but also the individual. Good journalism will of course involve exposure and investigation within democracies, as well as being the key provider to the public. With the information provided to audiences across the country it also enables a closer relationship between the politician and the individual. Media format’s now allow readers and audiences to participate in online and broadcasted debates. However, with all this information freely available, a recent claim (Franklin,1997) states that it is now being reduced to the role of entertainer. It seems Politian’s are becoming televised personalities in a way.

Although before World War II the UK did not have television, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 is said to be the landmark for television in the UK for widespread public movement. Now 73 percent of the UK population owns one or more Television sets in their house hold. We can see from this that there is still a high demand for TV news, however as there are so many different news channels currently, one problem that society face is people are no longer connected through a central meeting-ground of television. In effect this means people will be consuming different ideas from TV channels resulting in different ideologies being pushed out into the public. With the fast increasing rate of technology people are now becoming fragmented, there are now so many individual selections of programmes to choose from that people are not watching the same national schedule of home-produced television programmes (when there was only for example BBC news available). On the other hand, even though there are many different channels for the audience to get their news, broadcasters will often include the same or similar stories, especially with hard news. Hard news stories are relatively easy to recognise, anything that relates to social and economical affairs. Generally, serious crime stories will be included in most news bulletins mainly the 6 o’clock bulletin.

Public Service Broadcasters have become venerable because of the values it has worked hard to maintain throughout the years is now being questioned or rejected by viewers accessing information elsewhere. Unlike channel 3 and 5 the BBC are not commercial broadcasters their aim is to provide information to the public that will be of some advantage to the nation. In a recent review from OFCOM it states “We brought forward our second review of public service broadcasting as a result of increasing pressures in the commercial broadcasting sector. This is the final statement in which we set out our recommendations to government and Parliament.” This review was brought out partially due to concerns from the public, that there will become a time when ‘trustworthy’ and ‘un bias’ information will become unavailable. They went on to say “In this review, we have focused on how to ensure the delivery of content which fulfils the public purposes and meets the needs and interests of consumers and citizens throughout the UK. Our aim has been to make recommendations that respond to and take advantage of the huge changes brought about by the transition to the digital era.”

Even within an advanced democracy, good quality journalism is essential. Well-formed journalists should be able to help their audience interpret the world around them. With this, they will help the society make the best choices to improve their state. To some that may sound like ‘good old fashion journalism’, again with advances in recent years independence and choice often has become core to audiences. Now with the increase of fragmentation people are able to formulate alternative view points. With this new ‘choice’ and selection of ideas available, it’s argued more ‘balanced news is being produced’.

It is known historically that the British newspapers became free partly because of the consequence of a struggle against state control. Mainly as a result of increase of newspaper profits, largely down to advertising, newspapers are now able to report more freely from the state. Journalists are a vital part of the flowing news media helping to build political identities. Journalists become very powerful influences in circulating political meanings. Over the years Journalists have slowly constructed a national identity, an identity that can be recognised by the rest of the world. For example, to some people poverty, war and illness may be associated with the East of world, mainly by western countries. Print is one of the oldest forms of mass-circulation and became a kind of ‘spokesman’ for Politian’s. Newspapers were under a lot of pressure with regulations from the state insisting ‘appropriate representations’ circulated the mass media.

The last ten years hasn’t been too kind the national newspapers in the UK. Many print companies worried about decline in sales, especially when the internet became ‘all the rage’. With the same information available online – for free – people are less inclined to by a newspaper. Again this emphasises that fact the readers are only selecting the parts they want to.

Even though it’s been tough for the nationals to cope with such as fast changing audience environment and new media formats it is suggested over ten years ago: “On some measures the newspapers will continue their industrial decline. But the newspapers are likely to remain the most politically interested, most politically focused, most partisan, and most potent of the mass media (Jeremy Tunstall). From this, it could be suggested that even though there are thousands of sources out there, audiences that are interested in their public well being will still continue to get their news from papers they may have been reading all their lives. One reason for this is because this information could be seen more trustworthy then something you may find of the internet for instance. This also helps maintain the ideas and view points of the reader without causing confusion or questioning what they are being told.

One way newspapers try and continue to get sales is to keep up with customer demand. This means changing and keeping up with social, economic and cultural trends. Reporting what has a high demand everywhere else on the spectrum. Unfortunately for newspapers, unlike the internet, the newspaper only has so much space. Political news can sometimes be pushed aside for celebrity news, sports or entertainment. Political news coverage in down market newspapers often disregards serious political news. Newspapers like ‘The Sun’ for example will often use colloquial language to make a more clear and refreshing presenting style for the less educated. Down market newspapers main agenda is to provide primarily entertainment news, this will often spill over onto space were political news could be mentioned. “Our main job, about 10:1, is to entertain, rather than educate. Our policy is to ‘editorialise’ ... We are less interested in party policy – we are moving towards what readers want. This is a cut-throat business and we are in a fight for survival.” (Recent: ANON)
Many newspapers answer to the constant new media threats is being able to have the content skills – basically being able to take the good out of the information they receive. Within politics, getting the right facts is very important, information should be able to be trusted, reliable and un bias.

Just like newspapers and Television, Radio has also had its fair share of threats over the last few years. In the early 1990’s radio seen its first major rival – the CD. Radio started to see demand for ‘music only’ commercial radio. This was of course a serious threat to the wide extensive news coverage on radio, consequentially meaning a threat to the democracy itself. Peter Barnard in 1998 said about the commercial sector “... now the signs are that news is more or less an option”. So if people are not exposed to the news and democracy, how can they be expected to participate fully? This was a concern from Tony Blair worrying about the low turnout of recent local elections. 16-25 year olds play a vital role in society, making decisions that are going to affect the future. Broadcasters say that their listeners report ‘irritation’. Radio has now developed skills to pick news stories almost tailored to its listeners. Once again we come to the same result - listener preference. If, for instance a music track was interrupted by news on the death of Bin Ladden, would this have the same ‘irritating’ affect that other news would? No.

Radio technologies survival is not high on the news media’s agenda but the fact there is still demand for quality professional speech-only content is. Some may say that it is essential in preserving democracy for the news media. Here we could suggest that opportunities and threats work together. How? Well, people receiving their news from all over the world from a variety of ways are subject to new views and opinions. Public service broadcasting companies are starting to support and understand different points of view, this will help the government understand and appreciate new ideas. Now, with phone-ins audiences are able to interact with politicians there and then, getting direct answers – promoting a healthy society. The concern lays with the production of the radio show/bulletin not the delivery. The concern is somewhat cultural, how the consumer prefers to get their news. Despite the extensive growth of digital TV and ‘new media’ there is still a high demand for talk radio and as mentioned before the traditional phone-in/text in options are still available and are used regularly by hundreds of thousands every year. According to the BBC, the demand for programmes containing current affairs is still soaring, with millions of hits each week.

Currently due to popular demand, the political news that one receives will be determined by what the current ‘trend’ is at the time. There is now a lot of ‘tabloidization’ within news – whatever the format. The internet’s explosion of information is seen by some as a threat and by some as an opportunity. Threats may be, as stated before the fact that good, quality Journalism is sacrificed for constant news for citizen journalists, leaked information and information that doesn’t provide any real sources. This results in the information, firstly not being able to be completely trusted by the consumer (no sense of authority) and also the quality of the journalism. A ‘citizen journalist’ using a mobile phone verses a production team from the BBC for instance. In relation to quality there is no argument. However, a good video package, including interviews, quality sound and pictures produced 6 hours after a ‘bombing’ for example, verses footage off a mobile ‘as it happens’ and then uploaded straight to the internet. It’s suggested that it depends on the type of news it is. It depends on how the audience what get their news. Depending on the type of story to compete with ‘new media’ journalists must look at what would be most beneficial. In regards to politics, from the research that I have undergone it could be fair to propose that any democratic information is still gained through official sources. People will stick pick up their local quality newspaper. Even though this information may have a hidden agenda and have some use of covert bias, the ideologies and views of the newspaper, broadcast or radio show will help maintain their perception of the country. On the other hand, people now have the choice not to just accept what they are being told and get their information else were and with the growth of internet users this is very easily done.

Overt and Covert Bias within the media

I have analysed a week’s worth of political content in the Daily Express and I have studied both the overt and covert political biases within the newspaper. I have also undergone some research to help me understand the newspapers ideologies and the affect this has on its target audience.

Firstly I am going to look at the main strands of overt political bias within my paper. Overt bias is generally unhidden – some might say ‘obvious’ bias. The ‘Daily Express’ could be seen as a very right wing newspaper and may therefore, when writing political articles for example, include certain ideologies that their audience is familiar with. The general public often require their newspaper to report about politics in a way that is comprehensive, relatable and easy to understand. In general this is why readers stick to the same newspaper or format of receiving news, as some articles may be phrased in a way which makes it difficult to interpret, which leads to assumptions being made on the pivotal points of the said article.
On the 14th of April, the headline read ‘Tax and Pension Joy for Millions’ and in this article in particular the ratio from expert comments to hard news is reasonably balanced. An example of this ratio would be the short paragraph on the front of the paper, which continues on to the next page, then at the end of the article it emphasises an opinion page towards the back of the newspaper, showing which elements should be the readers’ priority. What is included in the article, for instance, certain wording and the use of selected quotes, often have other meanings of their own which can emphasise certain points. For example, this article mentions that Chancellor George Osborne said earlier this year that ‘his officials were studying the possibility of cancelling a 1p fuel duty rise in April’ but then goes on to say (also ending the article), ‘but he has refused to confirm his plans ahead of budget day’. How this article has ended could suggest overt bias as it seems the papers ‘wording’ suggests doubt in the chancellor’s decision.

In order to communicate, people will always come to their own conclusions about what has been presented to them. This was made more apparent because it was mentioned Mr. Osborne may cancel a 1p fuel rise, however when ending the article, stating that the chancellor would not confirm this could suggest that there is a chance that it may not happen at all. When the media print an article or inject any message into the public, people will draw two inferences: the language that has been used to tell the story and our knowledge about the world. The facts which we understand about the world could continually be consumed through this one paper – therefore certain ideologies could be adopted. Some mediums have stereotypical view points of the world; consequently the paper will only include what the public would normally expect in such circumstances.
What do we expect? Well within any political party most people will question what they are being told. With the coalition government and many officials not sticking to their word, it would be fair to make the assumption that people would reject Mr. Osborne’s ‘idea’.

Another controversial story of the week is about Health Secretary Andrew Lansley breaking his pledge. This story is situated on the fourth page of the newspaper and offers a great deal of both hard news and opinion; there are many quotes featured from health officials expressing their anger about where the money is coming from. Mr. Lansley pledged, before he came into power, to put £2 million into a new cancer drug fund. However after a letter from the NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh was found, explaining that £140 million of this was taken out of existing budgets within UK Primary Care Trust. Some of the ‘selected’ quotes here are quite obviously bias and completely negative towards Mr. Lansley. For example, a professor said “I feel ¬completely betrayed. This means other people will be suffering for cancer patients. This is not what we were led to believe” and another saying “So much for new money for cancer treatments when what he’s doing is ¬taking services away from other patients with long-term conditions. This is yet more evidence of David Cameron saying one thing on the NHS, and then doing another”. These are just two examples of the negative quotes throughout the story, there are no quotes included that balance the story, just quotes on the outrage of professionals and patients.

On the other hand, covert bias is bias that is less visible or less obvious. In many forms of media, especially newspapers, it would be appropriate to presume that they will rely on covert bias to inject ideologies, keeping the audiences with a certain viewpoint, without making it so obvious. However, having said that people will create different meanings from a single word, the message that arises may differ for each individual. In theory the concept of language as a tool of deciphering covert bias could be argued to be more blatant than first apparent, language is merely a tool and the meaning of the said word cannot be hidden as the meaning of the word lies alone in how it is used.
Could we say that there is such a thing as hidden meaning? Or is it the way we as an individual interpret what is there – making us assume there is a hidden meaning? Alternatively, what must be taken into consideration from this is that newspapers could find a quote and make maximum use of this in an article, which could help contribute to an idea they may have or have had for a long time. Often what they include and, equally important, what they don’t, can suggest hidden agendas resulting in covert bias. In the same week an article about students looking for work abroad, as there are ‘not enough prospects’ here in the UK. This suggests that with the other articles in the newspapers throughout the week, regarding the cutting of jobs and rises in other aspects of the economy, this could be down to the government and officials not sticking to pledges which is ‘forcing’ the public to turn to alternative means of employment. This article includes mainly hard news facts and plenty of statistics; the wording also seems quite negative and doesn’t offer unconventional opinions. For example, wording such as ‘lack’, ‘unemployment’ and ‘forcing people out’ are used throughout the article. There are no public or professional comments what so ever, unlike stated above were the newspaper emphasises an opinions page. It could be suggested that as newspapers tend to assume that the reader is somewhat aware of similar stories, they tend to exclude some information.
A trend that has developed over the course of the week shows that articles that include negative stories about the government seem to be less informative. On average the editorial piece contains 300-350 words, as stated above the story about Mr. Osborne cutting the 1p increase made the front page and was at least 600 words, including images. Sunday 20th March, ‘The Sunday Express’ paper included an article about the ‘potential’ MP’s pay freeze but at this stage it has only been planned and will be voted upon this Monday. The mere 150-200 words on this topic suggest that the newspaper is weary of making this a pivotal story as there is a chance that the validity of the article could become questionable. This could be seen as covert bias as the absence of information can be as imperative as the information that has been omitted.

To conclude, it is reasonable to argue that if a profound absence of information exists within any article, then that is just as relevant as the information that has been printed and unquestionably contributes to different degrees of bias. In regards to the details provided within the articles, it could be found that certain words or selected quotes often depict the meaning of the story, helping to contribute to the consumers’ ideas and viewpoints of what is being read.

 

CONTEMPT OF COURT - for journalists

“On the one hand, journalists are given important protection from contempt of court, providing their reports of legal proceedings are ‘fair, accurate, and contemporaneous’. On the other hand, this freedom to report fully can easily be sidestepped because courts have at their disposal the power to make various orders, the effect of which is to restrict what may be contained in journalists’ reports.”

In this essay I am going to discuss the statement above in regards to contempt of court. I will start by providing a brief outline of what contempt of court is following this I will then start to explain the law and how it can affect a professional journalist while reporting on legal proceedings.

Contempt of court is really put in place to protect the legal proceedings that happen within a court of law. The main concern of the law of contempt of court is to preserve the integrity of the legal process . Having this law in place gives the high court (as magistrates do not have the power to punish contempt of court by publication), the powers to punish any person(s) that interferes in any way with the proper functioning of the court system.
“Anyone who, for example, is disruptive or threatening in a courtroom can be punished immediately for contempt, by being sent by the magistrates or judge to the court’s cells, and in some cases subsequently to jail – because contempt is a criminal offence.”

Journalists should be both wary and educated with specific sections of the contempt of court act 1981, one section in particular is section 1 – this part is in relation to journalists and the media. Within this section it states that publishing material or information that could create a great and substantial risk of prejudice and adversely affect a fair trial within active legal proceedings is contempt of court.
Such information can be in all forms of the following material; written, spoken, broadcast and any other forms of communication that is accessible to the public. The media has the power to influence the jury through its many mediums and with online resources becoming more popular archive material is also at easy access. In some cases, were facts are for example brutal or shocking this can often lead the information to be ‘memorial facts’, in such cases as the John Venables case archive material when ever his name would be mentions would be easy to access, this is of course extreme cases.

Although there are restricting areas within this law, for example section 2 of this act there are areas the journalist can report while the case is still active. A case becomes active when the person is a) arrested b) issue of warrant or arrest c) issue of a summons, or d) a person being charged orally. The people that have been arrested can be named, however wording here is important. For example you CAN say “John Smith, from Preston was arrested yesterday in relation to a burglary”, you COULDN’T say “A burglar was arrested today...” as well as being defamatory this kind of statement is also assuming the guilt of someone. A journalist would also be in contempt if they included any names of any victims within a case. Juveniles (anyone under the age of 18) are given full anonymity at all times according to section 49 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. There are other facts that can be reported that wouldn’t cause any prejudice towards a potential jury, this could be where the crime took place or what time. When the case in active, the defendant(s) must been seen by the court and if applicable the jury as guilty. Any one in court should been seen as a first time offender and other offences should not be taken into consideration – hence why it is important that the media do no publish such information.
In the case of a journalist having a report including any of the above and it being published there are some protection in the form of defence. Section 3 of the act basically is the defence that the journalist simply did not know that the proceedings were active when the report was published. As with all defences the journalist would have to provide evidence in court that they did not know. In addition to that, the information provided in articles must come from accurate sources and it is the journalist’s responsibility to select information from appropriate sources. Normally any source with authority would be valid.

If a journalist is accused of contempt than they must prove that “all reasonable care was taken” when the report if written up just to protect themselves from being in contempt. To allow a journalist to have full advantage of section 3 they would have to be sure that the case was definitely not active, as it states in McNae’s “a journalist reporting a crime story must check regularly, especially prior to a deadline, with the police to discover whether there has been an arrest or charge” , as said above when the case does become active this is when reporting restrictions come into place.

As stated in the title above “journalists are given important protection from contempt of court, providing their reports are ‘fair, accurate, and contemporaneous’.” Section 4 of the Act provides another defence it states that a person cannot be found guilty of breaching the ‘strict liability rule’ if their report is of a court hearing that was held in public, a fair and accurate report of the public hearing, and if it was published contemporaneously . This defense does not, however, protect those journalists publishing reports on private court proceedings. If for example, the report was on a private hearing then this would not be in contempt under The Administration of Justice Act 1960, exceptions to this would be if the case involved children or the report gave details of mental health e.t.c

Section 5 of the contempt of Court Act 1981 is another defense that may be used by journalists. This simply is the defense for discussions in good faith of public affairs were the risk of prejudice is merely incidental to the discussion , basically meaning it would be considered to be in the general public’s interest.

Journalists should be well educated about both the law as a whole and also the defences in which they could use in they were found to be in contempt. As well as this they should also be aware of the orders that various courts can make that will effect certain restrictions and news reports.
Also within section 4 of the contempt of court act is an order for the report and its information to be postponed. Having said that, if there is no section 4 order made then it is very unlikely that it can be in contempt, although as it states in McNae’s “...it may incur the displeasure of the judge if the information is disclosed which the jury ought not to be made aware of before the end of the trail” . As stated before an example of this would be when the media can deliberately mention certain facts that will emphasis certain issues.
Courts can also impose a section 11 order. This gives the courts the power to allow a name or other matter to be withheld from the public, to prohibit the name of the publication of that name or matter in connections with the proceedings, as appears to the court to be necessary for the purpose of which it was withheld .
To conclude this essay, I feel I have included all judicial order that I consider most relevant and significant to journalists. I have covered what the dangers are when reporting any court case, what would be allowed and what wouldn’t. I have also illustrated what could happen if a journalist were to be in contempt and what defenses they may use. It’s also important to remember certain powers which courts have that will affect journalistic reports.