Law for Journalists Freedom of Information

The following notes have been taken from "McNae's Essential Law for Journalists" (20th Ed)

Freedom of Information Act (2000)

The Freedom of Information Act was a New Labour policy objective and came in to effect in 2005. This was the UK's first general right of access to information held by government departments and other public authorities in the UK. It makes it mandatory on a public authority to disclose whether or not it has the information being requested. However it isn't necessarily easy to use and a user of the Act must be prepared to argue for the 'public interest' justification for information to be shared.

The authorities must supply the information requested without any financial charge for finding and collating it; that is if meeting the request costs them no more than £600 (national government) or £450 (local councils & other types of authorities).

In total there are around 100,000 major and minor bodies in the public sector that are covered by the Act. However there are some that are exempt from the Act, meaning that they do not have to respond to a Freedom of Information request. These include the UK's security and intelligence agencies- MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Courts and tribunals are also exempt.

So how does it work? Well a 'public authority' must respond to the request within 20 days of receiving it; supplying the information or explaining why it cannot be supplied.

Reasons why information will NOT be supplied:

• The public authority does not hold the information in which case this should be made clear
• The request would exceed the cost limits (see above)
  
• The information is exempt under the Act e.g. the information is held in confidence or concerns national security

The motive of the request, however, should not play a part in the authority's decision on whether is can provide the information or not.

Section 16 of the Act requires public authorities to give someone who has requested or is proposing to request information "advice and assistance so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so".

They should tell you before you make the request what information, of the type that you want, is available. They should also give you guidance to avoid your request breaching the cost limit for such information to be provided without charge.

Some exemptions are absolute. The public authority doesn't have to give a reason for not disclosing the information other than stating that it is exempt.

Some exemptions are qualified meaning the public authority must give reasons and have applied the 'public interest test' to justify its refusal to provide information.

Public Interest Factors:

• Furthering the understanding and participation in the public debate of the day
• Promoting accountability and transparency in the spending of public money
• Allowing individuals and companies to understand decisions made by public authorities affecting their lives
• Bringing to light information affecting public health and safety.
  

WINOL - our progress so far!

Wow, two weeks worth of bulletins have gone by already! Well I'm sure you can tell from the lack of updating my blog that I've been swept off my feet with work so allow me to explain whats been going on....

WINOL- bulletin number two.

They main thing that sticks in my memory from this bulletin is the fact that I had to stand in as director because Leanne was unfortunately struck down with the flu! I was asked to do so with only a short amount of time remaining before the bulletin was due to be recorded and I had to say I was very nervous! I'd previously been the director for our news bulletins in year two but we had the luxury of three weeks to work on these!!!

Luckily the bulletin went well with only a couple of slip ups. I was quite happy with my performance but I could have improved it by using some of my time to ask the news team to describe the stories to me so I knew what we were working with. I also need to learn not to panic at times but I thought I remained fairly cool in the live bulletin- especially when we had a baby babbling away in the gallery just behind me!!!!

As I said the broadcast went well with the stories showing clear improvements from last week. Everyone worked well as a team and we were all happy with the results.


We were lucky to have Andy Steggall of Sky Sports and ITV to come and be our guest editor. He offered us some really good professional advice such as the need for our links to be longer and being aware of moving the guest from the set when we were live. He was really positive about our bulletin and I think he gave a good boost to the team's moral!

During this week I also began working on the 'barker' - this is the banner at the top of our news page that draws people's attention to the features. More often than not magazines' and newspapers' barkers comply to the same model:

• Win
• Free
• Sex/Glamour

As long as the baker contains these words then it will be successful in catching people's attention and drawing them in to the content.

To make the barker Chris introduced me to 'Adobe Fireworks'- a programme similar to 'Photoshop'. It is very complex and requires a lot of patience to use. Because of this Chris did most of the work whilst I observed and made notes. My job was to establish with the Features Editor, Alice Rimes, what would be placed in the barker. It was also my job to find the photos and to make sure that they were legal to use. Using photos from places such as Wikipedia is safe as it has a Creative Commons licence. To find out more about Creative Commons visit: http://creativecommons.org/about/what-is-cc. We mostly used our own photos though.

To sum up I learnt a lot this week and was looking forward to the next week!

WINOL- bulletin number three.

This week there seemed to be a far more laid back and relaxed atmosphere within the news room and I have to say this was a bit unnerving. I wondered where our buzz had gone!

We did have a fair few technical difficulties this week which would inevitably make this a bit a bogus bulletin. First the tape deck in the studio decided to eat our tapes and refused to spit them back out without force and by this point the tapes were wrecked. This meant that any recording for our feature, sports and listings channels that usually happened on Tuesdays would have to wait until the following day. So I think some people felt at a bit of a loss that day and didn't have much to do.

In this time I did some further work on the barker. This time I used the previous one as a template and chose to only change a couple of the images. This still proved to be hard work as I had to, again select the correct images, cut them out, ensure the edges looked smooth and then add a shadow effect to the make them stand out from the page. This was the final result:

I'm very keen to continue working on this as I want to be able to perfect my skills on such a complex programme. I also want to learn how to use 'Flash' as this enables us to put the barker on to the web site so this is my aim for next week!

Anyway on to the day of broadcast. The tape deck was luckily fixed but this meant we had three items to film, edit and put up on the website before run throughs were due to begin for the bulletin. Luckily this happened and I have to say that there were clear improvements on people's delivery to camera. Glenn Hutt's listings piece was done in one shot this week as his diction and confidence has improved greatly!

This week Matt Clifford was using ENPS to construct the the script and running order. This is an advanced programme that many professionals use and it makes the job easier. However the final layout was new and there was an air of confusion amongst the team when these were landed in our laps 30 minutes before recording. Because of this there seemed to be a chunk missing on the auto prompt which lead to a mistake in our bulletin. Hopefully these problems won't happen next week and can be easily resolved!

As well as an issue with scripts and the auto prompt, there were technical difficulites with the microphone and the computer running the VTs.

To sum up it all seemed to go wrong even though most of it seemed to be out of our hands! This week's lesson: technology will always let you down, so be prepared!!!

Oh and just to add we were lucky to have another professional editor this week! Chris Ship, ITV's Political Correspondent, was a great help when it came to writing links and editing the script. He also gave some good advice to the presenter and it was great to have him about!

When I met Denise Van Outen...

...I was put on the spot and told to invent a show with three features plus an interview with Denise herself in a ridiculously small amount of time with a few people I'd never met before. All of this was part of a "Celebrity Masterclass" competition we'd won with our Premier 21 accounts.

Here are the results.....

Another WINOL update

This week was the official first live broadcast of our news bulletin for Winchester News Online (WINOL) and despite a couple of technical glitches it was very successful.

Roles were changing and swapping again as everyone helped each other with various tasks which is brilliant as everyone gets a chance to try something different and learn something new. I introduced Claire (last week's presenter) to the autocue and taught her how to use it whilst taking on a new role myself as camera operator. There is a lot of pressure and responsibility on the person who works the auto cue and I feel this is often over looked by other people. I wonder if that is the case in the professional world? Anyway Claire did a good job, however she seemed eager to pass the responsibility back to me for this week's bulletin! Perhaps we'll encourage another person to have a go on Wednesday.

My attention turned to the features team on broadcast day as we discussed how we could pull in viewers to the web site. We came up with a few ideas for competitions, one in particular called "Date with fate". This involved printing out a set of random dates and handing them out to students on campus. The person who had the corresponding date to the website won three tickets to that evening's bop. Simple and effective. I understand that Paul Carrett's "How many sweets in the jar" competition is also proving incredibly popular which is excellent!

Our viewing figures are good and according to Friday's figures we rank 822th in the Alexa rankings which are set to rise after more search engine optimisation (SEO) and publicity. This means we are currently getting more traffic than the Hampshire Chronicle! Our next aim is to beat the Basingstoke Gazette who are currently 755th. Lets see if we can beat it this week!

Take a look for yourself:
www.winol.co.uk

Calorie guide set to rise!

ATTENTION ALL FOOD LOVERS!!

According to the papers today the government's recommended daily calorie intake could be wrong! The guide used for healthy eating and to aid those who are dieting has been set at 2000 for women and 2500 for men for the past 20 years.

The good news is that it might go up! So those of us who have opted for that chocolate ice-cream dessert or the extra glass of wine can now enjoy guilt free! According to the papers, a report from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition claims that the calorie guide could be raised by 16%. For a man that means consuming an extra 400 calories which is the equivalent of an average sized cheeseburger.

The new figure is a result of researchers discovering better ways for the body to burn off fat during exercise.

However as much as this may sound good to some of us it does raise concerns over how this may be perceived by those who are overweight and what affect this could have on their health as it could send out the wrong message.

Top nutritionists only advise people to eat more if they are going to exercise more given the current obesity levels which currently predicts that 33% of women and 32% of men will be clinically obese within four years.

The commitee's suggestions will be considered during a 14 week consultation before final recommendations are made.

Law for journalists- Investigative journalism.

(Notes taken from Chris Horrie's lecture and web notes)

This week's lecture covered investigative journalism and the legal issues that surround it.

Investigative journalism is different from normal journalism as it deeply investigates a single topic of interest and doesn't have to follow the normal "news agenda" as the journalist can pick their own agenda. The usual topics that are investigated are political corruption, crime or scandals.

We learnt about the famous french novelist Emile Zola who is known as the "father of investigative journalism". He is well known for his graphic and powerful novels but particularly known for successfully setting free the french army general, Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus had been used as a scapegoat for France losing the war against Prussia and was wrongly convicted of treason for which he received a life imprisonment sentence. Zola investigated and published a 4000 word article containing the details of how it was all a scandal. It was known as a landmark day for journalism.

The key to producing a safe piece of investigative journalism is to ensure that it is absent of any malice. This type of journalism must not be an excuse to seek revenge on somebody and you mustn't becoming personally involved. Always stick to your agenda.

The journalists main defence when publishing an investigative piece is that it is of 'public interest'. According to Mr Justice Eady "it is the rock on which we stand" i.e. its a key defence for journalists.

Interesting fact:

PEOPLE'S RUBBISH COULD BE YOUR TREASURE!! Did you know that there is no law protecting your rubbish? So if someone decided to do some investigative journalism they could route through your bin and use whatever they find to build their story or sell to a newspaper! A famous character known for this is 'Benji the Bin-man" who has often gone through celebrities' bins and found key documents which have been involved in court cases.

WINOL - Dummy editions summary

This Wednesday was the second dummy run edition of WINOL (Winchester News Online). There are still areas that need to be worked on but there is a clear improvement from last week.

Last week there was a lot of issues regarding lack of attendance which obviously put a lot pressure on the people that were in the newsroom trying to compile the bulletin. However this was greatly improved this week through the editors organising their teams better and people committing more of their time to making the project a success. There was a clear sense of team work and together we were able to get the bulletin out on time with all the content!

The main issue that cropped up last week was the fact that we didn't receive people's packages in time and therefore had black holes throughout the bulletin where their VTs should have been. Given the fact that television is all about the pictures this was an obvious mistake that we had to avoid making again!!!

This week we did avoid making that same mistake and everyone did really well in making and editing their packages in time to feature in the bulletin. The packages were also of better quality although there are still some sound issues that need to be sorted.

As part of the production team I experienced a lot of stress in the first week whilst trying to write the script. I didn't receive any links from the reporters and had to write the entire thing myself (with the help of Claire and Matt) without knowing much about the stories that we were running. However I was quite pleased with the final script and I think Claire was comfortable reading it whilst presenting it for the first time. However this week the script wasn't as strong due to the reporters writing their links for print rather than considering the differences that are needed for television. This will be an issue that I will raise with the editors to make sure that the reporters are baring this in mind and I will also talk to the production team to make sure that as editors we all pick up on this and don't allow it through to the auto prompt.

Another highlight of Wednesday was Ian Anderson visiting us again and agreeing to be our guest editor. He walked around the newsroom and spent a lot of time talking to everyone and helping out, trying to pass on as much of his professional advice as possible. He was quite positive about the final outcome and I think this was quite a boost for the team's moral.

Technology let us down a bit this week but hopefully these issues will be sorted for next week's edition which will be the official launch day. This means there will be a lot of pressure on getting everything right but hopefully everyone will work well as a team again and help to make it a success!

Sesame Street is 40 years old today!

"Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away"....the beloved 'Sesame Street' that graced its presence throughout most of our childhoods celebrates it's 40th anniversary today!

The programme, made by the Children's Television Workshop, is still running to this day.

'Sesame Street' first aired back in November 1969. The series has produced over 4,200 episodes and is one of the longest running programmes in history.

The programme is well known for its 'Muppets' characters, created by Jim Henson, with many still being iconic/fashionable figures to grown ups such as myself!

The use of puppets in a children's television programme seems to be a rare treat now as animation appears to be taking over. I would love to see 'Sesame Street' run for another 40 years and hope that children of future generations would be able to enjoy it as much as I have.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Disney Pixar's 'Up'- a film for all ages...

Do you remember that magical feeling you used to get when you watched the "Disney classics" as a child? Films such as 'Cinderella' where you craved to have a fairy god mother? Or 'Aladdin' where you wished you could have a flying carpet AND a genie?! Where the story lines left you feeling warm and fuzzy inside? I used to think that this feeling was genuinely impossible to recapture due to my childish rose coloured glasses falling off many years ago and thus producing my cynical, pessimistic views of the world and life in general. However all of this changed this weekend on my viewing of Disney Pixar's latest film 'Up'.


To sum up the plot quickly, 'Up' is about a grumpy old man, Carl Fredricksen, who attempts to honour his dead wife's childhood wish by moving their house to a place in South America- Paradise Falls. He does this by attaching thousands of helium balloons to his house and using it as an airship. On the way however he discovers he is not alone as Russel, a "Wilderness Explorer" who is trying to assist the elderly to earn his final merit badge, has stowed away. There's a load of comedy, adventure and drama along the way as the unlikely duo discover their new world together.

I had seen very little of the trailer before I went to see the film but I expected it to have nothing on my childhood experience of Disney - how very wrong I was! The main thing that impressed me greatly was how the narrative didn't patronise it's child based audience. It didn't shy away from covering real life issues such as how some women are not able to have babies or the fact the it is inevitable that we will all die.

The storyline is incredibly touching and the film has been beautifully put together with Pixar producing yet another amazing animation. Watching the film in 3D also adds to the fun!!

To sum 'Up', this film is a classic Disney tale, combined with fantastic animation to bring you a superb story about dreams, comedy, adventure and love! Go and see it- I guarantee you won't regret it!

"facebook users spend three solid days a year on the site" ...I really thought it would be more

According to the Telegraph this morning, the average facebook user has spent 70 hours and 26 minutes on the site in the last 12 months.

This figure surprises me as I know many a young facebook addict and they must spend at least half an hour to an hour on the site every day, including myself. Not neccessarily doing anything on it, but its there running in the background for no good reason really. Its sad, I know, but its a highly addictive distraction. So from this experience I was expecting the figure to be at least 100 hours.

On another note the article I'm referring to is of poor quality. The sub-headline is confusing due to poor grammar and there are far too many figures and stats dotted about it that make a hungover journo such as myself switch off within 5 seconds of reading it. Was there not anything more exciting happening in the world of technology Emma Barnett?

A controversial matter- drugs

Shocking news this weekend as the government's chief drug advisor has been sacked. Professor David Nutt was told to resign by Home Secretary Alan Johnson after he'd criticised government policies.

Nutt criticised the government for rejecting the advice that Cannabis should not be reclassified to B and that Ecstasy should be lowered to class B. He also accused the government of "distorting" and "devaluing" scientific research. He pointed out that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal substances such as LSD and cannabis.

According to the guardian the government now face a furious back lash from top scientists because of this, in my view, highly unfair and unjustified decision. The decision seems to completely contradict the idea behind having an independent body as the advisory council.

The government are not a group of scientists hence why they need these people to provide them with accurate scientific evidence on the effect and harm of drugs. David Nutt provided them with this and just because he has stated the complete truth, which has made the government look bad, he gets the sack. He has a duty and a right to provide the public with this information.

The government need to rectify their decision and take a proper look at the classification system because at the moment their apparent "war on drugs" is failing and its because they aren't listening to the right people.

They seem to pander to the media's whipped up frenzies such as the case of Lea Betts and her death which was connected to Ecstasy. This created a unnecessary major moral panic. However the true facts and figures about these things always seem to fade in to the background which leads the public to think the worst about "illegal substances" rather than question exactly why they have been made illegal. It should be the governments job to reassure people that this is not a common reaction to Ecstasy as David Nutt has done so by pointing out that horseriding (100 deaths a year) appears more dangerous than Ecstasy (30 deaths a year).

The Drugs Advisory Council are now considering a "resign en masse" as the future of the independent body is thrown in to severe doubt.

Ian Anderson visits Winchester Uni

Today third and second year journalism students were lucky enough to have a visit from Ian Anderson the (now ex) editor of BBC News at 10.

It was a great experience to hear advice and stories about the industry from someone who has been a part of journalism for 20 years. Ian originally started off as a Production Journalist for the BBC and has spent most of his time helping to produce bulletins for the 6pm and 10pm news shows. He was honest with his words when he explained that a lot of his job opportunities came down to luck and he was lucky enough to take on the position of editor and lead the team.

He was constantly reminding us all how important the content is and made a point of saying "do not take sharp corners" with the narrative. Meaning that everything should flow and should be relevant or explained otherwise you could end up losing your audience. This was exemplified in one of our practice packages where someone had tried to tell too many stories at once.

Ian also pointed out that we should make a lot of use out of pieces to cameras. He claims that the audience enjoy seeing the reporter involved and it will easily capture their attention if done correctly.

To help with our broadcast journalism he advised that we break down news packages from the local news, as well as the national, and look at their:

• opening shots
• interviews
• pieces to camera
• closing shots
  

We need to basically copy how the professionals are putting theirs together in order to be successful.

As a final interesting point Ben asked Ian what his views were on privacy laws. He answered that "as a journalist I'm against them as it's just another hurdle. Places such as France have privacy laws and it has been protecting those in high up places for far too long now". An interesting view on a highly debatable subject!

Swine or seasonal?

I have always been told that its easy to tell if you have swine flu or seasonal flu but this just didn't seem apparent last week when I fell ill.

It was Sunday morning and I felt incredibly rough and realised that I had the usual symptoms of the flu. I awoke early Monday morning to find myself feeling worse and decided to double check my symptoms to see if it could be the dreaded swine flu.

The NHS web site lists sufferers of swine flu to possess some of the following:

• unusual tiredness,
• headache,
• runny nose,
• sore throat,
• shortness of breath or cough,
• loss of appetite,
• aching muscles,
• diarrhoea or vomiting.

I immediately diagnosed myself as having swine flu but thought I'd double check seasonal flu symptoms as well. These are:

• sudden fever (a temperature of 38°C/100.4°F or above),
• dry, chesty cough,
• headache,
• tiredness,
• chills,
• aching muscles,
• limb or joint pain,
• diarrhoea or stomach upset,
• sore throat,
• runny or blocked nose,
• sneezing,
• loss of appetite, and
• difficulty sleeping.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the symptoms seem incredibly similar and lead to you more confusion rather than a home diagnoses, deeming the past few minutes a waste of time!

I decided to properly assess my symptoms using the special "national pandemic flu service" which I thought would give me a more accurate description. It didn't. It gave me exactly the same symptoms list and within a few clicks I was being prescribed Tamiflu and told that I didn't even need to pick it up myself. It all seemed so simple which is great if you truly have it but I believe a lot of seasonal flu suffers may have taken it/will take it unnecessarily.

I believed I had swine flu as I am unfortunate enough to suffer with seasonal flu every year and realised that my breathing was becoming very difficult and painful which was a new symptom to me. However I don't believe that everyone will be able to identify the differences which could lead to a lot of money being wasted on unnecessary medication.

Law Notes: Libel Cases

Libel is the permanent/written form of a defamatory statement. If a statement about a person is defamatory it tends to do any one of the following:

• expose them to hatred or ridicule
  
• causes them to be shunned or avoided
• discredits them in their trade, business
• generally lowers them in the eyes of right thinking members of society.

Case one:

In 2001 Dr Joe Rahamim, a surgeon at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, sued Channel 4 and ITN for defamation.

In July 1998 Channel 4 News broadcast the following:

1. " First that Mr. Rahamim was probably responsible for the death or serious injury of many of his patients including two who had died during their operations.

2. Secondly that Mr Rahamim was not competent to practice as a consultant thoracic surgeon and that he was seriously under qualified and inadequately trained.

3. Thirdly that he had fraudulently obtained his post as a Consultant by misrepresenting his qualifications and employment history.

4. Fourthly that Mr. Rahamim had dishonestly sent out letters to local GP’s in which he had falsely described himself as an FRCS

5. Fifthly that he had dishonestly concealed from his employers the fact that as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident he was unable to operate safely and

6. Lastly that by reason of these matters the GMC ought to have Mr. Rahamim struck off."

(http://www.scts.org/doc/2026)

The surgeon believed that the news programme defamed him and was an unnessary attack on his professional and personal reputation.

Dr Joe Rahamim won his case and Channel 4 had to pay £100,000 in damages along with ITN who paid £75,000. They also had to cover his legal fees which were estimated to be £750,000! As well as this Channel 4 had to broadcast a retraction and apology on Channel 4 News.

Case two:



Britney Spears attempted to sue a US magazine (US Weekly) for $10 million in 2005 for libel after it had printed an article claiming that she and her husband (at the time) had made a sex tape.


The magazine reported that Britney was worried that "an x-rated tape starring the two of them might go public". It also reported that the couple showed the tape to their lawyers and "were acting goofy" when watching it with them.

Spears filed the suit after the magazine refused to print a retraction.

However the case was dropped as the judge ruled that the article wasn't defamatory and stated that "the plaintiff herself has put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye."

She also pointed out how Spears and her husband had broadcast footage of themselves in the shower and often discussed sex throughout their reality television show "Choatic".

In this case Britney Spears' reputation was deemed unaffected by the printed article and so she lost her case.

Shocking pictures!

CCTV footage of a baby pram falling off a platform edge in to the path of an oncoming train has been released today. The pram was dragged for more than 30 metres by the braking train and was broken in to several pieces. Miraculously the 6 month old baby inside it survived with only a cut to the forehead.

How depressing is it to live in Britain right now?

This week's papers have revealed that, according to a recent study, Britain is the worst place to live in Europe!

Our quality of life is worse than many others across Europe despite the fact that we earn more money.

We work long hours and have relatively low holiday entitlement- apparently a key contributor to why Britain came last in the poll. As well as this this we have to contend with the rising costs of food, fuel and a lack of sunshine!



To top it all off our life expectancy is lower than the European average, meaning the French can expect to out live us by two years!

If this has depressed you to the point of no return you could always decide to move to the countries that sit at the top of the poll such as France and Spain. According the Daily Mail, a lot of Brits have already made the move for these reasons. So perhaps it will be "bon voyage" for you?

Does religion belong in a science class?

Here is a clip of the latest ramblings from Bill O'Reilly as he argues with the British evolutionary biologist and theorist Richard Dawkins.

Infuriatingly wrong or fair points?

Decide for yourself:

District 9: sci-fi, drama, action, thriller!

Even if you would never consider watching a Sci-fi I strongly recommend that you to go watch 'District 9' and quickly whilst its still showing at the cinema!

If someone asked me "What do you think of Science-fiction films?" I'd ponder for a while and think about films of this genre that had made a good enough impression to stay in my memory. They merely consist of 'Ghost busters', 'Independence Day' and 'Mars Attacks'- not really the serious sort of stuff one might consider to fall under this genre and ones which would probably lead to me to say "they're OK but I'm not a great fan". There have been others, its just that I clearly got distracted when watching them because that's the sort of impatient git that I am.

However I can now say that I have watched a brilliant Sci-fi film which had so many layers that I was deeply engrossed from the very beginning until the very end!

'District 9' has everything you could ever want from a film and more. Firstly it's not shot in the USA!! We don't have to listen to the screams of the White House or of any annoying American civilians- hurrah! It is, in fact, shot in Johannesburg which is an instantly refreshing change from the Hollywood scene.

Instead of conforming to the stereotypical narrative of humans VS aliens this is a tale of refugee aliens arriving on Earth and then being segregated off in a shanty town by the government. They have to deal with being treated as the lowest of the low and are derogatively dubbed as "prawns" as they are bottom-feeding scavengers who root around for food. The movie highlights many of the socio political issues that surrounds the modern day South Africa such as xenophobia, racism and segregation and also depicts the nasty side of capitalism.

'District 9' is partly shot in a faux-documentary style featuring fake interviews, CCTV and video footage from news networks throughout which cleverly adds a sense of realism to it. The CGI is fantastic and the aliens look extremely realistic.

All in all this film is full of action, gore and will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride that you never thought possible from a film about aliens!

Some notes on defences availale to journalists

Absoulte Privilege:

Absolute privilege applies to places and occasions such as court proceedings and the House of Commons. It means that there is an allowance of complete freedom of speech even if the words spoken or written are classed as malicious. This would not be regarded as defamation. So people such as politicians could say whatever they please within the House of Commons without the fear of being sued for defamation.


Journalists, however, are not entitled to absolute privilege accept for when they are reporting court cases and only then does this apply if their report is:


“...a fair and accurate report of judicial proceedings held in public within the United Kingdom, published contemporaneously.”


-Banks, D, Hanna, M: McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists (20th edition) Oxford, Oxford University Press


This law is essential to journalists as what is said in court is usually highly defamatory. Without it, court reporting would be impossible.


Qualified Privilege:


Other than when reporting the proceedings of a court case journalists are only entitled to qualified privilege and this includes the reporting of parliamentary debates and proceedings. It is similar to absolute privilege however there must be no malicious motive and it must be of public interest/concern.


Other notes:

- A dead person cannot be libelled.

- A libel case cannot be called by anyone other than the person who has been libelled. It is a personal action.


Fair Comment:


This is another defence that is available to journalists which protects published opinion. That is anything that isn’t put forward as fact.

According to McNae’s this means that:

- The published comment should truthfully be the opinion of the person making it

- The comment should clearly be presented as opinion to avoid the confusion over readers thinking it is fact

- The comment must be based on provably true facts/privileged matter

- It must be of public interest

Microsoft's form of a tupperware party...

I have to say that I’m not a computer whizz nor am I a technology geek so this entire debate over Mac’s and Windows is somewhat beyond me.

However the lure towards buying a Mac is becoming ever stronger after watching the recent publicity attempt from Microsoft for their brand new operating system– Windows 7.

If you have yet to see it then watch it now!



Is that not the creepiest thing? It’s all so smiley and corny and nauseating- particularly the camera movements. Also note the annoying blonde woman whose favourite word is “right?”

Can you seriously imagine hosting one of these? Inviting your friends around, cracking open the wine and then gathering everyone around the computer to all learn about the magical and intricate wonders of Windows 7?

Well to encourage people to begin hosting these parties Microsoft are offering the host their own limited Signature Edition of Windows 7 Ultimate, signed by Steve Ballmer the chief executive officer of Microsoft. They also provide you with a party pack that contains Windows 7 branded tote bags, playing cards, napkins and a puzzle.

Convincing?

Unfortunately the packs are no longer available for the meanwhile so you’ll just have to attend someone else’s party.

However don't be suprised if you're the only one there!

Mr Ricky Gervais- New Hero of Comedy

I have just watched a re-run of the fantastic homage to Ricky Gervais that is 'Ricky Gervais- New Hero of Comedy'. If one didn't consider the man to be a comedy genius before you certainly would after watching this.

It's cleverly crafted to take a look at the time line of Gervais' career with specific sound bites and clips of his funniest moments in his live stand-up as well as his radio and television shows. To add more comedy and also a somewhat humbling feel to the programme there are some very insightful interviews with some of Gervais’ closest colleagues and friends such as Steven Merchant, Karl Pilkington, David Baddiel and Ashley Jenson.

“He’s a total original. They’re very rare these total originals and they should be celebrated with flags in the street”
- Billy Connelly, ‘Ricky Gervais: New Comedy Hero (2008)

Gervais is often admired for his observant nature and his bravery to mess around with the issue of political correctness. We live in such a time where there is a lot of confusion over what is allowed to be said and what isn’t that it’s amusing to see someone cross the line and just basically take the piss.

“Some people say oh you can’t have a go at dwarfs. You can have a go at them really. Fundamentalist terrorists I’d stay away- dwarfs; what are they going to do?”
-Ricky Gervais, Fame (2007)

His intelligent and observant nature has enabled the man to create brilliant comedies such as ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’ in which he has perfected the art of creating embarrassing moments and making his audience cringe!

Check out this video- it features some of the best bits of 'The Office':




Yet another classic example of cringey scenes this time from 'Extras':



“Ricky’s performance in it is one of the greatest performances we’ll ever see on British television....David Brent is Ricky Gervais as he would be without self-awareness.”
-David Baddiel, Ricky Gervais: New Comedy Hero (2008)

Along with the cringing and the laughing Gervais also appeals to our emotional side and encourages the audience to feel pity and sorrow for some of the characters without making it cheesy which really adds a sense of originality to it all.

Of course at this point I have to say that Stephen Merchant should not be left in the shadows. ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’ would not have been the same without the addition of his wit and astuteness.

I could rant on about Ricky Gervais and his brilliance all day long, however I don't have to because this programme says it all. It's well worth a watch!!