notes

For next class -- Ch. 20

Libel, cont’d

Quiz of the week:
+ What is the Reynolds Defence? What are the ten factors?
+ What is the offer of amends defence? An example of when it can be used?
+ What is the defence of innocent dissemination?
+ What is the difference between general damages and special damages?
+ What is the rule in Bonnard v. Perryman

Defamation defences

• Who can sue?
  • Individuals
    • Not the dead
      • However, complaint can be brought via PCC or Ofcom.
    • Groups of individuals
    • Who is reasonably identifiable?
      • Holton v. Jones 1910
        • Test is whether an allegation could reasonably lead to a person being identified
      • Group of non-English cricketers in 1995 sued Cricket Wisdom for saying “non-England born” players were less dedicated to the team.

Entrepreneurial Journalism — “Journalism in the age of disruption”

• Having a plan can prove the objectives behind a social media strategy, as well as a way to measure progress.
• Allows you to:
  • Discover and learn where your audience is
  • Provide extra value to your readers
  • Try things to see what works well and what doesn't
  • Build relationships with influencers outside of organization
• BBC use social media:
  • Newsgathering — Helps them gather more, and sometimes better, material; can find a wider range of voices, ideas and eyewitnesses quickly

• “Anything that tends to lower the reputation of an individual amongst right thinking people or damages them in their trade or profession.”
• Anything negative in a broad sense.
• Examples:
  • Hypocrisy
  • Having an affair
  • Acting in an unprofessional manner
• “At the heart of libel law is getting it right.”
  • Extreme requirement to be able to prove what you print.
• Information has to be published to a third party to be libellous.
  • I.e., private emails not subject.

Missed questions for this/last week. Did you get them? Post in comments, please!

A bit about Demotix...

• Background is politics and freelancing
• Desire to create not just a socially-responsible business, but a "actively good" one
• Basic idea was to create a safe platform for anyone wanting to upload stories not being covered.
• "Free speech as soft power" -- led to democratization of regions such as the Middle East.
• "Mainstream media has been shedding jobs like a 70 year old man sheds hair."
  • Both foreign correspondents and local reporters are being cut.

Internships

• "The more clear you are about what you're wanting to get out of an internship, the more likely it is you'll get something useful."
  • Portfolio pieces
    • Go for it, but don't be disappointed if not.
  • Contacts
  • Career navigation
  • Publication map
  • Skill tips
  • Specialist knowledge
    • Unlikely in 1-2 weeks

• Community management becoming more and more important
  • Makes sites:
    • sticky and engaged
  • Makes information collection:
    • distributed
  • Community content becomes:
    • editorially valuable
  • Things that impacted helpmeinvestigate:
    • The 1% of content creators have a very real effect on crowdsourcing
    • Modularity is important -- being able to break down tasks
    • Two types of crowdsourcing:
      • MechanicalTurk version
        • Guardian MPs expenses crowdsourcing project

Answers from last week:

1. Jigsaw identification -- individual identifiable even though name not explicitly given, i.e., through multiple pieces of info
2. Court sketches have to be done outside the court from memory
3. CPS media protocol is a protocol agreed between media organizations and crown prosecution service detailing how material (i.e., CCTV footage) used in court can be used in the media.
   • If shown to the jury in open court, material then given to the media.