RACE RELATIONS ACT 1976

This act was established by the parliament of the United Kingdom in 1976 to prevent discrimination in the fields of employment, the provision of goods and services, education and public functions. Items covered include race, colour, nationality, and ethnic and national origin. The act was repealed in 2010 and replaced by the equality act, which also includes discrimination laws against homosexual and disabled people. Recently, under the equality act an Indian-born actress is attempting to sue the BBC for £1 million due to Jeremy Clarkson’s use of the word ‘slope’, an offensive slang word for Asians. The incident amount to unlawful discrimination by a public body. This is because the BBC is a public service and is paid for by people in the form of a license fee.

An example of the race relations act is from 2009 when a Jewish school refused to admit a child as his mother was a concerted Jew and had not been born into the religion. Judges from the case said: “The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act”. 

HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998

This gives people basic rights under law. These include the right to: live/exist, to own property, free speech, equality (male and female), fair trials, the judgment of innocent until proven guilty, to vote, to be a citizen of a country, to express sexual orientation, to seek asylum if the country you are in is treating you badly, to think freely, peacefully protest against a group or the government, health and medical care, education, work and love. The human rights act allows people to have a decent standard of life without fear of persecution for things such as those above by the government or other groups. All public bodies such as the courts, police, government, hospitals, and publicly funded schools amongst others must comply with the act. It has been very controversial in times as it has been made in the shadow of European human rights laws, which many British politicians disagree with.

Many people do not believe that prisoners should be allowed to vote, claiming that it is a civic right and not a human right. Foreign murderers can also say that deportation would breach their human rights, as the country they would be sent too may use torture and have the death penalty. A recent example is from the case of Abu Qatada who was originally arrested for affiliation with Al Qaida. His human rights laws in the UK would be broken if he was deported to Jordan, where he was wanted on terrorism charges, as he could possibly face torture. He was eventually deported as the British and Jordan governments agreed that he would not face torture.

LICENSING ACT 2003

The 2003 licensing act established a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment or to provide late night refreshment. The act extends too many forms of entertainment. For example licensable activities under the act include: The retail sale of alcohol, the supply of alcohol in clubs and the provision of regulated entertainment. Regulated entertainment can include a performance or play, a film screening, an indoor sporting event, a boxing or wrestling match or a musical performance(such as a live show or playing recorded music). The licensing act allows such events as those above to be held legally.

The licensing act also allows pubs and other social places to extend their licensing hours for ‘special and one-off occasions of national significance’ such as the Queen’s jubilee and Royal Weddings. Originally there was a ban on pubs staying open past midnight (this can vary slightly) so the full world cup match against Italy could not be viewed in a pub. The match kicks off at 11pm English time and was not seen as a special event. However, after much criticism against the decision pubs were allowed to stay open until after the match had finished, as David Cameron overturned the ban on non-extension of licensing times during the world cup.

PRIVACY LAWThis law deals with the regulation of personal information about individuals and the limit to which it can be collected by governments, public sectors and private organizations for storage and use. It gives people protection of their personal information from misuse or unauthorised disclosure. Privacy laws have become stronger due to the prominence of high profile cases and the human rights act of 1998 meaning people can have a more private life. Laws include the right to: A private and family life, confidential information, data protection and not to disclose personal information such as gender identity and sexuality.

A person may also protest about their DNA or fingerprints being kept by police, if they have not committed a crime. Privacy laws are constantly being reviewed due to people’s laws constantly being broken by loopholes by organizations such as newspapers. A high profile case is from 2003 when the newspaper The People printed topless pictures of DJ Sara Cox while she was on her honeymoon. Cox claimed that it was invading her privacy and she managed to successfully sue the newspaper for her right to privacy under the human rights act for £50,000. She originally complained to the PCC (the press complaints commission, who oversee complaints made about print publications) who found in her favour.

COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWCopyright gives the creators of some types of media rights to control how they're used and distributed. Music, books, video and software can all be covered by copyright law. Copyright is a form of intellectual property, along with patents, trademarks, etc. Intellectual property refers to creative work which can be treated as an asset or physical property. The law protects owners of any creative work or inventions. Owners are granted certain exclusive rights and protected under the corresponding field of law in which they are working (for example, if a creator of a new piece of technology feels he has been plagiarized, he would look at the appropriate laws concerning similarities in technological creations). The law allows people complete rights to their work for a period of time, without the threat of their invention/idea being stolen. A person may also choose to patent something, which means they have to disclose the details of their invention but, are allowed to keep the rights to it for a certain amount of time. This usually happens before the invention is finished and the inventor wants to guarantee no one will steal his idea before he puts it into practice.

They can publish too many different markets, choose who to license in the manufacture and distribution of their creations and sue if it is done illegally. They may sue in cases of unlawful copying or in some cases, if another creation has extreme similarities to theirs. Copyright grants the creator of work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention being for the creator to gain intellectual wealth. An example recently is from where a young child named ‘Rooney Scholes’ was not allowed to have his name on a Thornton’s chocolate egg as they said it would break copyright laws- referring to the footballers Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes. However, copyright laws do not extend to names and so the laws were administered incorrectly in this case. An example in the media recently is from when the ‘Beastie Boys’ successful sued Monster Beverage for $1.7 million for copyright infringement, due to the company playing their music without permission during an advert.

LIBEL LAWThis law allows people to take actions for libel in a court against any published statements which may defame them or harm then in a manner which causes them loss in their trade or profession and causes any number of people to think worse/differently of the person. The published piece may seriously damage a person’s reputation and loss of respect by people and so this law is taken very seriously by newspapers, who seek to limit how much they defame someone.

The defamation act 2013 was the most recent change to libel laws in the UK, which gives better protection to people expressing their opinion. An example from where libel has been used recently is from the ‘plebgate’ scandal. Andrew Mitchell attempted to sue The Sun for libel, claiming that he did not call police on Downing Street ‘f-ing plebs’. On the other hand, a police officer involved in the case has attempted to sue Andrew Mitchell for £200,000 for libel, claiming he lied about not using the insult. Mitchell had been sacked due to the affair and was looking for both libel and compensation.

OBSCENE PUBLICATION ACTThis law governs, controls and restricts what pieces of media can be published or released in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it ‘tends to deprave and corrupt’. The act extends too many media platforms such as print publications, Television, Film and Radio. Each platform will have its own governing body which works within the confines of the act. For example, the British film industry works under the BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification).

Some obscenities may be allowed and exempted from the act, if they are in the interests of art, literature, learning or other things of general concern. Things that would be considered obscene are images/footage of rape, torture and graphic murder amongst others. Recently, WHsmiths advertised ebooks featuring rape, incest and graphic sex for sale on their website. The Ministry of Justice then said that the retailers would be liable for prosecution after a judge deemed that they broke the Obscene Publications Act.

BROADCASTING ACTThis law of parliament was an act aimed to reform the entire structure of British Broadcasting and British Television in general. It governs what can be shown on TV, through a set of restrictive rules. The act allowed for a fifth analogue TV channel (channel 5) and stipulated that the BBC, which produced most of its content in house, was now obliged to source at least 25% of its output from independent production companies. In radio, it allowed three Independent National Radio stations to be launched, two using MW frequencies formerly used by the BBC and one on FM, a frequency formerly used by the emergency services.

Many people believed that it was dumbing down British Television and was ‘Americanizing’ the system. The act controls what is allowed on TV and provides licenses to channels and production companies to create content for broadcast. Many cases of the ac being broken arise from highly sexualized performances on TV. These include ‘raunchy’ performances on the X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and awards shows. This is because they are generally aired pre-watershed and are subsequently witnessed by young children.