Ethical and Legal Constraints within the Media Sector

Ethical:

Social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, e.g.BBC producers' guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards.

Legal:

People who work in the creative media industries have certain rules and regulations that they must abide by, below is a list of some of them:

Official Secrets Act 1989, The Official Secrets Act 1989 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It repeals and replaces section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. It is said to have removed the public interest defence created by that section. An example of this could be when Prince Harry went to Afghanistan with the army and it got published in the newspapers when it probably shouldn't have been.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments),

The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity. An example of this is when the book company 'Penguin' published a highly censored book.

Films Act 1985,

An Act to repeal the Films Acts 1960 to 1980; to make further provision with respect to the financing of films; and for connected purposes. An example of this could be showing a film on tele before the watershed when the film shouldn't be.

Video Recordings Act 1984,

The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office. An example of this is when someone buys a pirate copy DVD.

Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments),

The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. An example of this could be when you are interviewing people for a job you have to give an interview to at least one white person and one black person.

Human Rights Act 1998,

The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. An example of this could be when someone gets told off for being to loud or talking too much.

Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments);

The Licensing Act of 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that applies only to England and Wales. The Act establishes 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. An example of this could be when a newsagent or shop sells alcohol when they don't have a license to do so.

Privacy law;

Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use. An example of this could be when Ryan Giggs had an affair and it was published in the newspapers which in a way was breaching his privacy.
Copyright and Intel

Copyright are exclusive statutory rights to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time. The copyright owner is given two sets of rights: an exclusive, positive right to copy and exploit the copyrighted work, or license others to do so, and a negative right to prevent anyone else from doing so without consent, with the possibility of legal remedies if they do. An example of this could be when a singer steals someones idea for a song but doesn't give the other person any money

Libel Law
Libel is defined as defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.

BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom.It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games.
OFCOM
Office Communications (OFCOM), is the communications regulator that regulates the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms and mobiles.
Codes of Practice
A set of written rules which explains how people working in a particular profession should behave.
Press Codes of Practice

All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards.The Code, which includes this preamble and the public interest exceptions below,sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the individual and the public right to know.
Media Representation
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.
A few examples of this are: in The Simpson's and in Family Guy, Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin are represented an average American man- Fat, Lazy and unintelligent.