M3: Legal & Ethical

In this post, I will research the legal and ethical issues of a radio show that I must take into account when making my own radio show. I will also discuss the regulatory bodies that relate to a radio show.

Ofcom:

The Office of Communications (Ofcom) is a regulatory body that sets laws for radios. All radio shows must have their own license to produce and publish. There are codes on their website that states what every radio show must follow:

ASA:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates all advertisements on the radio.  There are codes on their website that everyone must follow, there are separate codes for broadcast and non-broadcast adverts:

Legal:

There are many different laws and regulations I need to follow to ensure my radio show is legally and ethically correct. There will be punishments that would be enforced if I do not follow these things, such as going to prison, being sued for copyright infringement, cause offence to people. In this report, I will discuss the different things I have to consider while creating my radio show.

Copyright & Creative Commons

Copyright is a law that states that it a set of rights given to the original owner for a fixed amount of years which gives them full rights to to print, publish, perform, film or record; copyright stops other people from using the work of an artist without their permission as if they do this the artist or management could take legal action against them. Throughout the production of my 'Sleigh FM' radio, I am taking these rules into consideration by taking my own recordings and editing them, which takes away the risk of copyright infringement as it is then my own work and I can print, publish, film and record any of my own assets when I want. The sounds that I will be using are either my own or royalty free sounds from epidemic sounds. At the beginning we have a jingle that says 'merry Christmas' in many different voices, which was a royalty free sound from Epidemic sounds. Epidemic Sounds is a creative commons license, which is where the owner allows their intellectual property to be used under certain conditions that must be followed to avoid any legal problems. An example of a creative commons license is non-commercial, which means the owner says the asset cannot be used for commercial use such as publishing to monetise.

Libel

Libel is a written statement that may be damaging or hurtful to another's reputation. I will follow this by not writing anything defamatory or negative about anyone and I can create a draft article before publishing to ensure all statements aren't libel and that they don't cause any legal or ethical issues. It wouldn't apply to my radio show because it isn't written.

Slander

Slander is a spoken statement that may be damaging or hurtful to anothers reputation. I will follow the rules and avoid slander by not mentioning any people, products or companies during the show and avoid any criticism.

  Ethical:

I must consider the legal issues and laws put in place by IPSO but I must also consider ethical issues my magazine might cause. Ethical issues are problems that might offend or annoy a certain group of people. 

My radio must not be sexist, contain offensive imagery or content, must not contain any antisemitism, cannot be homophobic and cannot contain any bullying. If my 'sleigh FM' radio show contained anything unethical, this could cause controversy within a community, which could damage my reputation and could stop it from selling. For example, strong language such as swearing or cussing would make the show unethical towards children therefore I will be extremely careful what content and language I include and I could conduct feedback from things such as a survey or questionnaire or a focus group to ensure my audience feel the show is ethical.