The Broadcasting Act of 1996 reformed the structure of British broadcasting by allowing a fifth analogue TV channel and requiring the BBC to source 25% of its output from independent companies. It also permitted three new Independent National Radio stations. The act governs what can be shown on TV through restrictive content rules and provides licenses to channels and producers. It has received criticism for "dumbing down" and "Americanizing" British television. Recent cases involve highly sexualized pre-watershed performances on shows like the X-Factor and BGT breaking the act's rules.

1. 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The act was repealed in 2010 and replaced by the equality act, which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”.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. PRIVACY LAW
This 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.

5. COPYRIGHT AND
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY LAW
Copyright 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.

6. LIBEL LAW
This 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.

7. OBSCENE
PUBLICATION
ACT
This 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.

8. BROADCASTING ACT
This 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.