WINOL Blog - Week 5

The quality of the bulletin is never consistent from week to week. This week it was said that the pictures within the packages are not captivating enough. This is a must. A way to improve is to simply watch BBC and ITV news bulletins. While watching note down each shot as this will bring in an understanding of all the things which can be included in a package.
A major issue is checking your facts. Once an interview has taken place, the interviewee's name and job title must be obtained and verified. By doing this no mistakes will be made, such as giving someone the wrong job title.

George was director this week - he did a really good job. He was confident in what he was instructing and had a good understanding of the gallery. One issue within production was the VT machine. This is an issue which cannot be helped but in this situation in future, the bulletin must continue. An apology for the technical issue is essential but from that, continue reading from the autocue and if possible play the next package. Technical issues are difficult to avoid.

Well done to Justina and Aimee who presented this week. I thought they both did really well.

This week our guest editor was unable to make it. Next week we have Sam Baker - Editor of Red Magazine. She will in from around 12pm, after which she will be introduced to each of the departments. This is a great opportunity for features and the magazine to show Sam content from the magazine and video features produced so far this semester. If you have produced video features then it will be good to reversion them to a shorter more improved version (if possible) to show her, and this way you can explain how you have got to the finished product, then asking her for feedback and advice.
It is highly recommended that we all meet the guest editors as this is a very good way to increase our contacts from within the industry and can do nothing but help us all for the future.
Have a look at this page for brief information on Sam Baker:

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/red-editors/sam-baker.

Law - Copyright

Copyright laws are established within the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright is a branch of intellectual property law which protects the products of people’s skill, creativity, labour or time. The laws on copyright allow the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts and films the rights to control the ways in which their material may be used. This law covers any of these creations being broadcast, performed, copied, adapted, issued and rented to the public. When someone has created something, it is likely that they will have the right to be identified as the author and to establish any alterations or distortions to their work. For any work to be protected by the laws of copyright that product must pass the test of originality.

Having the right of copyright is automatic, and happens once an individual or a company creates a work. Works should be original and should show a degree of labour, skill or judgement.
An idea of something would not be protected by copyright, but once that book has been written, the content of that will be protected. Once something has been created using a number of aspects such as the use of colours or phrases then the laws of copyright will protect that product. However just the colour or phrase used will not be protected.

The owner of any work created can vary on the situation. In most situations, the owner is the author of the work, and this person is known as the ‘first owner of copyright’ under the 1988 Act. When a work has been produced under the employment of a company, then the owner will be the company who that person works for.

Reproduction of a substantial part of a copyright work may constitute infringement. When a work is protected by the laws of copyright, it is an offence to; copy the work, rent or issue copies to the public, broadcast the work to the public or adapt the work without the consent of the owner.

With regards to news stories, there is no copyright in facts and information. Copyright does exist however in the form of which the information is expressed by the writer and the selection and arrangement of the material because all of these aspects involve skill and labour. The defence of Fair Dealing can be used when reporting current stories, as this allows using some quotes from another paper, providing the use is accompanied by sufficient acknowledgement of the work and its author. This requirement is only necessary when it is being provided to the public.
Fair dealing is a defence, which comes under copyright law. The defence sets out ways in which actions may be carried out so that they are not regarded as infringement of the work. The defence allows the use of quotations or excerpts where a piece of work has been made available to the public. This is only on the grounds that:
- The use is acceptable under the terms of fair dealing,
- The material used is justified and no more than is necessary is included,
- That the source of the used material is mentioned, along with the name of the author.

The use of fair dealing prevents any infringement. You can use fair dealing for any of the following:

• Private research,
• Criticism or review,
• Incidental inclusion,
• Reporting current events.

Features - W/O 25th Oct 2011

Features has improved vastly this week. The quality of the video features is much better.

• Zoe and Becky have produced their first restaurant review. We had been in contact to Stuart who works for a PR company and he agreed to give us free drinks for a competition winner if WINOL reviewed Giraffe restaurant - Basingstoke. Becky and Zoe arranged to attend the restaurant, which led to them having their meal for free and very good service from the staff. The finished package was of good quality. Even though they had a lot of footage on their tapes, they edited the shots to about 1'30". The images were a lot quicker and sharper, which captivates the audience, making them stay for the duration of the package. Through editing they were unsure whether to keep their 'summary' clip. But after reading their written article and this having all the detail from their experience at the restaurant, the summary was necessary in the video also. We would not have been able to class the package as a review if the summary clip was not included.
  Having reviewed one restaurant, this needs to be an ongoing feature for WINOL. We have decided to continue this as possibly a two weekly feature allowing both Becky and Zoe to produce other features during this semester too.
  This week they are heading to London to attend The Yoga Show. They are in the process of deciding an angle of which to produce the feature. This needs to be deciding before the event so that all interviews are carried out in the right angle.
  
  
  
  
• Ewan has produced his first Games Review, filmed in the studio using the green screen. This was presented by Ewan and Graham, but produced predominantly by Ewan. This was based around the recent release of the Batman: 'Arkham City' game. This featured a small clip of this game as well as other game reviews. The clips were used under Fair Dealing. This game review is a very good example of the use of Fair Dealing.
  Ewan is planning on carrying out more game reviews, but like this one, he is going to base it on a new release, featuring other games.
  

• Poppy has produced a number of written features for her column: 'A Diary of a Winchester Lady' . I have now asked someone to create a cartoon of Poppy for this column. Using a cartoon rather than a standard picture will ensure Poppy is kept 'mysterious'. This image should be completed by Friday this week.
  Poppy produced a comment piece about her experience on visiting a medium. Her account of this is very good. It provides a first hand account of the reading as well as her opinions towards it all.
  Her latest article was entitled 'A Bad Choice'. This was based on what she had overheard recently. The first draft of this was good, however the end paragraph was more on the lines of advice, and as a comment column this is not the role of the piece. I advised her to alter the ending to make it more punchy and about what she thought as the column is based on what Poppy thinks - or what the Lady of Winchester thinks. The piece is now much better. www.winol.co.uk - 'The Diary of a Winchester Lady'.

• What's On had to be re-edited this week after not having an editorially strong structure to the piece. I hadn't set a deadline for this so Cara and Jake had more time than they gave themselves to edit the footage, but it was completed very quickly which sabotaged the quality. After meeting with Chris and Brian, a clear structure was established. I asked this to be re-edited for Wednesday as well as producing a tease clip to feature on the end of the bulletin. Due to technical complications this deadline has been extended for another day and did not feature on the bulletin, however will be plugged in time for Halloween.
  It has been decided that from now on, Cara is to present What's On and to arrange interviews etc with celebrities, and Jake is to produce the show, including filming and editing.

Now that features have taken off, we must set aims before the end of this semester.

• It would be very good to have at least 4 episodes of WINOL Life published.
  We need to keep on track with our dates. Next WINOL Life to be filmed this Tuesday 1st November.
• We must all plug every feature in order to increase our hits on the website.
  This can be done easily through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
  E.g. for 'Girls of War' I searched for 'girl gaming' pages on Facebook and posted the link to the video to them. I did the same for 'Cooking in Comfort'. We all need to be doing this!
• Branch out from Winchester. This is the plan for Poppy who is going to The Ideal Home Show - Christmas Special and for Zoe and Becky who are attending the Yoga Show and the Luxury Travel Show, all in London. This will give you all better experience as well as a wider range of features produced for the site and for you.
  

Media Law - Defences

There are a few defences available to journalists – of which a couple will need to rely on another defence in order to be effective.

The defence of Fair Comment protects published opinion. However, if a media organisation is using this as their defence, it will need to be prepared to rely on another defence. This could be justification, qualified privilege or absolute privilege.

The requirements of this defence are as follows:

• The published comment must be the honestly held opinion of the person making it.
• The comment should be recognisable as opinion.
• The comment must be based on provably true facts/privilege matter.
• The subject commented on must be a matter of public interest.

The defence of justification will be effective if the words complained of were true. This defence can be misleading because there is no requirement that the words were published justly or with good reason.

Malice is being dishonest or improper but knowingly. You must have motive to be dishonest, this is therefore known as malice. Proof of malice can be used by a claimant in a libel action to deprive the defendant of the defences, fair comment or qualified privilege.

Privilege is being exempt from the law. Absolute privilege is available to judges in court. They are able to state their opinion regardless of how offensive it is, within the courtroom, and the defence is available to them. Qualified privilege is available as a defence to journalists where it is considered important that facts should be freely known in the public interest. Journalists are allowed to publish statements from within court – as long as they are published immediately – without the risk of being sued.

An example of both absolute and qualified privilege occurred in a recent case with Amanda Knox. During the trial it was stated that Amanda Knox was a ‘she-devil’. Absolute privilege was apparent here due to the statement being delivered by someone in the judiciary. Qualified privilege was available to those journalists who printed this within their report.

This can be seen in the Guardian’s report on this story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/04/two-faces-of-amanda-knox

Absolute privilege will never be available to journalists. However if a report is free from error and it is published immediately then the qualified privilege offers a similar degree of protection.

Another defence, which is crucial to cases of defamation or libel is the Reynold's Defence.

This is a ten point test which protects a publication of defamatory material provided that it was a matter of public interest and that it was the product of ‘responsible journalism’.

Lord Nicholls established the 10 points:

1. Seriousness of the allegation – if the consequences are bad, the allegation is bad.
2. The nature of the information – is it in the public interest?
3. Source of the information – the source needs to be 100% reliable.
4. What were the steps taken to verify the information?
5. What is the status of the information?
6. Urgency of the matter.
7. Whether comment was sought by the claimant.
8. Whether the report contains the claimant’s side of the story.
9. The tone of the article.
10. The circumstances of the publication.

If a journalist has all of these 10 points as well as the public interest the defence of qualified privilege will be granted for them.

Features

Features are officially on our site now, time to plug everything. We need to increase our views for all features.

'The Diary of a Winchester Lady' - People at the Pool - www.winol.co.uk

'Girls of War' - The investigation of girls playing video games.

'Lost in Luxury' - www.winol.co.uk

For every feature you make you need to post the link to your article or video on relevant Facebook pages, and YouTube channels. For example, for our fashion pieces last year, Claire and I posted the link to all our videos on all fashion pages on Facebook and all fashion YouTube channels e.g. NetAPorter/Elle.TV.

Also send all your content to your friends and family, they will want to watch it, as effectively you are on TV - that's exciting. For written pieces, you are being published, get people to read your articles!

Features are always harder to plug as they will always have a specialised audience so you need to find that audience and encourage them to watch your features. Like Zoe and Becky's cooking feature you will need to find recipe/cookery pages everywhere. Why create the feature if you do not want people to watch it?

Plugging will take time but you will benefit as people will begin to know who you are and look for your content.

As for next week, our deadline is 2pm Tuesday. There will be no excuses for missed deadlines.

You have Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday to film and edit. Make use of this time. The only way you can produce a good quality feature is by taking the time to film and edit it.

Planning is essential.

WINOL Life - Episode 1

WINOL Life is going to follow a similar format to the show produced last year, which featured Laura Barton. We are going to invite guests in to watch our features, giving them a chance to give us feedback and constructive criticism.

We filmed our first WINOL Life today. The production of the show was good. Our first guest for this year was Sally Churchward, feature writer from the Daily Echo. Our attitude towards guests needs to be improved in future weeks. We need to learn not to be afraid of the guests, they were at our stage once too. And it’s all about contacts. We should all be feeling able to approach any of the guest editors and speak to them/show them any packages and get their feedback. Today I couldn’t help but feel the awkward atmosphere towards Sally and how she was very unsure of what was going on.

In future I think it is essential for the person who booked the guest editor to be the one to stay with them and make sure they are aware of everything they are involved in. For example, as Justina had invited Sally in, she should have been with her for longer to begin with. We were rushed as Sports Week needed to be filmed, however it felt as though the guest was placed in front of the camera straight away without a warm welcome.

Organisation is essential for WINOL Life. As Justina is producer of the show, she needs to step back and assign roles to all other members of the WINOL Life team. This will ensure that the guests feel more comfortable with the situation and everything is explained to them. All other members of the team need to make sure they are free every other Tuesday and need to be aware of the role they are to perform for the show. The quality of the show will enhance vastly if these elements are improved.

Very good start to the series of WINOL Life, well done to all the team. We have more guests booked for the next few episodes – the more guests we have the more constructive criticism we will receive which is crucial.

WINOL Blog 18th Oct 2011

The features team have made significant progress during the last couple of weeks. The features page on the site www.winol.co.uk – is still in the process of being updated as new content is being produced.

Unlike the dummy week, the new features are to be published on the website. One decision I have made and I would like the feature writers to stick to is avoiding the term ‘students’ at all costs. I want to avoid this term due to the negative stereotype it holds, as well as not being relevant to our target audience 18-24 year olds. A group of our audience will have already been to university and therefore any features made with students in mind will be irrelevant to them meaning they will not take the time to read/watch the feature.


Ewan’s idea was to create a feature based on girl/females playing video games and whether this was popular or true to the stereotype. To begin with this was not planned properly, as his aim was to get vox pops from people within the university. With features, the writers have a week to produce content, therefore there is plenty of time to arrange interviews with experts within the field of the feature in order to enhance the quality of the feature. The deadline was extended for another two days based on this. The produced feature was ok, I feel a few resolved technical issues and more time spent planning could have really enhanced this video. As said by our guest Sally Churchward – Senior feature writer for the Southern Daily Echo – the interviews needed to be chosen better as the girls interviewed weren’t keen gamers so contradicts the questions/issued raised. The use of footage of video games was a very good example of Fair Dealing. This is where publications can use footage from others without their permission, as long as only a couple of seconds are used. This is only permitted when the footage is used to describe something in more detail, not to enhance any piece. Ewan used Fair Dealing correctly, as the footage wasn’t to necessarily enhance the piece it was to display to the audience the games mentioned. The interviewees were talking over the footage also so it was only the image that was used as an addition.

Poppy is doing very well. Poppy is due to write a weekly comment piece called ‘The Diary of a Winchester Lady’. The first piece she has written was based on a trip to the local swimming pool. Poppy is a strong writer and her comment pieces are of good quality. To enhance these further we are looking to create a caricature of Poppy to regularly appear on the site which, will connect to the audience she will begin to attract.
I am in contact with someone currently who will hopefully like to help create a caricature of Poppy for free on the grounds that they will be accredited.
Poppy has now written a piece based on Mediums. This was originally thought of through the exposure of Psychic Sally being a possible fake. Her first idea was to write about this, however there would have been no balance in the view of Psychic Sally, so the angle had to be re-thought. It was then decided that she would interview a medium and write her comment piece based on her findings. This has turned out really well. She was able to talk about her experiences with the Medium and what was found and discussed – very good comment piece.

Zoe and Becky have created a feature about making ‘posh’ meals, affordable for young people. They found three recipes online - starter, main and dessert – to which they planned to gather the ingredients and cook the meals themselves, showing that people don’t necessarily have to go out for a meal to eat nice food.
They had trouble with the filming to begin with. Two cameras were set up for filming the cooking, however the camera used for PTCs did not pick up any sound. I advised them to start again as this is a good feature and could be a strong piece.
When editing their new footage, the length was around 15 minutes. This needed to be shortened, as a standard feature is around 3 minutes maximum – anything longer than this needs to be packed with content. Their editing was good, however their shots needed to be cut a considerable amount shorter in order to make it that much better. Having short shots means the viewers do not get bored as there is always something happening.
Sally Churchward also said that the standard ‘drop-off’ time for viewers is after 30 seconds, so the first 30 seconds need to be packed with content, which is interesting and captivating. This is something they both need to work on in the future.

Dave has created a short video of the Ventner Fringe Festival – Isle of Wright – for the music aspect of features. This is a ‘fly on the wall’ piece of about 10 minutes. I had asked if he can re-version this to a shorter version of around 1-2 minutes for WINOL Life. This piece was an appealing piece, everything was interesting to watch as it was all about people – this is key to video – people like to watch other people.

This week our guest editor for the news bulletin was Rachel Canter – News Reporter for BBC South. Our bulletin was strong this week, very organised and packages were much improved.

Rachel’s feedback was very positive. She said she was impressed with our teamwork – there was a clear and calm atmosphere in the gallery by the director and the presenters were both very calm. She explained how important it is that we are re-versioning all of our packages for website and radio, due to cutbacks in the industry currently, because they are looking for people who can do everything.

Media Law - Defamation and Libel

Defamation is something that can be caused by journalists through words used to describe a person, company or organisation. Defamatory statements are known to do any one of the following:

• Expose the person to hatred, ridicule or contempt;
• Cause the person to be shunned or avoided;
• Lower the person in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally; or
• Disparage the person in his/business, trade, office, or profession.

From a journalist’s point of view, if what you write or broadcast about someone, a company or an organisation lowers them in the estimation of right-thinking people then you have defamed someone and they are within their rights to sue you.

Reputation is precious, especially if you are in the public eye, have money or both.

An inference is a statement with a secondary meaning which can be understood by someone without special knowledge, who ‘reads between the lines in the light of his general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs’.

Within defamation cases, the burden of proof lies with the claimant. The claimant has to prove:

• The publication is defamatory;
• It may be reasonably understood to refer to him/her, i.e. identification;
• It has been published to a third person.

The claimant does not have to prove that the statement is false; if a statement is defamatory, it is assumed that the statement is false. If the statement is true and the journalist can prove that it is true, there is a defence.

Identification:

The claimant needs to prove that the published matter identifies him/her as the person defamed.

The test in defamation law of whether the published matter identified the person suing is whether it would reasonably lead people acquainted with him/her to believe that they were the person referred to.

Publication:

The claimant must also prove that the statement has been published. The matter must have been communicated to a third person in order for there to be publication.

Defences:

The main defences to do with Defamation are;

• Justification
• Fair Comment
• Absolute Privilege
• Qualified Privilege

Justification:

In defamation law, the burden of proof is not on the claimant to prove that the statement is true, it is the responsibility of the defendant to prove the truth of the statement. ‘The matter must be proved true ‘on the balance of probabilities’.’

Fair Comment:

The defence of fair comment protects published opinions. The requirements are:

• The published comment must be the honestly held opinion of the person making it;
• The comment should be recognisable as opinion;
• The comment must be based on provably true facts/privileged matter;
• Those facts/that matter must be recognisably alluded to or stated in what is published with the comment, unless so widely known that this is not necessary;
• The subject commented on must be a matter of public interest.

All these requirements must be met in order for the defence to succeed.

Privilege occurs when the public interest demands that there is complete freedom of speech without any risks of proceedings for defamation, even if the statements are defamatory or untrue.

Absolute Privilege is a complete answer and bar to any action for defamation.

Qualified Privilege is available as a defence where it is considered important that the facts should be freely known in the public interest.

No defences are available:

• When you have not checked your facts;
• When you have not ‘referred up;
• When you have not put yourself in the shoes of the person or company you write about;
• Got carried away by an intriguing story; or
• Have not bothered to wait for a lawyer’s opinion.

Media Law - Crime Reporting

• Standard of Proof in Criminal Law:
  Within UK law, someone being convicted of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Unless the defendant has admitted guilt, it is the prosecution’s responsibility to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty.
• The Risk of Libel in Media Identification of Crime Suspects:
• A media organisation can be successfully sued by a defendant if they publish the name of someone who has been arrested – or is under arrest – if the investigation then does lead to a criminal prosecution.
  If a media organisation does publish that someone has been arrested and is under investigation – even if this is factually correct – this is defamatory because there is inference that the person may be guilty. The media organisation may be unable to defend any inference made, against any subsequent libel case, if it is misleading in any way. If a name of a person under investigation is published by a governmental agency – the police or local council e.g. – a media organisation can safely publish the name without the fear of defamation. They can publish this safely using the defence or qualified privilege.
• Qualified Privilege:
• Qualified privilege is a defence available where it is considered important that the facts should be freely known in the public interest. The basic requirements of the qualified privilege defence are;
  - that the published report is fair and accurate, and published without malice, and
  – the matter published must be a matter of public concern, the publication of which is for the public benefit.
• In some circumstances, publications may decide to risk the chance of being sued in order to be the first to publish news about a celebrity if they are a suspect in an investigation, for example.
• The ACPO Guidelines:
• The ACPO guidelines state that you cannot name someone under investigation prior to any charge, however details including age and location may be released.
• Magistrates:
• Magistrates are also known as ‘justices of the peace’ – JPs. Most are lay magistrates, meaning they are part-time and volunteer. "They embody the British Constitutional tradition that those who decide verdicts are, in most instances, not professional judges but are drawn directly from local communities."
  When lay magistrates try a case, there must be at least two present. Magistrates will have a legal advisor at hand for instances in which they are unsure of aspects of the law.
• Magistrates’ Sentencing Powers:
• Within summary trials, if a defendant is convicted, the magistrates can punish the defendant by:
  - Sentencing them for a jail term of up to six months for a single offence,
  - Imposing a fine with the actual amount depending on statute for that offence and any discretion the court has. If the defendant fails to pay a fine imposed, a jail term can be imposed as an alternative.
  Either-Way Offences:
One triable either summarily at Magistrates court of before a jury at Crown Court. In an either-way case, a defendant who has indicated a plea of not guilty has the right to opt for a jury trial at Crown Court. But if they choose to be tried by the Magistrates court it may be overruled by a decision that the Crown Court should deal with it.
Indictable-Only Offences:
A charge, which may be tried by a jury at Crown Court, which therefore is an either-way offence or an indictable-only offence.
Contempt of Court 1981:
The greatest risk of the media committing contempt of court is by the publication of material which might prejudice a fair trial by influencing jurors to think badly of a defendant.
Contempt of court occurs if material is published which creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice or impediment to particular legal proceedings, which are ‘active’.
A case is active from the time:
- A person is arrested,
- An arrest warrant is issued,
- A summons is issued, or
– A person has been charged orally.
A case is no longer active when:
- The arrested person is released without being charged – except when released on police bail,
– No arrest was made within 12 months of the issue of an arrest warrant,
- The case discontinued,
- The defendant is acquitted or sentenced,
- The defendant is found to be unfit to be tried, or unfit to plead, or the courts orders the charge to lie on file.

Defence for Contempt of Court:
In the event of a publication being unaware that a case is active, there is a defence available.
– The defence applies if the person responsible for the publication, having taken all reasonable care, did not know and had no reason to suspect when the matter was published, that relevant proceedings were active.
The burden of proof in this instance is on the person being accused on contempt.

WINOL - Features Dummy Week

WINOL - Winchester News Online - has begun broadcasting again for another year. After the news team had a dummy run last week, this week was the first official week for the news team.

For this semester I am Features Editor of WINOL. This role includes;

• Setting deadlines and targets for the feature writers,
• Keeping an up-to-date log of all ongoing projects and tasks - making this available to all members of the team, the editor and managing editor -
• Ensuring deadlines are met,
• Establishing suitable deadlines with the Chief sub-editor enabling content to be edited and uploaded to the site before the Wednesday bulletin,
• Attending editorial meetings to pass on all relevant information, and
• Answering to the editor.

Within the features team we have:

• Cara & Jake - What's On presenters and producers


• David - Music - (What's On)


• Justina and Domonique - WINOL Life Producers


• Zoe - Feature writer


• Becky - Feature writer


• Poppy - Feature writer
• Ewan - Feature writer

Last week was the features dummy week in order to give the feature writers a chance to practice using the cameras, editing and planning the feature as a whole ensuring the angle of the piece was the main focus. I have made the decision not to put any content of the features page of www.winol.co.uk due to lack of content so far. I would like to launch the features page having a few video and written pieces at good quality. The deadline for features each week is Tuesday at 2pm. This has been decided because the feature writers will have a full week to plan and produce their features, and this gives time for the cheif sub-editor and the sub-editors to edit the written articles and embed the videos on the site in time for the Wednesday bulletin going up - therefore giving us a fresh site each week on all pages, because the chance of people coming back if they notice the features content is the same as the previous week is very unlikely.

What's On has made a good start, interviewing Rebecca Vaughan, star of I, Elizabeth and including an interview with football legend Matt Le Tissier. This is presented by Cara and Jake with a 'One Show' feel to it. This will be a weekly show presented by both.

The first episode for the Music side of What's On will be ready for next week. This will be based on the Ventnor Fringe Festival - Isle of Wright. The following episode will be produced for the following week - which will be based on The Shoots.

Zoe and Becky produced their first feature well. Autumn Trends 2011 was a strong piece, filmed in Winchester High Street, included a PTC and interviewed a number of people. During editing they included text on screen, music and voice overs. For their first piece it was very good. When filming the microphone lead was in shot, however this was not noticed until the footage was being edited. We would be unable to put this on the site due to this, so it is something to be sure of in the future. Another way to improve this piece would be to include the interviewee's faces to make the interviews more personal.

Ewan created a piece based on Fresher's life. The aim was to find out how first year students cope with living on their own for the first time in their lives. This piece was good, again, for his first piece. PTC, general views and interviews were included in the package. Ways to make this piece stronger is to ensure sound levels are loud enough when filming (use headphones), film more general views to use within the package (you can never have enough), and to edit the footage to be quick and to make sense. When editing, watch it with the view of the audience, if you are bored, they will be too - shots need to be quick.

Poppy will predominately be producing written features. She will be writing a weekly comment piece in the style of Dorothy Parker - who was known for her opinions and wit. Poppy will be writing a weekly comment piece as well as another general feature each week too. Her first piece was 'This is Jinsy'. Based on a sitcom in a similar style of The Mighty Boosh. The piece was strong and is relevant to our audience - 18-24 year-olds - as they are likely to watch The Mighty Boosh and any similar television shows.
Having Poppy submit at least 2 articles per week, this will ensure we have content regularly being updated on the features page.

We are due to produce our first episode of WINOL Life on the 18th October. This first episode will be a chance to show a guest editor current features packages and listen to their feedback. We are in preparation of organising a guest editor. The first episode will be a chance for everyone to understand the format of the show, then in future weeks we are thinking of having themed shows. Again, this is still all being planned by the producers of WINOL Life (Justina and Domonique) and myself.

Amanda Knox - Freed

Today, Amanda Knox has been acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher. After being in prison for four years, Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, are now freed from prison in Perugia, Italy.

Previous to this, it was believed that, Meredith Kercher was murdered after a sex-game gone wrong, while she was in Italy studying for a semester. The murder weapon, a knife, was tested for DNA and found to have Amanda's DNA on the handle and Meredith's DNA on the blade.

After being convicted of murder, and being sentenced to 26 years imprisonment, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito appealed their convictions.

Following this case from the beginning, I was under the impression that both Knox and Sollecito had been involved in murdering Meredith. I was then very suprised to learn that the case had been granted an appeal.

Having tested their joint flat for evidence, Amanda Knox was believed to have been in the flat at the time of the murder. The evidence found was the DNA on the murder weapon and a footprint matching Amanda Knox's. However in the appeal, Knox claimed she was not in the flat at that time. This is what I find hard to accept.

Rudy Guede's conviction of the murder of Meredith Kercher has been upheld, however reduced to 16 years. If his conviction has been lowered, surely that means there was more than one person involved in the murder, otherwise he would be the sole killer. However the two accused have now been freed.

It was stated that if this verdict did occur then the prosecution would be appealing (for the final time) against Amanda Knox with the aim of a life sentence. If this is what is likely to happen then the prosecution must have a lot of evidence to present against Amanda Knox.

So who has killed Meredith?

Meredith Kercher is the victim, and I cannot help but feel for her family who have now not only had this tragedy brought back into their lives, but now have no answers or conclusions.

Amanda Knox, although returning to Seattle, will be returning to Perugia in November for another trial of slander based on her accusations of police behaviour.

Media Law - Lecture 1

Introduction to the UK legal system:

Court Hierarchy

The UK exercises a free press. This is having the freedom to express and communicate to the public without state intervention. The preservation of this freedom, which the press has, may come from constitutional or legal protections.
The UK does not have a written constitution, which allows the citizens of the UK to do what the law does not prohibit. The European Convention on Human Rights – ECHR – was put in place to protect human rights and fundamental freedom in Europe.
One aspect of the law, which can sometimes be unclear, is the issue of Public Interest. If public interest is argued and justified to be crucial to the publishing of information, this usually means that, the information’s value to society is regarded as high.

The Human Rights Act 1998 was introduced alongside the ECHR.

Article 2 of the Act states:

1) Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.
2) Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;
c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.

Article 8: Right to respect for private and family life.

1) Everyone has the right to respect his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. 2) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the prevention of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 10: Freedom of expression.
1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2) The exercises of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received n confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

There are restrictions on information, which can and cannot be published to the public. The laws include Privacy, Breach of Confidence, Libel and Defamation. These will be explored in more detail every week after each Law lecture.