OCR A Level Site

OCR Getting a Head

Christopher Jefferies - Apology

The papers apologise 







The apology to Mr Jefferies during The Leveson Inquiry

Current Issues in media regulation - OCR conference notes

PCC
As The Leveson Inquiry will not conclude until September you can speculate on the outcome.

• Will the replacement for the PCC have statutory powers?
• How will it operate in relation to our free press?
• Will it have ethical standards?

When originally looking into the phone hacking claims, the head of the PCC said there was not enough evidence to proceed with the investigation. This supports the claim that the PCC is 'toothless'

Lord Hunt (at The Leveson Inquiry) said the replacement to the PCC needed to be 'something with teeth'

The organisation of The Leveson Inquiry:

• Celebrities and the general public
• Police (Current interviews looking at the relationship between the press and the police)
• Politicians (Still to come, the relationship between the government and the press, with implications of how the police are also involved)

By starting with celebrities this kept The Leveson Inquiry in the press for an extended period of time. The normal length of a major story in the press is 12 days. With the information being reported from each session the following day The Leveson Inquiry was kept in the news. Now that the inquiry has move onto the police less information is being reported. However when the politicians take to the stands the media interest could well raise. 

A number of politicians have a very close relationship with Rupert Murdoch. In the exam you could speculate about what information will be revealed and more importantly the implication for the present and previous government.

Journalists and the law
Journalists are allowed to keep their sources confidential (If they had to declare all their sources then no one would pass their stories to the press)

There are very strict rules regarding reporting during a court case. Before any case starts the press can speculate and report. Christopher Jefferies was hounded by the press as he had a link to Joanna Yates because he was her landlord. Due to his appearance the press made him the number one suspect.

Once the court case starts journalists need to be very careful how they report a story, as any bias could effect the jury's decision. The charge of contempt of court is very serious.

Contempt of Court example


Currently the press is allowed into every court case. The press are even allowed into youth courts, although the public are not. This maintains the theory that the courts should not be private.

David Cameron has said "gaps" in national security must be plugged as he defended plans for more secret court hearings and more internet monitoring. 


Would this be a positive or negative development?

Cameron and secret courts

Clegg's view of the secret courts


The use of social media and how this can now influence future cases.

Joey Barton

Is Dominic Grieve right? Or does he have a lack of understanding about the power of social media?

Joey Barton's tweet:

"This John Terry saga, has turned into one of the most hideously managed spectacles I have ever known. WTF is going on...... We all know what was said. Its there on TV for all to see. Do I think hes a racist? No.
I think hes said something really stupid in the heat of battle/argument. This should of been dealt with instantly (Like Suarez or more games) and put to bed.
The longer it goes on, the worse it is for the game. Racism needs to be stamped out. We all agree on that. This is now affecting England as well as those involved.
I dont a f*cking man and took his punishment for what he said. This is now helping nobody. The one I feel for is Anton, hes done nowt wrong and has.
Once the issue went out of the FA's control, it was always going to get messy. They should have dealt with it instantly. Now its a farce..
Should of thrown his hands up and admitted his grave error. Excepted his deserved disciplinary action and let everyone move on.
Whose the winner in all of this? I cant think of anyone....can you? What a debacle its turned into. Sad state of affairs. Heads should roll.
I am fuming for my teammate Stan. For 6 months, he has to carry on dealing with this situation when hes done nothing wrong"
"I'll probably get a letter now from "the powers that be." If you're reading this don't bother........."

Joey Barton has 1,211,500 followers, look at this in comparison to newspapers read everyday.

Daily Newspaper consumption:

Daily Mirror : 1,102,810 

Daily Record : 291,825 

Daily Star : 617,082 

The Sun : 2,582,301 

Daily Express : 577,543 

Daily Mail : 1,945,496 

The Daily Telegraph : 578,774 

Financial Times : 316,493 

The Herald : 46,122 

The Guardian : 215,988 

The Independent : 105,160 

The Scotsman : 37,731 

The Times : 397,549 

Racing Post : 45,278 

The Daily Mirror / Daily Record : 1,394,635

Liam Stacey

He pleaded guilty to incitement to racial hatred and was freed on bail on condition he stays off Twitter and other social networking sites.

Racist Tweet (At the bottom of the article there is also a short piece about Ryan Giggs and super injunctions)     More

Although the internet has no rules and regulations as such, the tweets that appeared on Twitter were reported to the police leading to Liam Stacey being arrested. How does this fit into the current media regulation debate? Does there need to be specific rules put in place for the internet? Or is this a good example of where there are already laws that work?

The Reynolds Defence

Example: Sargent Gary Flood and the Reynolds Defence   Outcome of the case was that 'The Times was right to publish the story as it was in the public interest.

Recent BBFC cases:

The Hunger Games used a blurring effect to cover some scenes that would otherwise have raised the classification for the film. The film was given a 12a cinema rating.

Bully Rating

Work for Wednesday

OK, to begin with you need to plan and answer the following question. Try to keep to the 1 hour exam time.

Select one of the questions:

Task 1

How effectively can contemporary media be regulated?


How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes? 


Plan and write this essay in 1 hour and then email your essay to me by the end of Wednesday.

Cautionary Note: If I don't get your essay your will be re-writing your essay on the first Wednesday back in the naughty corner, as in staying on Wednesday.

Task 2

Write 1-3 questions that could come up on the exam paper. Remember to be as broad as possible with the question. We can then use the questions as preparation for the exam.,

Email me your exam style questions by Friday 30th. I will then collate/modify your questions for revision net term.

Cautionary Note: If I do not have at least one question from you by Friday you will be in the naughty corner and staying on Wednesday.

Super Injunctions

Celebrities attempted to stop any stories reaching the public with the use of super injunctions. What quickly became apparent was that the age old practice of gagging the press was now futile in a world where digital communications and social networks were allowing both the foolish and the brave amongst the general public to ignore any legal restrictions and say whatever they wanted. 

Love cheat Giggs' damages claim thrown out of court

Claim over ... Ryan Giggs had claimed damages and invasion of privacy

By GARY O'SHEA

Last Updated: 03rd March 2012

THE Sun won a battle for press freedom yesterday as a privacy case brought by Ryan Giggs over his affair with Imogen Thomas was thrown out of court.

The ruling — hailed by legal experts as a "spectacular victory for The Sun" — brought to an end our 11-month legal battle with the Man United love rat.

Mr Justice Tugendhat said at the High Court in London: "It cannot be said that the claim for damages could give rise to any significant award."

He added there was "no purpose" in allowing the case to continue.

We reported last April that ex-Miss Wales and Big Brother beauty Imogen, 28, was having a fling with a married Premier League star.

Fling ... Imogen Thomas

But we were gagged by a court order from identifying him. Welsh winger Giggs, 38, blew a fortune trying to kill off the story — but it backfired spectacularly.

The millionaire star, known in court only as CTB until last month, was soon named and shamed by millions of people on Twitter.

Then last May, Lib Dem MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name Giggs in the Commons.

The player's privacy case claimed The Sun "misused" private information — and demanded damages for distress over RE-PUBLICATION of information in other newspapers and on the internet.

Our barrister Richard Spearman QC said the article did not identify Giggs.

We had behaved "properly" and were not responsible for him being identified elsewhere.

The judge said the case was "notorious".

He went on: "There can be few people in England and Wales who have not heard of this. The initials CTB have been chanted at football matches when Mr Giggs has been playing."

Media lawyer Mark Stephens "This was a spectacular victory for honest, decent and appropriate reporting.

"The Sun, through diligent reporting and excellent reporting, has put a stake through the heart of the super-injunction. Ryan Giggs has done a public service by making clear superinjunctions are not the way forward."

Christopher Jefferies

I have searched through the PCC records and cannot find any complaints from Christopher Jefferies. As this was such a high profile case the usual PCC decision of an apology was probably not deemed sufficient.

What does this say about the power of the PCC?

He has sued eight newspapers for libel - Can you remember what libel is? Explain it in your own words, in relation to Christopher Jefferies.

Jefferies describes vilification

Chris Jefferies said he was made out to be a 'dark, macabre, sinister villain' following Joanna Yeates' death 

Christopher Jefferies, the man wrongly arrested by police in the hunt for the murderer of Joanna Yeates, has given a graphic account of how he was vilified by the press.

The retired teacher, who was Miss Yeates's landlord, was libelled by eight newspapers following his arrest on suspicion of her murder.

Police later exonerated Mr Jefferies and he then successfully sued eight newspapers for libel. Two national newspapers, The Sun and The Mirror, were prosecuted for contempt of court for their reporting of the episode.

The former Clifton College teacher described how some of the newspapers painted him as a "dark, macabre, sinister villain" having mistakenly believed that because he had been arrested on suspicion of murder he must be the killer.

Mr Jefferies said: "The press seemed determined to believe both that the person who had been arrested was the genuine murderer and to portray me in as dark and lurid a light as possible.

"Lo and behold you don't just have a sexual predator but you have a bisexual predator and all sorts of fantastic rumours were latched on to that I would hold pupils' hands while reading poetry, obviously with sinister sexual motives.

"To complete the character assassination it was alleged that I was fascinated by death because I happened to have shown on a couple of occasions a particularly important documentary about the liberation of Auschwitz.

"Here you have me, this dark, macabre, sinister villain. And that certainly wasn't the whole of it."

Mr Jefferies was speaking at the Benn Debate, organised by the Bristol branch of the National Union of Journalists in conjunction with the Bristol Festival of Ideas and two charities, MediaAct and MediaWise. Donnacha DeLong, president of the National Union of Journalists, chaired the event.

Mr Jefferies, who has twice appeared before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, is currently taking legal action against Avon and Somerset Police for wrongful arrest.

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

Home page for the CPBF

The PCC is closing down. Will anyone notice?

0 comments 

Tim Gopsill

DATELINE: 9/3/12 

The Press Complaints Commission has announced it is to close. It had to do so with something of a fanfare because no-one would otherwise have noticed and in any case nothing has changed. The organisation will carry on dispensing its feeble gestures at "self-regulation" until something else comes along.

In other words it is just another unconvincing exercise in rebranding. Every time over the last 20 years that some crisis has exposed the PCC's failings it has announced some footling reforms – tinkering with its Code of Practice, conducting a perfunctory investigation or a bogus internal review, appointing a fresh Tory peer as its chair ....

The announcement demonstrates that it has not overcome its biggest problem, which is that it believes its own lies. 

The PCC was constructed on a lie – that it was the only alternative to the evil of state control of the press. For years the press and politicians colluded in the fiction that a draconian privacy law was hanging over their heads, while in truth no government would ever have summoned the courage to put any kind of restrictions on the Big Media owners.

For all the while political leaders of all parties were kowtowing to them in the most embarrassing way – not just to Murdoch but to all of them.

The PCC's favourite lie has been that that under its firm tutelage the national press was "cleaning up its act" and the excesses of intrusion, harassment and misrepresentation were all in the past. Whether anyone believed it or not was not the point: what mattered was the message. From its inception the PCC was a public relations excise, and that they got away with it for 21 years might be regarded as something of an achievement.

In truth, the PCC made press standards worse. Its function was to construct a barrier between editors and the readers, which served to protect them from public ire. This allowed editors to behave less responsibly without worrying about the consequences.

Complainers did not have to be appeased or reasoned with. The PCC would look after that and twist their arms to take whatever measly recompense they recommended as the best they could hope to get.

Now the editors, owners and their PRs in the PCC are engaged in a rearguard damage limitation exercise to create a new brand that retains these essential characteristics of the old – just as they did in 1991.

Then they wound up the old Press Council (PC) under the threat of a statutory intervention from the Calcutt inquiry and produced the PCC as if from a hat. The politicians were satisfied – despite the fact that the PC was actually more effective than the successor.

They have become so good at this game that they will certainly come up with something sufficiently tough-looking to convince the gullible. 

The question then will be whether politicians and public fall for it. It is hoped that the post-News of the World climate will be too frosty for a new fake to flourish, but that can't be certain.

To a large extent it depends on what Lord Justice Leveson recommends. It also depends on campaigners like the CPBF to keep up the pressure and stiffen the public resolve for media justice.



(Source The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom)

The Sun has eroded British justice, fairness and freedom: now it is feeling the effects

A Chance for Change

PCC to Close

Press Complaints Commission to close before Leveson report

By Torin DouglasBBC media correspondent

Continue reading the main story

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has confirmed it is to close before Lord Justice Leveson produces his report into press standards.

The commission has been widely criticised for its handling of the phone-hacking scandal.

The fast-track closure was agreed by members of the commission at a meeting on Wednesday.

The commission will be replaced by a transitional body until a new system of press regulation is established.

Due to criticism the PCC is closing.

NoW and The Sun

Last edition of The News of the World


First edition of The Sun on Sunday

Breaking News

Rebecca Brooks and five others arrested 


Police have arrested six people, as part of Operation Weeting, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. This is a more serious allegation than the previous arrest for Rebecca Brooks.

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks arrested in Weeting probe

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested as part of the police inquiry into allegations of phone hacking.Continue reading the main story

Five men were also detained, including Mrs Brooks' husband, Charlie. The couple and three men were released on bail, but one man remains in custody.

Rebekah Brooks has been arrested for a second time in the Operation Weeting investigation

Phone-hacking scandal

• Hacking scandal: Who's linked to who?
• Q&A: Phone-hacking scandal
• Key people and profiles
• Timeline

Cheque Book Journalism

Economics of the Press

BBFC - The 1980's

The decade started in dramatic fashion for the BBFC with the submission of Tinto Brass' Caligula.  The film has respectable antecedents, being based on The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, and a screenplay by Gore Vidal.  Original producer Franco Rossellini approached Penthouse mogul Bob Guccione for financial support.  Tinto Brass was hired as director.  The stars were familiar and respected names - Sir John Guilgud, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren.  Problems occured after shooting, with Brass being fired and Vidal protesting that his screen play bore little relationship to what was on screen.  He dissociated himself from the film and attempted to have his name removed from the credits.  Guccione then added some material of his own, some of it hard-core pornography.

The film achieved notoreity in the USA and arrived in the UK with the reputation of being 'the most controversial film of the eighties'. It was seized by Customs and Excise officials when it came into the UK and then seen by the BBFC together with lawyers and Customs officials so that any footage that was in danger of breaching UK laws could be removed.  At this stage all sexually explicit material was removed in order to conform with Customs regulations (specifically the Customs Act 1876), and further cuts made to material which was potentially actionable under the Obscene Publications Act - the later including sexually violent material.

The cut film was then viewed again by the Board, who had already indicated that further cuts to sex and violence would be necessary in order to secure a nation-wide release under BBFC 'X' category standards.  Some innocuous material was added to restore some dialogue which had been lost when the cuts were made.

After six months the film was finally released in the UK with an 'X' certificate, and while themajority of local authorities were content with the certificate, it was banned in some areas. Inevitably, there was some orchestrated protest from concerned citizens who had not seen the film, but because the Board had taken every precaution to ensure that the classification was within the law, the fuss died down. The video was classified '18' when it was submitted in 1990 in a greatly reduced version, having been cut by a further 50 minutes by its distributors in addition to the cuts made for cinema release. In 2008, three versions of the work were submitted for classification, including the original version. All were passed '18' uncut after lengthy consideration.

Throughout the decade there were a number of films involving gangland characters.  1981 saw the release of Tom Clegg's McVicar, a criminal biopic passed 'X'; and John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday, the story of a criminal determined to preserve his manor against incursions by the IRA, also passed 'X'.  This has remained '18' on video since 1987, with the most recent classification in 2008. Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, was passed '18' in 1986, with Bob Hoskins playing the role of chauffeur to a prostitute.  David Green's Buster, passed '15' in 1988, told the story of Great Train Robber 'Buster' Edwards on the run from the law.  The decade concluded with Peter Medak's tale of infamous twin gangland figures, The Krays, passed '18', after cuts to an horrific mutilation scene.

Another film based on real-life was Michael Caton-Jones' Scandal, an account of the Profumo affair, a political scandal of the 1960s.  Although for some the events were considered too recent for comfort, the problem for the BBFC was of a different kind.  An orgy scene revealed the presence of an erect penis in the backgound of the shot.  The image was obscured by soft-focus lighting and the film released with an '18' certificate.

The first of the Rambo series, First Blood (Ted Kotcheff), was passed '15' uncut in 1982, and the second, George Pan Cosmatos' Rambo - First Blood Part II was passed '15' uncut in 1985.  However,Rambo III was cut in 1988 to obtain an '18' certificate.  In addition to a horse-fall removed under the terms of the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937, the violence was reduced by the excision of spatter shots, and cuts were made to counteract the glamorisation of weapons which constituted a significant classification issue. 

Paul Verhoeven's film Robocop was passed '18' without cuts in 1987, and the same on video a year later.  The 2001 video version was submitted with additional material that had been removed by the MPAA before the film was submitted in the UK. 

However, the Conan films did not have the same easy passage.  John Milius' Conan The Barbarianrequired cuts to a sex scene between Conan and a serpent-woman, and to remove horse-falls, for an 'AA' category in 1982.  The second Conan film, Richard Fleischer's Conan The Destroyer also required horse-fall and animal cruelty cuts in 1984.

The decade also saw the establishment of the 'stalk and slash' genre with the Friday 13thseries of films, with parts I and II passed 'X' uncut on film in 1980 and 1981 respectively. Part III was also passed 'X' uncut on film in 1982, but with two cuts to violence/horror to obtain an '18' on video in 1987.

1981 saw the second in the Halloween series passed 'X' uncut on film, but a scene where a woman was scalded to death in a jacuzzi was reduced for an '18' video release in 1990.  The cuts have since been restored.

The development of the video recorder created new anxieties about the home viewing of feature films. Legally, there was no requirement that videos should be classified, which meant that films that had not been approved by the BBFC or which were suitable for adults only, were falling into the hands of children. In particular the tabloid press led a campaign against so called 'video nasties'. This term was not always clearly defined, but there were 70 titles that had either been prosecuted by the DPP under the Obscene Publications Act, or were awaiting prosecution. Some of these were horror films that had never been submitted to the BBFC. Others had been cut for their cinema release, and the video versions sometimes included restored cuts. The outcome of this concern was new legislation, introduced as a private member’s Bill by Conservative MP, Graham Bright. The Video Recordings Act 1984, makes it an offence for a video work to be supplied if it has not been classified, or to supply a classified work to a person under the age specified in the certificate. The Board was designated as the authority with responsibility for classification in 1985, with a consequent increase in staff to deal with a massively increased workload consisting of a backlog of titles already on the market and all new titles (eg in 1986 the Board classified 348 cinema films and 4464 videos works).

No record of the decade of the so-called 'video nasties' would be complete without mention of Sam Raimi's zombie film, The Evil Dead. This was submitted in 1982 and required 49 seconds of cuts to violence and horror.  The video was placed on the Director of Public Prosecution's (DPP) list and seized, with a number of retailers charged under the Obscene Publications Act - although the work was never tested in court as the retailers pleaded guilty.  In 1985 the distributor, Palace Video, was prosecuted and acquitted.  The film cuts were increased for the video version in 1990 as a precautionary measure against possible future prosecution, but in 2000 the full version was passed '18' on video.

Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer was viewed for information in the early 80s, but not formally submitted until 1999 in a version pre-cut by the distributor by some 54 seconds, acting on advice from the Board's departing Director, James Ferman.  The cuts were suggested because the film had collected various OPA convictions.  The full version was submitted on video in 2002 and passed '18' without cuts.

The House On The Edge Of The Park (Ruggero Deodato) was rejected by the Board in 1981 for serious violations of the sexual violence standards.  It subsequently appeared on the DPP list and was the subject of successful prosecutions under the OPA.  It was formally submitted on video for the first time in 2001 and cut for '18'.  Most of the cuts were made for sexual violence under the BBFC's Guidelines.

When former 'video nasties' like those above are submitted to the Board, they are examined under current Guidelines, and their legal history considered.  It is usually possible to make cuts to ensure a modern release, although many of them continue to test the Guidelines for sexual violence.

1982 - Review of the category system

In 1982 'A' was changed to 'PG', 'AA' was changed to '15' and 'X' became '18'. A new category 'R18' was introduced which permitted more explicit sex films to be shown in members-only  clubs.  Previously, such clubs had shown material unclassified by the BBFC, but a change in the law closed this loophole.  Since the mid 1980s most 'R18' material is released on video, only available from a limited number of sex shops which must be specially licensed by local authorities.

Further changes to the category system in the 80s

In 1985, at the request of the industry, the 'Uc' was introduced for video only, to identify works specifically suitable for very young children to watch alone.

In 1989 the BBFC introduced the '12' certificate on film, to bridge the huge gap between 'PG' and '15'. This was extended to video in 1994. The first film to be given a '12' rating was Batman.