Laws in the Newspaper Industry.

I wanted to go over some laws which are in action at the moment. These laws could have anything to do with the stories told, how the stories are found, the distribution and exibition. I have kept in mind that all is not what it seems in the newspaper, and even the media world.


I have looked online to see if i can find laws and i have found some useful websites:


http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/media-law-and-advertising-copy - this gives a detailed but short explaination of certain areas on laws, mainly about advertising. This is useful to me as i would need to know because i am advertising my newspaper on the radio, advertising my newspaper's headline on a sandwich board poster and also advertising my newspaper's website inside my newspaper also. But i am not putting any companies adverts in my newspaper.

Laws and regulations in newspapers

While looking through various websites which gave me no information, i found that there are no strict or serious laws which newspapers must go by - showing that newspapers have the potential to be very powerful and unruley.

When i think about it, it does sort of make sense. Newspapers publish very private information including photos, meaning that privacy has nothing to do with laws that newspapers have to go by.

There werent any official documents which state the different laws that newspapers must follow, but i did find that it is illegal to publish anything which is libel or slander - meaning writing something nasty about someone - however i see this a lot in newspapers?!

Having this clearly very flexible law is only serious when it is actually published - therefore it is already out there for the publc to see and before the paper has been removed from sellers, it has been read by a multiple of people.

To try and find out more about the laws and reguations in the newspaper industry i submitted a question on Yahoo Answers to see if anyone could give me any information:

How will this effect me and my newspaper?

I wanted to find out about the laws they have to follow for my own personal interest, but also because i want to know what i can and cannot put in my paper. Knowing these laws will definatley control what i put in my newspaper.

I did find that there arent many laws and regulations which newspapers have o follow, which is clear with the type of content they publish.