Australian Media Law

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Institution

It is well documented that, Australian Media Law explains and outlines the complex legislation, case law along with regulations that govern media practice in fields of advertising, journalism, broadcasting and multimedia. The main purpose of Australian Media Law is to examine issues that mostly affect tradition forms of media, which include radio, television, newspapers and the recent forms such as email, internet, digital technology and computer bulletin boards (Cho, 2005). In this regard, Australian copyright law is based on lawfully enforceable rights of creators and artistic duties under the Australian law. This scope of the copyright within Australia is defined in the Australian Copyright Act 1968. A study indicates that, Copyright Act 1968 has been recognized currently with numerous amendments (Ogawa, 2006). The Act 1968 was passed into law in response to the help of Spicer Committee that had been appointed by the Australian Attorney General in 1958. For the past years, the Copyright Act 1968 has been known to have various implications concerning various aspects. In this regards, the paper seeks to examine the implications of the Copyright Act (1968) when reporting news.

Implications of the Copyright Act (1968) when reporting news

To start with, copyright act 68 is to promote the public welfare using the advancement of knowledge. Actually, Act 1968 offers the incentive facts, which helps in reproducing and distributing media, work effectively. On the contrary, these rights have been subject to the vital limitations, which ensure that the purpose of advancing knowledge along with learning that is not hindered. It is important to note that, the main proposition of copyright is to balance the rights of creators along with those of publishers and users. Based on this argument, Copyright 1968 emphasizes on the principle of fair dealing that assists when reporting news.

In this sense, under fair dealing in reporting news its outlines that, a fair dealing with dramatic, literary, musical, artistic work or adaptation of the literary musical work does not constitute with infringement of the copyright. This occurs in cases when it is in the purpose of reporting news in magazines, newspapers or similar sufficient acknowledgement of the media work made. A time, it occurs in cases when it is in the purpose of reporting news through means of communication or else in a cinematograph film. Fact of playing musical work when reporting news through means of cinematograph film is not fair in that, it is assumed not to form part of the news reported. In relation to this, cinematograph film refers to the final version of recorded part in the film stock.

Additionally, the law has the implication of not having performership falsely attributed. A performer is required to record a performance or else communicate in the sound recording in their performance. Researches have shown that, from 26 July 2007, the copyright act 1968 has given performers moral rights in regards to live performances in news reporting and sound recording (Overbeck, 2006). With this in mind, the rights of consent ensure that, permission is granted to the individual communicating in the public through various means such as internet, radio or otherwise TV broadcast. However, if an individual does nay of the following things without permission may breach the performance rights. For instance, when he or she makes an unauthorized recording and he makes the unauthorized recording intentionally. In addition, an individual may bleach the law in cases of making an illegal communication to the public.

Consequently, there are performances that are covered under this act of media law. For instance, performances made by teachers and students within the course of educational instruction, sporting activity and when reading news. Additionally, the act sets out various factors taken into account when reporting news. These include the purpose in which the news is reported and the nature of the reporting. In this regard, the law outlines that, the main purpose of the news should be to communicate the message to the public. The law prohibits the aspect of reporting news with wrong agenda or accusation. In this sense, one is required to give truthful information without exaggerating the facts or defending.

Copyright law has worked on controlling information and knowledge used in communications. To fulfill this objective effectively, it has emphasized on recognizing the use of access copyright materials as a way of promoting all forms of publications. From this point of view, the revised act has permitted the use of material of the national library in that, the owner cannot be located. Consequently, libraries have been outlined to play a fundamental role in promoting information in a society. This is because, it collects and preserves the documentary heritage of a nation which in turn provide collection required in research and when reporting news (Golvan, 2007).

Another implication of the Copyright law 68 concerning matters of reporting the news is found in Division 5 subdivision D that entails airing works or news to be heard or else seen by the public. This law emphasizes that, news should be reported when there facts proving the truth on the information are been reported. In cases when the reporter or else the editor may not be supporting the facts reporting, he or she should not show the viewers his side especially when the news entails politics. By the use of this implication, many news reporters have been protected from the media conflicts that emerge because of sidelining with a certain political team, which may not be the same case to all members of the public. In this regard, media analysts argue that, Copyright law 68 helps the media department to air the right information in the right way (Overbeck, 2006).

Additionally, various studies have shown that, there have been continuous debates on whether the law is more beneficial or not. For instance, the decision of doing away with the copyright in headlines has seek to seal off the editorial content from individuals that fail to pay for the access of online material. However, some people fail to disagree on the above matter mentioned instead, they examine that the decisions tends to protect the content of publishers.

The most fundamental role of the law of defamation is to protect the individual character from unfair attack. Besides, the main aspect is to hinder free speech as a way of protecting influential people from inquiry. This assists in legal rights with options for individuals that may feel threatened by legal action on what they want to publish or report.

In conclusion, copyright decree 68 emphasis that, anything news report many to hurt a person’s reputation is considered defamatory. For instance, if an editor writes the newspaper on the aspect of how a certain politician is corrupt, this is outlined defamatory (Martin, 2002).

References

Cho, G. (2005). Geographic information science: mastering the legal issues. New York: John Wiley and Sons Publisher

Martin, J.B. (2002). Mass media: a bibliography with indexes. Washington DC: Nova Publishers

Ogawa, M. (2006). Protection of broadcasters’ rights. London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Overbeck, W. ( 2006). Major principles of media law. New York: Cengage Learning

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