Notes

Media Law and Ethics Research Paper



This research paper will discuss 3 laws and compare 2 countries using those 3 laws. The first law is Libel laws which are when a certain group of people or 1 person attempts to damage someone’s reputation by exposing them and aiming the public hatred towards them using material they found on that person. The second laws Is Publication Rights laws which mean that whoever wants to publish something that has already been published needs a publication right that they can only get it after the original publisher’s copyright has expired. The third law is the general law for press, press laws are concerned with licensing of books, newspapers and such similar material, and it is also concerned with liberty of expression in those entities. This paper will show how these laws are


Libel law is the type of law that prevents people from ruining someone else’s public picture by exposing them with private material or fake made up material to direct hatred towards them. Libel in the UAE is taken as a serious offense and punishable by the criminal justice system or by civil court and the punishment is either a fine or prison sentence decided by the court. Even if someone has committed a crime it is still illegal to bad mouth that person and ruin their public picture as it is a shame to their honour and good name. In the UK the laws are seemingly similar, if someone thinks what you wrote about them is defamatory they can sue you. If you thought that someone has defamed you, you can also sue them but whoever sues must have evidence to prove that the other person is guilty of such accusations. Also, anyone who repeats those allegations can be sued, for example, if you say something bad about a person and then a magazine or a newspaper publishes what you said or wrote they can be sued with you. All in all, the UK and the UAE have similar libel laws and people can be sued and face jail time in case of defaming someone.


Publishing laws vary from country to country; some countries restrict their press more than others. In the UAE it is forbidden to publish a law that will harm the national currency in any way or cause any damage to the national economy. Basically any news or stories that can ruin the UAE’s picture is forbidden. Many news channels and organizations are against these rules and believe that the UAE needs more freedom of speech towards these subjects. In the UK there is no strict law towards publishing but many laws associate with it like copyright laws and such. Publishing copyrighted work without the permission of the owner can lead to legal liabilities and the owner may sue the publisher. All of publishing contract agreements must be written down because it provides the best evidence of a contract and in case of any legal liabilities that written agreement can be used as evidence. To conclude this paragraph, the UAE’s laws are stricter than the UK’s by a huge margin but the UK still has reasonable boundaries and respectable laws.


Press laws differentiate between countries, censorship is part of the press law. Censorship comes in different ways but its mostly restrictive censorship which means that the writers can’t write specific terms about specific people or so. Censorship laws were more extreme in the past but have gotten less and less strict nowadays. In the UAE generally the media and press laws are very restrictive and would not be described as free. The UAE does not really have a detailed and written media law still but it does have similar laws that can be used to regulate and control the media. Our media laws are considered ‘’outdated’’ and must be updated. Most of the media channels and news channels are censoring themselves in fear of offending any high ranking Arabs. The UK has media censorship laws written down and described in details, which makes it easier for news channels to avoid breaking those laws. The Ministry of Information was the beginning of the press laws in the UK and it was developed in the First World War and was remade in the Second World War, the ministry was responsible for many press censorships back then, the ministry was disbanded at the end of the Second World War. The UK has a great deal of censorship for the press which surprised people from other countries with no as much censorship. All in all, the UAE has way more censorship towards everything generally than many eastern countries.




In conclusion, Middle Eastern countries in general have more censorship towards laws and their people than eastern and American countries. There was a comparison between the UK and the UAE in this essay using Libel, Press and Publication Rights laws. The UAE clearly gives more ‘’power’’ to high ranking citizens and that makes the press afraid of saying anything and ending up censoring themselves in everything. The UK has more freedom of speech and freedom in press but still has some censorship laws and rules. After all, the UAE’s laws and rules are inspired by the UK.







References:


http://www.khairallahlegal.com/blog/uae-law/criminal-litigation/crime-libel-uae-penal-code-punishment/
http://www.urban75.org/info/libel.html
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/article/20050616/ARTICLE/306169966/1002
http://www.seqlegal.com/blog/10-things-you-should-know-about-publishing-law
http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/revised-media-law-for-the-uae-1.998464
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/11/section-40-british-press-regulation-investigative-journalism
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/libel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_laws