Legal Advice for Journalists and Writers

Legal advice for editors, reporters, subs, photographers and online journalists

Journalists and writers battling fuzzy legal issues will find a new book by CIoJ legal journalist, Cleland Thom, a great desk partner.

The How-to Legal Manual – a journalist’s guide to solving legal problems safely - comes in a handy ring-binder: solid enough to withstand the rigours of a busy desk but flexible enough to allow someone to dart off to the law courts or the local council with advice in hand for a potentially sticky story.

More importantly, the book’s concise, readable, and the briefs are exactly where the index says they can be found.

With an output of 20 ‘legals’ a day to more than 70 newspapers, radio stations, magazines and websites, and an in-house training programme on law across the UK, Cleland is a busy man. This book attests to his skills.

There are separate sections in his book for editors and desk heads, reporters, subs, photographers, web editors and online journalists.

At the top of my list are the following briefs:

•    Use reader-generated web content
Here, Cleland gives guidelines for and against the use of such content, including the editing of work, whereby you become the publisher and are liable for any libels. For instance, ‘Innocent Dissemination’ may not protect your site if it has commercial content. Conversely, if you do not edit prior to posting, you may not qualify for the libel defence of ‘Innocent Dissemination’. I take that to mean, if you are seen to be a commercial publisher, you must have a warning saying that archived material protected by qualified privilege may not be true, and you cannot make any claims about the site’s journalistic standards, etc.

•    Keep Safe Notes and Contact Books
Under this heading, amongst other advice, Cleland notes that a spiral bound book is easy to manage and can help to prove that you did not insert pages into the book after the court writ landed on the editor’s desk. Rule off your notes at the end of each working day, he insists (not something I always do), and keep your notebook (mine go back to the 80s).

•    Spot Unsafe Press Releases
In this case, check the safety of information from council or police press offices (not just the obvious PR ones that come in full of fantastic claims). Cleland says there have been cases where Police wrongly said it was safe to name a youth – when a court had passed a Section 39 order on him. The paper was prosecuted. He adds that, in terms of defamation, your stories based on local authority press releases about court cases do not have to give both sides, if the release itself doesn’t.

There are many subjects covered, and these are my top priorities for closer study:

•    Use photos safely (libel, copyright, privacy, code)
•    Conduct an Investigation
•    Challenge Police Decisions Regarding the Data Protection Act (DPA)
•    Deal with contributions from citizen journalists – copy and pix

Make sure you are not caught mea maxima culpa. It could be embarrassing and expensive.

Email Cleland Thom: media@potential.gb.com
www.potential.gb.com/index.php

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