Ethical and Legal Constraints within the Media Sector

When you work in the media there is always a huge pressure to provide fair and balanced viewpoints, equal representation for people from different ethnic backgrounds and people with different lifestyles. Over the past century there has been countless examples of media companies attracting controversy, even more so in the last 10 years than any other decade previous, mainly because of the increased media presence in people's lives, today alone well over 280 million newspapers have been sold. Within the media sector there are many ethical and legal constraints that organisations face. There are several acts in the UK and abroad that draws a line as to what is acceptable to be broadcastable on TV, film, radio and newspapers.


Since 1959, the Obscene Publications Act has been in place, which regulates the publication of obscene content, in this case pornography, in print material. This was later extended to all obscene matter when the act was amended in 1964. There are also acts in relation to racism and human rights. In 1976, the race relations act was drawn up to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. Included are colour, race, nationality, ethnicity, education, origin and origin of goods and services. The act was amended in 2000, including a duty on public bodies and companies to promote equality between people from different backgrounds. The Human Rights Act of 1998 is designed to give further effect to the guarantee's and freedom the are under the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically, making it unlawful for any public body/company to act in a way that is incompatible with the Convention, unless the wording of the act leaves no other choice. The Broadcasting Act of 1990 is another major regulation within the media sector; the broadcasting act regulates independent television and sound programme services (radio) and other services provided on television and/or radio frequencies. Copyright can arguably be the biggest constraint within the media sector, breach of copyright can often lead to a costly lawsuit, for example, Viacom made a $1bn (£610m) copyright case against Google, claiming tens of thousands of videos from MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, all of which Viacom own, are on YouTube and its owner Google had known about it but had done nothing about it. Viacom's claims were later dismissed.


Their are several regulatory bodies in the UK that regulate media products. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) are the body that classifies films, TV programmes, videos and games. Office for Communication (Ofcom) regulate all UK television and radio, and investigate incidents on television and radio when complaints are filled, whether they be a poor use of words or content that isn't acceptable. The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) are a body that overlooks newspapers and magazines. Because the press is self regulatory, the PCC acts as administers, it does so by dealing with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines, as well as their websites, including editorial audio-visual material. Also the PCC deals with complaints about the conduct of journalists.

One of the worlds most famous media conglomerates is the Walt Disney company. Disney is the 121st biggest company in the world according to Forbes and due to their size criticism doesn't often harm the brand. However, since Disney was founded in 1923, it has attracted plenty of criticism, not least because of various ethical issues. Many conspiracy theorists have argued the Disney films, particularly animated films like The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, contain sexual innuendo or references hidden in them. In Aladdin, when Aladdin is attacked by the tiger Rajah, Aladdin quietly says "Good kitty, take off and go.." with a snarl from Rajah overlapping the word "kitty". Some people reported hearing "Good teenagers, take off your clothes" in the theatrical release. Because of this controversy, Disney changed the phrase with "Down, kitty" in the DVD release. Many people have also branded Disney as racists and being discriminatory to people from a different ethnicity. In Disney animated films like Lady and the Tramp and Oliver and Company that are from other nationalities like Mexico and Thailand are represented poorly. For example, the Chihuahua in Oliver and Company called 'Ignacio Alonzo Julio Federico de Tito' knows how to hot-wire a car and was portrayed as dirty and sleazy. Also, in the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp were criticised for having slanted eyes, exaggerated accents and being cunning, manipulative and evil.

Another race controversy Disney has has is the fact that until 2009, all of Disney's princesses in their films have been white. This changed when 'The Princess and The Frog' was released where the princess called Tiana is black. Also, people argue that the film 'Song of the South' glorifies the lives of slaves on plantations during the 19th century in the deep south of the USA. Such is the controversy it has caused, the film has never been released on VHS or DVD despite it being made in 1946.