ACC 717 DU Default Communications Substantial Copyright Essay

ACC717 Law Media Communication
Assignment 2 50%
2,500 words
Due: 11.59pm 27 September, 2019.
Question: Compare and contrast TWO case studies in
communication (PR, journalism, media production) for what they tell
us about the importance of legal considerations to professional
practice – i.e. why do your chosen cases teach you something, and
what do they teach you?
NB: What you are engaging in with this assignment is Reflective Practice.
This means reflecting on actual examples and applying your informed
observations to an argument about professional communication.
You can select examples from the unit topics from Contempt of Court through to
Copyright, but the idea is not to mention every unit topic for the sake of it, but to
select the material that does relate, and drive your analysis.
Advice and Guidance
•
Please avoid leaving this assignment until the last minute. If you have not
passed the first assignment and have doubts about your ability to devote the
required time to this second 50% assignment, and the revision of
reading/topic study required for its successful completion, it is advisable to
consider deferring enrolment in the unit.
•
You should refer to at least one case study in your answer and refer to
topics covered up to the due date of this assignment, without needing to
stretch across every single one. The idea is to select the material that
relates to your chosen case study/studies, and not to refer to all topics for
no benefit to your analysis.
Please answer the question without the use of long, generalised and/or
unsupported comment at the introduction. This is NOT demonstrating
scholarly research.
Professional communication principles apply, i.e. get to the point as
concisely and clearly as possible. The reader should be clear about the
point before they reach the end of the first page.
•
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This will be easier if you a) keep up with the Topic content and readings, and b)
start the assignment early, recognising that it does require research of scholarly
and media material.
Be careful not to use unacknowledged material from a previous assignment
in this unit, or from the internet, as this will be detected (even if words are
changed) and/or manual checking of references by marker(s). We are
obligated by policy to report any suspected plagiarism and/or collusion.
Note: Assessors are not permitted to correspond with students directly after
submissions are referred to the Faculty Integrity Committee.
On Content and Format
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Word count does not include reference list or in text references
It is essential that you follow the Harvard Referencing Guide (available via
Deakin Sync/Study or the Finding Academic and Scholarly Sources
module in the Assessments folder in “Resources”
Format – at least 12pt font, 1.5 or double line spacing, page numbers
Uploaded file must be in either MS Word or PDF, to enable Turnitin to
read it. Other file types will not be marked. Until the correct file is
available for marking and Turnitin checking, late penalties have to be
applied until the correct file is submitted.
English as Additional Language students can obtain assignment advice
and support from the Language and Learning Advisors at DSA
Refer to readings supplied in E Readings and also conduct your own
research to support your argument
On Approach
•
You can select your own case study, relevant to your area of
communication practice (i.e. journalism, PR,)
Previous students have written about, for e.g.–
o Defamation and the truth defence in Australia via major case(s)
review and discussion
o Media freedom and the use of confidential sources/whistleblowers
o Political interests in media ownership in India and the impact on
journalism/media freedom
o A country case study (e.g. India, Philippines) in relation to
advertising legal restraints or lack of them, comparison of
Australian and American defamation cases; PR major case study
(e.g. McLibel, BP Deepwater Horizon)
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Support your reflection with your selected example (s) and good
secondary material (unit readings AND other scholarly material).
Random Google search findings are ok for the early part of your research
but should develop from there, into selecting material that complements
your clear use of UNIT READINGS
Wikipedia is not a scholarly research source. It does provide leads to such
sources at the Reference List on most entries.
All other advice as per assignment 1 applies.
ACC717 Law Media
Communication
Topic 6 Media Freedom
§ View professional practice in global
Why Media
Freedom in a unit
on professional
communication?
setting – meet Unit GLOs (Graduate
Learning Outcomes) as listed in Unit
Guide
§ Identify and describe broad national
and international scope & restraints on
professional communication, in context
of general human communication …
§ via internet
§ via activism online and on ground
§ Connects to privacy
§ Communicators need information
§ Factual accuracy
§ Access to law & policy makers
§ Analytical capacity – critical
view, pursuing hidden data
§ Public trust
§ Public interest
Core Media
Values
§ Client interests (PR)
§ Creative capacity (advertising,
digital media production)
§ So does international public
§ Informed civil rights/liberties – e.g.
voting, community participation,
lobbying, protest
§ Freedom of communication – creative
ideas, policy, social activism
Discuss
Secrecy and
Think of the pros and cons of legal and/or
information
government restrictions on what the media
can access and publish in these situations:-
• Ohio shooting

Think of the pros and cons of
legal/government restrictions
on what the media can access
and publish in (recallsTopic
1):-
§ Australian Federal Police
Discussing Media
Restriction
raid the ABC’s Sydney
headquarters over stories
about army’s actions in
Afghanistan war
AFP Raids
https://youtu.be/xAUYpyVrC
r0
§ Writing about religious oppression (World Press Freedom Day
Discussing
Media
story about imprisoned journalists in Myanmar; Ethiopian govt
Restriction
releases
all its jailed journalists
§ https://youtu.be/CEbUJXwRBIc
§ Committee to Protect Journalists List of
Media workers
killed in 2019
29 killed
https://cpj.org/data/killed/2019/?status
=Killed&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=C
onfirmed&motiveUnconfirmed%5B%5D
=Unconfirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalis
t&type%5B%5D=Media
Worker&start_year=2019&end_year=20
19&group_by=location
Media Workers In
Prison 2018: 250
§ On human rights issues coverage, for e.g.
§ Myanmar: 2
§ Azerbaijan: 4
§ Turkey: 43
§ China: 34
§ Israel and occupied Palestinian territory: 3
§ https://cpj.org/data/imprisoned/2018/?status=Impri
soned&coverages%5B%5D=Human
Rights&cc_fips%5B%5D=AS&cc_fips%5B%5D=CH&
cc_fips%5B%5D=BM&cc_fips%5B%5D=TU&cc_fips
%5B%5D=US&start_year=2018&end_year=2018&gro
up_by=location
§ When someone is
§ A child
§ A victim of a sexual offence
§ On trial
§ Vulnerable – e.g. grieving
Australia shares
ideas with most
other places about
legal restrictions
§ But What about when someone is:§ Famous
§ Wealthy
§ Has a great PR or Media Liaison
§ In public office
The Laws Meant to
Aid Media Access to
Information
State law
§ Commonwealth law
http://www.foi.vic.gov.au/home/foi
/ Victorian Freedom of Information
Act 1982
§ Freedom of Information Act 1982
FOI Regulations 2009
FOI Access Charges 2004
§ Reforms
§ Freedom of Information
Amendment (Reform) Act 2010
(Cth) and the Australian
Information Commissioner Act
2010
Why Media
Doesn’t Access
Information
§ Media coverage of consequences for ‘whistleblowers’ or critics of powerful institutions
§ Crown casino’s activities in China
§ Jenny Jiang’s story
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies
/this-woman-was-jailed-in-china-because-sheworked-for-crown-casino-20190724-p52ahm.html
Chilling
Effect
Scroll down page to video “Crown Unmasked”
2.34mins
PDF of this Crikey story is in Topic materials
1
Nine goes all in on Crown revelations, but
will the house win?
Nine’s burst of negative publicity for Crown will squeeze traditionally passive state-based
gambling regulators and the federal authorities — particularly Scott Morrison and Peter
Dutton.
Stephen Mayne
Jul 29, 2019
How the media world has changed. A decade or so ago, could anyone imagine that 60
Minutes would have been involved in a full one-hour attack on former proprietor James
Packer’s casino empire? Particularly by a Fairfax journalist like Nick McKenzie, swinging in
as a guest reporter for Nine’s flagship Sunday night program.
But so it was over the weekend when Nine unleashed its first major multi-platform
investigation since the Fairfax takeover; Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscano and Grace Tobin
took on Crown Resorts on the front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, plus
on 60 Minutes. Pre-merger, this would have likely been a joint investigation with ABC’s
Four Corners.
So what exactly did they dig up? The allegations include Crown striking up business
relationships with triad-connected operators who help bring high rollers to Australia, plus
involvement in the laundering of drug-trafficking proceeds. Today’s installment in print even
detailed Crown’s connections with the cousin of Chinese President Xi Jinping, which may
undermine his reputation as a hard-charging corruption fighter.
§ Australia did not have shield laws until
2011
§ They reside in the Evidence Act 1995
(Cth) as an amendment
Australia’s Shield
Laws
§ http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C201
1A00021
§ Evidence Act (Journalist’s Privilege) 2011
(Cth) and 2012 (Vic)
§ States have own versions
§ Vic Evidence Act additions
§ ss 126J and 126K
§ WA Case – Rinehart family feud
§ Sydney Morning Herald journalist
Adele Ferguson won right to protect her
sources and story research
§ She won court costs back from Hancock
Prospecting
§ Test case for states occurred in 2014–
Australian Shield
Laws
West Australian Newspapers & Steve
Pennells won right to protect sources
§ Rinehart’s lawyers tried to argue that
costs were not needed as Pennell case
had worked out all the complexity of
shield laws
§ Judge disagreed
§ http://www.abc.net.au/news/201
4-03-15/rinehart-ordered-to-payjournalist27s-costs/5323084
§ Herald Sun reporters Gerard Harvey
Why Australia
Introduced Shield
Laws
and Michael Mcmanus used leaked
information about misleading Veterans
Affairs entitlements information
released by 2004 Howard Government.
§ Charged with Contempt of Court for
refusing to name their source, fined
$7000 each.
§ The McManus and Harvey case
considered exemplar for need for
Australia’s ‘shield laws’
§ Issues when access to information about
private lives/events/circumstances is
obtained
Links to Privacy
§ By stealth – London phone-hacking trials
§ By naive consent – e.g. victims of crime,
inexperienced general public
§ By invasion of privacy – trespass, secret
recordings, lifting of social media content
§ Media protested against and
condemned proposed amendments that
would mean 20years jail for obtaining
information deemed national security
related (2017)
§ The MEAA Report “Criminalising
Journalism” dealt with this issue
Australian
Espionage Law
§ National Security Legislation Amendment
(Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act
2018
§ Amends the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)
§ ss7-7 deal with media
§ https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C
2018A00067
§
(i) was, at that time, a member of the
administrative staff of an entity that was
engaged in the business of reporting news,
presenting current affairs or expressing
editorial or other content in news media; and
§
(ii) acted under the direction
of a journalist, editor or lawyer who was also
a member of the staff of the entity, and who
reasonably believed that engaging in that
conduct was in the public interest (see
subsection (7)).
§ s6 defence
§ the person Code
communicated,
Criminal
Actremoved,
held or otherwise dealt with the
1995
(Cth)in the person’s
relevant
information
capacity as a person engaged in the
business of reporting news,
presenting current affairs or
expressing editorial or other
content in news media, and:
§ (a) at that time, the person
reasonably believed that engaging
in that conduct was in the public
interest (see subsection (7));
§ https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00067
§ In August 2018, 100s of US newspapers
publish joint editorials protesting
attacks on press freedom
§ https://www.theguardian.com/media/20
“The Enemy of
the People”
18/aug/13/more-than-100-usnewspapers-plan-editorials-decryingtrump-media-attacks?CMP=share_btn_tw
§ CNN 16/8/18. Nationwide Editorials
Condemn Trump’s Attacks on Media.
§ https://youtu.be/5Rf0V8hezqY
§ Program made possible by undercover
investigative reporter gaining position
as a content moderator trainee with
Facebook
Inside Facebook
§ More here
§ https://iview.abc.net.au/show/fourcorners/series/0/video/NC1803H026S0
0
§ Cambridge Analytica was a data mining
The Cambridge
Analytica Case
company found to have supplied voter
information from Facebook to US
Presidential election campaign
§ Wider implications for media freedom
and privacy – what is ok for PR and
advertising, for example?
§ Watergate scandal led to the
Just ‘A Little PR
Problem’?
US Classic
impeachment of then US President
Richard Nixon described by Nixon as
‘just a little PR problem’
§ Criminal and moral transgressions
committed by the Nixon government
§ Case where PR was planned to deal
with investigative questions from
journalists
Trump Era c.f.
Nixon
Mediascape
§ The big problem with comparing
Trump to Nixon 8.43mins
§ 8.43mins
§ https://youtu.be/gczHz0CPum4
Next week
§ Defamation