When Law meets the Press: Connection of the Legal field to the fourth estate.

Law and journalism are two fields which demand up-to-date knowledge in this proliferating world. Neither of them is stagnant and obsolete. A layman’s outlook towards the legal profession is only that it involves arguments in courts. Contradictorily, a legal field has no periphery or a border line or limitation to knowledge and possibilities of application of both, the law and the mind and is as vast as any field could possibly be.

Legal journalism deals with a vast arena of report, criticism and appraisal legal issues. With the increase in the audience interaction via the mediums of television channels and in the readership of newspapers and magazines, people have found it extremely difficult to keep themselves away from the media. People have been increasingly demanding transparency and easier availability of information through the media and to give in to these demands is the job of a journalist.

Ethics are very important in the life of a journalist, whereas ethics and law are separate spheres forever overlapping in theory as well as in practice. Ethics justify the laws and legal practices but certain situations in journalism raise both legal and ethical questions and it is very important at such a time, to consider if an action is legal, before any ethical issues are raised against it. This is important because ethical standards such as fairness and accuracy are used in court cases to evaluate stories for various legal problems.

From a legal perspective, the “freedom of the press” is guaranteed constitutionally, but that fundamental freedom in a democracy can be limited for justifiable reasons. Hence, press freedom is not absolute, legally.

Restrictions on the media:

There are many laws, criminal and common, provincial and federal that place legal restrictions how the press gathers information and what it publishes. Some of these laws and procedures are:

1. Court decisions involving news media, based on the Charter

2. Criminal laws: against trespass and recording communications; to force journalists to reveal their confidential sources, to appear as court witnesses

3. Restrictions on trial coverage, such as publication bans on evidence and identity of witnesses.

4. Search warrants and injunctions: warrants for searching newsrooms and homes of reporters. Injunctions to stop publication.

5. Civil or non-criminal law related cases where the main restriction is defamation law, but there is a host of other restrictions in covering family court, disciplinary tribunals and so on.

6.  Restrictions on newsgathering and publication due to:

·        Anti-terrorism laws

·        Elections Act

·        Juvenile Justice Act

·        Privacy laws and access to information laws

·        Copyright law

·        Broadcast law and decisions of regulators, etc.

As far as contempt of any law via the media goes, the press need to be very careful because the actual intention of a journalist can sometimes be considered irrelevant as every journalist learns in his/her career, there are various types of possible reporting restrictions, some of which apply automatically; others are at the discretion of the court as the main idea is to protect the legal process against outside influences.

All journalists need a detailed understanding of the law and how it affects their working life - including defamation, contempt, copyright and privacy. If not a comprehensive account of the law, but a journalist should be competent enough to be relied upon to judge the legal aspects of a story and should always take specific advice from the legal team. After all, the press is the unofficial fourth wheel of our democratic state and hence, it has to be as responsible as the parliament, the judiciary and the Government of our country.