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Every Communications Department needs to understand the basics of media law and other legal aspects relating to the communications process.

This could range from understanding the legal implications of Freedom of Information requests from the local paper to the reporting of high profile cases such as Baby Maddy – where national papers had to pay millions of pounds in libel payments to the McCann family.

This course will cover media law and legal aspects of Communications in the morning and Crisis Media Management in the afternoon.

Media Law

It takes the average journalist at least one year to learn the basics of media law. We shall try and condense the main points into a morning.

We shall cover:

• Freedom of Information Requests – what they are, what they mean for you, how to respond, how to minimise the impact.
• Libel or Defamation – what it means, how you spot it and how you avoid it. We will also include slander and malicious falsehoods.
• Reporting the Courts – especially Contempt of Court – what constitutes Contempt.
• Magistrates Courts and Juvenile Courts.
• Summary proceedings and Preliminary proceedings.
• Sexual offences.
• Election law – relating to Local Government elections.
• Journalist sources.

We will explain

• What you can and cannot say in your press release.
• How to brief a Member or Officer on sensitive issues when giving media interviews which could be affected by legal matters.
• Explanation of “sub judice” and “confidentiality”.
• How to conduct media interviews in general terms avoiding specific cases which may be covered by sub judice or confidentiality.
• A short section on copyright.
• A short section on the difference between what Members and Officers can say to the media.
• A short section on Standards and the Standards Committee which Members must adhere to.

Our overall aim is to help you write your press releases on sensitive issues with full confidence that you are treading on the right side of the law.

We also know that some departments try and avoid all media involvement “hiding behind” legal terms such as “sub judice” and “confidentiality”.

We also want to cover in depth FOI requests – which have made life very difficult for some small Communications teams.

We will share with you best practice, gleaned from our considerable experience around the country, in how best to deal with these requests and how to avoid nasty headlines which may arise from these requests.

We will provide Case Studies from Local Government – such as the Baby P case at Haringey Council and similar related cases, to show you both poor and good examples of how to negotiate your way around legal minefields.