How Far Does Media Regulation Achieve an Effective Balance Between the Competing Claims of Freedom of Expression as Against Harm and offence?

Freedom of expression is defined as ‘the right to express ones opinion and ideas freely through speech, writing and other forms of communication but without deliberately causing harm or offence to others’ character and/or reputation by false or misleading statements.’

‘In the UK freedom of expression is now incorporated in the Human Rights Act 1998’. The Human Rights Act states that ‘Anyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right includes freedom of opinion and freedom to receive or communicate information or ideas without interference from public authorities and regardless of borders. This article does not prevent states from subjecting radio or television broadcasting or cinema enterprises to a system of authorisations’.

The meaning of harm and offence is often used as a single phrase with little clarity of the difference between the two and how they relate to the legal and regulatory framework

Any system for regulating the content of what may be printed or broadcast in the media must balance two sets of competing interests. On the one hand, the purpose of this form of regulation is to prevent harmful, illegal or otherwise undesirable content being disseminated through the media. On the other hand, such a regulatory system must protect and promote the rights to freedom of expression and information, not provide an opportunity for public

officials to interfere in or harass the media, and respect the professional choices of journalists and other media workers. Achieving the appropriate balance between these interests is a delicate and complicated matter.

Media content regulation in the UK revolves primarily around codes of practice, drawn up by a variety of bodies which are either entirely or largely independent, following wide public consultation. In some cases, these codes of practice have been developed by bodies with statutory powers over the media while in others the responsible bodies have been established by the media or journalists themselves .

It is of the opinion of the author that the term ‘media’ is too broad to answer the question in hand for one context. In this case this essay will divide the media into four specific areas; T.V/broadcast, radio, print based and cinema.

To guard against harm and offence there are a number of regulatory bodies that exist to protect the public. Formed in 2003 Ofcom amalgamated the responsibilities of five media regulators:

• the Broadcasting Standards Commission

• the Independent Television Commission

• the Office of Telecommunications

• the Radio Authority, and

• the Radio communications Agency

At the same time The Communications Act 2003 was introduced and enforced by