Unit 50 LO4 assignment 2

In this assignment I will be writing about the Jimmy Savile sex abuse claims and his relations with the police force which resulted in previous allegation not being followed. I will also be commenting on the presses regulations and obligations to do with this story if they were to write on it. After the death of the BBC DJ Jimmy Savile it came out that he was a raging paedophile, with over 200 sexual abuse claims to his name. It all started in September 2012 when allegations had been made towards the Late DJ, after this became publicised more allegations were made and by October 2012, allegations had been made to 13 police forces across the UK which led to a criminal investigation looking into allegations past and present sex offences committed by Savile and others. In December 2012 it was found that there were around 500 Victims, 450 which were abused by Savile himself. Also came out that from 2007 to 2009 several claims were reported to the police but were not followed up due to lack of evidence however, police where Jimmy Savile lived had no record of any sex allegations made against him, despite a top cop admitting he was aware of scores of complaints about the star. A Surrey Police report reveals the unnamed inspector from Leeds told officers investigating Savile in 2009 that he was aware of numerous sex abuse allegations against the DJ. Another investigation is under way to find out why the allegations had been dropped and not followed up and why there is no record on it. To Date a total of 8 people have been questioned on this issue. If I were a journalist for a newspaper such as the guardian I would have to adhere to the rules and regulations of the PCC (Press Complaints Commission). If I were to write about this story I would have to make sure I followed the regulations and their codes of practice, one that I think would affect the researching of it would be privacy, and this would affect me due to that I would have to respect the privacy of victims and the committed alike. If I were to do an intrusion into the private life of them I would have to justify why I have done so. An example of this would be if one of Jimmy Saviles family had said that they wish to be left alone and not be a part of the news story and then I had gone to the house and taken pictures of them in their private lives then it would be a breach of privacy and it also breaks the law and I could be sued or jailed for intrusion. A code of practice and also a legal and ethical issue I would have to be careful with similar to this would be Harassment, this is where a journalist could go to the house of someone they would like to interview, in this case it could be a relative of Jimmy Savile, then if the person said no to the interview and the journalist carried on knocking the door or trying to email or call the person then that would be harassment, which also could link to offence and harm as it could cause the person distress and make them a victim of harassment.

Another regulation that I would have to consider when writing a story on something like this is Children in sex cases; this is because this story is based on child sex offences committed by Savile, even though that most of the victims in this case are now adults I would still have to adhere to this certain regulation due to they were children when it happened and also I would have to consider that victims would prefer to keep their identities hidden and kept away from the case due to the victims of sexual assault regulation. A real example that links with the scandal according to the PCC was against the sun, Ms Karin Ward complained to the
Press Complaints Commission under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors' Code of Practice about a photograph which featured in an article reporting on the extent of Jimmy Savile's abuse. The complainant was concerned that the caption had inaccurately identified her as one of those included in the image (Taken from the PCC site). It was dealt with by the sun going to Ms Ward and apologising for its error and distress.

If I worked for the BBC on the other hand I would have to adhere to a different regulatory body as I would be broadcasting on TV. When broadcasting a news story on this issue I would have to make sure I took into account and enforce impartiality, as when broadcasting news you must be impartial so you show no connection or opinion on the story that could affect the views and opinions of the audience. Another key code that I would have to take in to account when reporting about this would be harm and offence, I would have to be careful that I do not broadcast anything that could potentially offend people, e.g. Jimmy Saviles family and also that I do not broadcast anything that could cause harm to the victims, such as personal details or even details of the event they were involved with. Fairness would be a major code that I would have to keep in mind as it relates to how individual or organisations are treated in programmes. This would mean I would have to treat Jimmy Savile like I would with anyone else. The last code that I would consider when broadcasting a news programme on this story would again be privacy, just like the press I would have to respect the privacy of victims and the committed alike also must warrant any intrusions to the private lives of the person I have broken the code over. If I go back to writing a newspaper article on the Jimmy Savile sex scandal there are even more things I have to consider, one of these things is defamation, this is harming the reputation of another by making a false statement to another person. This could happen if I were to write about someone involved in the Jimmy Savile sex scandal and state they were a paedophile without any proof, if this happened I could then be done for libel, which is the law that covers defamation in written form. Another consideration I would have to take would be the act of contempt of court, this could happen if I were to write about someone who had be charged with sex offences to do with the Jimmy Savile case and I the wrote that the person of matter had actually been convicted when he hadnt. I could then be prosecuted for false information and affecting a fair trial. A particular Legal issue that I would have to take care of in any story is copyright, this gives the rights of a piece of media to the creator. In this case if I wanted to have a picture of jimmy Savile in my article about

the sex scandal I would have to use someone elses photo as he is dead and I could not take one of my own, in this case I would have to go to a photographer that has the rights of a photo that I would like to use and then ask if I could use the Savile photo in my article, this may cost me some money or id have to credit him. The official secrets act is one legal issue that I would have to keep in mind when writing up an article. This act is there to protect official secrets being leaked to the public or to punish those who do, an example of this would relate to the police saying they have no record of an allegation; if someone from the police force were to come to me and tell me there are records but they have to be kept secret for some reason and also gave me the information for which these records kept, and then I publish them, I could be done for leaking an official secret and then fined or arrested. This story has many ways it could affect the reader, one way could be offence or harm which could be caused by false statements or private information being published. Even the actual facts could harm people as it shows that a paedophile in the public eye had remained undetected for his whole life. Also it could give the audience a new view and opinion of the BBC and how they did not follow up allegations about Savile and why they decided not to broadcast an interview with a victim on news night. All I all this story has a big effect on everyone, be that the BBC, the people involved or the public. References http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile_sexual_abuse_scandal