Monday 23 September 2013

LO3: Contractual, Legal and Ethical Obligations in the television and film industries


Task 3: Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries.



The employment legislation are rules that all the employers will need to follow within their company, for example health and safety legislation, Employees rights, Equality, Copyright and others.

Contract is an agreement which is only between the employers and employees and no one else should know about it. Everything should be confidential because the contact will have terms and conditions of the job such as: legal agreements, responsibilities, salary and what the employee should do. The employer and the employee will need to sign and will need to understand that they have to do everything which is written on the contract.

Health and safety legislation is here to make sure that the environment is a safe place to work in, for example, you shouldn’t have things lying around in the place, such as: tripods, cables or any cameras. To avoid accidents you will need to make sure that you pick them. It is the employers responsibility to make sure that all the employees are working in a safe environment. All the companies should have health and safety arrangement which is meant to be followed all the times. There should also be nurses in case of an accident. The employers should make sure that they have more then one fire alarm in the work place.

Equality means that you should treat all the employees and employers equally. You should make fair decisions when you employ staff and you shouldn’t discriminate them because of their race, age, social class, sexuality, disability and religion.

Copyright is when someone uses someone else’s work without asking them. If a company decides to use a music for their programme which is produced by someone else without their permission, then this will be copyright. They can use it but first they will need to ask for permission and if the other company says yes, then they can use and it won’t be known as copyright. If they use it without permission then the company can charge the other company for copyright. Most companies have their own logos and slogans so that they can stand out from other companies and others can recognize the company easily, but companies cannot have the same logos because then this will be known as copyright.

Every employee is entitled to individual rights, when they are working in a company within the TV and film industry. For example, they have the freedom to say what they want if something is wrong. They will also need to know their rights because it is really important, if something does happen at their workplace. Someone at work might get treated differently because of their race, they will know what they have to do, what action they will need to follow.



The centre for Economic Policy research checks that all the companies are making sure that employees are being treated fairly. It is the employers responsibility to make sure that everyone is being treated equally and that they are being respected, if the employer fails to do this, then it might mean that he can lose his job.

The trade union is a organization which will represents employees In the term of employment. This could mean that they are supporting the people with work rights and pension. If you join the trade union, then this will mean that if you have a problem they will help you to solve it at the workplace.

Legal obligations is a law that the employees and employers who are working within the media industry will need to take. For example the libel law, Ofcom, broadcasting act and the race relation act. The broadcasting act is a law which requires TV licence is a tax on all the people that watch TV.

Libel law will help protect the image of an individual in the society. If a company broadcasts some information about an individual which isn’t right the person has the right to sue the company for doing this. Then the company will need to pay fine for doing this.

Ofcom is a communication, which controls the TV sector, and their job is to make sure that UK has a variety of electronic communication services. They also receive the complaints from the viewers.   

The race relation act will provide direct or indirect communication. It also stops people from getting discriminated because of their race in workplaces. No one says anything to them and now they are more likely to get jobs. It also makes it clear that no one should be discriminated because of his or her colour.

When a company is producing a programme they should make sure that they think about how the audience will feel. If company is planning on showing a inappropriate programme, then they will need to show it at night, when all the kids are sleeping because parents wouldn’t want their kids to watch it.  During the day time, they could show family programmes because at that time of the day families sit together and like to watch TV.

Codes of practice are rules that should be followed by the company all the time. This also helps the employers to become more professional when they have to make important decisions for their TV programmes.

People working within the media industry will need to make sure that they employ people who from a different race, different type of ages, race and sexuality. For example, the producer will need to make sure that they have different programmes for different people because they public pays to see it and there are different type of audience who will be watching it. 



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