M3

In this blog post, I will be exploring the legal and ethical issues that must be considered when creating a radio program. It is important for me to consider these during my radio production as otherwise my programme may not be considered suitable and of a professional standard. Legal issues are laws set by the government and are compulsory to be followed. Ethical issues, however, are about the concepts of right and wrong behavior.

When it comes to regulating the content of radio programs, the body in charge of this is Ofcom (Office of Communications). It regulates both TV and radio media channels by writing codes that people must adhere to. (Linked here.)

These are the codes that are on the Ofcom website:

During my radio programme, I will have to adhere to each of these codes. For example, one of the codes that I will have to adhere to is 'Protecting the under-eighteens'. My show will cover quite mature content that will not be suitable for younger audiences, as fighting can be dangerous and can influence the wrong people. Another factor that I will consider is offensive language. This will not be included in my radio programme as to not offend anyone.

Another code that I will have to adhere to is the 'Commercial communications on radio'. This is to ensure the transparency of commercial communications as a means to secure consumer protection. The adverts should be clearly separated from the programme itself and sponsored programming must be made clear. The adverts that I create should also not be false advertising and not promote a product to the audience accurately.

Adverts on radio are regulated by the ASA and the adverts must stick to the broadcast advertising rules (BCAP Code). The sections of codes in written by the ASA can be seen below:

Slander is false spoken statements that can damage a person's reputation. It is important to not include any slander on a radio programme as usually, due to it being a live broadcast, it cannot be edited out or changed. An example where slander has occurred on a radio programme is on BBC Radio 2 during All Request Friday. In this, a caller said an insulting comment about a celebrity live on air, which included strong language. The host had to cut off the caller and apologize, explaining that it was live radio. As our show is prerecorded, we can avoid any slander and can edit our radio show to make sure it is suitable for all audiences, without any possible slander.

When using background music and sound effects throughout our radio show and in the jingles, it is important to make sure that these sounds aren't copyrighted. If we do include copyrighted content, then the programme could be claimed, causing a loss in revenue. Therefore, there are a few different things that we will do. For the sounds used in our advert and jingles, these will be either gathered from a copyright free sound supplier website or created ourselves, using a programme such as a royalty free streaming sight. Furthermore, the background music used throughout our programme will also be copyright free. The track used was royalty free, clearly stated online.