Media Law - NCTJ EMLR Answers 2024/2025

Media Law - NCTJ EMLR AnswersYou work for a specialist magazine which focuses on the new car market. A secretary of a well-known manufacturer calls you up to say the company has produced a prototype of an electric car which can manage 550 miles on a single charge - the highest ever recorded. The secretary passes you internal documents - stamped with the word confidential - revealing how the company has achieved the high mileage as well as designs of the vehicle ahead of its official release in the coming months. The secretary, who wants to remain anonymous, says the new design will revolutionize the electric car market and the public should know about it now. You prepare a story and contact the manufacturer to get its response. The company threatens to take legal action preventing you from publishing, claiming it's a breach of confidence. It also demands you hand back the internal documents, saying they were illegally taken. - correct answer a) The judge would consider whether the material has the [necessary] 'quality of confidence' (1mark). They are secret internal documents, so it does in this scenario (1 mark). Whether the material was originally communicated in circumstances giving rise to obligation/duty of confidence (1 mark). It was, because the secretary, as an employee, has duty to keep contents confidential (1 mark). Judge would consider whether the [unauthorised] publication damaged the company/was to its detriment (1 mark). It would/could have in this scenario, because you have spoiled the company's marketing plans and strategy for revealing its new product / rival firms will be able to get an idea on what the competition is doing (1 mark). All three parts of the test have been met so therefore it is a breach of confidence (1 mark). Company is likely to apply for an injunction [from the high court] to prevent publication (2 marks). You are working for a national news website and are covering a series of explosions at supermarkets in London. Later that day, the police call a press conference at which they say warrants have been issued for the arrest of four men in connection with the bombings. At the press conference, the police give you the names and photographs of the four men and say each has served jail terms for previous terror-related offences. They say the men are believed to be armed and dangerous and should not be approached by members of the public.