LLAW3262 Selected Issues in Media Law

2020

4.5

6 x 2-hour workshops per semester
6 x 2-hour on-line exercises per semester

1 Admission into BLAWLP-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice
1a Admission into BLAWLPG-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry)
1b Admission into BLAWLPR-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice
1c Admission into BLAWLPRG-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry)
1d Admission into BLAWLPRH-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Honours)
1e Admission into BLAWLPRGH-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry) (Honours)
1f Admission into BLAWS-Bachelor of Laws
1g Admission into BLAWSH-Bachelor of Laws (Honours)
1h Admission into BLAWSG-Bachelor of Laws (Graduate Entry)
2 18 units of second year LLAW topics
3 LLAW2212 - The Constitution and the Australian Federation [International / Comparative I]
Must Satisfy: ((1 or 1a or 1b or 1c or 1d or 1e or 1f or 1g or 1h) and 2 and 3)

LLAW3055 has been successfully completed

Three hours per week for project work required.

After an introductory section, which will provide a grounding in theory and policy issues to do with freedom and power of the press, the topic will cover a range of selected issues where the law is of particular concern to the media. Examples of issues likely to be covered are: contempt sub judice; broadcasting regulation, including Australian and children's content standards; classification of films, publications and computer games; internet regulation; journalist's ethics; advertising standards. The topic does not cover defamation or intellectual property. There will be an emphasis on active learning and class contribution, in the form of student-led seminars. Students will also complete a group project on an aspect of media law in an overseas jurisdiction.

This topic aims to assist students to:

• apply certain aspects of Australian law that are of special interest to the media
• analyse the interplay between legal and media power in the shaping of those aspects of law
• think critically about levels of media regulation in light of freedom of speech discourses

On successful completion of the topic, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills in:

• describing certain aspects of the legal regime governing media activities
• using different conceptions of rights and interests that are or could be protected by that legal regime
• testing claims that freedom of speech or of the press should be a priority of the legal system
• hypothesising the combination of factors that have led laws to be the way they are
• finding and using sources of information about the legal regime governing media activities
• distilling concepts and principles from primary and secondary legal texts
• making an original contribution to scholarship in the field of media law
• making an oral presentation