Understanding The Legal And Ethical Contraints

Legal and ethical considerations need to be adhered to when working as a creative media producer as they can cause off sorts of issues that could cause you to lose your job. It is always important to remember that as a producer in the media sector you have to be very careful about the issues that surround copyright, you wouldn't look very professional being sued for stealing someone else's work,as  a producer you also have to take health and safety into account as you could be help responsible if someone is hurt during your production, this is why numerous risk assessments have to be completed before filming even begins if these risk assessments are not completed, as a producer you will also have to take trademarking into account, a trademark is a logo or symbol that defines a company, for example the coke logo is a trademark that is known worldwide so you would have to acquire the rights to use the logo in your production.
The Obscene publications act of  1959 is an act that was introduced in 1959 that relates to  publishing programmes or works into the public that contain obscene acts or images The Act created a new offence for publishing obscene material.
The official secrets act of 1989 is a law that states it is an offence for a Crown servant, Government contractor or  member of the public who has, or has had, official information in his possession, to 
disclose official information in any form of creative media a producer has to be seriously careful when handling official secrets as the defense that 'the public needs to know' will not work and you could face serious jail time.
The Health and Safety Act 1974 is the piece of legislation that covers occupational dangers,he Health and Safety Executive, with local authorities is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment.
Copyright and intellectual property law is a law that covers many things first and foremost it protects owners of a certain logo or brand by insuring that only they have the rights to it and if someone else steals their work they have the right to prove that they and they alone own that certain product.
Libel Law is the law that protects people from other people writing down something that is libelous as they would be breaking the law, this could be simply a tweet or a Facebook status, something that breaks the libel law must be a statement which claims to be fact and is not clearly identified as an opinion.
Privacy Law is a law that protects peoples rights to be left in privacy/alone it lets people live their life without being scrutinized in the public eye an example of this would be the NSA revelations concerning Edward Snowden.
Producers within the creative media sector have to take care and take into account the ethical considerations, they must insure that certain things that are put out are adhering to the ethical constraints, things like Not causing anyone harm or offence  ,Language ,Violence, Sex, Sexual Violence and Stereotypes if a producer was to ignore the ethical constraints within the creative sectors of the media they would surely face severe consequences, an example of when ethical considerations were not taken into account was when Judy Finnagin made comments on convicted rapist Ched Evans. She said the footballer should get his job back because the victim was ‘drunk’ and the rape was ‘unpleasant’ but ‘not violent’. Bad ethical practice can really affect companies and individuals.
When working in the creative media sectors a producer has to take several ethical issues seriously in order to remain as a producer:
Harm and offense, a producer has remain constantly aware that the material they are putting out is not causing and harm or offense to ANY member of the public or they could face consequences a famous example of this would be the Sachs gate controversy which involved lewd voice messages left on Andrew Sachs's voice mail by Russel Brand and Johnathon Ross involving an alleged sexual encounter between his granddaughter and Brand. You must also consider the privacy laws that constrict you in your works as breaking on of these laws might lead to prosecution you must also ensure that you protect the interests of parents by not showing ANY inappropriate material that could damage a child's mental state before the watershed this also applies to any vulnerable people as they also deserved to be kept protected.

Producer guidelines are things like OFCOM's broadcasting codes and the BBC's editorial guidelines they include things like not using offensive material on live radio, privacy,religion and the right to religious freedom,Crime being primarily anti crime, protecting under eighteens and even monitoring things like the watershed which is is the point in time after which programmes with adult content may be broadcast.