BBFC

What does BBFC stand for?
British Board of Film Classification.

When was it first established?
1912 cinema and 1985 for videos

What does it do?
Puts an age certificate on films and games.

What issues are the BBFC concerned with?
Violence
Weapons
Imitable techniques
Sex
Sexual language
Sexual violence
Drugs
Horror
Criminal activity
Language
Theme
Tone
Discrimination

Does the Press have too much power?

I think that the press does have too much power it is just a matter of whether or not they choose to use it. For example, during the elections most people do not have the time to research on their own about which politician is better,and rely on media for information about candidates. Each newspaper would usually pick somebody they would want to win the election and they would show that by being bias towards the 'opposition', therefore the readers of that paper would only hear bad stuff about the other and not hear both sides of the story. Rupert Murdoch owns a high percentage of the press so his views would be cast across multiple news papers.

On the other hand, the PCC (press complaints commission) have some rules about what can and can't be put into an article, but if they get a lot of complaints about how somebody has broken one or more of the CoP (codes of practice) in an article then the worst the PCC can do is make them remove it from the website and write an apology explaining what code they broke. This isn't a very good way of making people stop, they are making a lot of money on something that shouldn't be said and only having to say 'sorry'. The PCC would clamp down harder on people that break th CoP but they cannont do much without taking away people's freedom of speech.

I think the PCC should still be around but should have worse consequences, like if one of the CoP are broken then all profit from that paper should be taken off them and given to charity, the only money the paper can keep is enough to break even with all costs producing the paper, so they don't lose any money and charity gets a big 'donation'.

Introduction to the PCC

1. What does PCC stand for?
Press Complaints Commission

2. Briefly explain what it is.
The PCC is an independent self-regulatory body which deals with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites).

3. What are the 'codes of practice'? List them.
A list of things the editor has to check everybody sticks to.

1 - Accuracy
2 - Opportunity to reply
3 - Privacy
4 - Harassment
5 - Intrusion into grief or shock
6 - Children
7 - Children in sex cases
8 -Hospitals
9 - Reporting of Crime
10 - Clandestine devices and subterfuge
11 - Victims of sexual assault
12 - Discrimination
13 - Financial journalism
14 - Confidential sources
15 - Witness payments in criminal trials
16 - Payment to criminals
http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html

4. When does it act?
When the COP are broken

5. What things can it do?