Media Law, Defamation and Privacy

Instructions to candidates

You can either use this question paper as a template and add your answers at the points indicated or type your answers into a separate Word document.

You must ensure that your answers to all questions are contained in one Word document and uploaded to Turnitin before the submission deadline.

The filename must be in the following format:

YOUR STUDENT REFERENCE NUMBER – MDP – Assessment

Module Learning Outcomes

The following Learning Outcomes are tested within this assessment:

1. Research and critically evaluate the key theories, concepts and principles of media law, privacy and defamation in the UK.
2. Appreciate the context within which media law, privacy and defamation operates and the interplay with other areas such as human rights and civil/criminal law.
3. Apply and critically evaluate the principles above and offer well-reasoned suggestions for best practice, demonstrated through practical advice in response to problem question scenarios and through soundly argued written reasoning in response to essay questions.
4. Apply and critically assess relevant provisions from statutes, regulations and any other regulatory provisions.
5. Demonstrate the ability to conduct and evaluate research amongst primary, secondary and practitioner sources and to communicate the results in a clear and concise manner

Word limit

The total word limit for all questions is 4,500. Any words over this total will not be marked.

Assessment Criteria

This assessment will be marked according to the Grade Descriptors set out in the Student Handbook & Course Information module on ELITE. The assessment will be marked out of 100.

Declaration

By submitting this assessment, you confirm that:

• Your assessment submission is entirely your work, and that you have fully referenced and correctly cited the work of others, where required. You also declare that the contents of your submission have not been generated by a third party, or through an Artificial Intelligence generative system. If this statement is untrue, you acknowledge that you have cheated.
• The work in this assessment has been carried out in accordance with the Regulations of The University of Law.
• You have read the Student Discipline Regulations and understand any Assessment Related Offence/Academic Misconduct can lead to consequences and undermine academic integrity.
• Any word count stated by you in your submission is correct.
• The contents of this Assessment are confidential. You must not disclose, discuss or express an opinion on the contents of this Assessment or your answer to it to any other person, by any means.
• You are fit to sit according to the Assessment Regulations.

Please note that you may not consult any member of The University staff nor any other person on any aspect of the content of this Assessment. If you are in any doubt as to how to interpret any word or phrase in this Assessment you should decide for yourself which interpretation to adopt.

 
Questions

Answer BOTH questions. The total word count (including footnotes) for all questions should NOT exceed 4500 words. Any words over this total will not be marked. You should not substantially duplicate any work in answer 1 and answer 2. It is strongly advised that the word count is split roughly equally between both answers.

Each question is weighted equally.

Question 1

Robert Cudd is a screen writer, stand-up comedian and author of a new television drama called “Sweet Caribou” which is a show that is billed as a dark comedy drama thriller that is based on aspects of his life from his early to mid-20’s. Sweet Caribou has been commissioned by the streaming service NetReels. The story line of Sweet Caribou depicts Robert’s struggle trying to get his career as a stand-up comedian off the ground; trying to become famous and having to work in an internet cafe to make ends meet. Whilst at work in the internet cafe Robert meets “Mary”, who is a former accountant, for whom he feels sorry. Mary becomes a regular and starts stalking Robert by sending hundreds of WhatsApp messages, voicemails and emails to him daily. This continues to the point where Mary befriends Robert’s landlady to spend time at Robert’s house; commits common assault against Robert and one of his friends and threatens to make up stories about Robert and post them on social media. In the final episode, Mary is shown being arrested after Robert goes to the police, as well as Mary’s sentencing hearing after being found guilty for sexual assault against Robert and common assault of Robert’s girlfriend.

At the start of each episode a statement appears on the screen before the episode starts and states:

                                                 “This is a true story”

When Sweet Caribou is aired it rapidly becomes the most streamed drama on television, acquiring over 50 million viewing hours. Robert becomes an overnight sensation and his drama, Sweet Caribou, is nominated for, and wins, several prestigious awards.

The woman who Mary was based on is Louisa Sturges. Louisa is a former accountant who practiced briefly after qualification before being made redundant. When watching the first episode, she realises that the character Mary is closely based on her and even depicted by an actress bearing physical similarities to her. Louisa and Robert had a brief relationship 10 years before Sweet Caribou was aired and is shocked at the allegations being made about her character in the drama. Louisa has never been arrested, charged or found guilty of any criminal offence. Half-way through the streaming of the series, her identity is discovered and posted online. This leads to her receiving online threats and hounding by journalists eager to publish a scoop related to Sweet Caribou. She is also photographed by paparazzi while trying to go her about daily life.

One newspaper, The Sunshine, publishes a false story about Louisa alleging that not only did Louisa spend time in prison for the offences depicted on Sweet Caribou but that she also stalked a high-profile Member of Parliament for five years when she was in her 20’s, for which, the article in The Sunshine alleges, she was given a suspended sentence.

Advise Louisa on whether she has a claim against Robert, NetReels and/or The Sunshine and what the basis of her claim would be.

References must be OSCOLA referenced

Total for Question 1: [50] MARKS

YOU MAY WRITE YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 1 HERE:

Question 2 evaluate the use of AI in broadcast media with reference to authorship of literary works, computer generated works, whether works produced by AI are capable of copyright and whether work produced in broadcast media by AI infringes copyright. Also comment on where does liability lie if AI publishes inaccurate and false news and whether there are any defences available.

In January 2025, the BBC reported that Apple suspended the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for reporting news summaries as the summaries provided were shown to be false (BBC article: here).