Legal and

ethical
regulations

By jeana mathuranayagam
  The race relations act was introduced in 1976 by the parliament of the
United Kingdom in order to prevent the discrimination following race,
rules included discrimination of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and so on
Race relations in fields of employment, education and even the service of goods.

(1976)  It was the first legislation that focused on addressing racial

discrimination in the United Kingdom. The original changed as a new
regulation came into in 1968 where people could not refuse to house or
employ immigrants or people of ethnic backgrounds. Then in 1976 the
third race relations act was tightened even more and outlined what was
direct and indirect discrimination, by this the commission of racial
equality was founded. This all was again changed after a report on the
murder of a boy called Stephen Lawrence uncovered racial corruption
within the police. This change in the 2000 made it include the police for
the first time.

 By making so that indirect and direct discrimination is illegal this also

meant that the film industry could be legally punished for any promotions
on racial stereotypes. This act expanded on the provisions of the 1965
race relations act which made promoting racial hatred a crime.
Broadcasting Act  The broadcasting act of 1990 was initiated by the British Parliament as
part of a European council directive in 1989. The initial purpose of
(1990) this act was to promote competition in order to deregulate the British
broadcasting industry, more directly at ITV in particular. It was
established to regulate the structure that exists today and although
government recognition was recognised as early as 1989 that
broadcasting and telecommunications are increasingly converging the
regulations remained.

 This affected the television industry in more ways than one, it allowed
for the creation of a fifth station tv channel which we know now as
channel 5 and the growth of multichannel satellite tv. A domestic
satellite service with five channels was launched by the British
satellite broadcasting in April 1990.
  The obscene publications act of 1959 was established by the united
kingdom parliament to significantly reform the laws related to obscenity
in both England and Wales. A committee was formed in the 1950s to
Obscene reform the existing laws and through many failed attempts the committee
Publications Act finally succeeded in creating one which came into force on the 29 th august

1959 1959 as the official obscene publications act.

 This applies as well as effects the film and TV industry as it covers

materials that are obscene which effect specific genres in the film industry
like horror or action/adventure or even thriller. Creators/ producers of
both film and tv industries would need to carefully monitor there content
in order to keep their production within the guidelines

 This was created so that the public would be protected for any images,
sounds, broadcasts or images that contain obscene footage and alter their
mind set which could cause their behaviours to drastically change, mostly
in a dangerous way with being more aggressive
  The BBFC is a non-governmental organisation founded by the film industry in

British Board of 1912 and was established to hold the responsibilities of the national
classification and censorship of films distributed in cinemas and video works
Film Classification e.g. tv programs adverts and so on. Fearing what would come if the unregulated

(BBFC) censorship was not solved and the economic consequence it could have the
films industry formed the BBFC to create its own system of self regulation.

 This would affect the film industry as the BBFC are responsible for classifying
films that have a cinema or DVD release. They ensure content of certain ages
are shown for the appropriate audiences and that any unsuitable content is
blocked from their views. This would be a big problem to certain producers as
for example warner brother studios was the creator of the batman franchise and
content and this was very popular to younger audiences even if some of the
content was not age appropriate in certain cases.
Ofcom
 Ofcom or as known as the office of communications is a government approved regulatory and competition
authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries for the United Kingdom. Ofcom licenses all
UK commercial TV and radio services and posses the authority to press broadcasters to comply with their
terms or risk getting revoked.

 Ofcom regulates and controls TV, radio and video on services and was the publishers to the broadcasting code
which contain rules that demand services including TV catch up online film services and archive content.

 Although they mainly look towards television this also applies to some films but Ofcom are the final
determination that decide whether a series (or film) is to obscene or not and if the content is to much for the
public before it can be shown or watershed