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Nanyang Technological University
School of Communication Studies
A 6303: Media Law, Ethics and Policy
Session: Semester 1 2001
Lecturers : Dr. Ang Peng Hwa Rm. #04-05
Dr. Billy Wolfe Rm#03-39
Dr. Kevin Tan Rm #02-04
Meeting Time: Wednesdays 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., Master’s Programme Rm
Office Hours: (Best by appointment)
Dr. Ang Wednesdays 3:00 p.m. – 5 p.m.
790-6109 other times by appointment;
Dr. Wolfe Wednesdays and Thursdays 3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m
790-4572 other times by appointment; tbnwolfe@ntu.edu.sg
Aims:
This course aims to analyse the major legal, ethical and policy issues with respect to the media in Singapore. The course is tailored to decision-making for middle- and upper-managers.
Course participants are expected to bring their knowledge of the working world to bear on issues that will be raised. It is, of course, understood that positions taken in class do not necessarily reflect that of your organisations.
Assignments:
Your main assignment is one term paper on a substantive legal, ethical or policy issue relating to the media. The deadline for the term paper is the start of the class on Wednesday, 26 September. The format is: a maximum of 20 pages double-spaced, A4, 1-inch border, 12-point serif font. The format is to comply with that of the Asian Journal of Communication. In addition, as the class will be conducted in the form of seminars, you are expected to have done the readings before you come to class so as to be able to participate in discussions.
Assessment:
Although the majority of your mark will be determined by the open book final exam, the term paper and other elements of continuous assessment will play a significant role in determining your final mark.
Additional Note:
Please turn off or put on silent mode all pagers, handphones and alarms before every class.
Basic Text:
Singapore Code of Advertising Practice
Ang, Peng Hwa and Yeo Tiong Min. (1998). Mass Media Laws and Regulations in Singapore. Singapore: AMIC.
Some materials are available on the Internet and students are expected to be familiar with the means to access them.
Seminar Schedule
July 11 Definitions, Dilemma Paradigms, Potter Box
Chapter. 1, Introduction:Ethical Foundations and Perspectives, pp 1-26 [a Judeo-Christian framework], in Christians, C.G. et al (1995), Media ethics: Cases & moral reasoning (4th ed.). New York: Longman Publishers, Inc.
Other Ethical Frameworks: (1) Buddhist Ethics, 2 pp; (2) The Arabic-Islamic Heritage in Communication Ethics, pp 105-127; (3) Communication Ethics in a Changing Chinese Society [Taiwan], pp 225-243; (4) Media Practitioners and Institutions: The Indian Experience, pp 43-55
Discussion
1. Analyse original Singapore cases. Identify ethical dilemmas.
2. Write a one-page, single-spaced, original ethical case due Wednesday, 18 July. Bring four copies for the next class.
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July 18 Core Values
Chapter 4, Core values, pp 77-108, in Kidder, R.M. How good people make tough choices.
Chapter 1, Deciding and Acting: Ethics on the Job, pp 3-28 in Fink, C.C. (1995). Media Ethics. Singapore: Allyn and Bacon.
Discussion
1. Exchange your freshly written cases in groups of 3-4. Read aloud. Explain. Answer questions. Clarify facts.
2. Write an analysis of one of these original cases, other than your own, from the previous week. Use the Potter Box to resolve the case in one page, single spaced. Bring four copies for discussion.
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July 25 Principles
Chapter 3, Main ethical roads, pp 52-76, in Merrill, J.C. (1997). Journalism ethics: Philosophical foundations for news media, New York: St. Martins Press.
NTU Library Bibliography: Selected books and article titles in Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 8 pp. [Call # p P94.J86]. For use in your term paper if you choose ethics.
Winch, S.P. (1996). Moral justifications for privacy and intimacy. Journal of Mass Media Ethics [p P94.J86], 8 pp.
Term paper proposal due today.
Discussion
1. Exchange case analyses. Discuss in groups of 3-4.
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August 1 Loyalties
View 2.5 hour film-video, “The Insider” (1999), starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. A Touchstone Pictures Home Video VCD, Produced by Mann, M. & Roth, E. and Directed by Michael Mann.
Note: This entertainment film is based on the true story of a tobacco industry research & development executive who blew the whistle on his company for lying to the U.S. Congress about the addictiveness of the nicotine drug in cigarettes. A network TV news documentary unit develops the story, but suppresses it when the network executives fear its impact on the impending sale of the network to a large corporate conglomerate. The producer leaks the suppressed story to a Wall Street Journal newspaper editor. When published, the video documentary is rebroadcast with the more complete story. But in the end the man who told the truth, Jeffrey Wigand, lost his job as Corporate Vice-President of R & D and his family but became an award-winning chemistry teacher in a high school; while the 60-Minutes Producer, Lowell Bergman, resigned in protest and became a journalism professor at the University Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Case # 28, “A magazine and its cigarettes,” pp 148-150, in Christians, C.G. (1998), Media ethics: Cases and moral reasoning (5th ed.). Sydney: Longman Publishers, Inc.
Voakes, P.S. (1997). Social influences on journalists’ decision making in ethical situations. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 12(1), 18-35.
Discussion
The video raises many ethical dilemmas for individuals and media personnel. Your group will be assigned to identify these dilemmas in selected portions of the film. We will have only 30-minutes to present our informal textual analysis after the video ends.
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August 8 Ethical Conflicts in a Competitive Press
Some codes of ethics of Asian press may be found at http://www.uow.edu.au/crearts/journalism/AJNET/ethics.html
Merrill, John. 1997. “Press Freedom and Ethics” and “Truth, Objectivity and Ethics”. In Journalism Ethics: Philosophical Foundations for News Media. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 77-129.
Return
Your case and Potter Box analysis of another case will be returned with Dr Wolfe’s comments and evaluation. This ends his portion of the course.
Discussion
We will discuss the issues raised in “The Insider” especially against the backdrop of the above readings.
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August 15 Ethics Public Relations and Persuasion
Dowie, Mark. (1992). Saving Face: Could Public Relations Have Rescued Exxon’s Image? Propaganda Review 8: 26-28.
Fink, Conrad C. (1995). Media Ethics. Singapore: Allyn and Bacon., pp. 161-192, 285-304.
Guest speaker, Mr Mathew Yap, Vice-President, Government and Public Affairs, BP Asia.
Why DBS Bank Should Not Pay $2 Million to OUB and UOB. Unpublished commentary by Ang Peng Hwa, August 2001.
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August 22 Privacy in the Media
Archand, David. 1998. Privacy, the public interest and a prurient public. In Media Ethics (ed.) Matthew Kieran. London: Routledge. 82-110.
Day, Louis Alvin. 2000. The Media and Privacy: A Delicate Balance. In Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies. Canada: Wadsworth. 121-162.
Discussion
Pick one of the cases from Day to discuss.
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August 29 Advertising Regulation
Singapore Code of Advertising Practice
Case 4-5. Fear as deception in the Ad business, pp 85-87, in Day, L.A. (1991). Ethics in media communications: Cases and controversies. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Rivers, William and Cleve Mathews. 1988. The Ethics of Persuasion. In Ethics for the Media. 148-163.
Discussion
1. Take an advertisement (it can be a video) that you consider violates SCAP. Explain in class why you consider that advertisement to breach SCAP.
2. Should we have more or less regulations for advertising?
3. Singapore bans all forms of religious advertising for the “mainstream media”. Does this rule make sense?
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September 5 Recess
September 12: Introduction to Singapore Legal System; Freedom of Expression
Readings:
§ Ang and Yeo. (1998). Parts A & B.
§ Chan, Helena. (1986). An Introduction to the Singapore Legal System. Singapore: Malayan Law Journal. Chapters 1 and 2.
§ Kevin YL Tan & Thio Li-ann, Tan Yeo & Lee’s Constitutional Law in Malaysia & Singapore, 2 ed (Singapore: Butterworths, 1997). For this section, read pp 788-801.
§ Razak, Abdul (ed.). (1985). A Comparative Outlook of Press Law and Systems in ASEAN States. Pp. 154-187 in Press Laws and Systems in ASEAN States. Jakarta: The Confederation of ASEAN Journalists.
Other Resources:
§ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html
§ 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (Article 10): http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html#C.Art10
§ 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cpr.html#Article 19
§ Report by Special Rapporteur, on the Promotion And Protection Of The Right To Freedom Of Opinion And Expression. 1996.
http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/un/chr/chr95/thematic/32.htm
Discussion Questions
1. How would you characterise the legal regime relating to free speech in Singapore?
2. What constitutional guarantees or impediments do you find problematic?
3. What are the differences in approach towards free speech in Singapore compared with other parts of the world? Are there good reasons for these differences?
4. The PM has divided Singapore into cosmopolitans and heartlanders. Would it be fair to say that freedom of expression is an issue that cosmopolitans are concerned about?
5. Will the Internet make us more global?
September 19: Singapore Press Law
Readings:
§ Kevin YL Tan & Thio Li-ann, Tan Yeo & Lee’s Constitutional Law in Malaysia & Singapore, 2 ed (Singapore: Butterworths, 1997). For this section, read pp 801-821.
§ Tan, Yew Soon and Soh Yew Peng. (1994). The Development of Singapore’s Modern Media Industry. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Chap. 1: The Press. pp 1-61.
§ Singapore and the Foreign Press. 1988. Ministry of Information and the Arts.
§ Lee Kuan Yew. (1989). Chapter 10: Singapore and the Foreign Press. Pp. 117-124 in Achal Mehra (ed.) Press Systems in Asean States. Singapore: AMIC.
§ Curry, Jane Leftwich. (1982). “Conclusion: Media Management and Political Systems,” In Press Control Around the World. New York: Praeger Special Studies.
Discussion Questions
1. Most people say the Singapore press is docile. What elements are there to ensure its docility? Is it the people or is it the system? Are there factors that will continue to maintain the status quo or are there factors that will change the media system?
2. Can Singapore teach journalism?
3. What are the implications of a freer press for Singapore?
September 26: Freedom of Media and Censorship
Readings:
§ Milton’s Aeropagitica
§ Kevin YL Tan & Thio Li-ann, Tan Yeo & Lee’s Constitutional Law in Malaysia & Singapore, 2 ed (Singapore: Butterworths, 1997). For this section, read pp 780-788.
§ Holmes, Deborah. (1986). Governing the press: Media Freedom in the US and Great Britain. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. (Chapter 1).
§ Ang, Peng Hwa and Berlinda Nadarajan. (1996). Censorship and the Internet: a Singapore perspective. Communications of the ACM. July. pp. 72-78.
§ Tan, Yew Soon and Soh Yew Peng. (1994). The Development of Singapore’s Modern Media Industry. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Censorship: pp. 150-162.
§ Ang, Peng Hwa. (1999). Censorship and the Internet. (1999). In Allen Kent (Ed.) Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, Vol 65, Supplement 28, (Marcel Dekker, New York). 12-22.
Supplementary Reading:
Censorship Review Committee Report 1992.
Other Resources:
Human Rights Watch <http://www.hrw.org/>
Discussion Questions
1. What are the arguments for free speech? What are the arguments against? Is free speech responsible for making the US the prosperous country it is? Can the free speech doctrine work in Singapore?
2. In the recent general elections, the PM said the debate over chauvinism was healthy. Can this argument be used for greater freedom of speech?
3. Are there good grounds for having censorship at all?
4. Many people argue that with the Internet, censorship can no longer be defended. What do you think?
5. Will the Government’s stance on censorship hurt the country at any time?
October 3: Defamation & Contempt
Readings:
§ Crone, Tom. (1995). Law and the Media: An Everyday Guide for Professionals. 3rd ed. London: Focal Press. Chapters 1-4.
§ Kevin YL Tan & Thio Li-ann, Tan Yeo & Lee’s Constitutional Law in Malaysia & Singapore, 2 ed (Singapore: Butterworths, 1997). For this section, read pp 821-845
Discussion
1. Please try your best to understand the legal position first as the discussion for the evening will hinge on understanding the law.
2. Does libel law serve the public’s interest or does it work against it?
3. The American position in New York Times vs Sullivan essentially is that political figures should have a higher threshold of pain. What are the reasons for such a stance?
4. The case of LKY vs JBJ decisively rejects such a stance. Do you accept the decision? In other words, would you reform the law?
5. What other reforms may be advisable to serve the public better?
6. To what extent do you think the law relating to contempt of court restricts press freedom? Why?
7. What aspect of the law relating to contempt would you change? Why?
October 10: