I am writing this letter in result to your job advertisement for the role of a digital video production producer, which appears to undergo some legal and ethical issues within the advertisement. Much of these issues are presented through religious views and age discrimination, which are seen in the job description, such as having to agree/believe in the Christian religious views. This advertisement presents an extremely broad contract, which is seen in both the hours and salary, where the hours of work per week is between 10-45 hours and the salary is between £15,000 and £35,000. The salary for this job presents pay equality as you're showing that the individuals salary depends on how many hours worked and the age of the applicant. This job role also includes an exclusivity clause, seen with "Please note that if successful, you must not apply for other positions of this nature.", where the successful applicant must agree to only work for Flipside Media. However, this advert does not include a confidentiality clause, which is optional but can be used as an advantage to competitors so that current or previous employees do not expose company secrets/information.
Much of the description of this job involves a further look into The Equality Act such as looking for applicants which are "aged below 30" as this can be seen as discrimination against both male and female. A famous example of this is Countryfile's former presenter Miriam O'Reilly who got replaced due to Miriam being told she is "too old" and won her case for age discrimination against the BBC. This age discrimination used in your job description presents The Equality Act where people are legally protected, unless a "good reason can be shown for the differential treatment" and in this case there is not. This is seen from your list of responsibilities, where anyone over the age of 30 is able to write proposals, manage budgets etc.. and in result to this can present in a significant amount of complaints to Flipside Media due to this discrimination. The Equality Act generally covers legislation to protect age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity. Another example of The Equality Act in result to your advertisement is "Religious views: Christian". This is seen in combined discrimination in dual characteristics, and in this case religion or belief. This suggests that applicants which are interested in this job but however do not have Christian view's would be treated less favorably to those which do have these beliefs, which is discreet discrimination. This is also not ensuring that you are giving candidates fair recruitment, which goes against the code of practice. This also involves The Equal Opportunity Act where discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation is encouraged to be identified, and equality is promoted. As well as this, the employers of Flipside Media have liability for the chosen applicant, where employers will be held liable for anything that happens to the employee during this job. In this case, as the employee is asked to "plan and produce a short documentary", any legal issues within this video will not be held responsible to the employer. Due to the applicant not yet working for Flipside, the individual is also not protected by employee rights. This could be due to copyright where it is requested that the applicant should use "a popular music soundtrack". However, the applicant will only "be recompensed up to the value of £20 for the production of the video." where copyright is encouraged. Employee rights are usually the rights within your contract, such as if the applicant is successful, the employee "must not apply for other positions". However, the employee still has rights by law which overrules the employees rights by contract and can in fact apply for other jobs, but this puts their current job at risk. This is where trade unions are presented as the role of trade unions is to protect the rights and interests of workers.
Codes of practice presents expected standards and guides other professions on their roles, rights and responsibilities, an example of this is The Equality Act. To avoid legal issues within this advertisement, you should provide the applicants with a risk assessment so that the applicant is aware of health and safety regulations if successful. This is also very similar to policies and procedures, which protect companies and ensure consistency as well as having the advantage to those employees which face legal actions. Policies are very specific and usually identify the aim, development, application, and consequences of the policy. This applies within your advertisement in response to "you should promote the ideals of the Christian faith..", which again limits this job role to only those which are Christian. To avoid these legal issues, your advert should refrain from requiring any religious views unless completely necessary. Your advert also portrays the representation of both male and female, which is presented with "You should interview teenagers and other individuals who might be/have been affected by the topic, including female victims and male offenders..". This exclusively suggests that males are always the offenders, and females are always a victim when it comes to the topic of rape, which can create many issues with the representation of your company. Social concerns suggests that this representation is often true in result to the way in which both male and females are individually and stereotypically presented. This is due to the male gender almost always been seen as the offender, when in fact the public forgets that there have been many occasions where the male has been a victim of this topic. Therefore this brief should not have been specifically detailed in terms of who is being interviewed in the applicants short documentary. As well as this, the brief also suggests to use "re-enactments" and "dramatizations", where this can be seen as obscene due to the the interviews involving individuals which "have been affected by the topic". This also presents the Ofcom Protecting Under-Eighteens code where violent or dangerous behaviour "must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children..", whereas this documentary is going to be "shown to children at high school".
Ofcom, which exists in result to the Communications Act and The Broadcasting Act, also presents legal issues within your advert in relation to the Protecting the Under-Eighteens Code in particular. This code suggests that "People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes.". This may be the case due to the brief suggesting to "interview teenagers and other individuals who might be/have been affected by the topic..", where their involvement in this short documentary may cause distress or anxiety if sharing their personal stories. If this is the case, this can present legal issues within your advert which can somewhat affect the representation of Flipside Media. This also applies with the Ofcom Harm and Offence code, such as Generally Accepted Standards where "Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience". This code applies to your advertisement as you have specifically requested that the applicant should include "female victims and male offenders". This portrays the male gender, and therefore goes against Ofcom. Also the violence, dangerous behaviour and suicide code which is that "Programmes must not include material which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage other to copy such behaviour" could also be an issue within this advertisement. This is due to the candidate having to "compliment the interview with re-enactments, dramatizations and a popular music soundtrack..". This content in your brief could mislead the applicant to create a documentary which almost glamorises the topic by using a "popular music soundtrack" etc.. As well as the Ofcom code, the Obscene Publications Act is also presented in relation to these legal issues throughout this advertisement. This could be prohibition of publication of obscene matter such as "..any person who, whether for gain or not, publishes an obscene article shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both..". The obscenity in this advert is suggesting to present the audience with "re-enactments" and "dramatization". According to the British Board of Film Classification, the documentary which you have suggest to be produced would be certificated a 15. This is because the BBFC allows sexual activity to be portrayed and allows descriptions of sexual violence such as rape to be used. If the applicant was to use further re-enactments or dramatization of this topic, this certification would be likely to be given an 18, which would present ethical issues with presenting this product to high school students. Intellectual Property is also another legal issues, which offers protection in trademarks, copyright, and passing off, IP can also be protected using a confidentiality agreement. Copyright encouragement is an issue in this advert, and can be simply solved without using a "popular music soundtrack" which is completely unnecessary due to the serious topic. This also applies for the trade mark used which is the "No Means No" rape campaign. Therefore, the applicant would be presenting trademark infringement in result to using an existing trademark which introduces legal issues. The applicant is again not protected by employee rights at this point and therefore may face many consequences. As a result of these issues, I strongly suggest to re-design your advertisement and take the legal and ethical issues presented into account.
Yours sincerely,
Alycia Lark
Codes of practice presents expected standards and guides other professions on their roles, rights and responsibilities, an example of this is The Equality Act. To avoid legal issues within this advertisement, you should provide the applicants with a risk assessment so that the applicant is aware of health and safety regulations if successful. This is also very similar to policies and procedures, which protect companies and ensure consistency as well as having the advantage to those employees which face legal actions. Policies are very specific and usually identify the aim, development, application, and consequences of the policy. This applies within your advertisement in response to "you should promote the ideals of the Christian faith..", which again limits this job role to only those which are Christian. To avoid these legal issues, your advert should refrain from requiring any religious views unless completely necessary. Your advert also portrays the representation of both male and female, which is presented with "You should interview teenagers and other individuals who might be/have been affected by the topic, including female victims and male offenders..". This exclusively suggests that males are always the offenders, and females are always a victim when it comes to the topic of rape, which can create many issues with the representation of your company. Social concerns suggests that this representation is often true in result to the way in which both male and females are individually and stereotypically presented. This is due to the male gender almost always been seen as the offender, when in fact the public forgets that there have been many occasions where the male has been a victim of this topic. Therefore this brief should not have been specifically detailed in terms of who is being interviewed in the applicants short documentary. As well as this, the brief also suggests to use "re-enactments" and "dramatizations", where this can be seen as obscene due to the the interviews involving individuals which "have been affected by the topic". This also presents the Ofcom Protecting Under-Eighteens code where violent or dangerous behaviour "must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children..", whereas this documentary is going to be "shown to children at high school".
Ofcom, which exists in result to the Communications Act and The Broadcasting Act, also presents legal issues within your advert in relation to the Protecting the Under-Eighteens Code in particular. This code suggests that "People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes.". This may be the case due to the brief suggesting to "interview teenagers and other individuals who might be/have been affected by the topic..", where their involvement in this short documentary may cause distress or anxiety if sharing their personal stories. If this is the case, this can present legal issues within your advert which can somewhat affect the representation of Flipside Media. This also applies with the Ofcom Harm and Offence code, such as Generally Accepted Standards where "Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience". This code applies to your advertisement as you have specifically requested that the applicant should include "female victims and male offenders". This portrays the male gender, and therefore goes against Ofcom. Also the violence, dangerous behaviour and suicide code which is that "Programmes must not include material which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage other to copy such behaviour" could also be an issue within this advertisement. This is due to the candidate having to "compliment the interview with re-enactments, dramatizations and a popular music soundtrack..". This content in your brief could mislead the applicant to create a documentary which almost glamorises the topic by using a "popular music soundtrack" etc.. As well as the Ofcom code, the Obscene Publications Act is also presented in relation to these legal issues throughout this advertisement. This could be prohibition of publication of obscene matter such as "..any person who, whether for gain or not, publishes an obscene article shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both..". The obscenity in this advert is suggesting to present the audience with "re-enactments" and "dramatization". According to the British Board of Film Classification, the documentary which you have suggest to be produced would be certificated a 15. This is because the BBFC allows sexual activity to be portrayed and allows descriptions of sexual violence such as rape to be used. If the applicant was to use further re-enactments or dramatization of this topic, this certification would be likely to be given an 18, which would present ethical issues with presenting this product to high school students. Intellectual Property is also another legal issues, which offers protection in trademarks, copyright, and passing off, IP can also be protected using a confidentiality agreement. Copyright encouragement is an issue in this advert, and can be simply solved without using a "popular music soundtrack" which is completely unnecessary due to the serious topic. This also applies for the trade mark used which is the "No Means No" rape campaign. Therefore, the applicant would be presenting trademark infringement in result to using an existing trademark which introduces legal issues. The applicant is again not protected by employee rights at this point and therefore may face many consequences. As a result of these issues, I strongly suggest to re-design your advertisement and take the legal and ethical issues presented into account.
Yours sincerely,
Alycia Lark
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