+ Ethical and Legal constraints within the media sector in television by Callum Welsh

+ Representation of gender The representation of gender is important in television Women are only represented by 37% of primetime TV characters, while men represent the majority. Only 18% of directors, producers and editors are women. The representation of gender in television shows that overall females are under represented compared to males.

+ Broadcasting act 1990 The broadcast act was introduced to reform british broadcasting. Introduced to prevent ownership of broadcasters being in too few hands. Companies such as newspaper owners are prevented from owning more than 20% of television companies. The broadcasting act put in place restrictions on cross ownership between media based companies. Rupert Murdoch's Sky used a loophole as the company was defined as a non UK service.

+ The ‘independent television commission’ was created as the new regulator for television.

+ Copyright Copyright applies to many mediums. Copyright means any protected work cannot be reproduced without permission. It does not protect ideas for work, which is separately protected. It is important that TV producers obtain copyright. Also because of copyright, this could prevent a screenplay or music being used on a program.

+ An example of a Recent copyright infringement cases such as where the former owner of ‘the pirate bay’ has been ordered to take down Russian websites of a similar nature. The websites provided files of popular TV series such as Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk empire.

+ Intellectual property law The intellectual property law protects peoples original creations. There are four types of intellectual property law which are; patents trademarks designs copyright

+ The creation of new television programmes do not have to be original. Although these works can not be copyrighted. In the television industry it is important to protect ideas and creations in the television industry.

+ BBC guidelines The BBC is the main British broadcaster. The BBC guidelines are used to keep the organisations values and standards in order. The guidelines are applied to all the BBC’s work and content that is released.

+ Privacy The BBC does not infringe privacy unless it is with good reason. Legitimate Expectations of Privacy. The Public Interest Data Protection