This course will consider legal and policy developments in media and communications law.  Principal topics include:

Media Regulators - particularly the Australian Communications and Media Authority

The Regulation of the Press
The Regulation of Radio and Television broadcasting
- particularly cross-media and foreign ownership
The Regulation of Telecommunications and Broadband
The Regulation of the Internet and Social Networking Services

Freedom of Speech
Defamation Law
Strategic Legal Action against Public Partipation

Contempt of Court
Reporting of Court Proceedings
Reporting of Parliamentary Proceedings
Journalists' Shield Laws and Whistleblowing

Classification and Censorship
Blasphemy and Religious Vilification
Obscenity
Hate Speech
Sedition and Terrorism
Internet Filtering

Confidential Information
Privacy Law
The Do Not Call Register
Anti-Spam Legislation

This course considers the legal regulation of media ownership and communications content.  It is expected that students will on the completion of the course have:

• An awareness of the regulation of the media industry;
• An understanding of the major areas of law regulating media content;
• An ability to solve legal problems involving media and communications law;
• An awareness of problems which are developing in relation to particular fields of the media industry, and emerging technologies;
• A critical approach to evaluating new developments in respect of media and communications law; and
• An appreciation of theoretical concerns about freedom of speech, the operation of democratic institutions, censorship, and privacy.

It is expected the course would have three pieces of assessment:

• Seminar presentation (day 3 of the intensive teaching period)
  Time: 8 to 11 minutes;
  Word Length: 1,500 - 2,000 words (20%);
• Compulsory Research Essay (due 22 October 2010)
  Word Length: 3,000 - 4,000 words (60%)
• Compulsory Opinion-Editorial (due 22 October 2010)
  Word Length: 1,500 - 2,000 words (20%)

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

Students are expected to read the prescribed texts, prior to the teaching period.

The course will be taught in intensive mode, over a period of four days. It will involve 26 hours of direct contact.

Students are expected to prepare an oral presentation to deliver during the intensive teaching period.

Students will need to devote time to the preparation and execution of the research assignment, after the intensive teaching period.

Click here for the 2010 timetable

The course does not have any particular pre-requisites. It is intended to appeal to both legal professionals, as well as policy-makers and government officials, journalists, public relations practitioners, and other members of the media industry.

LAWS8153 Introduction to Legal Reasoning and Research (non-lawyers) and LAWS8568 Fundamentals of Government and Commercial Law (non-lawyers).

David Rolph, Matt Vitins and Judith Bannister, Media Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2010.

and

Yochai Benkler, The Wealthy of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedoms. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006 http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_of_Networks.pdf (available as a free download under a Creative Commons licence)

The preliminary reading required for this course will be available from the course home page at least one week prior to the commencement of the course.

Click here for fee and census date information