CRIMES- WHAT KIND ARE THERE?
As I mentioned in my introductory article for the feature in the previous week, there will be a lot of boring banter before I get to the interesting section of the law which gets journalists in the big T i.e. trouble.
In order to understand what the law sanctions for journalists you need to understand more about the legal process.
When someone commits a crime, the court expects there to be a criminal act as well as a guilty mind.
However it is possible, that in some crimes, no guilt needs to be established for conviction. These are known as 'absolute offences'.
The crime, that a journalist is most likely to come under is contempt of court, which is when a journalist commits a crime against the court itself. A journalist can be convicted even if he does not have a 'guilty mind' meaning that a lawyer does not have to have proof that a journalist had any intent to do this crime in order to convict him.
I know what you are thinking... never trust a lawyer right?
What's the different between a lawyer and a bucket of garbage?
- The bucket!
Not funny? Ok... moving on...
Crimes can either be against people or property. Most people know common crimes when they see one so you should know unless you have just recently come out of hiding. I am just going to cover the ones that might not be so familiar to you. You might come across these terms if you are covering a news story that requires you to sit in the courtroom.
- MANSLAUGHTER (most people might know this but just in case)- The unlawful killing of a person but where there was no intention to kill or cause harm unlike murder.
- ASSAULT - a hostile act that might cause a person to live in fear of an attack.
- BATTERY - the actual application of physical force on a person.
- ABH - An assault that causes actual bodily harm which court lawyers might refer to as 'a section 47 offence'.
- Malicious wounding or GBH - An assault again, but one that causes a wound or serious bodily harm. Referred to as a 'section 20 offence' Criminal law is as easy as chips so far isn't it?
- Wounding with intent or GBH with intent - Finally, this is an assault that causes a wound or serious bodily harm but one present with an intent to cause serious bodily harm. So if I was thinking of wounding Mr. Blobby because he annoyed me and then wounded him, when I next saw him in London, then I would be guilty of this and go straight to prison!
Another bad joke... I kno..
Most crimes against property are easy to understand and when they are said in the court, a journalist would easily be able to gather the crime committed. So they do not really need a mention here.
Well, nuf said about the law and lets move on to some media goss...
1. Nas has been working on a new song with the master of rappers, Dr. Dre himself. This song is to be included in Nas's new album 'Detox'.
2. Lily Allen has made her latest album free for streaming on MySpace Music, a week before its release on February 10.
3. Calvin Harris, who formerly collaborated with Dizzee Rascal has announced details of a new UK tour.
I guess all that's left to say is... read me again, in a different post, in the next few weeks.
Fabuluso xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment