Media and Entertainment Law

Media and Entertainment Law presents a contemporary analysis of the law relating to the media and entertainment industry both in terms of its practical application and its theoretical framework. Looking at key aspects such as TV and radio broadcasting, the print press, the music industry, online news and entertainment and social networking sites, this textbook provides students with detailed coverage of the key principles, cases and legislation as well as a critical analysis of regulatory bodies such as the Press Complaints Commission and OFCOM.

Drawing on principles from public law, tort, contract law and human rights, Media and Entertainment Law explores all the central themes of the subject including privacy and confidentiality, contempt of court, defamation and intellectual property, as well as helping students to gain an awareness of ethical issues surrounding journalistic practice. Media and Entertainment Law is also the first book to discuss superinjunctions and the phone-hacking scandal involving News of the World.

With integrated coverage of Scots and Northern Irish law, Media and Entertainment Law also highlights comparisons with similar overseas jurisdictions (such as US and European law) in order to help students demonstrate an awareness of media laws which may influence UK legislation.

A companion website accompanies the book, offering a Flashcard Glossary of all the key terms in media and entertainment law, a list of links to useful websites and annual updates to the text.

Mark Stephens CBE:

"one of the most comprehensive and authoritative works on media and entertainment law, and is to be heartily commended."

Joshua Rozenburg:

"as long as we have media and entertainment, we shall need media and entertainment law."

Ursula Smartt has authored a number of legal textbooks, specializing in media and entertainment law, criminal law and the criminal process – with an emphasis on comparative aspects with European jurisprudence. She is a law lecturer at Portsmouth University with external examining duties at Plymouth University and Cornwall colleges. Ursula serves as a magistrate on the Surrey Bench in Guildford.

She has undertaken extensive independent prison research with projects funded by the Home Office and European, US and Australian Ministries of Justice, largely in the area of prisoner labour and correctional industries. Apart from prisons and penitentiaries in eight EU countries, she has inspected HMP Grand Turk on the Turks and Caicos Islands, death row facilities at St Quentin, California and the mother and baby unit at one of the largest prisons in the world, Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

For her popular book, Grendon Tales (2001, Waterside Press), she spent two years at the high security prison HMP Grendon near Aylesbury where she interviewed long term and lifer prisoners undergoing psychotherapy at this rather remote and unknown establishment.

Ursula Smartt was awarded a visiting Professorship at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, Germany in 2001, for her comparative research into stalking and harassment.

Another of her most successful books is ‘Media Law for Journalists’ (2006, Sage Publications) which was adopted by the BBC’s journalist training college and has been used by foreign journalists around the world as a basis for working in the UK or understanding the British legal system.