Job Advert Response

                                                                                                                                               East Norfolk                                                                                                                                                Church Lane 

                                    Gorleston 

Norfolk

NR31 7BQ

9/07/2013

Dear to whom it may concern,

                                              I am writing to inform you about the contractual, legal and ethical issues of your recent job advert for Apprentice Digital Video Production Producer. It states on your letter that “you must not apply for other positions of this nature.” Therefore I would expect there to be exclusivity clause which the employee would sign along with the contract. Along with this, there should be a confidentiality clause which means, by law, until a certain date, the employee is not allowed to publish any information or details about the film or its production. You also mention ‘positions of this nature’ which is not specific enough; I think that it would be best to define what the specific jobs are that we cannot apply for.

Firstly, The Equality Act of 2010 clearly says that “discrimination on grounds of race, gender or age is illegal.” Your job advert infringes this act.  You state that you are looking for someone below the age of 30 which means you are discrimination anyone above the age. You also ask for someone who is Christian which also breaches the legislation. Employer’s liability says that you as an employer are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of their employees and interviewees, being health and safety, this includes any physical or emotional harm of the employee whilst under their employment. The brief you provided may cause emotional harm to the applicants and the interviewers; this means you will not be responsible for them until they are employed.  Trade unions are there to protect the rights of employees and not applicants. You can also be a member of a union as a freelancer. Linking to the brief, the applicant will not be protected and would be held responsible for legal ethical issues.

Codes of practice exist to protect the employees and employers and are used to avoid legal issues.  The video you have asked the applicant to produce is unsuitable for children, who you say the video will be shown to. This is due to the theme of the video which the children might not fully understand at this age.  Referring to the policies and procedures, to make this video suitable for children, the re-enactments and dramatizations should be excluded from this product.  You also mention in this brief that the applicant must include female victims and male offenders.  Through media representation, you are contributing to the stereotyping of females being the weaker sex and males most likely being the offenders. Linking to social concerns, you are interpreting teenagers as the only victims of rape. This may produce social problems in the media and the misrepresentation of male teens as predators.

Linking back to the suitability of the video, the Ofcom broadcasting code states you must protect the under 18s and make sure the product does not harm or offend the consumer.  Ofcom’s main duties are to protect the audience from harmful and offensive material. Ofcom exists because of the Communications Act (2003) and The Broadcasting Act (1990). As the product for this brief is a short documentary, this means it must be regulated by Ofcom.  The brief states, “You should compliment the interviews with re-enactments… dramatizations…” this could be harmful or offensive to under- 18s which may go against Ofcom’s regulations “children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.”  The meaning of “children” is anyone under the age of 15, which is the audience you wish to target with the video. The brief you wish the applicant to create may infringe the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which is a law about obscenity in products. A quote from the Obscene Publications Act backs this up by saying “This could include images of extreme sexual activity such as bestiality, necrophilia, rape or torture.” The product will be linked to rape, including re-enactments and dramatizations; this may breach the Obscene Publications Act 1959 causing legal issues.

The BBFC (British Broad of Film Classification) award certifications to films and TV based on the content.  If the BBFC were to rate the product, it would most likely be a 15. This will be due to “portrayals of sexual activity” and “brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence” in the product. This could be a problem because the audience you wish to target is younger than the suitable age.

Lastly, intellectual property laws include laws against copyright. By asking the applicant to use a “popular music soundtrack” this means that the applicant would have to either pay a lot of money for the right to use the music or use illegally. Using music without permission or paying means that you would be going against intellectual property laws, also known as IP theft. You only provide the applicant with £20, mean it is likely for them to use the music illegally due to the expense of the rights for the music.

Yours sincerely,

Shauna Cunningham