Communication Law and Professional Ethics
Code: 104980 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Journalism | OB | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Maria Isabel Fernandez Alonso
- Email:
- mariaisabel.fernandez@uab.cat
Teachers
- Ana Isabel Fernández Viso
- Marta Maria Roel Vecino
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
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Objectives and Contextualisation
This course is intended to provide students with knowledge of the legal norms and the basic ethical principles for the practice of journalism.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
- Demonstrate adequate knowledge of the modern world and its recent historic development in terms of social, economic, political and cultural aspects.
- Manage time effectively.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply ethical and regulatory principles to the production of journalistic texts.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
- Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
- Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
- Manage time effectively.
- Recognise and describe the codes of self-regulation and codes of ethics governing the profession, both in Spain and at EU level.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.
- Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.
Content
1.- Conceptual framework, rationale and focus
2.- Source system and jurisprudence in the Spanish legal system
3.- Communication rights in the Spanish Constitution: freedom of expression, right to information, conscience clause, professional secrecy and right of retraction
4.- Limits to communication rights: individual rights to honor, privacy, self-image and protection of personal data
5.- Limits to communication rights: public interests (national security and official secrets, public order, public health, morals, and protection of youth and children)
6.- Publicity of public authorities’ activity
7.- Pluralism in the media system: internal (public media) and external (regulation on concentration)
8.- Self-regulation. Internal mechanisms: stylebooks, editorial statutes and ombudsman
9.- Self-regulation. External mechanisms: deontological codes and press councils. Independent regulators
10.- Balance and future challenges
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master class | 32 | 1.28 | 8 |
| Seminar | 16 | 0.64 | 1, 8 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Exams | 6 | 0.24 | 1, 8 |
| Tutoring | 5 | 0.2 | 1, 8 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study | 85 | 3.4 | 1, 8 |
There will be two hours of theory and one hour of seminar per week.
Seminars will focus on deontological issues.
A detailed schedule outlining the content of each session will be presented on the first day of the course and will be available on the course’s Virtual Campus, where students will find all teaching materials and necessary information for effective course monitoring. Should the teaching modality change for reasons of force majeure according to the competent authorities, the teaching staff will inform students of any modifications to the course schedule and teaching methodologies.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final theory test | 50% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 1, 9, 4, 3, 5, 7, 6, 13, 12, 10, 11, 8, 14, 15 |
| Partial theory test | 20% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 1, 9, 4, 3, 5, 7, 6, 13, 12, 10, 11, 8, 14, 15 |
| Seminar test | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 1, 5, 13, 12, 10, 11, 8, 15 |
Activity A: Partial theory test, 20% of the final grade. Material covered in this test will not be excluded in final test.
Activity B: Seminar test (or tests), 30% of the final grade.
Activity C: Final theory test, 50% of the final grade.
Students are required to pass the final theory test in order to pass the course.
There will be a re-sit opportunity only in the case of the final theory test,
The single assessment will consist of taking all the tests on the same day (the day of the final theory test), consecutively. As in the continuous evaluation system, only the final theory test will be re-assessable.
No synthesis test is planned.
A "not evaluable" will be assigned when activity C has not been completed.
In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted as an integral part of assignment development, provided that the final outcome demonstrates a significant contribution from the student in terms of analysis and personal reflection. Students must clearly identify any content generated using AI, specify the tools employed, and include a critical reflection on how these technologies have influenced both the process and the final result of the assignment. Failure to disclose the use of AI in this assessed activity will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in a partial or total penalty to the assignment grade, or more serious sanctions in severe cases.
In the event that the student performs any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that could be instructed. In the event, that several irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
Bibliography
Class manual:
Martínez Otero, Juan: Lessons in Communication Law. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2018.
For both lectures and seminar sessions compulsory readings and recommended complementary texts for each topic will be provided.
Software
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Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (SEM) Seminars | 11 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 12 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 13 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 21 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 22 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 23 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 2 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |