LL4H3 Half Unit
Media Law: Regulating Newsgathering
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Andrew Scott
Availability
This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Law and Finance, MSc in Media and Communications (Media and Communications Governance) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority will be given initially to LLM, MSc Regulation and MSc Law and Finance students on a first-come-first-served allocation.
Spaces permitting, requests from all other students will be processed on the same first-come-first-served allocation from 10am on Thursday 2 October 2025
By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.
Deadline for application: Not applicable
For queries contact: Law.llm@lse.ac.uk
This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.
Course content
This course focuses on the legal and normative frameworks regarding the obtaining of information by journalists and others. It examines in particular the legal and administrative regulation of newsgathering and content production practices undertaken by professionals working in the media sector, but extends to citizen-journalism, academia, and the activities of others across society. The course is introduced with consideration of a number of themes that underpin the rest of the syllabus: the role(s) of the media in society (including conceptions of the 'public interest'); the main social, technological and regulatory influences that shape media newsgathering practise, and rights jurisprudence (in particular, the freedom of expression and freedom of the press in national and international law). The course then examines a number of news- and information-gathering practices that are either facilitated or proscribed by law and/or other forms of regulation. These include the protection of sources and journalistic materials; the technological circumvention of source protections; legal risks to sources and whistleblowers; 'cheque-book journalism' (including payments to witnesses and to criminals); access to information held by the state (freedom of information); access to courts, court documents and other criminal justice contexts (prisons); the safety of journalists and newsgatherers; reporting from conflict-zones; media-police interaction; harassment and media intrusion, and the regulation of surreptitious newsgathering practices (hacking, tapping and subterfuge).
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Students must submit a formative essay at the end of the Winter term.
Indicative reading
Supporting texts for the course include Millar and Scott, Newsgathering: Law, Regulation and the Public Interest (Oxford University Press, 2016); Levine et al, Newsgathering and the Law (Mathew Bender, 2018); Leveson, An Inquiry Into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press: Report, HC 780, 2012, Warby, Moreham and Christie (eds), Tugendhat and Christie: The Law of Privacy and the Media, (3rd ed, OUP, 2015), Flat Earth News (Chatto & Windus, 2008); de Burgh, Investigative Journalism (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2008). Many of these and other materials relevant to the course are made available via the BLPES electronic resources or online.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 22
Average class size 2024/25: 22
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
For this course, please see the following link/s:
LL4H3 Media Law: Regulating Newsgathering https://youtu.be/G0Rjmvi2jnw
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills