THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF MEDIA LAW

Law has so many definitions by different people but for the purpose of this course, we shall accept this simple definition of law as a right and duties conferred on individuals living in a particular community for the progress, safety and well being of the human race. In other words, laws are regulations set up or enacted to check or limit the activities of those persons the law covers. Some define law to consist of the laid down rules that guide people’s behaviour in a state, the disobedience of which attracts penalties.

THE PUROSE OF LAW IN THE SOCIETY
(a). Regulation of human conduct
(b) Reconciliation of the interest of the individual to that of the community
(c) Pointing out when interest exist
(d) Man owes his dignity to law
(e) Law initiates changes in economic, political, social and religious structures.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LAW
Some of the characteristics are:-
(i) Law is normative in character: It is a norm which tells us what to do and what not to do in order to achieve a particular objective e.g. the rules of criminal law which forbids stealing and the killing of another under certain circumstances are to guarantee security of lives and properties. Journalist invasion of ones privacy can be punished by damages or incurring criminal sanction.

(ii) Rules of law are in a prescribed form, they are generally certain and practicable in character or country.

(iii) Territorial Limitation: Laws are also made to guide the conduct of the people of a particular society or country and are limiting on the people and properties within that territory. This is so even between different communities in the same country for instance the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Act apply in the south while the Code and Criminal Procedure apply in the North.

(iv) The breach of law is enforced by sanction or coercion. This can be done through an organized institution such as the police force, law court, prison etc. It is this element of sanction in law that distinguishes law from other concepts such as ethical rules, convention, morality and etc.

(v) Law is dynamic and not static and that being the case, law changes through the course of history and the content of the law of each society usually changes as the social political and economic world.

(B). INTERNATIONAL LAW: These are laws that are applicable between two different countries. The laws that are applicable within particular countries can be further divided into the following headings depending on the issue and fact of the matter. They are:

(i). PRIVATE LAW: These are laws which deal and regulate the relationship between individual or private matter. These include laws or Tort or (Civil Wrongs). Law of contract, business law, family or matrimonial matters, etc.

(ii). PUBLIC LAW: This is concerned with the relationship between an individual and the rest of the world. Such laws include criminal law, constitutional law, public or international law, etc.

(iii). SUBSTANTIVE LAW: These are laws governing the liabilities of a person in Nigeria for example we have penal code which is applicable in the northern part of Nigeria and criminal code which is applicable in the south.

(iv). ADJECTIVAL LAW: After the substantive law has prescribed the right and liabilities of a person, the adjectival law comes to prelude the procedure or ways it is to be applied.

(iv). CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASES: Civil actions deal with cases between an individual with another person while criminal cases are cases against the state. In civil action, the parties are known as the plaintiffs i.e. the person that instituted an action in court. The defendant is the person that is suit. In criminal matter, we have the prosecution (complainant), i.e. the person that alleged a criminal case or charge against another person known as an accused person.

To conclude our discussion on the type of laws, it is important to mention the sources of these Nigeria laws because these provide the law that must be applied to matters. The sources of Nigeria laws are as follows:
(a). Received English Law,
(b). Nigerian Legislation
(c). Nigerian Case Law
(d). Customary Law, and
(e). Islamic Law.