Locked Up

After my very first lesson on Law and Ethics in Journalism, I am 100% sure that I am going to be Chris Horrie's very first student sent to jail. There are so many slip-ups, that, me-being-me am sure to make.

With many instances that occur with my mum or sister I feign complete innocence and that I never knew what I was doing was wrong. Something that I can not do as a Journalist. Or, you guessed it, I'm off to prison.

I'm also always the person that has her mobile on her at the wrong moments. Such as theatres, in the cinema or in an exam; yes I'm the one that has to make the long walk up to the front to put my mobile away. This being a casual thing that happens to me all the time, is a very definite way of me being in contempt of Court.

Being sued for Libel is the only one I am not worried about. I personally do not want to write malicious things about people. I also do not want to write for the gossip magazines, even though, I do enjoy to read them every now and again.

I'm looking forward to my next Law and Ethics class, I need to pay attention and keep myself from being arrested!

Racist 9 year olds?

After reading the Telegraph on the 23rd, myself and a few friends had a few different views on one story. The Telegraph ran a story on a nine year old boy, Steven Cheek, after his school had reprimanded him 'racist.' This was after Steven was playing with his Polish friend and said, "we've got to shoot the German Army."

My first thought was to blame the parents, thinking, 'how on earth does a nine year old boy know about the second world war and who was to blame?' I certainly do not remember learning the reasons of the second world war until I was about thirteen. Therefore this lead me to believe that the parents had taught him about it and that he had received his knowledge from them.

After talking it over with a few people, I found that I was the only one to be blaming the parents. The reasons given by my opponents was that they had learnt about the war before becoming nine from television programmes and films, such as 'Dad's Army' and from the 'Blackadder' shows.

I then picked upon the point that these shows mentioned are not for children, especially nine year olds. This then, brings the fault back upon the parents. The parents are the people that dictate to their children what they can watch, therefore if the parents are allowing their children to watch scenes from wars, the parents are indirectly to blame.

However, even though I am 'blaming' the parents, they are still educating their children on their history and the world around them, in any way that they see fit. Does this then mean that they are teaching their children to become racist or just simply teaching them the facts of what has happened before them?