Unit 2 4.3

• Newspaper campaigns

  • How they may affect policymaking
• Year and a day rule


  Ancient British law dated back to 1278, where if a victim of an attack lived for a year and a day after the attack, the attacker could not be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter
• Michael Gibson case


  • Gibson was assaulted by David Clark in 1992, left in a coma for 22 months, then died. David could not be charged with murder due to the year and a day rule, so was charged with GBH instead.
• Northern Echo newspaper campaign

  1. Readers encouraged to sign a petition to abolish the year and a day rule

  2. Petition passed on to the law commission who make recommendations to parliament

  3. Law was then further abolished due to the effectiveness of the campaign and public views
• Sarah's law campaign


  • After Sarah's murder in 2000, a high-profile campaign to name and shame convicted sex offenders, and create the sex offender's disclosure act allowing people to ask police if a person has offended
  • Petition created to support the changes, signed by over 1 million readers
  • News of the World used, law passed on 4 April 2011
• Newspaper campaigns can be effective in influencing policymaking
• The northern Echo took on the campaign of a year a day to help get justice for Michael and to help his mum Pat.
• The year and a day rule campaign caught attention from MP Alan Milburn who took a bill to parliament in 1994 but was defeated
• In 1996 (year and a day rule) the petition created by the nothern echo was passed onto the law commission - they make recommendation to parliament - law was further abolished in 1996
• Sarahs mum, was often seen at brooke side and was calling on the government to make changes and organise a public campaign
• Sarah’s law was passed due to help from MP Paul boatang
• Year and a day rule


  An ancient British rule which went back to 1278, where if victims of an attack died for a year and the day after the attack, the attacker would not be prosecuted of murder or manslaughter
• This rule was because there was no correlation between an attack and dying a year and a day later
• Michael Gibson was assaulted by David Clark in Darlington 


  1992
• Gibson was left in a coma for 22 months (about 2 years) until he later died
• Clark was charged for GBh due to Gibson surviving after a year and a day
• The northern echo took on the campaign to help Michael's mum get justice
• Readers were encouraged to sign a petition to change the law
• MP Alan Milburn took a bill to parliament, however, he was defeated
• Changes were happening due to the northern echo petition being passed on to the law commission who make law recommendations


  1996
• The year and a day rule was finally abolished in 1996
• Double jeopardy


  An 800-year-old English law in which a person cannot be tried for the same crime more than once
• julie Hogg was murdered by Billy Dunlop in Billingham Teesside


  1989
• Dunlop was tried, however was found not guilty twice by the jury
• Dunlop was later imprisoned for a violent attack on another woman
• Dunlop confessed to killing julie Hogg to a prison guard
• Ann Ming led the individual campaign and wanted her daughter to get the justice she deserved
• Ming campaigned to abolish the double jeopardy law through newspapers, radio, TV and lobbying MPs
• This overall led to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to be passed, where parliament had agreed to abolish the double jeopardy law
• Dunlop was tried and convicted for Julie Ming's murder and given a life sentence
• Adverts for campaigns


  • Strength: Can provide an insight into valuable information in a short period of time, can attract supporters based on how eye-catching the advert is and what is provided on the advert
  • Weakness: Can be very costly depending on where they are presented, e.g. TV ads can cost from £10,000
• Using social media to discuss the aims of a campaign


  • Strength: Can have a lot of media coverage due to increased attention on media outlets and where people spend their free time
  • Weakness: Can be manipulated and present false information, as only what the presenter wants to present is shown in their posting
• Events

  Strength: Can bring in a large number of supporters and raise awareness for the campaign - done from the number of supporters, activities ongoing but also how much coverage of the event there has been
• Weakness of using events is that is can be very costly due to needing a space, volunteers/staff, advertisement, time - if no supporter there is a loss of cost. They rely heavily on donations to fund