Legislation vs Regulation Legislation and Regulation Legislation describes

Legislation vs. Regulation

Legislation and Regulation • Legislation describes a statutory law or the process of making the law • Regulation however describes an official rule or the act of controlling something • So legislation is the law passed by the government whereas regulation is the way of control to make sure that the law is always observed and adhered to.

Case of Milly Dowler • • • On 21 March 2002, Milly Dowler was abducted and then murdered when she was walking home from school. Her body was only found sixth months later, on 18 September 2002 in Yateley, Hampshire. British daily newspaper The Guardian reported on 4 July 2011 that Scotland Yard had discovered that journalists working for News of the World had deleted some messages in Milly Dowler’s voicemail box as it was full in order to free up space for new messages, to which they wanted to listen to, as part of the News International phone hacking scandal. The deletions of the phone messages led to Dowler’s family and the police believing that she was still alive as they thought that Milly deleted the messages herself and destroying some potential evidence about her abduction and any other evidence against her abductor and murderer. It was later established that Dowler's phone had deleted the messages automatically, 72 hours after being listened to. The Guardian commented that the News of the World did not conceal from its readers in an article on 14 April 2002 that it had intercepted telephone messages and also informed Surrey police of this fact on 27 March 2002, only six days after Milly was abducted. However, Rebekah Brooks, the News of the World's editor in 2002, denied knowledge of phone hacking during her editorship. In January 2012, it was revealed that Surrey Police had discovered during the early stages of their inquiries that News of the World staff had accessed Milly Dowler's mobile phone messages but did not take issue with this.

Case of Milly Dowler • • It was in the wake of Milly Dowlers cade that a significant number of politicians, including the deputy prime minister John Prescott, began to question whether the takeover of Sky by News Corporation should be vetoed by the appropriate government authorities. Many called for the government to tighten laws concerning press freedom and what press should be allowed to do and what should be forbidden and data protection after the discovery of this particular scandal, meaning the legislation of stricter laws. The observance of those laws were to be controlled more and infringement were to be punished more, which is what different law courts, meaning regulation, would be responsible for in that case.