Podcasting legal and ethical issues

You are live streaming the opening of a new heritage site and are interviewing the manager. Suddenly they launch into an attack on the planning department of the local council, suggesting that a senior manager there, who had a limp, was taking bribes from developers to push developments through on listed sites. It's all very juicy stuff and definitely a scoop but what should you do?

• Cut the stream immediately and berate the manager, screaming at them that they have libelled the council worker live on air and now you are both going to be in trouble with the law!

• Explain to your listeners that, of course, these allegations are only heresay and absolutely without any evidence. You do not give the microphone back to the manager and walk away quickly describing the scene.

• Do nothing and finish the interview. You resolve to give the council the right to reply.

• Ask the manager for more details and spend the rest of the interview talking about the allegations.

You are running a true crime podcast about a recent case. The idea is to prove that the person was innocent. What do you need to be careful of?

• Defamation - especially if you're going to suggest another culprit.

• Criticising the investigation, especially the actions of any specific investigating officers.

• Criticising the way the trial was carried out.

• All of the above.

You are running a popular podcast on local politics and news. Do you allow comments?

• Absolutely, unmonitored and on every episode. This is for the local community - we need as much input from them as possible.

• Only on completely uncontroversial episodes and with approval before posting.

• On everything but with monitoring. You'll do it when you have time.

• Absolutely not. You provide a service but it's not a conversation.

You are hosting a podcast with a friend - so the presentation style is very relaxed and chatty. You talk about current affairs and news. Can this get you in trouble?

• Nah! You know what you're doing.

• You need to make sure you don't forget you're on mic as it's too easy to say something defamatory when you're not paying attention.

• It's not a problem as anything you say will be fair comment.

• It's only for friends and family so it doesn't matter anyway.

You are doing a segment for your podcast about a local shop that's been in the area for generations. There are some photos of customers stuck up behind the counter. The owner tells you they are of shoplifters.

• You ask for more details as it's a great bit of colour for your piece.

• You take photos of the wall with the photos to use as an image for the podcast.

• You let them talk but know this bit will have to be cut when you edit the piece together.

• You decide to track down the people in the photographs and ask them for their response.