Legal restraints

There are many legal constraints about producing magazines, and the UK is amongst the strictest democratic countries in the world when it comes to the controls of magazine productions. Firstly, there are restrictions on what kind of competitions they are allowed to include in the magazines. Very few magazines produce in the UK have a licence to hold a sort of lottery style of competitions, where people pay to be entered into a random drawer. This means that any competitions which people pay to enter has to involve some sort of skill, such as a writing competition.

Another legal constraint magazines have to follow is about contracts. If they make a contract with their readers, such as a delivery date for a prize, they must follow meet his date and not break their contract. Another legal aspect that must be followed when producing a magazine is copyright. This means that they must have permission of the copyright owner before including material in the magazine. This means any pictures used must be taken by the company or permission of use must be acquired. If they do not get this they will be breaking the law.

Other constraints includes controls about the sort of content they can include within their magazine.


Print media in the UK is entirely self-regulating, meaning that they are controlled by the themselves and don't have to follow and statutory rules. The print media have established the Press Complaints Commission of it's own accord and is used to keep a measure of journalistic standards.