Search by...
- Keyword
- Title
- Author
- Subject
- Publisher
Results should have...
- All of these words
- Any of these words
- This exact phrase
- None of these words
Keyword searches may also use the operators
AND, OR, NOT, “ ”, ( )
AND, OR, NOT, “ ”, ( )
News Media and the Law
Quarterly magazine on all aspects of media law covering cases, laws and other events that may affect the how journalists report and cover the news.
Articles from Vol. 36, No. 3, Summer
2012 NATO Summit Serves as Test Run for Political Conventions
Read preview
Journalists armed with pens, paper, cameras and even helmets flocked to Chicago in May to cover the NATO summit, where President Barack Obama met with world leaders.Among the masses outside McCormick Place were reporters whose main purpose there was...
Anti-SLAPP Laws on Trial
Read preview
Federal courts grapple with applying state libel defense lawsA recent libel suit gave birth to a controversial judgment involving the District of Columbia AntiSLAPP Act, which protects speech relating to issues of public interest.The case brought by...
Asked & Answered
Read preview
The Reporters Committee attorneys discuss questions about recent issues in media law.Answers are not meant to be relied upon as legal advice specific to any readers situation, but are for informational purposes to help journalists understand how the...
A Subpoena That Has Everyone A-Twitter
Read preview
A New York judge ruled that the online service provider must turn over user's information in a case over arrests during the Occupy protests"Take the bridge! Take the bridge!" shouted Occupy Wall Street activists as they descended onto the Brooklyn Bridge...
Clearing the Air Clouding Romney's Transparency Record
Read preview
The fact that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has so far only released his 2010 and 2011 tax returns has raised some public questions about his commitment to transparency. As media reports frequently note, his actions stand in contrast...
Content Aggregation: Spreading or Stealing the News?
Read preview
In today's digital age, the content from recent news reports can be instantly distributed across the Internet's many blogs and news aggregation sites. But, it is often unclear what separates healthy and legitimate information-sharing from unlawful and...
Does the Sun Shine in Obama's White House?
Read preview
President Barack Obama's transparency record is a consistent topic of interest throughout his presidency, as many have viewed his actions against the backdrop of the pledge he made upon entering office to run a more transparent administration.While some...
Fox "Fleeting Expletives" Decision Does Little to Clear the Air in Regulation of Indecency
Read preview
High court dodges First Amendment issues on controversial policyAlthough the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the issue of fleeting expletives twice in three years, questions about what constitutes indecent programming on the public airwaves still remain...
Here We Go Again: Journalists, Police Gear Up for the 2012 Political Party Conventions
Read preview
About 80 reporters stashed their notebooks, halted their Twitter updates and took a mid-day field trip in late June to the Mint Museum in Charlotte to watch Convention, a documentary on how The Denver Post covered the 2008 Democratic National Convention.This...
Interview: Using Content, Avoiding Trouble with Social Media
Read preview
If social media was a kid, she would still be in elementary school. But in the last couple of years, social media has become a very necessary newsgathering tool for journalists. Managing editor Nicole Lozare chatted with media lawyer Ashley Messenger...
"Open & Shut"
Read preview
A collection of notable quotations"You don't call somebody a piece of shit. That's false light."- Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch, about statements made regarding the Esquire birther case."If we're going to lose all of our privacy, then...
Playing It Safe at the Conventions
Read preview
One of the more frustrating issues to advise journalists on is how to handle interactions with police at protests and other emergencies. The problem is that the legal issue is simple, but the application of it is anything but. Don't do anything illegal,...
Public Figures, Private Records
Read preview
In 2004, Jack Ryan, a successful investment banker, was the Republican nominee in a close race for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, when two Chicago news media organizations successfully argued for the public disclosure of his previously sealed divorce...
Rare Victories in Recent FOIA Cases Raise Questions about Judicial Deference
Read preview
More than four years ago, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) reporter Marc Perrusquia submitted a federal Freedom of Information Act request for a confidential informant file the FBI claimed did not exist. In July, after nearly two years of litigation and...
Rating Online Transparency
Read preview
Even before Twitter volunteered to support Malcolm Harris in court this past spring, digital rights advocates monitored the legal efforts taken by the micro-blogging website and other Internet companies on behalf of their users. In May of this year,...
Setting the Record Straight: A Legal Challenge to the Illinois Eavesdropping Act
Read preview
The ACLU can record the public interactions of police, court rulesThis spring, a New York photojournalism student - and the defendant in the first Occupy Wall Street case to go to trial -was acquitted of any wrongdoing after an activist's recording of...
Stolen Valor Act Struck Down
Read preview
False statements alone without harm cannot be barred by lawWithin 24 hours of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Stolen Valor Act and agreeing with First Amendment advocates that criminalizing false claims about military service and medals is unconstitutional,...
The Lowdown on Getting Locked Up
Read preview
It's no secret that journalists covering political conventions may get arrested. More than 40 journalists were arrested in Minnesota while covering the Republican National Convention the last time around, and there is legitimate concern that this summer's...
