Newsgathering and the Freedom of Press: Search for Truth or Violation of Individual Rights?

This paper examines legal issues rising from newsgathering and the impact of their solutions upon the Freedom of Press. While newsgathering is indispensable for the journalist and media communities, in few areas of constitutional law is there a greater divergence between rhetoric and reality than the difference between the U.S. court's proclamation of the need to protect newsgathering and its failure to do so. The series of decisions concerning newsgathering and undercover reporting show that U.S. courts usually take the newsgathering by journalists and media, particularly those conducted with the aid of new technologies, negatively and continue to fail to provide First Amendment protection for newsgathering and undercover reporting. This paper points out that though the use of fraud, deception, trespass, and entrapment may constitute violation of individual rights, it indeed is helpful in improving the search for truth and the public's right to know. Reason, and not emotion, ought to drive the development of the law about newsgathering. Therefore, this paper argues for a balanced freedom of press protection for newsgathering activities. It will help to ensure that the press can perform its essential functions in a system of democracy.