Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.
The Department of Justice issued a rare letter supporting the constitutional rights of a photojournalist suing Montgomery County, Md., police officers who arrested him for taking their pictures while on duty.
The Justice’s Statement of Interest issued Monday urges the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to uphold citizens’ constitutional rights to record police officers in their public capacity without being arrested or having the recordings unlawfully seized.
A Washington, D.C., judge found that the Metropolitan Police Department’s media policy is constitutional, but how the department enforced it against a detective who spoke out against it to a newspaper in 2009 was unlawful.
District Judge James Boasberg ruled that Detective William Hawkins did not break department rules when he talked to a Washington Post reporter because he spoke as a representative of a police union and not a member of the department.
The 2012 Republican National Convention last week saw minimal arrests, no violence and fewer protesters, a marked contrast from past conventions. The Democratic convention is also starting off with few incidents.
Media advocates are expressing outrage over the arrest of a New York Times freelance photographer Saturday night. New York police allegedly knocked the journalist to the ground, beat him and took his two cameras and press credentials.
A nearly 200-page independent oversight report released by a group of human rights lawyers this week found that New York police officers often violated the rights of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests and arrested at least 18 of them.
The Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union dropped a case Monday against the Metropolitan Police Department after the police chief signed a new general order reminding officers that “photography, including videotaping of places, buildings, structures and events are common and lawful activities" in the district.
In one of the first Occupy Wall Street cases to proceed to trial, a New York University student journalist charged with disorderly conduct was acquitted on Wednesday after video proved he did not commit any violation while covering a protest in January.
While photographing the march in downtown Manhattan on Jan. 1, Alexander Arbuckle was one of many arrested for disorderly conduct for allegedly standing in the streets and blocking traffic after multiple police warnings to stay out of the roads.
In a battle between the public's First Amendment rights and law enforcement's application of policy, the public recently found an unlikely ally in the U.S. Department of Justice when it submitted a letter to the Baltimore Police Department supporting a citizen's right to record police activity.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in conjunction with the Chicago law firm Mandell Menkes, has established a local hotline for journalists covering the upcoming NATO summit who may be arrested or otherwise obstructed from covering protests and other public events.
The Illinois Eavesdropping Act, one of the broadest restrictions on audio recording nationwide, is likely unconstitutional and may not be enforced against the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois when it records conversations of police officers openly engaged in their public duties, a federal appellate court ruled today.
