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Access to places: Journalists' right of access

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has said newsgathering deserves some First Amendment protection, it never has defined clearly the scope of that protection, nor restrictions that may be placed upon reporters' activities.

Most courts have ruled that the First Amendment provides journalists no greater right of access to property than that enjoyed by the public. Therefore, when an event occurs on nonpublic forum public property or private property, reporters may not have the right to enter if the general public is not usually allowed in.

Generally, a court contemplating denying access to nonpublic forum public property must weigh the public interest in obtaining information against competing interests. A minority of courts recognize that if the First Amendment right to publish depends upon the ability to gather news, the media's ability to inform the public is diminished when the right to gather news is impeded.

Although state and local governments may not limit or deny the public or the media access to public forums, they may impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on activities taking place on public property. For example, a city government reasonably could grant a parade permit that restricted a group from marching through the business section of town at rush hour.

But these restrictions must be content neutral, be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open alternative channels of communication.

Government agencies generally succeed in limiting media access to nonpublic forum public property where they showed that newsgathering would interfere with the normal operation of facilities. In addition, new security measures since September 11 often require background checks and security screening of reporters covering public facilities such as state capitols and city halls.

Next section: Access to places: Access to prisons and prisoners