12
The Writer and the Law
Students who are learning to write for the mass media should understand the importance of
laws that might govern or affect what they do. This chapter, written by Matthew Bunker of the
University of Alabama, seeks to introduce this subject to the students. This chapter reviews the
major categories of the law and governmental
action that touch on media writing.
Key terms and concepts
First Amendment — Students should know the
five freedoms protected by the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly and petition.
The First Amendment does not eliminate the need for laws governing writing. Copyright law, for
instance, would be necessary whether or not there was a First Amendment.
communication. This chapter outlines what the plaintiff must prove and what the writer may use
for defense.
Privacy — The concept of privacy is still under development. Students should understand the
four types of privacy law.
Copyright and trademark — Laws governing copyright and trademarks protect the creators of
works from “infringement.” This is a growing area of concern for writers who need to be careful
about what terms and images they can use and under what circumstances.
Links and resources
Chapter notes
Open records, open government. Many governmental bodies — particularly on the local level —
like to operate in secret. That is, bodies such as school boards and zoning authorities find it easier
to make decisions when they are not under public scrutiny. Sometimes these decisions are
questionable, and those serving on these boards would rather not be questioned. Such an
attitude, however, runs counter to how Americans view their government and in fact limits the
First Amendment right to petition the government. The National Freedom of Information Center
A new approach to copyright. Most people understand one of the ideas beyond copyright laws,
but they do not get the other one. The first idea is to give some protection to the creator or owner
of a copyrightable work and to make sure that person has some control over its use and, possibly,
value. The second idea is to limit that protection so that eventually the creative work —whatever
it is — would go into the public domain. The U.S. Constitution gives to Congress the power “to
promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and
Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” (Article 1, Section 8,
Clause 8)
For limited times, the Constitution says, not forever.
But over the last four decades, Congress has extended the time an owner can hold a copyright 11
times, so that now if a copyright is held by an individual, it lasts for that individual’s life plus 70
years, and in some cases corporations may hang onto copyrights even longer. In the age of the
Internet, that approach to protecting copyrighted works is becoming less and less workable.
Creative Commons is the subject of an article in the Online Journalism Review by Linda Seebach.
The article explains in more detail how this works and the thinking behind it. For publishers and
editors of high school and college media, this site could provide material that can be used
Students and the First Amendment. A flurry of news reports — a good bit of hand-wringing —
appeared in the early days of 2005 about a survey that shows that many high school students do
not have much knowledge or regard for the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. A
third of the students said the First Amendment goes “too far” in granting rights to Americans.
Hodding Carter, the head of the Knight Foundation that sponsored the study, called the results
“not only disturbing; they are dangerous. Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a
danger to our nation’s future.”
The fact is that surveys don’t show this at all.
The First Amendment Center has been conducting an annual survey about people’s attitudes
toward the First Amendment since 1997. Paul McMasters in commenting about some of those
findings points out the following:
30 percent say the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees; although
this is a significant drop from the 49 percent spike in 2002 (apparently related to fear
and concern in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001), three in 10 is still an unsettling number.
nation — attitudes that have been around for a while. Is this disturbing? Certainly. People should
be more aware and supportive of the rights they have.
Is this a disturbing new trend? Probably not. There seems always to have been a significant
number of people who trust the government more than they trust the news media and who do
not trust themselves to make up their own minds.
Question bank
1. Which of the following news stories might constitute libel:
2. Privilege means
3. The legal case that established the “actual malice” standard in 1964 is known as:
4. The “actual malice” standard says that _________ can prove libel only if the press knew the
5. What five freedoms does the First Amendment guarantee?
6. Who wrote the First Amendment?
7. Reporters sometimes end up involved in a libel suit for stories they print or broadcast. What
defense(s) might be available?
8. The government agency that is most concerned with the regulation of broadcasting is the
9. The government agency that is most concerned with the regulation of the advertising industry
is the
10. One of the best defenses for libel is
11. To defame someone in a written form is