Constitution of Journalism

Freedom of the Press:(or Press Freedom)
Guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news gathering organizations, and their published reporting. It also extends to news gathering and processes involved in obtaining information for public distribution. Not all countries are protected by a Bill of Rights or the Constitutional provision pertaining to Freedom of the Press.

Freedom of Speech:
The concept of being able to speak freely without censorship. The right to freedom of speech is guaranteed under international law through numerous human rights instruments, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes preferred, since the right is not confined to verbal speech but is understood to protect any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.

Laws Affecting Print Journalism

Case Law:(Precedential Law, Decisional Law, Jurisprudence)
is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority.

The term "common law" is also often used in common law to mean case law. In the common law tradition case law regulates, via precedents, how laws are to be understood, based on how prior cases have been decided. Case law governs the impact court decisions have on future cases. Unlike most civil law systems, common law systems follow the doctrine of stare decisions in which lower courts usually make decisions consistent with previous decisions of higher courts.

The different roles of case law in civil and common law traditions create differences in the way that courts render their decisions. Common law courts generally explain in detail the rationale behind their decisions with numerous citations to previous decisions and other authority (called ratio decidendi). By contrast, decisions in the courts of most civil law jurisdictions are generally very short, referring only to the statutes used. The reason for this difference is that, in these civil law jurisdictions, the tradition is that the reader should be able to deduce the logic from the decision. Courts in civil law jurisdictions also render their decisions so that, in some cases, it is somewhat difficult to apply previous decisions to the facts presented in future cases.

The Shield Law:
These are critical times for the reporter's privilege and the so-called shield law. Several courts have found that no privilege protects journalists before grand juries, which has resulted in the jailing of The New York Times' Judith Miller and freelance blogger Josh Wolf. Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters have been sentenced to prison in connection with their reporting on steroids in professional sports, and a Rhode Island journalist sat under home confinement for criminal contempt of court for not revealing a source. Many more journalists face sanctions for refusing to obey court orders to reveal their sources or materials, and more will follow. Both houses of the outgoing 109th Congress looked seriously at shield law bills, but despite enormous bipartisan support, no law was passed.

In legal actions, promissory estoppels is often used by a source whose confidentiality is disclosed despite a promise by the reporter not to do so.  This is like a contract that says when the reporter reasonably expects to induce reliance on a promise, and the source relies on this promise to his or her detriment.

*Defenses to Defamation:
1. Truth: The report must be substantially true with only immaterial variations or omissions.
2. Privilege
3. Opinion or Fair Comment: Federal constitutional and common law is a defense, but state common law on opinion and fair comment is relied on by journalists as well.
4. Consent
5.Reply
6.Statue of Limitations
7.Mitigating Circumstances

*Invasion of Privacy:
Four Types:
1. Appropriation of name or likeness for commercial purposes
2. Intrusion upon a person's solitude
3. Publication of private information about an individual
4. Publishing material that puts an individual in a false light.