Presentation by Melissa Wantz and Kelly Savio to Foothill Dragon Press, September 2012

1. Journalism Laws & Rights
Melissa Wantz & Kelly Savio

2. First Amendment - 1791
• Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.

3. Libel
• A published false statement that is damaging to a
person’s reputation; a written defamation

4. Slander
• The action or crime of making a false spoken statement
damaging to a person’s reputation (not writing, pictures,
etc…). Oral defamation.

5. Can I be sued?
Very rarely, but it can happen, and it's important to observe
professional standards if you want your work to be taken
seriously.
You can't be liable for defamation if you just publish a critical
opinion about someone or reveal an unpleasant truth. But if you
make a false accusation of fact (even one implied in an "opinion"
column), then you may have committed defamation.
Invasion of privacy occurs when a publication publicizes
embarrassing personal information without consent and with no
newsworthy justification, such as gossip about a teacher's marital
problems. It can also happen if you mislabel a photo so that it
gives a false impression that harms a person's reputation ("false
light")

6. Tinker -- 1969
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School
District
-Students maintain their First Amendment rights on school
grounds
-Marybeth Tinker, armband
-Private schools not affected because First Amendment
only protects against action by government officials.

7. Tinker - 1969
• Court ruled school officials can’t prevent students from
expressing their opinions on school rounds, as long as:
1. Do not cause a material or substantial disruption of
the school environment
2. Intrude on the rights of others

8. Prior Review
• Principal or other administration reads, reviews or
approves the publication before publication
• Cannot be challenged legally; they have the right but put
themselves at risk for legal action of published content

9. Prior Restraint
• Principal or administration can require changes to or
removal of content before distribution (deny students
right to publish content)
• Can be challenged legally
• JEA believes prior review is a form of prior restraint
because it leads the reviewer to censor and to students
self-censoring to assure approval

10. Hazelwood - 1988
• Missouri high school newspaper
wanted to publish articles on
divorce and teen pregnancy (1983).
Pseudonyms used for quoted
students
• Principal reviewed articles on night
before going to print and cut the
two-page spread they were on
because there was not enough time
to change them to protect identities
better. Students found out when the
paper returned from the printers.
• Three students sued.

11. Hazelwood - 1988
•School officials can censor student speech for “reasonable
educational justification”
•Defined distinction between student expression in a “public
forum” versus “non-public forum”
•Hazelwood publication found not to exist in a public forum so
students were allowed a lower level of First Amendment
protection
•Private schools not affected

12. Public Forum
• Includes extracurricular and independently produced
student media
• Have greater First Amendment protections
• Not subject to Hazelwood standards

13. Non-public forum
• School officials exercise hands-on gatekeeping authority
over editorial content
• Hazelwood created the distinction between student-
initiated speech and curricular speech in settings such as
a student newspaper, yearbook or school play

14. 7 states
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Massachusetts
• Oregon
Passed laws guaranteeing all student publications have the right
to publish freely, so Hazelwood does not apply to them

15. Sunshine Laws
• Most states (including CA) have some kind
of “sunshine laws”
• Their purpose is to ensure that the public has
access to government records and
proceedings.
• The government is “by the people, for the
people, of the people,” so its proceedings
should be transparent.

16. Credit: John Darkow, Columbia Tribune

17. CA Sunshine Laws
• Ralph M. Brown Act
• CA Public Records Act

18. Brown Act
• Applies to all CA
governing bodies
• City councils,
school boards,
boards of
supervisors, etc…
• Not applicable to
private/non-profit
organizations

19. Brown Act
• You have to give advanced notice of meetings. Even
special/emergency meetings need to be announced 24 hours in
advance.
• Agenda should be published before, minutes after.
• This happens every time there’s a quorum… even if it’s by
accident in a grocery store.

20. Brown Act Exceptions
• Certain things they are allowed to discuss in “private”
• They still have to tell you they’re going to meet and give you a
general idea of what they will talk/talked about in the
agenda/minutes
• Litigation, personnel issues, hiring, etc

21. CA Public Records Act
• You can look at state and local
government public records
• You may have to pay a fee, but
the fee must be reasonable
(cover cost of materials, etc.)
• Request during office hours and
receive with in a reasonable
amount of time (gray area, but
about 10 days)

22. CAPRA
• Can’t look at personnel records (or confidential
student records)…
• Or investigative records, trade secrets, litigation….
• Some drafts of documents not yet made “official”
• Material made confidential by other state or federal
statutes.

23. CAPRA
• You CAN see police reports/ criminal history
• Licenses (liquor, teaching credentials, etc)
• Court records / transcripts
• Megan’s Law information (sex offenders)
• Public officials’ salary / benefit information

24. FOIA
• Enacted in 1966, and taking effect on July 5, 1967, the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that any
person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access
to federal agency records, except to the extent that such
records (or portions of them) are protected from public
disclosure by one of nine exemptions or by one of three
special law enforcement record exclusions. (FOIA.gov)

25. FOIA
• Really came into the spotlight after
9/11
• People wanted to know what the
government knew, how it potentially
failed us, and what it was going to do
about the attacks
• The government didn’t want anyone
to know what it knew, how it
potentially failed us, and what it was
going to do (citing “security”)

26. FOIA
• Some things aren’t public
• Troop movements, real matters of public security, etc
• But there are stacks and stacks of court cases regarding what’s
exempt and what’s public (most dated within the last 11 years)

27. FOI Letter Generator
• Student Press Law Center

28. Censorship outside of U.S.

29. References
• www.scu.edu
• www.firstamendmentcoalition.org
• www.spj.org
• www.foia.gov
• http://ag.ca.gov
• oag.ca.gov
• http://documents.latimes.com/sunshine/
• http://calaware.org/about
• Protocol for Free & Responsible Student News Media
• Committee to Project Journalists