Laws that affect the media in the United Staes?

Question

Writing Essay

Answer 1

Obviously the most important one would be the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. It's the reason the press can say just about whatever it wants and there arent any police breaking down the door telling them they can't. Some of the only restrictions on the press are various libel laws (saying that you cant state things that are completely false about a person and destroy his character) and also some privacy laws that also somewhat limit the information the press can publicize. But in the end, the Constitution beats them all.

Answer 2

There are TONS of laws. Of course, there are the protections provided by the constitution in the First Amendment free speech / free press clauses, but there are regulations, too. For example, the FCC regulates TV and Radio broadcasts, and that can be a type of censorship of the media (When our President said a four letter word at the G8 conference, NPR was the only station to run the statement; the others may have been afraid of being fined for broadcasting profanity).
Other regulations that are important are intellectual property -- copyright, trademark, and trade secret law specifically. Because the media cannot just rip off others' words, or use their trademarks to their advantage, or republish trade secrets that have been protected as such by other businesses. Sometimes these types of laws are more "deadly" than any claim of libel.

Next, there are certainly government regulations on "classifed" or "confidential" information. And in most states, there is no reporter's shield liability for confidential sources -- if the government (or even a private party to a civil suit) needs to know the confidential source that a reporter used for a story, and the court agrees it should be disclosed, the reporter will go to jail for contempt for failure to reveal his confidential source. As a journalist, you have to decide right up front if you're willing to spend some time in jail for this source or not.

Finally, remember, media is a business. So most busines laws have an incidental (or direct) effect on the media. Mergers, antritrust laws, wire service agreements, SPONSORSHIPS, station ownership, etc., all affect how a reporter reports. Some of these things may be contractual in nature rather than laws made by a government, but they are of prime importance in journalism today.