“Congress shall make no law respecting an 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.” — The First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The First Amendment is the cornerstone of press freedom in the United States. Though it has been tested time and time again throughout the history of the republic, it has stood as a sentinel protecting journalists against interests that would otherwise seek to challenge their right to report, expose, and critique powerful individuals and institutions, both in and outside of government. Today however, these rights face a plethora of new and evolving challenges. Politicians, aware of reporter’s constitutional privileges, have increasingly began to censure them through new and various means; riling elements within the public to distrust, belittle, and even threaten journalists they deem as “fake news.”
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt is reported to have said, “Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.”
For the modern photojournalist, these rights, and new challenges, are particularly relevant, given the sometimes turbulent and complex nature of the laws and ethics that guide their field. It could be said that photojournalism, by practice, requires the reporter to be more intrusive than their peers in print media.
Whereas print media strives to recreate news events through words, interviews and anecdotes, the photojournalist is required to insert themselves into the moment that news happens, often in real time. This fundamentally changes the relationship between the journalist and their subjects. Access for the photojournalist becomes less about their relationships with sources and more about their proximity to the occurrences of news events and the consequences they produce. In this way, the word access, often takes on a different meaning for photojournalists.
For photojournalists, they cannot always lean on the protections laid out in the bill of rights. They must pay extra mind to individual state laws which regulate where they are legally allowed access, and where they can freely take pictures without reprisal or interference from police, private security, or even their fellow citizens.
In this way, the individual’s right to privacy, and the freedom of the press will inevitably butt heads from time to time. Compounding this is the fact that camera technology is constantly evolving, becoming smaller and more sophisticated every year. The ease at which one can surreptitiously record another individual makes the role of ethics in the photojournalist’s decision making, more important than ever before.
However, one must consider how these considerations cut both ways.
For example, as reported by journalists like Cody Carlson for The Atlantic, states like Iowa have passed laws like HF589, which are “designed to stifle public debate and keep journalist in the dark… [criminalizing] investigative journalists and animal protection advocates who take entry-level jobs at factory farms in order to document the rampant food and safety and animal welfare abuses within.”
In cases like these, what is ethical and what is legal becomes a more blurred and nuanced notion for the photojournalist, whose photos have oft served in the past to expose the moral excesses and sometimes criminal behavior of such institutions. In situations like these, the photojournalist must weigh themselves both professionally and ethically, asking what their duty to the public is, and how far they are willing to go to bring the light of truth.
The new era of photojournalism, with the ubiquity of cameras and the increasingly hostile threat of corporate driven influence on laws and regulations, will undoubtedly require photojournalists of the future to reevaluate and reinvent themselves to face these new challenges. The freedom of the press may be guaranteed by our constitution, but it is the duty of citizens and journalists alike to make sure it stays that way.