Analysis Of First Amendment Rights: Freedom Of The Press

Part B: Essays
1. First Amendment Right – Freedom of the Press. According to the U.S. constitution and thereunder the first amendment, the press is said to be free, and the government cannot legally prohibit this freedom. Overall, the press holds an enormous responsibility. It is the watchdog of the community, the guarder of the government and the public. They provide an unofficial form of checks and balances on the government by informing the public on what the government is doing. Through this, they can persuade the public to view things in from one perspective or another. They have been given the constitutional right to do this. Do they really do this freely put under the control and supervision of those who they report on?According to

Hayes, chapter eight). There, it was ruled that there is no constitutional privilege for journalists. Justice Byron White wrote that the grand jury plays an important, constitutional role that outweighs any burden on newsgathering that might come from the occasional subpoena to reporters. In relation to the same case, three justices wrote a checklist for when the government should be able to require a journalist to reveal his or her sources. Those were: 1. That there is probable cause to believe the journalist has clearly relevant information regarding a specific probable violation of law; 2. That the information cannot be obtained in some other way that does not so heavily infringe on the First Amendment; and 3. That there is a compelling and overriding interest in the information. Even though these guidelines only were made in a dissenting opinion, they have been frequently used in state courts and lower federal courts. In criminal cases in federal courts, the defendant 's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial or the law enforcements ' need to conduct a full investigation is considered more important (chapter eight). At the same time, the majority of the U.S. states have shield laws that gives a reporter 's privilege, but there does not exist a federal shield law. When taking into consideration that journalists are not protected in federal law in form of a reporters ' privilege or shield law, it might take some of the feeling of freedom away when writing. A press is not free, if it cannot get sources to talk about controversial matters, because they fair to be revealed in court. The press should be able to write about matters such as governmental corruption without risking going to jail when refusing to give up the sources for the story. That the U.S. government is willing to punish journalists that do not reveal their sources jeopardizes the freedom of the