ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW CHAPTER 3 The First Amendment Contemporary Problems STUDENT OUTLINE I PRIOR RESTRAINT DURING WARTIME A CENSORSHIP I Four modes of censorship employed by the government during wartime 1 Denial of access to locations and individuals 2 Denial of access to documents and photographs 3 Punishment for publishing national security information 4 Self censorship by the news media B ACCESS TO LOCATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS I Embedding System in which members of the press are allowed to accompany military units into battle and report what they see 1 Flynt v Rumsfeld 2004 is a case in which a federal appellate court held that the constitution does not require that the military embed troops IT S A PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT II JB pictures vs department of defense a bunch of journalists wanted access to Dover hanger where coffins carrying soldiers are kept and challenged the department of defense who banned them District court held that the first amendment does not give plaintiffs the right of 1 ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW accessing the hanger Eventually there was a compromise that allowed for access with the family s permission STUDENT OUTLINE III Secret dockets court records about the mere existence of a case are kept secret by removing them from the public docket where one typically locates a case IV State secrets privilege allows the government to block a lawsuit if any information disclosed during it would adversely affect national security including the location of a trial or interrogation facility C ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS i Freedom of Information Act FOIA creates a presumptive right of access to records kept by federal government agencies yet one of the nine exemptions from FOIA is for records that could jeopardize national security a Very useful tool for learning about wartime information if there are no exemptions ii Classified Information Procedure Act CIPA Enacted in 1980 details procedures for courts to consider when the government argues classified information could be publicly disclosed during a criminal procedure that might jeopardize national security D PUNISHMENT FOR PUBLISHING NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION A Slight possibility that the government could punish the press for publishing information that exposes security secrets B 2 ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW E SELF CENSORSHIP BY THE NEWS MEDIA STUDENT OUTLINE i Self censorship may occur because a Some members of the media worry about government retaliation laws b The media feel a sense of duty not to reveal some c information that could jeopardize US soldiers Some members of press decide either not to offend viewers or readers or not give coverage that could hurt public support for American war d Journalists perceive the public as losing interest in war coverage e Other major stories compete for time and space f The cost of keeping correspondents abroad is steep II THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN SCHOOLS A CENSORSHIP OF EXPRESSION IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS i Tinker v Des Moines 1969 a Three students went to school wearing arm bands with peace signs to protest the Vietnam war and were suspended when they refused to remove them b Supreme Court held that students have a first amendment right to express their opinions no matter how controversial if they do so without interfering with school operations and rights of others 3 ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW STUDENT OUTLINE c Influenced the decision of Barber v Dearborn High School where a boy wore a shirt that called Bush an international terrorist to express his political views Judge ruled in favor of Barber ii The Hazelwood case 1983 a Principal censored the school newspaper by completely removing two pages that contained articles about teen pregnancy and the impact of divorce on children The censorship of the articles was defended on privacy and editorial balance Important to note that the ruling involved censorship of a high school paper that was published as part of the school curriculum b c 1988 Supreme Court decision rules that it is permissible to censor a high school newspaper that is published as part of the curriculum iii 5 reasons to censor Interferes with appropriate discipline Interferes with the rights of students a b c Fails to meet academic standards d Generates health safety concerns e Speech is vulgar indecent obscene iv Censoring high school newspapers a Is the newspaper published at public or private school 4 ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW 1 Constitutional protections have less meaning at STUDENT OUTLINE private schools b What kind of newspaper is it v Three types of publications a A school sponsored newspaper 1 Heavily censored b Unsupervised or student controlled newspaper 1 Little authority on censorship c A student newspaper produced and distributed off campus 1 Zero authority on censorship vi Viewpoint based discrimination Exists when the government censors or regulates one particular viewpoint side on a given topic but does not censor or regulate another viewpoint side on the same topic a An example is if pro life speech was censored and pro choice was not b Dean v Utica Community Schools vii The Bethel Case 1986 a Suspended student for making a sexually suggestive speech b SC held that schools can punish offensively lewd and indecent speech that is unrelated to any political viewpoint because 1 Such expression would undermine the school s basic educational mission 5 ADV 3352 MASS MEDIA LAW STUDENT OUTLINE 2 It is a highly appropriate function of public school education to prohibit use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse 3 Society has an interest in teaching students the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior B CENSORSHIP OF COLLEGE NEWSPAPERS i Kincaid v Gibson Kentucky State University tried to censor yearbook but since the yearbook was a designated public forum created by the university to exist in an atmosphere of free and responsible discussion and intellectual exploration the court said that censoring it was illegal ii Hosty v Carter case was centered on demands that administrators could have prior restraint in their newspaper The question ended up being whether the student newspaper was a public forum iii Alcohol Advertisements and the College Press a Pitt News vs Pappert 1 Act 199 violated the first amendment rights of the Pitt news and that the law was an impermissible restriction on commercial speech because it targeted too narrow of a segment of the media iv Problems for college journalists a Access to information b Federal
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