The First Amendment

The right to say what you want as well as distribute it to mass amounts of people is a luxury we have living in the U.S. The First Amendment gives the citizens of the United States the right to freedom of religion, speech, the press, assemble, and petition.

Journalists especially need these rights to accomplish the job of delivering news to the people. The First Amendments protects journalists and provides them with the power to explore and publish what the public should and even shouldn’t see.

Journalists have the right to know government business, and to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public. A journalist has a responsibility to protect their sources. It is also important to know the difference between a subpoena and a search warrant – subpoena is looking for one specific thing, and a search warrant is the right to the entire search of the property.

What journalists need to be careful of is libel in their writing. Libel is the damage to a person’s reputation caused by making the person an object of hatred, contempt, or ridicule in the eyes of a substantial and respectable group. This can cause journalists and their financial backing millions of dollars, and could even place the journalist in jail!