Can students take photos of other students in school without their knowledge?

Paper cut outs of question marks strewn around a desk next to a hand holing a pen

Every week, Student Press Law Center attorneys answer a frequently asked question about student media law in “Legal Question of the Week.” Q: So, there's a new Instagram trend of photographing and posting pictures of people without their knowledge (or permission) and a number of such IG accounts have cropped up about our school. The… Continue reading Can students take photos of other students in school without their knowledge?

Charges against student journalists arrested while covering Occupy protests officially dropped

The charges against two student journalists who were arrested last year while covering the Occupy Atlanta protests were officially dropped Wednesday.Judy Kim and Alisen Redmond were reporting for their student newspapers, The Signal at Georgia State University and The Sentinel at Kennesaw State University, respectively.

Journalism groups write Atlanta mayor to protest continued prosecution of arrested college journalists

The National Press Photographers Association and six other journalism organizations have written to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to protest the arrest and prosecution of two college journalists arrested last year while covering Occupy Atlanta demonstrations.Judy Kim, a photojournalist with Georgia State University's The Signal, and Alisen Redmond, a photojournalist with Kennesaw State University's The Sentinel, were arrested last November and charged with "obstruction of traffic." The pair were standing on a street closed to traffic when arrested and identified themselves as reporters."The arrest and 14 hour detention of college journalists is a tangible example of what is meant by a 'chilling effect' as it relates to First Amendment liberties," wrote Mickey Osterreicher, NPPA's general counsel.

Wild horses drag a federal appeals court to a generous First Amendment interpretation

Laura Leigh's "newsroom" is a dusty Nevada prairie, which she traverses in a battered 1998 Ford pickup in search of images for a magazine and blog focusing on the federal culling of wild horse populations.As described in a colorful Las Vegas Review-Journal profile, Leigh has become a persistent, if affectionately tolerated, antagonist to the Bureau of Land Management and those who run its wild horse capture program.

Covering protests and demonstrations: Staying safe if your campus is next to be “occupied”

As the Occupy Wall Street movement gathers steam in both New York City and at satellite locations across the country and internationally, some of those covering the event for commercial media have been called out for watching from afar, failing (or refusing) to take the time to talk with the protesters and hear their message.

Want to catch a movie? You bring the camera, they’ll bring the handcuffs.

People fully flexing the First Amendment by producing a major Hollywood flick can’t be photographed, according to the City of Fort Lauderdale.Fort Lauderdale police officers arrested a journalist for photographing the downtown building in which a film was being produced.Journalists can’t use the First Amendment to cover a form of free expression?

“Sentenced” to write essay, videographer challenges fairness of UC-Berkeley disciplinary board

Considering that Josh Wolf had already spent seven months of his young journalistic career in jail, the "sentence" he received for his latest clash with the law might have seemed about as harsh as a Bart Simpson chalkboard apology.Still, Wolf continues contesting the penalty imposed by the University of California-Berkeley for his failure to leave a campus building while videotaping an anti-tuition-hike demonstration in November 2009: A five-page paper analyzing the rights of student journalists on campus and recommending disciplinary policies to avoid First Amendment clashes like the one that landed him in hot water."It was never about my punishment or my case at all," Wolf said Tuesday, discussing his decision to appeal.