First Amendment Site Covers Press Freedoms

By: Charles Bowen Whether we're talking about that year-long investigative project that the city staff is enterprising or simply covering the school board and the zoning commission, journalists have frequent First Amendment issues. Reporters in the trenches don't have to articulate their freedom of the press positions every day to the folks on their beats, of course. However, editors, columnists, and publishers are expected to.

How could you manage editorial and op-ed pages -- or even answer the phones on a busy night on the city desk -- without occasionally waving the First Amendment flag? It behooves the working press, then, to stay abreast of the latest developments in the areas of press freedom. A Web site developed in conjunction with Vanderbilt University features excellent research on key First Amendment topics.

The First Amendment Center provides a library of related materials and analyses from legal specialists who deal with the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, including press, speech, religious liberty, assembly, and petition. Within each thematic area, a number of subtopics are covered, such as free speech on public college campuses, workplace religious liberty, blue laws, and the rights of prisoners.

Of particular interest to columnists is the "State of the First Amendment" survey reports, which have been conducted since 1997. Here you can view the entire report, and also take a look at additional archived documents, such as the 2002 report on "Comedy and Freedom of Speech."

To use the resource, visit http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org, where a busy introductory page features breaking news in its large center panel. There's never a shortage of material. At this writing, for instance, the panel carried stories with headlines such as "11th Circuit urged to halt removal of commandments," "N.J. can post sex offenders' addresses online," and "Military rescinds order to restrict reporters' access."

Scroll the page to find additional links to analysis and commentary on subjects such as celebrities in the public forum and church-state separation issues. Along the right side of the site are more than a dozen links to assorted departments inside the site, including documents devoted to the Freedom of Information Act, First Amendment publications, guest editorials, lesson plans for teachers, and those valuable "State of the First Amendment" reports.

For the journalist in hurry, a search box at the upper right corner of the page allows quick searching. Enter a word or phrase (no quotation marks) and click the "Go" button. The search engine is not case sensitive. Click the "Help" link under the data-entry box for additional information on searches.

Other considerations for using the First Amendment Center in your writing and editing:

1. Looking for experts to quote on various First Amendment issues? Check the navigation bar at the right of the site. An "Experts" link provides links to dozens of scholars, lawyers, and judges, with descriptions and links to online material on their specialties.

2. For background, don't miss the site's extensive First Amendment Library, also reached through a link on the right side of the site's pages. The section "aspires to become the nation's clearinghouse for information concerning the five freedoms," says an online station. "To that end, a vast array of judicial, legislative, historical, analytical, journalistic, editorial, and other materials have been collected, organized and presented, free of charge, to all users."

3. If you write about the site in your news columns and Internet features, you might want to direct teachers and parents to the site's "Lesson Plans" section on the right-hand navigation bar. The resulting page offers educational ideas on the five freedoms, on such juicy topics as "Does Having Freedom of Speech Mean We Can Burn Our Flag?" "Tough Calls: How Do Journalists Make Ethical Decisions?" "Do Students Have a Right to Read?" and "Where Do Student Press Rights Start ... and Stop?"
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