Photojournalism class talks law and ethics with guest speaker

 Mandi Wright discusses law and ethics. (photo by Sean Ferry)

   Detroit Free Press photojournalist Mandi Wright was at the scene of a crime, training a reporter to use video capture on an iPhone, when she was approached by a plain-clothes officer and detained. Her ordeal provided her with special insight into photojournalists' First Amendment rights and how easily they can be squandered.

   The First Amendment covers five basic rights: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  
    As Americans these rights define the most basic principles our nation was founded upon. Even so, it is unfortunately common for these freedoms to slip from our minds. 
   The constitution and legal precedents guarantee the press the freedoms necessary to gather, investigate and report the news, so how do ethics play into this equation? 
   Photojournalists who follow ethical standards maintain the integrity of the news and give it authority in the public's eye. Standards include things like: asking permission to record a public interview, not posing or altering news photographs and covering all sides of a story regardless of personal bias. These count for just a few of the many important ethical standards that every honorable photojournalist keeps and respects. 

   Coming from a background of commercial photography where everything is posed, controlled and altered, I found this discussion both enlightening and surprising. I have developed a new respect for the First Amendment and what reporters and photojournalists face in the field.