First Amendment
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.

Technician Photo Editor Tim Lytvinenko climbs a fence at Pullen Park, a public area.

Your Legal Rights

Know your rights, and
don’t let people abuse their power

The general rule of access: As a photographer you have the right to photograph anything in a public place. This includes public buildings and avenues, and almost any spot on campus.

As a Student Media photographer you have access to any area of campus to take photos that any average student should has access to. If you are denied access to an area of campus that you would normally be able to access, you should contact your editor as soon as possible. Inevitably, you will be asked to document the situation in writing and to file a written complaint.

In cases of shooting classes in session, arrive early before the class starts and discuss with the professor your need to take photos of his/her class. Planning ahead will solve almost all problems of access.

Consent

As a photojournalist working for a news source you rarely have to obtain consent to photograph anyone, especially anyone over 18 year old or anyone thrust into the limelight of a public event either voluntarily or involuntarily. If you are entering a privately owned building you only need to get consent from the owner to take photos inside.

invasion of privacy

You have the right to photograph almost anyone without their consent except when they are in an area where they would have a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ such as a dorm room, bathroom, or medical facility. Remember, just because you CAN photograph something doesn't mean you SHOULD photograph it. Generally, it's better to err on the side of shooting something and not publishing it. Those decisions are better left to editors. And they are generally ethical decisions, not legal ones.

For example: There is a car wreck on Western Boulevard and a student was injured. You have the right to take their picture when they are on the scene. If that person enters an ambulance, you no longer have the right to take their picture without invading their privacy.

For example: A person has a heart attack in Carmichael Gym on a basketball court. The Raleigh Fire Department arrives and starts doing CPR. You have the right to photograph this event and the work of our public officials.

For example: An office on campus sponsors a memorial service for a student who was killed recently. The service is open to the public and is in a student center multipurpose room. You have a right to unrestricted access to this event.

Law Enforcement

If there is a crime scene they have the police have the authority to keep you and the public behind a barrier. They can not deny you access or ask you to move away from areas that the public has access to.

At no time does any member of the law have the right to confiscate your digital memory card, camera, or delete your photos.

If you are confronted by law enforcement officer do not argue or fight. If you are arrested or detained you will not be able to take photos.

If an officer tries to violate your rights by attempting to confiscate your film or asking you to leave the scene, ask to speak with his superior. When you return from the assignment, discuss the problems with your editor. Again, inevitably, you will be asked to document the situation in writing and to file a written complaint.

Law enforcement officials can also be a tremendous help to you as a photojournalist by providing information and answering questions. It is a good idea to intoduce yourself to law enforcement officers and identify yourself when dealing with them during low-stress situations.

RESOURCES

• “Your Rights and Remedies when stopped or confronted” by Bert P krages II
• The Student Press Law Center, http://www.splc.org
• "Covering the Unimaginable," a special edition of Communication: Journalism Education Today, available online, CLICK HERE

9 Keys to Avoiding Invasion of Privacy

• What can be seen from public view can be photographed.
• Even if people are photographed in public, beware the context in which the photo is placed for example; a picture of a random student is used with the headline ‘Rise in Campus Crime’ with a caption that includes facts of campus crime. This could infer that that student was involved with a campus crime.
• If consent is given it must be obtained from someone who can legally give it, such as a minor’s parents, or a the owner of private property.
• Consent to enter a private place may not be consent to photograph it. Consent exceeded can be the same as no consent at all.
• Although oral consent may protect the press from liability for invasion of privacy, written consent is more likely to foreclose the possiility of a lawsuit.
• Permission from a police department to accompany officers who legally enter private property may not immunize journalists from invasion of privacy suits.
• Public officials and public figures, and people who become involved in events of public interest, have less right to privacy that do private persons.
• In some states, using hidden cameras, or audiotaping people without their consent, may invite criminal or civil penalties
• A photograph may intrude into a persons seclusion without being published. Intrusion can occur as soon as the image is taken.

(SOURCE: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, “A Photographers Guide to Privacy”)

Copyright and Ownership

Your images and you...and Student Media

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works.

Who can claim copyright?

Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright. In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101 of the copyright law defines a “work made for hire” as a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment.

Can a photographer sell his images?

Student Media retains copyright of every photo for 18 months from creation. After 18 months the photo has shared copyright with both the photographer and Student Media.

Any photo published by Student Media is available for sale to the general public. The photographer receives payment everytime that photo is sold. Unpublished photographs generally are not for sale. A photographer may actively sell his photo through Student Media. Because it is against state law to use state equipment for personal equipment, the sale of all photos must be accomplished within the photograpehrs scope of employment.

Personal use of images

Student Media encourages photographers to use their photos in portfolios, including online portfolios. The use on the Web is limited to online professional photographers groups, such as www.sportsshooter.com or aphotoaday.org and personally owned and operated Web pages.

Use of images on any commercial Web site is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited too, public forums, online photo sharing sites, social networking sites, multi-media sites, etc. If Student Media photographs are used on non-approved Web sites the offending party will be asked to remove all photos from that site. Failure to remove photos from a commercial Web site could lead to disciplinary action and/or termination.

SOURCE: United States Copyright Office

Photo Ethics
Understand your job as a journalist

By Bradley Wilson ©2006

CLICK HERE for the Student Media Code of Ethics

Professional ethics
There are a few unspoken rules that student photojournalists follow. The most important is to remain neutral at all events. As a journalist, photographers are to objectively cover events, not to be cheerleaders. When covering a sporting event, do not dress in N.C. State apparel. It shows support for your team, which as a student is wonderful, but as a journalists shows a bias. When covering political events, do not dress or show favoritism towards any particular candidate. Remain objective.

Legal
Almost every student publication will have a run-in with the police or a legal service. It is important that you know and understand your rights as a journalist. Some resources for articles and information on your rights are www.splc.org and www.rcfp.org.

Rights of photographers
It is your right to take pictures where people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Almost all public places are well within these limits, with the exception of public restrooms, locker rooms, or any other place where people would be shocked to find a photographer. On a campus university this means that you could take pictures in almost every place without permission except in a dorm room, bathroom, locker room, or a class in session. If you are trying to take pictures inside a private building or office you need permission, that includes shopping malls and stores.

Dealing with Police
The key to dealing with emergency service workers, police, fire, EMS, is establishing a rapport with them before there is an incident. Get to know the police officers around campus. Go visit the fire station that would respond to a campus incident. Same with EMS. Take some pictus of them in less-stressful situations to build up trust.

It is your right to be able to take pictures anywhere the average citizen can go at a crime scene or event. When police have roped off an area you may not go within the roped off area without express permission. Similarly, the police may not infringe on you as long as you are outside of the closed off area. Do not allow an officer to erase your card or confiscate your camera. If an officer ever threatens this, ask to speak to his supervisor immediately, do not attempt to argue or fight with the officer.

Reasonable expectation of privacy • “What they eye may see, or the ear may hear, may be recorded and reported.” [Mark v. King Broadcasting Co., 618 P.2d 512 (Wash. App. 1980)]

“One who intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of another or his private affairs or concerns, is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy, if the intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.” [Restatement (Second) of Torts §652B (1977)]

Any place that you could normally access as a student, including the gym which requires your student ID for access, you can access as a photographer. Places not considered “public” at N.C. State:

• Dorms
• Greek houses
• Medical offices

[American Future Systems Inc. v. Pennsylvania State University, 1984.]

Code of Ethics
©2004, National Press Photographers Association
CLICK HERE

Photojournalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards:

1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one’s own biases in the work.
4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.
6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.
7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation.
8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.
9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Ideally, photojournalists should:

1. Strive to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public. Defend the rights of access for all journalists.
2. Think proactively, as a student of psychology, sociology, politics and art to develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current events and contemporary visual media.
3. Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show unpopular or unnoticed points of view.
4. Avoid political, civic and business involvements or other employment that compromise or give the appearance of compromising one’s own journalistic independence.
5. Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.
6. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.
7. Strive by example and influence to maintain the spirit and high standards expressed in this code. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not clear, seek the counsel of those who exhibit the highest standards of the profession. Photojournalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.

Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics
©2004, National Press Photographers Association
CLICK HERE

As journalists we believe the guiding principle of our profession is accuracy; therefore, we believe it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way that deceives the public.

As photojournalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its images as a matter of historical record. It is clear that the emerging electronic technologies provide new challenges to the integrity of photographic images ... in light of this, we the National Press Photographers Association, reaffirm the basis of our ethics: Accurate representation is the benchmark of our profession. We believe photojournalistic guidelines for fair and accurate reporting should be the criteria for judging what may be done electronically to a photograph. Altering the editorial content ... is a breach of the ethical standards recognized by the NPPA.

Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography • CLICK HERE

QUICK CASE:Posed Photos

Students working on publications should consider the following tests devised by University of Oregon professors Tom Wheeler and Tim Gleason about "whether and how to manipulate, alter or enhance" images:

THE VIEWFINDER TEST Does the photograph show more than what the photographer saw through the viewfinder?

THE PHOTO-PROCESSING TEST A range of technical enhancements and corrections on an image after the photo is shot could change the image. Do things go beyond what is routinely done in the darkroom to improve image quality-cropping, color corrections, lightening or darkening?

THE TECHNICAL CREDIBILITY TEST Is the proposed alteration not technically obvious to the readers?

THE CLEAR-IMPLAUSIBILITY TEST Is the altered image not obviously false to readers?

If any of the above tests can be answered "yes," student journalists are urged:

• not to manipulate news photos
• not to publish the image(s) in question, or
• clearly to label images as photo-illustrations when student editors decide they are the best way to support story content.

Wheeler and Gleason wrote their article about digital manipulation, but the bulk of their tests apply when photographers are taking pictures as well. For example, altered images should be obviously false, so fake that no reasonable person would assume they were real so there is no possible misperception of reality.

However, on Dec. 6, 2006, the Technician ran a photo of a female dressed in hunting attire as part of a story, in which all male sources were interviewed, on a “Features” page. The headline was “Hunting for any season: Student hunters said hunting is a lifestyle, not a sport.” To anyone who looked at the page, it was portrayal of reality. However, the caption on the photo was, “ Noel Keck, a sophomore in criminology, poses for a photo during hunting season. Keck has been hunting since she was 12. ‘My goal is to get a trophy buck,’ Keck said.”

Turns out the photographer couldn't get any pictures of anyone hunting before the deadline for the article, so he asked one of his friends if she would pose for the picture. He didn’t want to come back from the assignment empty-handed. He told the photo editor who instructed him not to put the photos on the server because they should not run. The photographer put them on the server anyway. Because the photo editor was in class, a senior photographer selected the images for that night and put the hunting image out to be used on the page. Despite being a fake photo, the staff decided to use it anyway with a regular photo credit, no tag that labeled it as a photo illustration.

The professional photography community and other advisers were quick to respond:

Livid editors

You might ask your non-photo people how they would react if a writer came in, acknowledged that he made up quotes because he couldn’t “find” anybody to give him an actual quote, then — after being told to remove said quotes — ran them anyway. I would imagine that they would be just as livid as the photo editors are now.

Mike Trice, Florida Southern College

Livid editors

The word "posed" does not belong anywhere near photojournalism.I wouldn't want that impression to be given to any reader. There is enough trouble as it is in convincing people that we want candid images when on assignment. A posed image and a photo illustration are two entirely different things. Posing an image is ethically wrong and photographers have been fired for doing just that. Photo illustrations are necessary in some cases to tell certain stories. A photojournalists job is to capture the world as it is, not as they think it should be. Posing people in photographs is the same as making up a quote in a story. It didn't happen in real life but the journalist created it. This is unacceptable. Illustrations are planned ahead of time and should be clearly marked as such. Labeling an image as posed admits the the unethical error.

In this case there shouldn't have been a need to do an illustration in the first place but as a last resort it is moderately acceptable. Posing is never acceptable.

I dont think that image looks real. To me no human being on earth would be that stupid to stand in front of a loaded gun as a person is about to shoot a dear or something. Not even to get a neat photograph. My point is that it does not look like a candid photo.

Sorry to be brutal but I hate when photogs set up images. Now everyone who read that caption thinks its ok to "pose" an image for the newspaper. That's not what photojournalists do. At least not the responsible ones.

Kelly Glasscock, free-lance photographer, Kansas

Responsibility and commitment

I suggest a session on responsibilty and commitment for the entire staff, with concrete instructions on what to do when a reporter or
photographer has insurmountable problems — of any type — that keep the reporter from doing it, ie., letting the appropriate editor(s)
know. And I'd throw in a bit on ethical reporting as well as the obtaining/creation and use of art. And then tell the photo editors to get over it. If they'd been on their toes, they'd have known that a hunting trip feature needs to be organized weeks in advance, anyway.
I believe editors need to be careful when assigning stories about hunting, fishing, etc., to writers who aren't at least neutral about
the topic. It also helps to understand what's going on and some of the jargon. Otherwise you get a negative story that you may not have
been expecting or a really infantile story or an idiotic and very wrong one.

As for a lot of corrections, track them all down and categorize them by:

1. type of error, ie., misspelling, wrong word usege, wrong ID, etc.
2. Who’s responsible - not a specific name but a reporter, a news editor, a copy editor, etc. or do it by department responsible
3. List the number of the different type of corrections run.
4. Make the usual suggestion about how to avoid mistakes, ie., check names, addresses, spelling., facts, etc.,etc.
5. Give them the speech about the source of the paper’s credibility: accuracy.

Richard Finnell, the University of Texas

Ethics are wrong

The student on the assignment couldn't *get* any students hunting, or he didn't *know* any students who hunted or he didn't want to *go* on a hunting trip with students?

Yes, the ethics of the situation are wrong, but what worries me is that the students don't seem to mind that this student photog blatantly disobeyed the order of an editor. That’s insubordination, and such destroys the trust that is required in any situation in which you’re dealing with reporters and you can’t verify everything that they did 100 percent (cough - jayson blair - cough).

What do other editors think? It doesn't surprise me (I guess.) that staffers would shrug their shoulders, but leaders should know better. And why doesn’t someone put up an editor’s note online? Do the photo editors have that ability?

Bryan Murley, University of South Carolina

Photojournalist Jeanel Drake produced these photo illustrations for the Kansas State Collegian.

Even a knock-out, such as the one of Chancellor James Oblinger by Taylor Templeton, is a photo illustration. Thushan Amarasiriwardena produced the other two clear examples of photo illustrations for the Technician.

The photo illustration: Not documentary photojournalism

Especially in the age of Adobe Photoshop, photo illustrations have become all the rage. But the photo illustration has a history dating back to the very foundation of photography when newspaper photographers cut photos and combined them to create scenes that never really existed. Even then, they looked real enough to confuse the average reader.

First and foremost, a true photo illustration should never be confused with a documentary photo. The reader should have no doubt that it is a fake photo. It may be the layout that makes the illustration look fake. It may be the content of the image. But regardless, the illustration should bear little resemblance to a true news or feature photo. It should not be placed on a news or feature pages so that it looks real and should be surrounded by copy that clearly designates it as an illustration.

Secondly, the image should be clearly labeled as a photo illustration. While research has shown that even after reading captions and credits indicating that the image is fake that readers may interpret the image as real, labeling the image as a "photo illustration" is one more step in educating the reader that it is a fake image.