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Photographer's Rights in the public setting

Recently this photographer served on a Federal jury in a case concerning the Freedom of Speech. It was about the right to certain rights in the the public area and the privileges that we have. The young man won the case and we went on to discuss damages to the plaintiff.

I learned that a person can do almost anything, within the law, as long as he is on public property and that he can sue anyone who stands in his way. Here is a paper published by a law firm in Washington D.C. addressing this issue with photographers in mind. It is made available by The National Press Photographers Association, the press release is at http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/08/rights.html and the pdf is at http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/08/rights.pdf.

"For instance, the media has the same right of access to a public forum as any member of the general public.4 In addition, courts have found that photography and videotaping by the press constitute protected “speech” under the First Amendment. The basic rule of thumb is that if the general public has access to a public forum and may operate cameras within it, the press may do so as well." This is a direct quote from the pdf.

The pdf is also available on this site here