Shooting News Footage in Small Local Town

[cartess3]

Just curious about the concept.

If an ordinary "citizen" with a camera wanted to shoot locally in their small town about whats happening locally (crime, local events, news, local court hearings, etc), would that person be considered "press"? In other words, if they set up a site called "Atlanta Living" for example, could they be allowed access to crime scenes to interview police onsite, car accidents, court room (or outside the courthouse)?

Even though I used "Atlanta", the city would actually be a suburb that is about 50 miles away from atlanta. So in other words, it's a smaller city/county with about 90,000 people and we'll be primarily running news events in our county, that matters to the residents of the city.

THe videos will be posted online in a news type format (local football games, etc...).

If this qualifies as "press", does one need a press badge to gain access?

Also, this town has it's own newspaper that services the small town of 90,000...am I allowed to "talk about" the news in that newspaper on my video news site?

I'm essentially looking at doing something like this, but only in my "county of 90,000 people":

http://sbtv.com/

Carl

 

[ESTEBEVERDE]

Hello cartess3.

It's important to always keep in mind that "Legal information" and "Legal Discussions" are not the same as "legal advice" -- the application of law to an individual's specific circumstances. If you have the need for legal advice it is highly recommend you consult a duly qualified attorney if you want professional assurance that any information contained herein or elsewhere, and your interpretation of it, is appropriate to your particular situation as this forum's sole purpose it to discuss information and experiences in regards to Journalism/Documentary and is for informal purposes only and is no way, shape, form, or fashion intended to give legal advice. No information contained herein should be considered legal advice under any circumstances.


You are asking several questions:

What is News? Who is a Journalist?

What are your rights and responsibility in regards to Fair Use.

And, you will need to consider Privacy Rights.


You most certainly can do what you are proposing. It will take some thought and some resources but it is not insurmountable.

The most important step you need to take is to establish yourself as a journalist. There are no clear cut lines that I know of, but the test most often employed is What do you with the news and footage you gather?

If you publish it, you are a journalist. Even it is a one page flyer or a blog.

From what you have described, it seems you are making an online news station.

This would most certainly put you into the journalist category.


To avoid friction and make your life and your job easier, I might suggest you start with pieces that introduce you, your services, and what you see as your purpose.

I would then do some historical features or human interest stories as they are generally the easiest and least controversial so you have something already published.

Once you have even a decent albeit modest body of work, distribute press releases to the other media outlets to publicize you new venture and you might have instant viewership if they decide to cover you.


Hope that helps.


And remember, if you are going to be a professional journalist as you have described above, I highly encourage you to seek any and all professional legal advise you feel will help you exercise the greatest level of Free Speech while remaining compliant with the very few Constitutional Laws that limit our Free Speech.