Truth, Lies, and Spelunking: Protecting the Investigative Reporters We Send into the Cave
| dc.contributor.author | Brogan, Doris DelTosto | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-05-20T17:20:04Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-05-20T17:20:04Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-05-01 | |
| dc.description | 48 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This Article begins with a brief discussion of journalism and its purposes. It then describes undercover reporting, positioned as a subset of investigative reporting, through a series of examples where reporters use deceit or engage in tortious conduct such as trespassing to gain access to information. The Article then focuses on the legal actions, usually civil tort claims, brought against journalists—delving in some detail into ag-gag statutes drafted specifically to penalize undercover reporting on the agricultural industry. It explores how courts navigate constitutional questions, nuanced causation issues, and overarching public policy considerations. From this it becomes clear that, while it doesn’t happen often, undercover journalists have been sued and have even faced threats of criminal charges for their actions in pursuing critical information of significant public interest. The very threat of legal actions can have a chilling effect on the willingness of the press to risk undercover investigations that rely on deceit or other similar tactics, especially given the increasingly fragile economic circumstances of most media outlets. Against this background, I argue that we need good investigative reporting that in some instances will involve deceit, trespass, and other minor wrongdoing. Finally, I propose a limited common law or statutory privilege that would protect journalists from tort liability and criminal charges for minor unlawful conduct while pursuing important stories of significant public interest. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | 102 Or. L. Rev. 163 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0196-2043 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/29477 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon School of Law | en_US |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Journalism | en_US |
| dc.subject | Undercover reporting | en_US |
| dc.subject | Legal liability | en_US |
| dc.subject | Investigative reporting | en_US |
| dc.subject | Tort law | en_US |
| dc.subject | Fraud | en_US |
| dc.title | Truth, Lies, and Spelunking: Protecting the Investigative Reporters We Send into the Cave | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |