Excluding journalists from using drones but allowing them for other individuals and groups is a First Amendment violation

Tonda Rush

Nov 1, 2021

The National Newspaper Association joined 44 other news organizations in September to argue that arbitrarily excluding journalists from the use of drones by allowing them for other individuals and groups is a First Amendment violation. The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The case, brought by the National Press Photographers Association and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, argues that a Texas statute prohibiting journalists from using drones for news-gathering cannot be defended as necessary to protect public safety when the law permits use by insurance company employees, pipeline operators, professional engineers, professors and students.