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Comment by hugh3 | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure that stopping you from carrying a camera into a courtroom counts as limiting the freedom of the press. Courtrooms are special places, and very different rules apply there. Heck, the judge doesn't have to let you in at all, if he doesn't feel like it.

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You're right, though I'm not sure it even needs to be a "special place" to count. Public toilets, prisons, and schools are "public" buildings but the press can't just waltz in and film anything to get a story.

The freedom of the press is the freedom to publish. That has very little to do with the methods used to gather the information in the first place, or the type of information gathered.

Freedom of the press is a subset and clarification of freedom of speech - it is important that it is not treated differently. It is not the freedom for the "press" as an establishment to do whatever they want in the persuit of material.

Freedom of the press is specifically intended to protect the ability of private citizens to document the actions of government. Freedom of speech protects the ability to publish those facts. In combination these rights are intended to hold government accountable to the citizens. The proceedings which take place in a courtroom are by definition actions of government, and should therefore be subject to whatever means of documentation members of the private press deem most effective for their ends.

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