Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Undercover Reporters, Tort Law, and The First Amendment: Food Lion v. ABC and The Future of Surreptitious Newsgathering

2003; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.323060

1556-5068

Daniel A. Levin, Alan C. Roline,

Legal Systems and Judicial Processes

Suppose a reporter receives a tip that an organization is engaged in wrongdoing, and then, by lying about her identity, obtains a job with that organization in order to secretly investigate, from inside the organization, whether the organization is in fact doing wrong. Should the reporter's conduct subject her and her news organization to liability for such torts as fraud, trespass and breach of loyalty? What are the competing social interests involved? This article addresses these questions in the context of the landmark decision in Food Lion v. Capital Cities/ABC, 194 F.3d 505 (4th Cir. 1999).