Freedom to Photograph

Does a press photographer have the right to take a newsworthy picture even when the subject objects? In Denison, Iowa last week, this troublesome question was put to one of its rare court tests. Answer: the photographer is within his rights so long as he is in a public place.

On assignment at the county clerk's office one day last month, Des Moines Register Photographer Robert Long shot a picture of Lawrence Gilchrist, a Denison lawyer, who was posting bond for a county employee indicted on a charge of fraud. After Lawyer Gilchrist complained that having his picture taken was an invasion of his privacy, Photographer Long was arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace (maximum penalty: 30 days in jail or a $100 fine).

Last week in an Iowa District Courthouse, Register lawyers argued that "the public has a right to know about these cases . . . The very security and success of government depends upon the dissemination of that kind of information." The jury took just four minutes to reach a verdict dismissing the complaint against Photographer Long. Ruled the court in effect: photographers on public property may take pictures of anyone they want to, objection or no.

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