In a Tuesday ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Project Veritas in a lawsuit regarding Oregon’s law banning undercover recording without letting involved parties know of the recording. Undercover reporting is a cornerstone of Project Veritas’ reporting, which has captured over the years many officials speaking candidly on video about topics while unknowingly being filmed.
“The en banc court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by Project Veritas, a nonprofit media organization engaged almost exclusively in undercover journalism, alleging that Oregon’s conversational privacy statute violates the First Amendment, the court wrote in its ruling.
“Oregon’s conversational privacy statute requires that notice be given before oral conversations may be recorded,” with exceptions being granted such as the “felony exception,” which “allows a recording of a conversation during a felony that endangers human life” and a law enforcement exemption, which “allows a recording of a conversation in which a law enforcement officer is a participant if certain conditions are met,” the ruling added.
The court said that the privacy statute “is content-neutral because it does not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint or restrict discussion of an entire topic. Rather it places neutral, content-agnostic limits on the circumstances under which an unannounced recording of a conversation may be made.”
“Project Veritas fails to show that any unconstitutional applications of the conversation privacy statute substantially outweighed its constitutional applications.” […]
— Read More: thepostmillennial.com
