Reporting Terrorism

            
             Since the increase of available information and around-the-clock news coverage the interaction between the media and terrorism has intensified throughout the 20th century. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which meant that the people had the power of censorship over the government, and not the government over the people. There still have been many attempts to regulate malicious writings and one of the first was the Sedition Act of 1798, which prohibited utterances that excited the hatred of the people against the government. The media law historically has been divided into two areas: telecommunications and print. The growth of the internet and digital media has begun to blur the boundaries between the segments, and the bases for the distinction in law between the two areas are no longer clear. Terrorism has been used repeatedly to advance tyrannical agendas, justify exceptional legislation, encroach on individual rights, increase internal surveillance, enlarge the role of military forces, and put pressure on journalists to cooperate with agents of the state.
             Journalists have become targets of terrorists activity and are repeatedly threatened for expressing opinions contrary to terrorist goals. Many U.S. journalists have been held hostage, assassinated, or threatened by homegrown and transnational terrorists at home and abroad. Journalists may be targeted because of their views or what they have reported. Also news managers decide under great pressure what should be aired live, what should be aired later, and what should never appear before the public. Terrorist attacks can be re-created to fit particular political agendas unless they are recorded for the public by journalists and others who represent outside interests on the scene. The sheer volume of information provided makes a difference with regard to the outcome of terrorist events.