New site for the IJA name change!

 

Introduction

This NAJA Legal Resource page aims to continue improving journalism in Indian Country.  NAJA promotes the best journalism by and about Native Americans through support and resources for Native people and media.

These resources will assist members, media professionals, and the general public with information, education and materials concerning the laws and ethics surrounding journalism in Indian Country.  As on organization, we encourage anyone covering Indian Country and working with Native media to consider the information provided as an ongoing discussion for best practices.

For content suggestions or questions about submitting articles or materials, please email legalhotline@naja.com.

Disclaimer

None of this information constitutes legal advice and NAJA does not take responsibility for the content at the links provided.

 

Journalism in Indian Country

• Jonathan Jones, “Recognizing media protections in Indian country,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Summer 2009), http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-summer-2009/recognizing-media-protectio.

• Peter Saharko, “A reporter’s guide to American Indian law,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Fall 2006), http://www.rcfp.org/node/103220.

• “American Indians fight for press freedoms,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (November 10, 2003), http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news/american-indian-journalists-fight-press-freedoms.

 

Laws in Indian Country

Tribal Constitutions, Cases and Statutes

• Tribal Court Clearinghouse, the Tribal Law & Policy Institute, http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/tribal_law.htm.

• Native American constitutions, Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project, http://thorpe.ou.edu/const.html.

• National Indian Law Library, Native American Rights Fund, http://www.narf.org/nill/.

• UANativeNet, Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, http://uanativenet.com/.

Federal Indian law

• Federal Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, 25 U.S.C. §§ 1301-1304 (affirming guarantees of free press and speech, among other rights and liberties, for Native Americans), http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/icra1968.htm.

• Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49 (1978) (explaining why certain parts of the ICRA do not have an enforcement mechanism with the federal government, and why tribes sort out those kinds of issues), http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_682.

• Talton v. Mayes, 163 U.S. 376 (1896) (recognizing a measure of tribal sovereignty to deal with questions about civil rights and liberties), http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/163/376.

Jurisdictional issues

• “Jurisdiction in Indian Country, A Toolkit,” UANativeNet (2012), http://uanativenet.com/topicitem/Topics%20In%20Brief/526.

• Montana v. U.S., 450 U.S. 544 (1981) (generally prohibiting tribes from having regulatory jurisdiction over non-Indians on Indian lands, with some exceptions)
  

State Indian law issues

• Tribal Court Clearinghouse, the Tribal Law & Policy Institute, http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/tribal_law.htm.

International laws

• United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (esp. see Article 19), http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf. 

Laws and Ethics of Journalism in Indian Country

• Rebecca Tallent and Rubell Dingman, Cherokee Independent Press Act of 2000, Journal of Communication Inquiry (July 2011), http://jci.sagepub.com/content/35/3.author-index#T.

• Karen Lincoln Michel, ed., From the front lines: Free press struggles in Native America: Essays by Native Journalists, NAJA (1998).

• Rebecca Tallent, “Shields up in Indian Country,” Quill (July/August 2012), http://digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/display_article.php?id=1132111.

The Internet

• “ICT interview with Blackfeet man jailed over Facebook post (November 27, 2013), http://www.indianz.com/News/2013/011920.asp. 

Representation

Criminal Libel

• Tohono O’odham Code, Title 7, Ch. 10, § 10.8 (an example of a criminal libel statute in Indian Country, http://www.tolc-nsn.org/tocode.htm.

Privacy and Access

Photography and videography rules

• Kevin R. Kemper, “Sacred spaces: Cultural hybridity and boundaries for visual communication about the Hopi Tribe in Arizona,” Visual Communication Quarterly (October-December 2012).

Dealing with sacred knowledge

• Michael Brown, Who owns Native culture? (Harvard University Press, 2003) (this book and the supplement link provide an excellent overview about general issues of protecting Native culture around the world), http://web.williams.edu/AnthSoc/native/.

• Kevin R. Kemper, “Sacred spaces: Cultural hybridity and boundaries for visual communication about the Hopi Tribe in Arizona,” Visual Communication Quarterly (October-December 2012).
• Kevin R. Kemper, “You have to EARN access: A case study of Arizona tribes and reporting about indigenous religion around the Pacific Rim,” Asia Pacific Media Educator (June 2013). ame.sagepub.com/content/23/1/1.full.pdf+html

Freedom of information and access to information

• Peter Saharko, “Access to records meetings a struggle in Indian Country,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Fall 2006), http://www.rcfp.org/reporters-guide-american-indian-law/access-records-meetings-struggle-indian-country.

• Reporters Committee FOI letter generator for federal or state requests, http://www.rcfp.org/foia.

• Student Press Law Center FOI letter generator for state requests, http://www.splc.org/legalassistance/foiletter.asp.

• For tribal requests, contact Kevin R. Kemper at legalhotline@naja.com or 405-872-6107 for more information.

Intellectual property

Indigenous issues

• Michael Brown, Who owns Native culture? (Harvard University Press, 2003) (this book and the supplement link provide an excellent overview about general issues of protecting Native culture around the world), http://web.williams.edu/AnthSoc/native/.

• Federal and international intellectual property

• U.S. Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov/.

• World Intellectual Property Organization, http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html.

• The United States Patent and Trademark Office, http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/.

• Pro Football, Inc., v. Harjo et al., 565 F.3d 880 (D.C. Cir. 2009), cert. denied, 558 U.S. 1025 (2009) (ongoing battle over the trademark and name of the NFL team in Washington, D.C.), http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20FCO%2020090515091.  See also the ongoing case of Blackhorse v. Pro-Football, Inc., discussed by Catherine Ho, “Legal battle over Redskins’ name continues,” Washington Post Capital Business Blog(September 6, 2012), http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-business/post/legal-battle-over-redskins-name-continues/2012/09/06/9b80a502-f7ac-11e1-8398-0327ab83ab91_blog.html.

Plagiarism

• “What is plagiarism?” (a good source for basics about avoiding plagiarism), http://www.plagiarism.org/.

• Grammarly.com (online software to help you check for and avoid plagiarism), http://ed.grammarly.com.

• “Avoiding Plagiarism,” Purdue Online Writing Lab (2013) (though focusing more upon academic plagiarism, this tool can be most helpful for journalists), https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/.

Broadcast and electronic media regulations and issues

• FCC Office of Native Affairs and Tribal Initiatives, http://transition.fcc.gov/indians/.

• Kevin R. Kemper, “Tribal sovereignty means competition, broadband access, and economic development for Indian Country: A law and economics analysis of the efficiency of the FCC’s Standing Rock Sioux case,” Journal of Information Policy (2013)
  

• Donald Brown, Electronic media and indigenous peoples: A voice of our own?  (Iowa State Press, 1996).

Ethics

• John Long, “Potter Box teaches loyalty,” New Photographer Magazine, NPPA (September 2011), https://nppa.org/page/8600.

• Rebecca Tallent, “Leap the Native American journalistic divide,” Quill (September 2008), http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/34488477/leap-native-american-journalistic-divide.

• Lawrence M. Hinman, Ethics Updates, University of San Diego, http://ethics.sandiego.edu/ (this Web site compiles lots of information about basic concepts and applied ethics).

• Ethics Resource Center: http://www.ethics.org/ (this non-profit provides lots of resources, research and guidance that span many professions; the glossary at http://www.ethics.org/resource/ethics-glossary is helpful).

• The National Ethics Association: http://www.ethics.net/about/ (this organization even provides background checks and certifications to be sure business people are honest).

• Public Relations Society of America: http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics (helping PR practitioners with their ethics).

• Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee: http://www.spj.org/ethics.asp (a smorgasbord of great resources, including Quill articles at http://www.spj.org/rr.asp?t=ethics, the Code of Ethics at http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp, and an FAQ at http://www.spj.org/ethicsfaq.asp).

• Center for Journalism Ethics, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin: http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/ (see lots of resources, as you scroll down the left side of the page, and especially see pages like http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/ethics-in-a-nutshell/ and http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/).

• StinkyJournalism.org, http://www.imediaethics.org/.

• Ethics: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/journals/journal/et.html (search the journal for topics relating to media ethics and general concepts).

More Resources

• American Native Press Archives, Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, http://ualr.edu/sequoyah/index.php/home/research/.

• Electronic Freedom Foundation, https://www.eff.org/.

• The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, http://mije.org/.

• Native Public Media http://www.nativepublicmedia.org/.

• Poynter.org Ethics, http://www.poynter.org/tag/ethics/.

• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, http://rcfp.org/.

• Reporters Without Borders, http://en.rsf.org/.

• Society of Professional Journalists, http://www.spj.org/.

• 7Sage: Free online LSAT testing prep tools, http://7sage.com/free-lsat-prep-tools/#FreePracticeLSAT.

• Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism: A Student Guide http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/plagiarism-prevention-and-awareness/