Attendees at the Drone Journalism School check airport maps during a session at the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in Athens, Georgia. Photo by Mark E. Johnson, mejphoto.com

NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER | September/October 2017

Help Drone Journalism Grow Responsibly

By Al Tompkins

This year, Poynter and its partners, including the National Press Photographers Association, organized four workshops that trained more than 325 journalists and journalism educators how to safely and ethically fly drones. Almost a third of our graduates have passed the Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 drone pilot license exam.

NPPA’s legal general counsel, Mickey Osterreicher, has been a key player in helping regulating agencies, including the FAA, understand the concerns journalists have when the government starts regulating how we collect news. Osterreicher has been on the vanguard of battling local regulation of airspace, but, he says, FAA authorities should assert the agency’s jurisdiction.

Al Tompkins teaches at the Drone Workshop held at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Photo by Andrew Delong, Poynter.

Cities and counties across the country are responding to concerns about whether drones will pose a privacy threat or a threat to public safety.Osterreicher stresses that the FAA does not regulate privacy. He said, “Our position is that there are enough privacy laws on the books already, whether they are ‘Peeping Tom’ statutes or invasion-of-privacy statutes, that we don’t need a drone-specific or a technology-specific statute. If you are doing something wrong, it should not be because you are using a drone that makes it wrong.”

Osterreicher, who is himself a Part 107 FAA-licensed drone pilot, said it is usually a good idea to let local officials know you will be flying in an area, even if you do not need an FAA waiver to fly at that time or place. He explains, “So when they get the calls from the neighbors, when they get the calls to respond, they are in a different frame of mind than if they are not knowing what they are going into.”

Osterreicher joined University of Nebraska Drone Journalism Lab founder Matt Waite and me teaching at the University of Georgia, Syracuse University, The University of Wisconsin and the University of Oregon. We stressed the legal and ethical implications of drone-journalism flight, and at each workshop we spent more than two days helping journalists learn how to read FAA maps, understand airport operations and master basic weather questions. All of these are part of the FAA’s challenging Part 107 drone-pilot exam, mandatory for commercial operators, including news photographers.

In addition to exam prep and hands-on drone-flight training, our partners and I vowed to produce a code of drone-journalism ethics that would take into account journalism and photojournalism ethics policies but add the legal considerations for flying in government-controlled airspace and safety concerns that come with remote-controlled flight.

Learn from NPPA’s general legal counsel Mickey Osterreicher, who has tracked the evolution of drone laws for years. Mickey explains how journalists are feeling pressure from local and state governments who want to regulate airspace and how journalists should respond to growing public concerns about privacy and drone safety.

Download a one-sheet PDF of the Drone Journalism Code of Ethics

Drone Journalism Code of Ethics

Drone journalists should adhere to federal, state and local laws with safety concerns and the ethical decision-making embodied in the codes of ethics adopted by the National Press Photographers Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio and Television Digital News Association. Drone-journalism ethics should be even more stringent than other journalism ethics. It is one form of journalism legally regulated by government authorities that control airspace. Consider these guidelines:

Safety is the first concern. Do not endanger people, animals or property.
Drone pilots operating as commercial operators have an obligation to seek their FAA Part 107 license. The pilot should obtain adequate insurance coverage for property damage and injury that could result from drone flights. Journalists generating content for their newsroom should not claim they are recreational pilots to avoid licensure requirements.

Newsrooms should not encourage others to fly illegally.
Newsrooms should discourage drone flights that violate FAA regulations by declining to publish, broadcast or post still images or video that, although legally obtained by the news organization from a third party, may contain evidence of those violations (i.e. flights over people, night flights). Not rewarding unauthorized drone use with public recognition may help to discourage similar violations by others. If the images or video captured through improper means are of such high news value that the journalists deem them newsworthy, the journalist or news organization should clearly explain why those images are newsworthy despite the techniques utilized to capture them.

Would you “do that” if you were capturing the image while on the ground?
If you would not peer over a fence, look into a window or enter private property, how would you justify capturing the same image because you are airborne?

Respect privacy.
The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics says, “Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort. The pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.” What is your journalist purpose? How is this tool helping you to tell a more complete story?

Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.
Drones have the potential to interrupt events, especially when hovering low. While photographing subjects, drone journalists should not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.

Do not improperly enhance.
Music has the potential to set an editorial tone. How does that editorial tone affect the truth you are conveying? Journalists should not add natural sound to drone video unless the sound was captured at the same time and place as the drone video was captured. Carefully consider how slow motion or speeding up effects might affect the editorial integrity of the video. Slow motion can appear dramatic and change the context of a news story. Video sped up may add false urgency.

Newsrooms should recognize that the pilot in command makes the decision about whether a flight can be accomplished safely.
Newsrooms should not ask or pressure a drone pilot to fly in a way that the pilot in command considers to be unsafe or legally questionable.

Drone-journalism pilots in command should not be expected to report or perform other duties while commanding an aircraft.
Safe drone flight should be the pilot’s main concern while operating a drone or overseeing performing preflight checks.

Drone journalists have an obligation to hone their flight skills and “stay sharp.”
Practice flying in various atmospheric conditions. FAA sectional maps change, and the FAA is constantly updating flight and airspace restrictions. Pilots should stay current on changes to the evolving legal landscape regarding drone operations.

Drone journalists have an obligation to be certain their aircraft and gear are in good repair.
Preflight and post-flight safety-inspection checks are a must. Pilots should inspect props, motors, batteries and the aircraft body. Do not allow cost-cutting to compromise safe flight. If you cannot afford to fly safely, you cannot afford to fly.

Coach others.
The public’s perception of drone flights depends on how professionally pilots operate in these early days of this emerging technology. If the public sees drones needlessly invading privacy and putting people at risk, there is no doubt voters will pressure public officials to clamp down on drone operations. It is in your interest and the public’s interest for you to coach other operators, especially other journalists, when you see them flying unsafely, illegally or unethically.

These guidelines were developed by:
• Al Tompkins/Poynter
• Mickey Osterreicher/General counsel for the National Press Photographers Association
• Matt Waite/Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Dr. Kathleen Culver/Assistant professor and director, Center for Journalism Ethics, University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication
• Jon Resnick, DJI
The guidelines were the product of training powered by funding from the Google News Lab.