The Protection Of The Right To Gather News

At present our nation is passing through a transition period. The wave of reform and opening-up has been cleaning up the filth and mire of the society and different kind of contradictions are springing up from the course. The purpose to gather news is just to pay attention to these problems, analyze every kind of social contradictions deeply for giving audience the correct direction of public opinion and profound ideological argument. Nevertheless, as one of the basic constitutional rights, the right to gather news cannot be efficiently safeguarded during present time. Although there is no special law to definite the right to gather news in China up to now, this right is not only recognized on customary behavior and attitude but also well found in legal basis. A large number of countries, including China, establish the principle of free publication.Various infringement means of the right to gather news cause various rights, i.e. personal right, property right, the right to know and copyright, to be infringed. The key step to consummate the protection of interview right is to analyze the kinds of rights and interests infringed by the infringement behavior on interview, determine the liability of the infringement of the right to gather news and sentence corresponding legal liability on the person responsible.Based on the elementary research on the defect of the judicature relief path of interview obstruction, it is of greater practical significance and feasibility to find way of protecting the right to gather news from present legal system as the drawing up of the Journalism Law still seem remote. Ideas below are introduced in this paper: firstly, pushing forward the judicial application of Constitution; secondly, enacting law on information opening of government; thirdly, confirming that the infringement of personal right and the right to freedom belong to civil infringement acts; fourthly, investigating the liability of infringement of interview copyright; fifthly, formulating regulations about punitive damages to the infringement of interview right in accordance with high risk of the harm on interview right; sixthly, constructing the system of statutory damages to the infringement of the right to gather news in accordance with the invisibility and uncertainty of the harm on interview right.The right to gather news is a social public right and does not possess state mandatory power, so the journalists must respect other public rights or power when they exercise the interview right.