The issue is conclusively resolved against reporters and their employers: trespass.
The following correctly state the law:
Journalists and Trespass. in Pennsylvania Newspaper Handbook. Pennsylvania News Media Association, undated
panewsmedia.org/legal/publications/newspaperhandbook/trespass-photographer-and-journalist
("This is because entering upon the land of another without their consent is trespass, and the First Amendment does not give journalists the right to trespass. Courts have traditionally upheld a person's right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures (and their right to privacy), as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, to outweigh a journalists interest in acquiring news. This general concept has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, which held in the case of Branzburg v Hayes, 408 US 665 (1972), that newsmen have no constitutional right of access to the scenes of crime or disaster when the general public is excluded. Numerous other court decisions have expanded upon this general rule. Most notably is Wilson v Layne, 526 US 603 (1999), which deals with media 'ride-alongs' * * * Finally, journalists may be committing trespass if the use misrepresentation or fraud to violate someone's private space or gains intimate details of one's life. This concept applies to individuals and businesses alike. An example of this concept is Food Lion v. Capital Cities/A.B.C., 194 F.3d 505, (4th Cir.(N.C.) 1999), where two journalists posed as employees for Food Lion grocery stores and gained access to areas of the store that were off limits to the general public. The court found that there was trespass in this case because the journalists violated a duty of loyalty towards Food Lion because they were hired as employees. However, this does not mean that every journalist investigating a business will be guilty of trespass. The court in the Food Lion case indicated that if a journalist used misrepresentation (such as posing as a phony customer [or a tester]) to gain access to a business, such action will not constitute a trespass if it occurs in a public area (such as a doctor's office or a showroom floor)") |