Abstract:

 'Drones'—technically, 'remotely piloted aircraft' (RPAs)—are evolving from predominantly military to civilian applications. This paper focuses exclusively on using RPAs for newsgathering, aka 'drone  journalism' (aka ‘dronalism’). Cheap, light and portable, RPAs can easily be moved to locations where reporting needs to take place or production is most desirable and safe.  In this context, RPAs are simply 21C  aerial camera platforms.  However, this category of use by mainstream media and citizen journalists is being frustrated by regulatory, legal and so-called 'ethical' gaps and challenges. The paper urges that the public’s right to receive information by journalists exercising the rights involved in carrying out the profession of reporting—and the concomitant right to access communications technologies in order to do so—should permit the use of RPAs in this context in principle and trump counter-claims, not least by the pro-privacy lobby.