Legal Question in Constitutional Law in North Carolina

Re: The public's ''right to know''.

That's a profound question that involves a lot of legal principles and rules, and cannot be adequately answered here. In a nutshell, however, the First Amendment protects the right of persons, including newspapers, to disseminate information and converse. There are some limitations such as "fighting words," and of course a person making false statements can be sued for defamation. As for photographs, they might be protected by Copyright laws (e.g. the tape of the assassination of Kennedy was determined to be copyrighted, and the government paid lots of money for it). But assuming that the publisher owns or has purchased the right to show the picture, there are very few true "privacy" laws to protect individuals in that situation. Some persons were troubled by some footage from 9-11, but the media had the right to show the footage. There might be a difference for private footage taken in a private place (e.g. a bathroom), but actually in many states this would not necessarily be illegal. The expression "the public has a right to know," is probably derived not so much from the law, but from some general notions, or some justification for showing the photos, or perhaps just for marketing.