The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has requested that AMA members complete a new survey they have developed to provide valuable information regarding the proposed rules to support public comments to be submitted to the FAA and NTIA. If you are not involved in media-related profession, please select “other” and include hobbyist in the blank provided under question number one.

Click here to take the survey.

Official NPPA Media Release: 

Survey of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding the Use of sUAS (Drones) as it Pertains to Newsgathering

NEW YORK, NY (March 18, 2015) The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) announces the launch of a survey of news gatherers concerning the FAA Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) Regarding Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-02-23/pdf/2015-03544.pdf). There are also a few questions on privacy related to a Notice for Comment in the Federal Register by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) concerning Privacy, Transparency, and Accountability Regarding Commercial and Private Use of UAS (https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/rfc_uas_privacy_03052015.pdf). We invite everyone to participate who has an interest in safety and privacy pertaining to the use of sUAS for newsgathering.

This survey will help to provide valuable information regarding the proposed rules to support public comments to be submitted to the FAA and NTIA. The anonymous data gathered will be used to more effectively participate in the regulatory rulemaking and legislative process.

“While the rules proposed by the FAA are an excellent first step in safely integrating sUAS into the national airspace, we want to ensure through our comments, that the final rule allows for the use of this technology for newsgathering,” said Mickey H. Osterreicher, NPPA General Counsel. “By including the results of this new survey in our comments we intend to convey to the FAA and NTIA a better sense of what journalists and media organizations are expecting as an appropriate and acceptable balance between First Amendment protected newsgathering activities, air safety and privacy,” he added.

The survey was designed by Mickey H. Osterreicher, with input from Charles D. Tobin and Joel L. Roberson, both attorneys at Holland & Knight; Matt Waite, professor of practice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications, Mark E. Johnson, Senior Lecturer, Photojournalism, the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and Brendan M. Schulman, Special Counsel at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP.

The entire survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. If you have any questions about the survey, please email Mickey Osterreicher at lawyer@nppa.org or call 716.983.7800.

Please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sUAS_Survey to take the survey.