1st Amendment violation?

There is a large company who is leasing space to whom ever would like to use it. Thus my company has moved our office into this leased space. A much nicer facility than where we were at. The building we are in and the entire rest of the facility is owned by a publicly traded well known company. The buiding is also a beautiful example of Prairie School Architecture. When you think of Prairie School architecture think Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and William L. Steele. Wright and Steele studied under Sullivan who was the father of Prairie School architecture.

I am an amateaur historian. I love to research historical sites, photograph the site and post about it on my blog. I have been doing extensive research into Prairie School architecture. The reason is in Sioux City we have several buildings designed by William L. Steele.

The building I work in is about 10 years old and yet was designed in Prairie School style. I have asked for and received permission to photograph and do a write up about the building. But there is a catch. I have to send what ever I am going to write up to the PR department of the company who owns the building for their approval before I publish it on my blog. This company is very worried about negative publicity. If I gave you the name all you would have to do is Google it and you'd see what I meant.

I am going to be objective and factual about what I write and post. There will be no subjectivity or bias, one way or another. I will leave that for whom ever comments on the blog post.

Here is my concern. Is this a violation of my 1st Amendment Rights? I feel as if this company is restricting what I may potentially write about the building. Sure it is their building but why restrict someone from saying what they want about it or the company who owns it? What do you think?

I do know this what ever I write about it this company is not going to be allowed to use what I write with out my permission for any purpose. Before I publish it I will have an agreement from them on that. Knowing their this company and their PR dept. they will spin and use it to their advantage.

 

It was my understanding that the 1st Amendment protected against anyone from violating anyone else's Freedom of Speech Rights. That said the 1st Amendment is not an absolute.

I am going to write what I normally would even if an approval was not needed to publish it to my blog. I am not going to change or alter it in any way. In fact I have already started writting it.

 

I'm not going to slander anyone or anything. That is not the purpose of my History and Culture blog. It will contain facts and truthful statements.

But even if I were to cast this company in a negative light, it would be with the truth and with facts. It is after all MY blog. There is nothing to prevent me from writting what I want to write and click the publish button.

 

Easier siad than done. Part of the point of posting about the building is to includes it's name and part of the company's history.

For the record, I don't work for the company who owns the building. My company is leasing space for our use.

 

First, the building on private property with no public roadway closley bordering it that would allow me to take decent photo's. The law and common courtesy says if you you need permission to take photo's when on private property. From a public roadway I would not worry about it and take as many photo's as I want.

Second, to confirm the buildign is indeed Prairie School style I discussed it with the facilties manager. I figured he would know. When I mentioned what I want to do he advised me I need to run it my the PR dept.

I stated too bad there is no public roadway close enough to take photo's from so I would not need permission. To which the facilities mgr. agrees with me. He does not like it anymore than I do that permission needs to be granted.

 

I can only take photo's of the outside of the building. I do not want photo's of the inside anyway. It looks like any other office building I have ever worked in and there is nothing that special about it.

 

What happened in the past and what I might have posted on my blog has no bearing in this situation. Even IF it did no one at the building I work in has any idea about it. Even IF they did, so what?

This situation is because I am on private property with permission to take photo's of the facility.

 

I hope you have a good high speed connection. There are a lot of photo's:

History and Culture by Bicycle

 

Why are you trying to pick a fight?