According to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the press has the right to gather and publish information and/or opinions without fear of censorship or punishment from the government.
The "press" being defined as any printed and/or media broadcasted material including: books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, film, etc.
If the reporter wrote an article that disapproves of a federal policy which some officials deem "too negative" and "could lead to some breaking laws in protest", one could cite the Supreme Court case of Near vs. Minnesota (1931) in which STATE law allowed for prior restraint on media publishing was found to be generally unconstitutional. This finding cited the First Amendment protected press freedom against the STATE.
One could also cite New York Times Company v. the United States (1971) in which the Supreme Court allowed the Washington Post and the New York Times newspapers to go forth with publishing the federal government classified "Pentagon Papers" which housed information about the Vietnam War. The Court cited the prior Near v. Minnesota case as precedence.
These were matters of Constitutional Law with the sources being (Near v. Minn) statute law and (NYTC v. US) case law.
