Freedom of the press (Journalistic Freedom)

I like to get into arguments. In fact I was called vidhandavadhi in my undergrad school. Something to boast!

Recently I got into an argument with my friend about what constitutes freedom of the press. We were conversing about "The Hindu" and Ram of course and his contention was Ram was free to write whatever he wants to write about and can defend himself citing freedom of the press.

While this is true while writing opinion pieces (he can have different opinions about matters) the same cannot be said when it comes to reporting news pieces. News pieces are what actually happened out there ---- you cannot just write something else or twist them. Of course you can opine on why that happened in a separate piece.
For example, what actually happened would be like this

"The --------- army entered the town of ---------- and in the process of the battle, 30 children were bombed out of existence".

"The Hindu"'s report would read something like this

"The brave and victorious ---------- army entered the ----------infested town of -------- and were met with resistance from -------------. -------------- is a terrorist organization banned in 400 countries. They are notorious for fielding children in war zones. The ------- army resisted attacking children but in the process of the battle they were killed in the cross fire"

You see the difference! The first one is just a news piece. The Hindu's report contains little news hidden inside a dramatic opinion piece.