Surveillance expansion threatens press freedom – and everyone else's
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Mass surveillance is widespread. Congress must rein in government spying powers.
In 2013, whistleblower and longtime Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) board member Edward Snowden’s stunning revelations of mass surveillance by the National Security Agency shocked the world. Since then, we’ve learned even more about the alarming scope of surveillance by the U.S. government.
Mass surveillance undermines everyone’s privacy, and it threatens press freedom by allowing the government to spy on communications between journalists and their sources.
Take Action
Tell Congress to Fix Section 702 of FISA.
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Call or Email Your Senator or Representative
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Call or email your senator or representative and urge them to fix Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A recent change to the law has vastly expanded the government’s spying powers.
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Write to Your Local Paper
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Help advance press freedom by writing newspaper op-eds or letters to the editor in support of fixing Section 702 of FISA.
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Featured Items
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Introducing the US Press Freedom Tracker: documenting press freedom violations in United States
Comprehensively counting press freedom violations in the United States.
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We targeted a SecureDrop ad at potential whistleblowers in the Trump administration. You can too.
Any news organization can run a Twitter or Facebook ad targeting Trump administration employees for whistleblowing.
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Over 150 filmmakers and photojournalists call on major camera manufacturers to build encryption into their cameras
Camera manufacturers need to build in encryption to protect filmmakers and photojournalists.
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How the Obama administration laid the groundwork for Trump’s coming crackdown on the press
Trump has threatened to crackdown on the press, and sadly Obama has left him all the tools to do so.
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Leaked FBI documents reveal secret rules for spying on journalists with National Security Letters
Today, The Intercept published leaked documents that contain the FBI’s secret rules for targeting journalists and sources with National Security Letters (NSLs)—the controversial and unconstitutional warrantless tool the FBI uses to conduct surveillance without any court supervision whatsoever. Freedom of the Press Foundation has been suing the Justice Department (DOJ) …
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Dozens of news orgs demand DOJ release its secret rules for targeting journalists with National Security Letters
A coalition of thirty-seven of news organizations—including the New York Times, the Associated Press, NPR, USA Today, and Buzzfeed—filed a legal brief over the weekend in support of Freedom of the Press Foundation’s case demanding that the Justice Department release its secret rules for targeting journalists with National Security Letters …
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Author Barry Eisler talks about whistleblowers and secrecy at the Association of Former Intelligence Officers
Author and former CIA officer Barry Eisler spoke at the Association of Former Intelligence Officers opposite ex-CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden on Monday. Below is an adaptation of his opening remarks about the importance of whistleblowers and government transparency. Eisler's new novel, "God's Eye View," inspired by the Snowden …
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Does Cyberspace Exist? Is It Free? Reflections, 20 years Later, on A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
Twenty years ago tonight, I was at a staff party for the closing of the World Economic Forum, lured there by a coven of the contemporary geishas that staffed the Forum in those days, composed largely of doctoral students in Foreign Affairs at the University of Geneva. But I had …
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New documents shed light on the Justice Dept's secret rules for targeting journalists with National Security Letters
In July 2015, Freedom of the Press Foundation sued the Justice Department (DOJ) over the agency’s secret rules governing how the FBI can target members of the media with due process-free National Security Letters, and we have just received documents back in the ongoing lawsuit. These secret rules matter because …
