Journalists in Chicago report being frozen out of contentious government meetings. We discussed this and other press freedom issues facing journalists in Chicago and worldwide on WBEZ radio. "Snowy News" by Pirate Alice is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
In honor of World Press Freedom Day, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Director of Advocacy Seth Stern joined WBEZ’s Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons to discuss the current state of the free press in the United States.
They addressed the decline, both among law enforcement and judges, in understanding of First Amendment freedoms for journalists. “What we're seeing all around is … a lack of sensitivity on the part of elected officials and law enforcement to the rights of journalists,” Stern observed. He noted that as news outlets shutter and shrink, police officers and judges gain less experience dealing with the press than they used to.
Stern and Simons discussed press freedom issues from reporters’ access to city council meetings in their hometown of Chicago to threats to journalists’ lives in Gaza. They also talked about the PRESS Act, the federal shield bill to stop old ways of spying on journalists — as well as the new ways of surveilling them created by RISAA, the recently enacted law that dangerously expands surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
You can listen to the radio interview here.
