ICE wants to scare you out of sharing the news

Dear Friend of Press Freedom:

When federal agents show up over a social media post about the news, press freedom is everyone’s problem. Plus, a New Jersey judge just doubled down on a stunningly unconstitutional gag order. Read on for these stories and more.

ICE wants to scare you out of sharing the news

The government is investigating Americans for sharing the news.

Syracuse.com reported last month that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents confronted Paigelynne Gonyea at a polling place where she worked and demanded she sign a form letter stating she could be criminally prosecuted.

The visit appears to have been over a post in which Gonyea shared a picture of ICE agent Jonathan Ross that The Minnesota Star Tribune used in its news report first identifying him as Renee Good’s killer, and repeated his name.

As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus wrote, “This tactic allows the government to kill two birds with one stone: censoring individual critics and limiting the reach of the press.”

New Jersey court doubles down on terrible censorship order

A New Jersey court partially upheld a prior restraint prohibiting community newspaper New Brunswick Today from publishing a video showing a security incident at a local high school, and vastly extended it to apply to all members of the “press,” in a troubling new order issued on July 9.

“Forcing news outlets to delete or withhold information and to submit their work for government approval before they can publish is censorship, full stop,” said FPF’s Vogus. “Even in cases that don’t involve core First Amendment concerns, judges aren’t kings — they have no authority to issue orders binding unidentified journalists across the country who aren’t in their courtroom or parties to any case before them.”

Lessons from The Intercept’s Signal tipline username breach

Someone has been masquerading as The Intercept using the Signal username previously listed on its tip page, placing potential sources at risk.

We don’t know precisely how long the username was commandeered or what led to it being compromised. But there’s a very short list of things that could have gone wrong, and our digital security team has tips on how similar breaches can be prevented.

Disciplinary office ignores complaints against prosecutor behind journalist raid

In February, we filed a disciplinary complaint against Gordon Kromberg, the assistant U.S. attorney who signed the warrant application authorizing the FBI’s raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson. Our complaint was straightforward: Kromberg violated prosecutors’ duty of candor by failing to mention the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that limits searches of journalists’ files and devices, in his warrant application.

The Virginia State Bar, however, declined to investigate, reasoning that it was up to the judge to decide whether Kromberg misled the court. Since then, two judges have scolded Kromberg for the omission of the PPA. But the bar won’t substantively respond to our supplemental complaint or our repeated requests to reopen the investigation.

A disciplinary system that manufactures reasons not to look at uncomfortable cases — and then ghosts complainants when it runs out of excuses — protects the powerful, not the public.

Hate censorship? Read this book

Over the past decade, activists and journalists of all political stripes have found their bank accounts closed for exercising their First Amendment rights. FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm discussed a new book by Board President Rainey Reitman, “Transaction Denied: Big Finance’s Power to Punish Speech,” which tells the stories behind these incidents and proposes some solutions. The book also reveals how FPF got its start, and half the proceeds from its sale go to support our work.

America @ 250: A Journalism Reckoning

Join FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern on Thursday, July 16, from 6-9 p.m. CT at Impact House in Chicago for an event hosted by the Field Foundation of Illinois about journalism’s history and future.