Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has, by our count, paid at least $8,800 in fines for refusing to reveal a confidential source. In the meantime, the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence even though his former prosecutorial office issued politically motivated subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters and their relatives for embarrassing the president, and then he apparently lied to Congress about it. Read on for more.
As DNI, Jay Clayton is a threat to press freedom
Earlier this week we wrote about the false and misleading congressional testimony by then-prosecutor Jay Clayton — President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence — that his team had followed Justice Department guidelines in issuing subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters who wrote about Trump’s unsafe Qatari vanity plane.
But the Senate confirmed Clayton anyway, meaning that America’s intelligence apparatus will be led by someone willing to issue harassing subpoenas targeting journalists and their relatives in violation of both internal policies and applicable law, and then try to cover up obvious abuses.
Our executive director, Trevor Timm, said that with Clayton now confirmed, “it’s more important than ever for Congress to pass a federal shield law like the PRESS Act to protect journalists from these kinds of legal abuses and prevent episodes like this from ever happening again.”
Attacks on radical outlets endanger all journalism
The House Ways and Means Committee last week subpoenaed BreakThrough News, a left-wing outlet with deep ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation that is highly critical of the United States and Israel, along with two other nonprofits with similar ideologies, The People’s Forum and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Earlier this month, border agents seized phones from Max Blumenthal of the similarly controversial outlet The Grayzone.
There is no question that BreakThrough News and The Grayzone are both well outside the American mainstream, and both have been accused of carrying water for U.S. adversaries. But as Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern wrote for The Intercept, that makes it more important to protect their First Amendment rights, not less.
Carr stops pretending license renewals aren’t about speech
When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr first ordered an early review of licenses held by ABC affiliates, he said it was because of diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns. That the order came right after Trump feigned outrage over a joke by ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel was just a coincidence, he said.
Carr was obviously full of it, and now he’s no longer pretending. After Trump complained about ABC not airing his recent speech about the 2020 election, Carr indicated that ABC’s constitutionally protected decision would factor into the license review.
How a Trump national security memo threatens journalists, sources
The national security presidential memorandum known as NSPM-7 has been widely criticized by civil liberties groups for authorizing the government to investigate individuals and organizations using vague and overbroad labels like “anti-fascism” and “domestic terrorism.” But relatively little attention has been paid to the way the policy could be used against news outlets, journalists, and their confidential sources.
Earlier this month, we held a panel discussion about how NSPM-7 silences free speech and how it could be used to target freedom of the press, featuring Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights & Dissent, Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center, and investigative journalist Daniel Boguslaw.
What we’re reading
Protester targeted by DOJ over phone-wiping ‘duress’ passcode
Federal prosecutors are going after an Atlanta-based protester, allegedly in connection with the use of a “duress” passcode that wiped his phone during a border search. Read about border security risks and what you can do about them.
Judge weighs lawsuit over Asheville Blade reporter arrests
Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, should be held accountable for arresting reporters they don’t like for doing their jobs. It is absurd for the city to suggest that it’s illegal to cover newsworthy events happening in plain sight at a public park, let alone that punishing reporters for doing so is a sensible use of prosecutorial discretion.
Californians have a right to know about 911 calls from ICE detention centers
The public deserves to know what’s happening inside privately run detention centers. We’re proud to support California’s SB 423, a bill that would give journalists better tools to cover immigration detention.
Pentagon, under Trump, Hegseth, draws tighter curtain around Iran war
The American public, as well as members of the military and their families, “have a fundamental right to see what the costs of the Iran war are,” FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper told The Hill.
Former FCC chairs and officials call agency’s early review of ABC licenses ‘an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process’
Carr’s censorship continues to draw bipartisan condemnation, with FCC chairs from the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations among those calling out his unconstitutional antics.
Limiting foreign journalist visas could boomerang on American media
The Trump administration’s new rules requiring foreign journalists to reapply for visas every eight months risk “limiting global visibility into what happens here and creating problems for America’s foreign correspondents,” writes the Post’s editorial board.
Trump’s education department leaves mountain of public records requests unaddressed
If the Department of Government Efficiency is “stonewalling the inspector general’s office, it’s an extremely safe bet that they’re absolutely ignoring FOIA officers who are asking for information,” Harper said.
