Let’s shore up funding for local news
AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file
The abysmal financial state of the news media industry poses a severe threat to the free press.
The financial collapse of the traditional news media has caused mass layoffs of journalists and the shuttering of many local news outlets. Unless these financial headwinds are reversed, journalism may disappear entirely in many communities across the United States.
We must fight back against government attempts to control or censor the news using financial pressure. Instead, governments should be focused on creating solutions to the news funding crisis that increase revenue for news outlets without subjecting them to government influence or control.
Featured Items
-
Police dodge journalists by encrypting radio
The NYPD is the latest force to join this anti-transparency trend
-
Proposals targeting Fox News are sure to backfire
Once legislators start singling out disfavored speech for punishment there’s no telling where they’ll stop
-
Congress: Don’t let jet owners cover their tracks on the taxpayer dime
Protect press and public access to private jet flight data
-
Return cameras to C-SPAN control and restore transparency
FPF, Demand Progress and more than 40 organizations urge the House to return control of the cameras to C-SPAN to serve the public
-
Judge orders disclosure of funders of lawsuit against CNN
Ruling follows disturbing trend of wealthy and connected financiers attacking the press by bankrolling litigation.
-
Fair use win in screenshot case is a victory for media reporting
In an important ruling for the press’s ability to report freely on the work of other outlets, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that including a screenshot in an article commenting on another article's reporting is not copyright infringement. This is welcome news in an age where copyright can be used to restrict what newspapers can and can’t say about each other.
-
Crackdown in the statehouse: Lawmakers edge out press access
In a growing number of state legislatures across the country, journalists are facing new rules and proposed legislation that breaks with traditions of public access to legislators. These moves are a troubling development in the increasingly rocky relationship between government officials and the press that covers them, and should be rolled back and opposed wherever possible.
-
Supporting local journalism with the Local Journalism Sustainability Act
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act — a bill introduced with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and a notable slate of Democratic backers in the Senate — aims to shore up small local news outlets with a collection of temporary benefits and give them time to retool.
-
PayPal and Venmo enforcement procedures threaten First Amendment protected speech
PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo must bring more transparency and accountability to its practices around account freezes and closures, argues a new letter signed by Freedom of the Press Foundation and nearly two dozen human rights and civil liberties groups.
-
When algorithms come for journalists
Journalists — especially those without institutional newsroom support — rely on tools from major tech companies like Google and YouTube for newsgathering, production and distribution as a matter of course. As these information giants publicly wrestle with controversial content moderation decisions that dominate headlines and Congressional hearings, their decisions also run the risk of stifling routine reporting.
