Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
Who gets to decide who’s a journalist? Police in New Jersey say it’s up to them. We disagree. Read on for more on that, plus the need for surveillance reform in light of President Donald Trump’s pick for intelligence chief, and what the murder of “60 Minutes” says about the Ellisons’ attempts to buy CNN parent company Warner Bros.
NJ police to journalists: Papers please
This week, our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has been working to verify at least 40 assaults by federal and local law enforcement on journalists near an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey known as Delaney Hall, where reporters are covering an ongoing hunger strike by detainees and related protests.
As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose wrote in The Guardian, New Jersey police seem to think they’re empowered to unilaterally decide who is a journalist entitled to First Amendment protections — and to violate the rights of anyone who doesn’t satisfy their arbitrary criteria.
Press rights don’t simply protect a chosen class of people. They protect the act of informing the public, Rose writes. “If an officer can point at [someone] and say they are not press, the first amendment ceases to have meaning.”
New intelligence chief could be catastrophic for press and privacy
Trump’s new pick for director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, is stunningly unqualified. And when it comes to press freedom and the public’s right to know, it’s terrifying to think what he could do in his new role.
The DNI oversees compliance with Section 702 of FISA, a law intelligence agencies have exploited to search countless Americans’ phone calls, emails, and texts without a warrant, including journalists. There’s no telling how Pulte could abuse these surveillance powers at Trump’s behest.
Congress is currently debating whether to renew Section 702, and it’s more important than ever to tell them not to reauthorize the law without major reforms. “Anyone who votes in favor of renewal with Pulte now in place … cannot seriously claim to care even one little bit about the Constitution,” FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm said in a new video.
Don’t mess with Scott Pelley
Veteran “60 Minutes” journalist Scott Pelley didn’t appreciate five of his colleagues being fired in a single day, and he didn’t keep his feelings to himself. Pelley told the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, that CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was brought in to “kill” the storied newsmagazine and that she did exactly that.
He soon got fired for speaking the truth. But it’s also important to remember who brought Weiss in — Trump’s buddy David Ellison, who bought CBS after promising the Trump administration he’d give the news division a MAGA makeover. Now, the Ellisons want Trump’s approval to buy CNN and HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros.
We issued a statement along with a coalition of press freedom organizations about how what we’re seeing at CBS is sure to repeat at CNN if the Warner Bros. acquisition proceeds. And everyone from former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather to legendary Pentagon Papers lawyer James Goodale to former “60 Minutes” journalist Lowell Bergman — portrayed by Al Pacino in “The Insider” — has added their name to our letter opposing the merger.
VPNs protect press freedom
Utah recently became the first state to enact a limited ban on virtual private networks to enforce its online age verification law, and lawmakers elsewhere are considering following suit.
That’s a problem for press freedom. FPF Deputy Director of Digital Security Dr. Martin Shelton and Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus recently wrote about how journalists use VPNs to protect themselves and their sources. Give it a read and then share it the next time you hear someone suggest we should restrict VPNs.
What we're reading
When norms fail, pass laws: A call for legislative action to protect press freedom
First Amendment scholar Matthew Schafer discusses the press freedom legislation we urgently need, from the PRESS Act to protect source confidentiality to Espionage Act reform to stop criminalization of newsgathering.
US Defense Department bars journalists from its press office
“It’s rare for anything other than disingenuous spin and outright lies to come out of the Pentagon’s press office these days, so it’s hard to imagine what basis they have to call the space classified,” said FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern.
Trump on his presidential library: He’ll write his own history
Trump’s planned presidential library is “a shrine to the story that he wants to tell,” not an archive of presidential records, Lauren Harper, FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy, explained.
Judge in Luigi Mangione case holds secret hearing despite press objections
This is not how it works. Requests for secret court proceedings should be met with extreme constitutional scrutiny, not rubber stamps.
Pentagon is censoring military newspaper Stars and Stripes, lawsuit alleges
Journalists who have fought back against the Trump administration’s censorship have almost all prevailed, and this lawsuit should be another winner. It’s important that news outlets don’t take these attacks lying down.
Israeli police compile dossiers on critical foreign journalists
If Israel believes its actions can withstand scrutiny, it should let journalists report freely instead of blacklisting foreign reporters, shutting them out from Gaza, and killing Palestinian journalists.
A snapshot into darkness: Bearing witness inside 26 Federal Plaza
A stunning account from journalist Michael Nigro, who was among the first to reveal the Trump administration’s strategy of arresting immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City.
Press groups to IU: ‘Now is the time’ to demonstrate commitment to student media
Indiana University must act on its student media task force’s recommendations after it restricted the print content of the Indiana Daily Student and fired the student media director.
Spotlight PA, other newsrooms sue Penn State trustee leaders over ‘gag policy’ that silences members
Journalists should be able to tell the public what Penn State’s trustees actually think. Silencing criticism and dissent is how problems stay hidden.
