Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
“If I hadn’t had it, I’d be dead right now.” That’s how one journalist described the protective gear that kept her alive while covering a protest. So why are authorities trying to take it away? Plus: Our latest fights against the government secrecy and media mergers that are harming the public’s right to know.
PPE protects the public’s right to know
Reporters covering protests in the United States have been shot with crowd-control munitions, sprayed with tear gas, hit with cars, and physically attacked by both law enforcement and demonstrators.
So it makes sense that many journalists wear personal protective equipment like helmets, goggles, and gas masks at demonstrations, and that organizations like Reporters Without Borders offer grants for reporters to buy PPE. One journalist told Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus that PPE is “the only reason I am alive.”
Yet across the country, jurisdictions are banning safety gear at public protests, Vogus explains. By stripping journalists of basic protections, these bans endanger both reporters and the public’s right to know.
Join us today to learn about attacks on the press at Delaney Hall
Journalists covering protests at the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, over the past few weeks have been met with crowd-control munitions, pepper spray, and batons by law enforcement. The onslaught is part of a wave of violence journalists have faced documenting protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Join us for a webinar at 2 p.m. ET today, where you’ll hear from FPF staff who have been documenting assaults of journalists on the ground, and from journalists who’ve observed and experienced officers’ violent tactics firsthand.
Trump’s disappearing DMs
The Trump Presidential Library recently told The Washington Post that it possessed “no records” of Donald Trump’s first-term Twitter direct messages.
But the same day, the library sent FPF a contradictory response confirming that it does hold those records. (The Trump library is the official National Archives and Records Administration website for processing FOIA requests, not to be confused with the shrine Trump is building in Miami.)
The DM disappearing act is a component of the administration’s broader assault on public access to its records, and raises uncomfortable questions about NARA’s ability to remain impartial, much less effective, at releasing Trump’s records under its new leadership.
Tell Congress to investigate crooked Paramount mergers
Paramount CEO David Ellison’s acquisition of CBS was enabled by a $16 million bribe to Donald Trump, laundered as a settlement of the president’s frivolous lawsuit, and a commitment to alter news content to Trump’s liking.
Now, Ellison wants to repeat the same playbook at CNN and HBO. We need lawmakers to use all of their available powers — both now and in the next Congress — to investigate these bribes and quid pro quo arrangements. Use our action center to tell your representatives to step up.
FPF sues to uncover search warrant abuses
FPF filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice to uncover whether the agency is systematically misrepresenting the law and hiding statutory press protections from federal judges so that it can secure search warrants against journalists.
The lawsuit, filed with assistance from Free Information Group, follows the DOJ’s failure to disclose records regarding the unprecedented January FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home. These include whether the agency has adopted an internal practice of hiding from magistrate judges the existence of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 — which outlaws raids on newsrooms and journalists’ homes — to evade judicial scrutiny during leak investigations.
NDAs don’t belong in government
The Trump administration wants federal agencies to require employees to sign standardized nondisclosure agreements like the ones Trump used in the business world. If adopted, the rule would give the federal government a powerful weapon to silence public employees and trample on the free speech rights guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution.
Permitting federal agencies to force their employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is one more effort by this administration to silence dissent and punish whistleblowers.
We joined a coalition of press freedom and other rights organizations in opposing the rule.
What we're reading
Outrage mounts at assaults of journalists and hunger strikers at Delaney Hall
“Protesters were literally pleading for press to remain. Police had other ideas,” said Adam Rose, FPF’s deputy director of advocacy.
Beyond Pulte, Congress cannot renew spy law without reforms
Congress needs to make real changes to Section 702 of FISA to protect Americans’ privacy, even if Bill Pulte won’t be the permanent director of national intelligence.
More than 40 Democrats voted to let Trump spy on Americans. They might do it again
Speaking of Section 702, Democrats who support its reauthorization have a lot of explaining to do. Who exactly in the Trump administration do they trust with unchecked spying power? We joined a letter with over 100 organizations calling them out.
A merger could put two of America’s most important news archives under one owner
Yet another reason that journalists should be concerned about the possible Paramount-Warner merger: Consolidation of the CNN and CBS News archives under a single owner who can allow or deny access at will.
Trump DOJ tried to surveil Minnesota journalists. A judge said no
“These failed search warrants are what happens when incompetent prosecutors pursue political vendettas instead of justice,” said FPF’s Vogus.
‘First Amendment nightmare’: Trump’s DOJ targets journalists AND their viewers
And the Minnesota search warrants didn’t just target Don Lemon and Georgia Fort — they targeted people who merely watched their YouTube channels too, FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm explains in a video.
My arrest as a student journalist
It’s a disgrace that journalist Lucas Griffith was prosecuted for doing his job. We need more journalists with his backbone.
Transaction denied
Rainey Reitman, FPF’s board president, explains on a podcast how our access to banks, credit cards, and payment processors can be weaponized to stifle speech.
