Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
Here are some of the most important stories we’re following from the U.S. and around the world. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward it to friends and family. If someone has forwarded you this newsletter, please subscribe here.
U.S. must pressure Netanyahu to protect journalists
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the U.S. this week, officials who claim to care about press freedom need to make clear to him that the U.S. will not tolerate killings, imprisonments, or censorship of journalists by its ally. If not, they can spare us the "journalism is not a crime" platitudes.
Along with the Committee to Protect Journalists and numerous other press freedom and human rights organizations, we signed letters to President Joe Biden and congressional leadership urging them to apply maximum pressure to Netanyahu to protect press freedom.
Incarcerated journalists need access to social media
Jeremy Busby, a journalist imprisoned in Texas, wrote for our website about the power of social media for incarcerated journalists seeking to expose abuses and effect change, as well as the retaliation he’s experienced for wielding that power.
After he exposed the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote, “prison officials are well aware of my ability to reach outside audiences, expose their wrongdoing, and force reform. They don’t want that to happen again.”
Read Busby’s article here and sign this petition to help put a stop to the retaliation he continues to endure.
LAPD: Let reporters cover protests freely and safely
This week there were three scheduled Israeli real estate events in Los Angeles, just weeks after multiple journalists were assaulted at protests of a similar event at Adas Torah synagogue, which reportedly promoted properties in illegal West Bank settlements.
In anticipation of further unrest, we wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Daily News to remind the Los Angeles Police Department of journalists’ constitutional and legal rights and urge them to follow the law and their own guidelines. We called on the LAPD to “foster a safe space for journalists covering protests” in order to avoid the “reputational and economic blows other departments have endured after illegally and unjustly cracking down on journalists for doing their jobs.”
Fortunately we have not heard of any press freedom violations at this week’s events in LA, but if anyone has, they should contact FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
What we’re reading
Protect journalist-source confidentiality – democracy depends on it (Austin American-Statesman). Texas crime journalist Vanessa Leggett once spent 168 days in jail for not burning her sources. She wrote this week that without the PRESS Act, “journalists reporting confidential source information are at risk of losing their freedom.”
New law protects Pa. citizens from retaliatory lawsuits for speaking out (Philadelphia Inquirer). States that don't have laws in place to combat strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, need to pass them. So does the federal government. States that already have anti-SLAPP laws need to strengthen them like Pennsylvania just did. We can't let the powerful censor struggling journalists with frivolous lawsuits.
Government can’t dictate editorial decisions, FAC tells Brentwood City Council (First Amendment Coalition). Ethical codes, guidelines, and best practices published by journalism organizations are not the law and do not limit the First Amendment's protections for the press. Politicians and judges need to be reminded of that far too often.
