New guide helps journalists know their rights when police come knocking
Marion County Record
Searches of newsrooms and seizures of journalists’ materials chill reporting.
Police searches of newsrooms and seizures of journalists' communications, electronic devices, notes, and other reporting materials intimidates journalists and sources and chill reporting. Searches and seizures can reveal confidential sources and transform reporters into tools of law enforcement.
Numerous laws protect reporters from searches and seizures, but police routinely violate them. Too often, courts rubber-stamp requests for searches and seizures involving journalists. In some instances, officials even appear to have obtained illegal search warrants to intimidate and silence journalists and news outlets who criticize them.
Featured Items
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Transparency is vital when government investigates newsgathering
Answers needed on how investigators believe Project Veritas broke the law by obtaining stolen documents from sources
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DOJ must explain newsroom raid, coalition tells federal court
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and six other organizations filed an amicus brief in support of journalist Tim Burke
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Police secrets have no place in the Sunshine State
Officers who kill can’t keep their names hidden, the state's high court held, but law enforcement isn't done battling against accountability
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Journalists must be allowed to cover protests and their aftermath
From Cop City to the National Gallery of Art, officers continue to ignore the First Amendment and harass journalists covering civil unrest
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Are journalists raided because they're doing their jobs too well?
FPF’s Caitlin Vogus talks about the Tim Burke newsroom raid on the National Press Club’s podcast
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FPF statement on inexcusable arrests of Alabama journalists
Grand jury secrecy rules are not prior restraints on journalism
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Deferred prosecution agreements silence and extort journalists
Authorities chill press freedom when they condition dropping baseless charges on journalists agreeing to behave and paying fines
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Rights orgs, broadcasters demand info on FBI raid of journalist’s home
Lack of transparency on how Tim Burke’s newsgathering allegedly violated computer crime laws has a chilling effect on journalism
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Judges should have to go to law school. That's not as obvious as it sounds
But even experienced jurists often fail to protect journalists’ constitutional rights
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In defense of aggressive small-town newspapers
The decline of local news may be causing small-town officials to forget the role of the Fourth Estate
