New bill would fix law that’s failing journalists


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.

The FBI raid of James O'Keefe is a troubling development for press freedom. That the potential story was not a blockbuster public interest investigation, and that O’Keefe and Project Veritas have a long history of deception and manipulation, do not change that fact.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has published an overview of a truly remarkable year’s worth of press freedom violations during nationwide protests. The Tracker builds on individually reported incidents to provide the definitive telling of the crackdown on journalists that emerged alongside the protests.

Law enforcement officers have photographed the faces or IDs of nearly three dozen journalists in Oregon and Minnesota in recent months, according to new data published by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. These measures don’t appear to serve any law enforcement purpose beyond intimidating reporters who are doing their job.

A disturbing federal assault on journalists is unfolding in Portland.

An unprecedented assault on press freedom has been carried out by police since the George Floyd protests started in May.

This morning, viewers watching CNN for coverage of the ongoing protests in Minneapolis instead witnessed an unbelievable curtailment of press freedom, as an entire film crew was arrested — on air — apparently without even being notified of the cause of their arrest.

Recent raids on journalists and newsrooms in Australia are the latest in a string of instances — in no way limited to Australia — of government targeting of journalists for their reporting.

The SF police chief finally apologized, but many questions remain unanswered.

San Francisco's investigation into a freelance reporter for 'conspiracy' is a brazen attack on the rights of all journalists.

Numerous journalists covering the migrant caravan have been subjected to secondary screenings at the US-Mexico border, questioned, and searched. It’s not the first time CBP has targeted the press.
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