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.
Guantanamo officials don’t know who are the rightful owners of thousands of pages of legal documents and other materials seized from prisoners during a raid at the communal camp in April, according to a government document I obtained. A Justice Department attorney said in a draft seven-page court filing dated …
Last week, thanks to the generous support of the Freedom of Press Foundation, I traveled to Guantanamo during the height of a mass hunger strike to tour the detention facility, along with four other members of the media. We were shown the two main detention camps—5 and 6—as well as …