Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
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Trump’s assault on free press
President Donald Trump’s multipronged assault on the free press is already well underway. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair revived baseless complaints against networks his boss doesn’t like. More major news networks are reportedly considering settling frivolous lawsuits to get on Trump’s good side. He’s halted police reform agreements that include protections for journalists covering protests. His (alleged) Hitler-heiling homeboy is already threatening to wield his power against critics.
But that’s just the low-hanging fruit — there’s likely plenty more to come. Read about the three major press freedom threats we’re most concerned over: increased leak investigations, prosecutions of journalists, and surveillance of journalists.
Government secrecy issues to watch during Trump 2.0
Our Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy, Lauren Harper, also gave her forecast for the second Trump administration — and it’s concerning, to say the least.
There’s Trump’s consistent disregard for preserving presidential records during his first term, which we see no signs will change this time around. He has already resumed his efforts to thwart government oversight. And his administration will likely, once again, undermine the Freedom of Information Act, both by not creating public records and by finding ways to not share those they do create with the public.
Harper also covers the Biden administration’s failures on government secrecy, including refusing to issue a new executive order on classified national security information and neglecting to declassify documents the public has demanded (some of which Trump has now, to his credit, ordered declassified). Biden’s administration also continued to keep secret Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and failed to adequately fund the National Archives and Records Administration.
Biden’s press freedom legacy: empty words and hypocrisy
Sure, Trump is likely to make things worse, but that doesn’t mean Biden was a friend of the free press. He deserved one last kick on his way out the door, so here it is: our recap of Biden’s three worst press freedom failures.
His prosecutions of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and digital journalist Tim Burke open doors for Trump to prosecute journalists who tell both government and corporate secrets. His support for purported national security laws like the TikTok ban and the “spy draft” amendment to Section 702 of FISA will lead to further surveillance and censorship. And his administration’s silence on journalist killings in Gaza was a disgrace that even Trump would be hard-pressed to top.
Musk may hide DOGE records in plain sight
The new Department of Government Efficiency was long touted as a panel that would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” to slash agency regulations and restructure the federal bureaucracy. But that didn’t pan out. The Jan. 20 executive order establishing DOGE says it will very much be a part of the federal government.
Why the change? Musk reportedly decided that if DOGE were a part of the government, it would be easier to avoid the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s requirements that advisory panels make all of their committee meetings and documents public. By placing DOGE within the government, Musk may have effectively bet that he can more easily flout FOIA than FACA. Harper explains it all here.
FPF, partners urge law enforcement to let press report on LA wildfires
We know policing the tragic situation in Los Angeles is chaotic but that's all the more reason reporters must be able to cover the fires. Unfortunately, there have been troubling instances where journalists have been illegally turned away from checkpoints and faced intimidation tactics and other interference.
We're one of 21 organizations calling on law enforcement to follow state law and give the press the access it needs to do its job. The same California law that gives law enforcement the ability to close areas during emergencies explicitly exempts the press. Police need to comply with the law, even in chaotic situations.
DA drops case against Portland journalist
We’ve also got some good news to report. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office dropped its case against Portland-based independent journalist Alissa Azar. She had been set to stand trial Monday on trespass charges arising from her arrest while covering a protest at Portland State University in May.
We explained in a June letter to then-DA Mike Schmidt that the charges violated Azar’s First Amendment right — recognized by the 9th Circuit as well as the Department of Justice — to cover the protest, even after police dispersed demonstrators. Schmidt ignored us, but he’s gone. We reached out to his successor, Nathan Vasquez, who took over on Jan. 1. Our friends at Defending Rights & Dissent also created a petition to Vasquez calling on him to drop the case. Yesterday, he did.
We thank Vasquez for cleaning up his predecessor’s mess and urge him to go one step further: Publicly commit to allowing journalists to cover protests and their aftermath and not prosecuting any similar cases going forward.
What we’re reading
Elon Musk’s battle with Wikipedia is part of his war on truth (The Independent). “He is the world’s leading free speech hypocrite, and his actions with respect to Wikipedia are further evidence of that,” we told the Independent following Musk’s call to “defund” Wikipedia for calling an (alleged) Nazi salute an (alleged) Nazi salute.
Stanford won’t discipline student journalist arrested during pro-Palestinian protest (KQED). It’s nice that Stanford dropped its disciplinary case. But until it does everything it can to push prosecutors to end the criminal case, it's still an anti-press institution. Aspiring journalists and donors who value free speech should look elsewhere.
Will the press fight like tigers against Trump? (Columbia Journalism Review). It’s vital for the press to now band together and fight like hell to protect their rights — just like they did during the Nixon administration. Legendary First Amendment lawyer James Goodale makes the case.
Court rules warrantless Section 702 searches violated the Fourth Amendment (ACLU). Section 702 of FISA has long been abused to unlawfully surveil Americans, including journalists. Congratulations to the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and everyone else involved in this significant win for the Fourth Amendment.
Decentralized social media is the only alternative to the tech oligarchy (404 Media). The first days of Trump 2.0 “have made it crystal clear that it is urgent to build and mainstream alternative, decentralized social media platforms that are resistant to government censorship and control, are not owned by oligarchs and dominated by their algorithms.”
Check out our other newsletters
If you haven’t yet, subscribe to FPF’s other newsletters, including “The Classifieds,” our new newsletter on overclassification and more from Lauren Harper, our Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy.
