FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026 — President Donald Trump today threatened to jail unnamed journalists if they do not reveal their sources for reporting about the mission to rescue airmen who were shot down in Iran. Trump was quoted as saying, “We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’”
The following can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern:
“Donald Trump has long harbored bizarre fantasies about having journalists arrested and even sexually assaulted in prison for refusing to burn their sources. But journalists don’t work for the government and their right to publish government leaks is protected by the First Amendment which, despite Trump’s efforts, remains the law of the land. It does not disappear whenever the words “national security” are uttered. To the extent that the government is allowed to withhold information, it’s up to the government to keep its secrets, not journalists.
“Confidential sources are the lifeblood of investigative journalism. Sources who come forward at great personal risk won’t do so if they don’t trust that their identities won’t be revealed, as Trump knows well from his days impersonating publicists to brag about himself to reporters. Some of the most important news stories in American history have come from confidential sources, including stories that have brought down corrupt presidents. That’s why Trump is so obsessed with leaks. It has nothing to do with national security.
“In fact, Trump’s hatred of the press runs so deep that, in his haste to lock up journalists for doing their jobs, he may have inadvertently threatened Israeli journalists and officials who were reportedly behind the story with prison. Anyone who for some reason considers taking Trump seriously next time he goes on a half-baked anti-press rant should remember that.
“Just a couple years ago, the PRESS Act — a bill to protect journalist-source confidentiality that would have expressly prohibited Trump from following through on threats like today’s — received bipartisan support, including from many of Trump’s allies, like Sens. Mike Lee and Lindsey Graham. It passed the House unanimously, with nine Republican co-sponsors. Any lawmaker who rightly supported that legislation or otherwise pontificated about press freedom and journalist-source confidentiality in the past but doesn’t speak out now is a free speech hypocrite.”
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