Crunch time for the PRESS Act
The Senate is running out of time this year to pass the most important press freedom legislation in modern times.
New Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
As the first Ellsberg Chair, Lauren Harper’s work will focus on highlighting and fighting the multitude of ways the government keeps secrets.
Chicago police ignore journalists’ rights
The Chicago Police Department repeatedly dispersed, arrested, and threatened journalists at protests during the first two days of the DNC.
Marion County Record raid, a year later
Last week, special prosecutors cleared the Record’s reporters of wrongdoing, and this week, former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody was charged for obstructing the investigation of the raid.
Further accountability needed in Marion
Special prosecutors this week finally released their report on last August’s police raid of the Marion County Record. The report recommends criminal charges against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, and clears the Record and its reporters of wrongdoing.
Cloudflare hides abusive websites
The Spamhaus Project has released a blog criticizing Cloudflare — a content delivery network and cloud cybersecurity provider — for providing security services to abusive domains. These websites could contain spam, phishing links, malware, and even botnets.
Gag rules stifle financial journalism
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires defendants who settle cases it brings to contract away their right to deny the SEC’s allegations. So does the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That means potential sources can’t speak to financial journalists.
Android spyware flies under the radar
The cybersecurity firm Kaspersky disclosed that at least five Google Play applications contained Mandrake, a sophisticated cyberespionage tool.
Pressure Netanyahu to protect journalists
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the U.S. this week, officials who claim to care about press freedom need to make clear to him that the U.S. will not tolerate killings, imprisonments, or censorship of journalists by its ally.
Beware fraudulent CrowdStrike emails
Last Friday, computer systems worldwide were taken down by a defective update from enterprise cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike. In the wake of the outage, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency is warning of phishing emails, with attackers posing as CrowdStrike customer support.