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A year after Marion County Record raid, authorities keep ignoring press rights

It’s been a year since Marion, Kansas — population 1,922 — made global headlines after its whole police department raided the Marion County Record’s newsroom and its owners’ home, purportedly because a reporter used a government website to investigate a news tip. The paper’s 98-year-old co-owner Joan Meyer, shocked by the intrusion, died the next day.

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. On the anniversary of the raid, we wrote that the investigation should have taken days, not months, to complete. That’s because, as we said the night of the raid, the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 — which prohibits searches of journalists’ materials except when they’re investigated for a crime unrelated to newsgathering — opens and shuts the case. Cody and his co-conspirators should’ve been charged for the raid itself, not just the cover-up.

But outside Marion, law enforcement agencies continue ignoring the act, and journalists’ rights in general. Other violations may not be as dramatic (or tragic) as the Marion raid but we wrote that “the cumulative effect of these privacy act violations is to intimidate journalists and encourage self-censorship.” Read more on our website.

U.S. must stop providing weapons for Israel to kill journalists

Ten months into its war on Gaza, Israel has killed well over 100 Palestinian journalists — the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. And in many cases, the U.S. provided the murder weapons.

Through both indiscriminate bombing and deliberate targeting of journalists, Israel has used U.S.-supplied weapons to suppress media coverage of the ongoing war. Along with Israel’s refusal to let international press into Gaza, the killings (not to mention injuries and detainments) leave the public to rely on a shrinking number of journalists who continue to place their lives on the line to show their reality.

This week, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) joined 140 press freedom organizations, journalists, and news outlets in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the U.S. to immediately cease sending U.S. weapons to Israel due to its continued killings of journalists. Read more on our website and read the letter here.

One nation under RISAA: What the US election could mean for surveillance of journalists

In April, the U.S. Congress officially reauthorized and expanded Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the controversial law that allows intelligence agencies to spy on Americans’ communications without a warrant.

Harlo Holmes, David Huerta, Martin Shelton, and Davis Erin Anderson of the Digital Security Team at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) sat down with FPF's Director of Advocacy Seth Stern to discuss the ramifications for journalists of the expansion of digital surveillance. It’s part of a series of conversations about journalism, digital security, and the 2024 U.S. election.

You can read a transcript of the discussion here.

What we’re reading

One year after chilling police raid on Kansas newspaper, aftershocks linger in Marion (The Handbasket). Part 1 in a three-part series by Kansas Reflector and The Handbasket about the impact of the Marion County Record raid. Parts 2 and 3 are here and here.

Harris campaign's Google ads rewrite news headlines (Axios). The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines in Google ads, making it seem like news outlets support her presidential bid. If Harris wants endorsements, she should earn them. Pink slime-like antics like these only legitimize bogus “fake news” narratives.

Texas drone law heads to Supreme Court: Key free speech case in the balance (DroneLife). The Supreme Court should protect reporters’ First Amendment right to use drones in their reporting and strike down Texas’ unconstitutional law. Otherwise, states could feel empowered to restrict photojournalists from using drone-captured images in their work.

State Supreme Court rules Open Records Act applies to private contractors working for governments (Georgia Recorder). Government agencies frequently evade public records laws when they spend public funds to hire private contractors. Good for the Georgia Supreme Court for rejecting this anti-transparency tactic.

2024 political conventions resources and tips (RCFP). Journalists reporting on the Democratic National Convention next week can check out the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ page of resources and info on how to stay safe. You can also read our op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Support the Marion County Record

A year after the tragic and illegal raid on the Marion County Record, the paper is still struggling to recover. You can help support the Record by subscribing here or placing a classified ad here.

Work at FPF

Our editorial team is hiring a newsletter editor, and our digital security team is seeking an MERL consultant. Read the job descriptions and apply here.