Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed his support this week for the PRESS Act, the strongest shield bill Congress has ever proposed. One of the most important things reporters can do is write about the PRESS Act in news reports or editorials, and non-journalists can help spread the word with op-eds and letters to the editor. Read more in our newsletter.
Quote on press freedom impact of today's Assange decision
The documents whistleblower Terry Albury is assumed to have shared detail the FBI’s recruitment tactics, investigations of minorities, and how the agency monitors journalists. Next week, he'll be sentenced in federal court, and for his act of courage, he could face years in prison.
Any Espionage Act prosecution also threatens journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post.
We will honor our friend by fighting for what he fought for his entire life: an end to excessive government secrecy.
Criminalization of routine newsgathering undermines press freedom everywhere
Former intelligence contractor and whistleblower Reality Winner has pled guilty to leaking a secret NSA report to the press.
Former CIA director David Petraeus received his sentence today for the sweetheart plea deal he struck with the Justice Department after he was discovered to have leaked highly classified information to his biographer and lover Paula Broadwell. As was widely anticipated, the celebrated general received no jail time and instead …
The disturbing indictment against journalist Tim Burke reportedly arises in part from Burke’s dissemination of outtakes from a 2022 Tucker Carlson interview with Ye. Federal prosecutors accuse Burke of “scouring” the internet for news and failing to obtain express authorization before accessing information posted on public websites. Requiring journalists to get permission to report news is, obviously, problematic. Read more in our newsletter.
The Nixon admin tried to prosecute the New York Times under the same statute the Justice Department is going after Julian Assange today.