stLouISTLA journalists reflect on protest attacks
Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
It’s the 107th day that Rümeysa Öztürk is facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and the 27th day that Mario Guevara has spent behind bars for covering a protest. Read on for news on more recent affronts by the government on the free press.
LA journalists reflect on protest attacks
Journalists covering recent demonstrations in California have been assaulted, detained, shot with crowd-control munitions, and had their equipment searched — simply for doing their jobs.
Independent journalists from Los Angeles talk to FPF about the attacks from law enforcement they endured while covering recent demonstrations.
Screenshot.Independent reporters are especially vulnerable. We hosted an online discussion with some of them — Ben Camacho, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel and Tina-Desiree Berg — to hear their firsthand accounts of their efforts to uphold the public’s right to know. We were also joined by Adam Rose, press rights chair at the Los Angeles Press Club, which, along with others, has sued law enforcement agencies for violating freedom of the press at the recent protests. Since our discussion, the judge in one of those lawsuits has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop violating the First Amendment rights of journalists covering protests.
Listen to the conversation here.
New Jersey prosecutors ignore Constitution
Prosecutors are pursuing blatantly unconstitutional criminal charges against two Red Bank, New Jersey, journalists for declining to remove a police blotter entry about an arrest from a news website after the arrest was expunged, as FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker first reported.
They’re alleged to have engaged in disorderly conduct by revealing the existence of an arrest, knowing that the arrest record has been expunged or sealed, in violation of New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 2C:52-30.
We said in a press release that “prosecuting journalists for declining to censor themselves is alarming and blatantly unconstitutional … Any prosecutors who would even think to bring such charges either don’t know the first thing about the Constitution they’re sworn to uphold, or don’t care.” Read more here.
The rise and fall of FOIA Gras
Tom Hayden never intended to become a journalist. But in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hayden decided to look into how his local school district in Evanston, Illinois, was making decisions about when to send kids back to school.
That led to his Substack newsletter, FOIA Gras. As the name implies, it focused on Freedom of Information Act-based reporting. He broke important stories about local schools and more, and FOIA Gras became an invaluable resource for Evanstonians.
But earlier this year, he decided to shut it down after growing tired of the personal toll of being an unpaid citizen journalist covering politically charged news. Read more here.
Secrecy surrounds ICE’s for-profit detention network
President Donald Trump’s signature budget legislation allocates Immigration and Customs Enforcement a staggering $45 billion to expand immigrant detention efforts. Much of this money will go towards tripling ICE’s for-profit detention facility network.
Even though these private facilities hold human beings in federal custody under federal law, they are not subject to FOIA, the federal transparency law. This must change. Read more here.
Speaking of secret police…
Louisiana is the latest state to ignore the First Amendment to restrict journalists and others from recording police up close. Countless important news stories have come from footage of police abuses — which is exactly why we keep seeing laws like these.
We joined a legal brief led by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and National Press Photographers Association. If you’re able, NPPA is definitely an organization you should support. They do an incredible job protecting the rights of photojournalists and all journalists, but they’re in financial trouble and need your help. Read the brief here.
What we’re reading
SPJ urges caution on anti-doxing laws, warns of threat to press freedom (Society of Professional Journalists). Anti-doxing laws, if not drafted carefully, could become tools to punish journalism. Read the letter we signed urging the Uniform Law Commission to pause potential legislation.
‘I am being persecuted’ | Atlanta journalist held in ICE custody releases letter (WALB News). “I am being persecuted for having carried out my journalistic work ... I need to get out in order to continue with my life, return to my work, and support my family,” wrote imprisoned journalist Mario Guevara.
Immigration officials used shadowy pro-Israel group to target student activists (The New York Times). Students exercising their First Amendment rights shouldn’t concern the government. And officials should base decisions on real intelligence, not “research” by amateur internet trolls.
Trump officials want to prosecute over the ICEBlock app. Lawyers say that’s unconstitutional (Wired). “ICE and the Trump administration are under the misimpression that law enforcement in the United States is entitled to operate in secret,” we told Wired.
I chaired the FCC. The ‘60 Minutes’ settlement shows Trump has weaponized the agency (The Guardian). “What was once an independent, policy-based agency is now using its leverage to further the Maga message,” writes former Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler.
Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda (The Washington Post). This retaliation could chill FOIA releases across the government. We are filing FOIA requests to learn how Gabbard’s agency is trying to stifle lawful disclosures.
Wishing for a world where corporate motives didn’t clash with the sacred trust of journalism (Poynter). “The ethics of the professional and the business can bump into each other. When they do, it is imperative that the ethics of the profession take precedence.”