Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
This week, we announced the winners of the first Penlight Prize for paywall-free, public records-based reporting, awarding a stellar piece of journalism our first-place $25,000 prize. Plus, frivolous lawsuits from California and Arkansas show why we need a federal anti-SLAPP law, the Maryland governor boxes out the press, and the DOJ’s media ban gets crushed again.
Congrats to our inaugural Penlight Prize winners
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of our award for excellence in unpaywalled journalism based on federal and state public records requests. Austin Fast of USA Today, independent journalist Robert J. Lopez, and the Marshall Project’s Brittany Hailer, Ilica Mahajan, and Michelle Billman submitted incredible pieces of investigative reporting that drew on thousands of records and made a concrete difference in transparency and accountability on the ground. We urge you to read their work.
Two frivolous lawsuits show why we need a federal anti-SLAPP law
A woman in Arkansas requested state agency records to find out who was paying for a local data center project, then shared those records with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which reported on them. The utility set to build the solar plant powering the facility then sued her and the paper to restrain them from discussing the records and to get the paper to take down its story.
A federal judge ultimately denied the utility’s requests, but that didn’t help the requester or newspaper get back their money and time — the federal district court does not enforce Arkansas’ law against strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs.
Meanwhile, in California, a similarly frivolous lawsuit over reporting of government-provided documents was dismissed under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, and the defendant, journalist Jack Poulson, was awarded his attorneys fees.
As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern writes for the Intercept, the discrepancy between the cases underscores the need for a federal anti-SLAPP law to deter the wealthy and powerful from anti-transparency lawfare.
Maryland governor retaliates against press
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has reportedly been sending routine inquiries from Sinclair-owned media outlets to legal review, citing a personal defamation case against him by Sinclair Chairman David Smith. But many of the inquiries have nothing whatsoever to do with the personal litigation. This week, we led a coalition letter of press freedom organizations demanding that he stop.
As Stern said, “While we’d certainly prefer that news executives not file defamation lawsuits that could set harmful precedents for journalists, Smith’s personal lawsuit against Moore is not the problem of Maryland taxpayers and newsreaders, and they’re the ones who suffer when the government evades transparency.”
Court smacks down Trump’s media ban again
On Tuesday, Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., extended his previous order restraining the Trump administration from barring CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, ruling that it violated the First Amendment. As FPF Senior Adviser Caitlin Vogus said, “Kelly saw right through the administration’s flimsy ‘national security’ excuse, in no small part because Trump himself has shown it’s a sham. The court’s opinion is littered with Trump’s own Truth Social posts ranting about using the ban to punish news outlets for coverage he doesn’t like.” The administration has appealed the order.
DOJ launches absurd antitrust investigation
The administration has separately begun investigating whether ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News violated federal antitrust laws when the networks briefly suspended their pooled coverage of the president in response to his ban. But the boycott had nothing to do with the competitive harms antitrust law exists to prevent — news outlets were standing up for the First Amendment.
As Stern said, “Even more bizarre than the administration’s legal theory is that after all his ‘fake news’ rhetoric, Trump is weaponizing the DOJ to pressure the networks he calls the ‘enemy of the people’ to stay at the White House. It’s a weird way of telling the press how much he missed them.”
DOJ continues persecuting journalist for exposing antisemitism
Florida journalist Tim Burke exposed unaired outtakes of antisemitic remarks from a Fox News interview with musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West; the government then raided his newsroom and hit him with numerous charges under the Wiretap Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. A Trump-appointed judge dismissed the wiretapping charges against him, but Trump’s Department of Justice just reindicted Burke with conspiracy and computer fraud charges.
As Stern told our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “The judge should dismiss the claims again, this time with prejudice, and the Justice Department should stop its unconstitutional attempt to lock up a journalist for using publicly available materials to expose a major celebrity’s antisemitism.”
Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon’s producer
Wired
This is just the latest in a long series of abuses by the Trump administration in its obsessive quest to surveil and prosecute reporters who covered a January protest at a Minnesota church. It’s obviously unconstitutional, but it’s also an outrageous waste of taxpayer money to pursue a vindictive grudge.
Pentagon names one of its own public affairs officials to run Stars and Stripes
Military.com
Last year, Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending taxpayer subsidization of biased media,” insisting that alleged political agendas in public media must be eradicated. It’s quite a pivot from that to installing PR flacks to run taxpayer-funded news outlets.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and Washington Post photographer in West Bank
The Washington Post
At this point, government-backed mobs assaulting journalists in the West Bank is a routine occurrence. It belies any claim that the U.S. is promoting democracy when it arms and finances the military that stands by and allows these attacks.
The UMD student reporter who dared to record Rep. Andy Harris — and kept recording
The Baltimore Banner
You’d think a lawmaker would try reading the law on recording conversations — which only applies to those had in private — before loudly accusing reporters of breaking it. Credit to these reporters for refusing to be bullied out of doing their jobs.
stLouIST