Notices by Freedom of the Press (freedomofpress@social.freedom.press)

PSA from John Cusack: Democracy is under attack — and paywalls shouldn’t stand in the way of accessing vital public records.

News outlets, it’s time to drop the paywalls for FOIA-based reporting.
@Wired did it. @404mediaco did it.

Now, it’s your turn.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WZf1L5hH8JA

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more journalists than the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Yugoslavia Wars, and Afghanistan War, combined, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute.

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2025/Journalists?mc_cid=901821fa50&mc_eid=d54a865283

Anyone with any regard whatsoever for the Constitution should recognize how fundamentally at odds this is with our values and should be deeply repulsed regardless of political leanings.

The arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk may serve as the canary in the coal mine for the First Amendment.

Read our full statement:

https://freedom.press/issues/fpf-statement-on-arrest-of-tufts-student/

We commend Wired for dropping its paywall for FOIA-based reporting and hope other news outlets will follow its lead.

https://freedom.press/issues/wired-is-dropping-paywalls-for-foia-based-reporting-others-should-follow/

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Update: A group of journalists settled a federal suit for nearly $1 million with Portland, Oregon, on March 5, after they were assaulted and had their equipment seized by police while reporting on BLM protests in 2020:

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-photojournalist-struck-pepper-balls-while-covering-portland-protest/

Good news: Idaho's anti-SLAPP bill has been signed into law.

Every state and the federal government needs a strong anti-SLAPP law.

https://idahocapitalsun.com/briefs/idaho-joins-states-with-anti-slapp-laws-aimed-at-combatting-frivolous-lawsuits/

Think about it: DOGE has existed for less than two months and says it's created enough records that it would take three years to release them in response to Citizens for Ethics' FOIA lawsuit.

This is a staggering level of stalling from a group of tech geniuses.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/us/politics/musk-doge-foia-lawsuit.html

Authorities in Lake County, IN are inadvertently furthering both Trump’s anti-press and anti-immigration agendas by prosecuting a journalist arrested at an ICE protest.

Seth Stern explained in the Post-Tribune.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/08/guest-column-lake-county-prosecutors-must-drop-charges-against-photojournalist/

Maybe it’s been so long since “Fox & Friends” have practiced journalism that they’ve forgotten what it looks like.

To be clear: Finding out information about official activity and publishing it is textbook journalism and protected by the First Amendment.

https://freedom.press/issues/fox-friends-no-friends-to-free-press/

This White House doesn’t care about free speech or informing the American people.

It cares about controlling the narrative by shutting out the press and punishing anyone who challenges it in even the smallest of ways.

All Americans should object to this unconstitutional ban on The Associated Press.

“The term ‘doxxing’ has become unmoored from its origins,” FIRE's Will Creeley tells @newyorktimes.

“If living in the U.S. in 2025 means you can expect a criminal investigation for criticizing the government, we’re all in a whole lot of trouble.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/business/media/elon-musk-doxxing-marko-elez.html

We hope that news outlets Trump punishes by restricting their access to briefings, signings and the like will take the opportunity to double down on hard-hitting investigations that don’t require access to ceremonies and spin sessions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/02/11/associated-press-white-house-reporter/

Reporting on what ICE officers are doing in full public view isn’t “leaking.”

The government loves to argue that there’s no privacy in public when it wants to surveil you. But apparently it doesn’t believe the same rules apply to ICE.

https://www.cjr.org/local_news/when-ice-raids-go-awry-reporting-gets-blamed.php

While news giants with armies of expensive lawyers capitulate to the powerful, independent journalists represented by rights orgs and law profs fight back and win.

Congratulations to Jack Poulson.

https://sf.gazetteer.co/judge-tosses-sf-lawsuit-that-spurred-streisand-effect-for-tech-execs-arrest

🎙The New Yorker reporter Parker Yesko discusses how FOIA requests helped uncover the long-hidden truths about the 2005 Haditha massacre by U.S. Marines of 25 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Al Anbar Province.

Listen: freedom.press/haditha

"It’s sometimes said that courage is contagious, but cowardice and cravenness can be, too. Soon it may be unusual and even more perilous for a news organization to protest when it is accused by the president of reportorial recklessness, however outlandish the charge might be."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/opinion/trump-media-lawsuit-freedom.html

Settling Trump’s CBS lawsuit won’t buy peace — it will sell out press freedom.
https://reason.com/2025/02/04/paramount-shouldnt-fold-to-trump/

The First Amendment permits identifying and harshly criticizing government workers, even when the world’s richest person doesn’t like it.

We shouldn’t have to remind sitting U.S. attorneys of that, but here we are.

https://freedom.press/issues/groups-demand-us-attorney-for-dc-respect-first-amendment/

We're just going to leave this here…

https://freedom.press/news/sharing-sensitive-leaks-press/

"Biden’s press freedom legacy may end up dominated by his laying the groundwork for Trump or a future administration to prosecute journalists for news reporting," Seth Stern writes in Lawfare.

Read more:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/prosecuting-journalists-complicates-biden-s-press-freedom-legacy