Why Texas senators should support the PRESS Act

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San José Spotlight City Hall reporter Jana Kadah conducts a phone interview. The Spotlight was awarded $500,000 in attorneys fees in its public records lawsuit against the California city after a judge determined the records were wrongly withheld. Courtesy of Ramona Giwargis


** Who pays for public records lawsuits? The public
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Public records and freedom of information laws are fundamental for government transparency.

But when journalists fight for access to wrongfully withheld records at the state and local level, the public is paying the price, according to a new article ([link removed]) published by our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker ([link removed]) for Sunshine Week. Over the past year alone, local governments have paid journalists at least $1.6 million in attorneys fees — all of which was financed by taxpayers — following public records lawsuits.

Read more on the Tracker’s website ([link removed]) about the high costs caused by pointless fights against records requests, as well as proposed legislation in various states that might make it harder for the public to access public records. Or, listen to a discussion of these issues on X ([link removed]) with Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Advocacy Director Seth Stern, Tracker Senior Reporter Stephanie Sugars, and the director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project, David Cuillier.

To explore more of the Tracker’s coverage of select, egregious records denials exposed by lawsuits against state agencies, search the incident database using the #public records ([link removed]) tag.

Texas senators should support the PRESS Act

The PRESS Act — the federal shield bill that passed the House this year — is the most important First Amendment legislation ([link removed]) in modern history.

It’s currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which includes both senators representing Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

FPF’s Seth Stern joined First Amendment lawyer Gene Schaerr of Protect The 1st ([link removed]) to write an op-ed for The Dallas Morning News ([link removed]) about why Cornyn and Cruz should help get the PRESS Act across the finish line. Both Cruz and Cornyn have spoken out against anti-press measures, Stern and Schaerr explain, making their support for the PRESS Act a “no-brainer.”

But the PRESS Act still needs more support to go the distance, especially from Republican committee members. If you’re in Texas, consider contacting Sen. Cruz ([link removed]) and Sen. Cornyn ([link removed]) to express your support for the legislation. Or reach out to your senator, if you’re in one of these dozen-and-a-half states ([link removed]) .

Read the full op-ed here ([link removed]) .

Burke charges are a ‘hack’ job

We’ve written before ([link removed]) about how the indictment of journalist Tim Burke — based on his online newsgathering exposing outtakes from Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West — raises disturbing questions about just how much the government will stretch a federal hacking law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, to criminalize journalism.

Now, writing in Ars Technica ([link removed]) , FPF Deputy Director of Advocacy Caitlin Vogus and ACLU Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel Jennifer Stisa Granick unpack these charges, and the dangers they pose to journalists.

“Journalists need never ask corporations for permission to investigate or embarrass them, and the law shouldn’t encourage or force them to,” Vogus and Granick write. “Just because someone doesn’t like what a reporter does online doesn’t mean that it’s without authorization and that what he did is therefore a crime.”

Read the full op-ed here ([link removed]) .

The media are getting easier to push around

“Reporters and news organizations in hundreds of communities have faced interference, intimidation, and harassment from local officials in recent years,” writes Paul Farhi in The Atlantic this week ([link removed]) , citing data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Case in point: the arrest and prosecution of a local publisher ([link removed]) and reporter ([link removed]) in Atmore, Alabama. They’re charged with felonies for simply publishing a story ([link removed]) , based on an anonymous leak, revealing a grand jury investigation into possible financial fraud by the local school system.

Farhi links this and other abuses to decreased public and financial support for the news industry, as well as “the hostile climate that surrounds reporting these days.”

“Local authorities seem to have gotten the message that they can get away with this,” FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm told Farhi, who also cites FPF’s coverage of the alarming increase in prior restraints ([link removed]) against the press.

Read the full article here ([link removed]) .


** What we’re reading
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Israeli tank strike killed 'clearly identifiable' Reuters reporter - UN report ([link removed]) . A United Nations investigation has confirmed what civil society ([link removed]) and news organizations ([link removed]) have already shown: Israel violated international law when it killed Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah and wounded six other journalists in Lebanon last year. Israel must ensure those responsible for Abdallah’s death and other attacks on journalists ([link removed]) are held responsible and that killings of journalists stop ([link removed]) .

ACLU Urges Senate to Reject TikTok Ban Bill Following House Passage ([link removed]) . Banning TikTok would be censorship ([link removed]) . Period. Journalists and media outlets use the platform to share news stories, and millions of Americans use it to consume news. Censoring communications from foreign countries — let alone entire platforms — is plainly unconstitutional. That’s why FPF joined the ACLU and other free speech and civil liberties organizations in a letter urging Congress to reject the TikTok ban bill ([link removed]) . You can also tell Congress to stop the TikTok ban ([link removed]) .

Lawmakers approve controversial bill to limit public access to government records ([link removed]) . The New Jersey legislature is fast-tracking a bill that would gut the state’s Open Public Records Act, despite opposition from everyone under the sun: residents, journalists, civil liberties advocates, activists, voting watchdogs, lawyers, and even some state officials. It’s painfully ironic and wrong that New Jersey lawmakers are taking this step during Sunshine Week. New Jersey should not pass this bill.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says that if police radio transmissions aren’t encrypted, the terrorists will win ([link removed]) . “No one involved in this shift towards encrypted NYPD communications has ever bothered to recognize the cognitive dissonance that says protecting private people’s communications is a net loss for society while protecting cop communications is a net gain.” That’s exactly right. Police in New York City and elsewhere shouldn’t dodge journalists and public accountability ([link removed]) by encrypting police radio.
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