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Introducing the first Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is excited to welcome Lauren Harper, our inaugural Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy.
Last year, FPF announced the creation of the Ellsberg Chair in honor of the legendary whistleblower and FPF co-founder, Daniel Ellsberg, who passed away in June 2023. As the first Ellsberg Chair, Harper’s work will focus on highlighting and fighting the multitude of ways the government keeps secrets — from the press, from the public, and from congressional overseers. Her work will also illuminate how rampant overclassification negatively impacts everything from public health to national security. Read more on our website.
New bipartisan Senate bill seeks to reduce overclassification
The government has too many secrets, and most of them shouldn’t be secrets in the first place.
Harper wrote this week about a new bipartisan bill that attempts to fix the problem. The Classification Reform for Transparency Act of 2024 has a lot to like — but it falls short in a crucial way: There is currently no way to tell if the bill would actually reduce the number of unnecessary secrets, because we don’t know how many there are to begin with.
Read more on our website about the good parts of the bill, what it’s missing, and how it can be fixed so that policymakers can assess the impact of this necessary and well-intended legislation.
Harris is just the latest internet-era politician to stonewall the press
Vice President Kamala Harris is giving her first media interview as the Democratic presidential nominee tonight – but it follows plenty of criticism for not doing so earlier. Harris’ defenders complain about irresponsible “horse race” coverage by the legacy media and claim she’s entitled to not engage with bad journalists. But to us, that sounds like the perfect opportunity for Harris to give lesser-known outlets or independent journalists the spotlight.
We wrote about the numerous other politicians — at the federal, state, and local levels — who have avoided the media, preferring to deliver their messages through platforms they can control. The best way to reverse the trend is by calling politicians out. That doesn’t mean whining about access, it means explaining to readers how they lose out when people vying for the nation’s highest offices won’t speak off the cuff and on the record. Read more on our website.
Press freedom at the DNC: In the hall and on the streets
We wrote last week about the Chicago Police Department’s “abysmal failure” to respect journalists’ rights during protests outside the Democratic National Convention.
We followed that up this week with an Aug. 26 “X Space” conversation featuring Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, and Katherine Jacobsen, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ U.S. and Canada program coordinator.
Jacobsen attended the convention, while Osterreicher worked with local lawyers to free journalists arrested covering protests. Read more about what they had to say, and listen to the audio and read an (imperfect, AI-generated) transcript on our website.
We also hosted a great conversation today where almost 10 journalists discussed their experiences dealing with Chicago police at the DNC. We haven’t had time to write it up yet, but you can listen to the audio and see the transcript here.
What we’re reading
Robert Telles guilty of murdering RJ reporter Jeff German (Las Vegas Review-Journal). Some good news to conclude this tragic story comes less than a week before the second anniversary of German’s senseless murder. Killers and assailants of journalists, along with other press freedom violators, need to be held accountable.
Reporters across borders (Columbia Journalism Review). In light of a New York Times report that the U.S. is investigating Americans who have worked with Russian state media, we told CJR that, “The government needs to be extremely cautious in drawing subjective distinctions between journalists, propagandists and alleged lobbyists, especially when doing so in order to punish people who criticize US policy.”
Durov’s arrest details released, leaving more questions than answers (Techdirt). To the extent the French charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov could criminalize encrypted messaging of any kind, it is a grave threat to journalists around the world.
Can tech executives be held responsible for what happens on their platforms? (The New York Times). We’re not worried about tech executives like Durov, but about how they’ll overmoderate and censor important content, including news, if their freedom or businesses are at risk. U.S. law must continue protecting the right to decide how to moderate content.
Albuquerque's police chief says cops have a 5th Amendment right to leave their body cameras off (Reason). Albuquerque’s police chief claims a constitutional right for officers to turn off body cameras before committing crimes. It’s a safe bet that that reasoning wouldn’t extend to a regular person who disabled one of the city’s thousands of surveillance cameras.
Police blocked journalists from getting close to Sacramento homeless sweep. Was it legal? (Sacramento Bee) No, it's not legal. Not even close. Journalists can record police up close and officers can't get around that constitutional right by declaring an encampment a crime scene. It's not the first time we've seen this tactic, and it needs to stop.
RSF and 59 other organisations call on EU to suspend Association Agreement with Israel (RSF). Reporters Without Borders and 59 other groups are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and sanction those responsible for unprecedented killings of journalists and other press freedom violations by Israeli authorities.
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