Plus: Anatomy of a SLAPP campaign

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Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please support our work. Our impact in 2024 was made possible by supporters like you. Help us continue protecting press freedom in the year ahead — consider a year-end donation ([link removed]) today. If someone has forwarded you this newsletter, please subscribe here ([link removed]) .
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, pictured at left, and Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, at right, both support the PRESS Act. They have two months to get it to President Joe Biden’s desk to make it the law of the land. Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via AP

Now or never for the PRESS Act

Congress has two months to pass the most important press freedom legislation ([link removed]) in modern history and safeguard journalist-source confidentiality. The bill got a push from an unexpected place this week — John Oliver’s satirical TV news show ([link removed]) . Wired ([link removed]) , TechCrunch ([link removed]) , and The Verge ([link removed]) also covered it.

Next week, the need for the PRESS Act will be further underscored by an appellate hearing in the case of veteran investigative journalist Catherine Herridge ([link removed]) . She is challenging a ruling that holds her in contempt ([link removed]) of court for refusing to burn her sources. That ruling never would’ve happened if the PRESS Act was on the books. Alarmingly, this important First Amendment hearing may be held in secret.

Read more from us about the Herridge hearing ([link removed]) and its significance. And tell your senator to support the PRESS Act, using your choice of email tools from Defending Rights & Dissent ([link removed]) , the ACLU ([link removed]) , or the Electronic Frontier Foundation ([link removed]) , or a call tool from Fight for the Future ([link removed]) .

Save nonprofit news

A valiant effort from press freedom and civil liberties advocates helped prevent passage ([link removed]) in the House of Representatives of a bill to allow the treasury secretary to arbitrarily revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits — including nonprofit media ([link removed]) outlets.

But the House is trying again next week, and if it doesn’t succeed it will likely keep trying for the next four years. Use the ACLU’s convenient online form to tell your representative ([link removed]) to oppose this awful mess of a bill. Let’s not hand Trump administration officials a loaded weapon they’re sure to aim squarely at critics of Israel and other dissidents.

Anatomy of a censorship campaign

Tech executive Maury Blackman’s tactics against journalist Jack Poulson are a prime example of how the wealthy and powerful try to stifle the press, and how the First Amendment is often the only thing standing in their way. That and the Streisand Effect ([link removed]) .

We wrote about Blackman’s ([link removed]) use of frivolous copyright takedown demands, complaints to hosting providers, and efforts to have the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office try to silence Poulson, who had reported on Blackman’s domestic violence arrest on his Substack blog. When all that failed, Blackman filed a $25 million lawsuit — a clear SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation.

Here’s how that’s going for him: Poulson’s story ([link removed]) is still online and a great legal ([link removed]) team ([link removed]) has stepped up to defend his interests. But the reporting Blackman wants silenced is no longer just on Substack – now it’s in the San Francisco Chronicle ([link removed]) and Daily Mail ([link removed]) . Oops.

Crunch time to Trump-proof the press

Throughout this year’s presidential election campaign, we’ve warned ([link removed]) Democrats that if they’re really as worried as they claim to be about authoritarianism in a second Trump term, they need to pass some bills to mitigate that risk. Or at least stop handing authoritarians legislative gifts.

They didn’t listen. Now they’ve got two months left to do some damage control. We wrote an op-ed for the Daily Beast about what can still be done. Read it here ([link removed]) , and watch our executive director Trevor Timm talk on the Thom Hartmann Program ([link removed]) about what Trump 2.0 means for press freedom.

What we’re reading

The WIRED guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance ([link removed]) (Wired). Anti-surveillance technology “is the last recourse of a lot of people in vulnerable positions,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Director of Digital Security Harlo Holmes, calling for increased efforts to “make sure that people have the best tools in their hands and their pockets to maintain their privacy.”

Matt Gaetz investigation report could be made public—here's how ([link removed]) (Newsweek). It’s absurd that there’s even a chance that a taxpayer-funded report that might implicate the attorney general nominee for trafficking teenagers might not be made public.

DOT asks judge to dismiss Streetsblog’s lawsuit over agency’s public info stall ([link removed]) (Streetsblog NYC). New York’s Department of Transportation “consistently violates the state's Freedom of Information Law by delaying for six months nearly all of the requests for public information from journalists — and must be ordered to end the practice.”

Many ‘undercover’ officers in lawsuit over LAPD photos are just regular cops, city says ([link removed]) (Los Angeles Times). Unreal. Los Angeles wasted its time and the people’s money litigating and settling SLAPP suits claiming a journalist endangered undercover officers by identifying them. Now the same city has the nerve to tell a judge those same cops aren't really undercover and then ask to unmask them.

Freedom of Press Foundation supporting Indian Time reporter arrested while covering protest ([link removed]) (Indian Time). Indian Time covers the letter we led ([link removed]) urging prosecutors in northern New York to drop charges against journalist Isaac White, who was arrested for disobeying illegal dispersal orders while covering a land claim protest. We’re happy to report that the charges against White have been dropped.
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