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Friend,
Welcome to the March 2025 Free Press Update, our monthly newsletter recapping as much of our work from the last month as possible into one email. This one has a little extra info since we didn’t get a newsletter out in December. Let’s get started:
How to Defeat Authoritarianism in the United States
Maria Ressa (right), shown accepting an award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, is an expert on fighting authoritarianism. “A lot of whether the U.S. survives is dependent on what we do now,” she said.
Photo: Flickr user Committee to Protect Journalists
On Feb. 27, Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González and Heidi Beirich of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism co-hosted a webinar about ways to defeat authoritarianism. The discussion featured Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa of the Rappler news organization in the Philippines, András Bíró-Nagy of Policy Solutions in Hungary and Rafal Pankowski of the Institute of Sociology of Collegium Civitas in Poland.
Our expert panelists discussed what had happened in their own countries to shed light on the red flags of authoritarianism and help us understand what is happening here. Learn more about strategies for pushing back against the fascist takeover in the United States by watching the full webinar.
Demand the FCC Stop Intimidating Journalists!
Under the leadership of prominent Trump lackey and Project 2025 co-author Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission is attacking the First Amendment and freedom of the press. Carr recently opened a sham investigation into NPR and PBS — and then went after CBS.
The FCC should never be in the business of intimidating journalists and censoring reporting that would hold the president accountable. We’re fighting back against this authoritarian campaign — add your name if you’re with us.
When Public Media Is Under Attack, People Fight Back
Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron speaking at a "Protect Public Media Day" protest. Photo: Alex Sakes
A vibrant, independent public-media system is essential to a healthy democracy. So it’s no wonder that Donald Trump and Elon Musk hate public media.
Trump, Musk and Brendan Carr are targeting NPR and PBS because they want journalists to stay timid and think twice about asking hard questions. They want to weaken the system and keep NPR and PBS stations begging for table scraps. Read co-CEO Craig Aaron’s blog on the Trump administration’s attacks on public media — and learn more about how Free Press, our allies and activists are fighting back.
Celebrating Storytelling During Black Narrative Power Month
Media 2070’s “Lineage of Sacred Storytelling” event gathered media-makers from different sectors to discuss the importance of Black narrative power historically and today.
Our Media 2070 team celebrates each February as Black Narrative Power Month — an opportunity to commemorate Black history and what it means to us today. This year, the team chose to highlight themes of legacy, sacredness, storytelling and tradition.
Read Media 2070’s blog to learn more about Black narrative power and the fight for media reparations.
A View from the Field
Free Press convened a panel of experts who are meeting this moment with dogged reporting and work to hold Musk accountable.
Check out the latest updates from the field as our team works alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a more just and equitable media system. Below are snippets from our latest View from the Field blog — read the entire post!
- Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights Nora Benavidez took part in “Managing Justice Goals While Responding to Crisis & Chaos,” a panel discussion at a CUNY School of Law conference. Participants discussed ways to fight the Trump administration’s anti-democratic attacks on everything from housing to the civil service to voting rights. Nora spoke about attacks on dissent and the media.
- Advocacy Director Jenna Ruddock moderated a discussion with John Davisson of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Vittoria Elliott of WIRED and Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen about the grave dangers Elon Musk poses to our democracy. The conversation delved into how Musk and his team of DOGE techies have set in motion the largest data breach in U.S. history — violating and compromising Americans’ privacy rights. “The breach of that data empowers unaccountable people to work all sorts of harms and exert all sorts of pressure … on people that disagree with them politically,” said Davisson. Watch the webinar.
- Senior Director of Marketing and Communications Julio Ricardo Varela moderated a discussion with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya at the Knight Media Forum in Miami. The conversation explored the market failures that are threatening the livelihoods of journalists, creators and content distributors serving both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Latinx audiences in the United States.
Get Us In Your Feeds
Are you connected with Free Press on social media? If not, we’ve featured some posts from the past month below — and you can stay in the loop by following Free Press on platforms like Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
- On TikTok, we explained how Trump defied long-standing Supreme Court precedent by illegally firing Democratic Federal Trade Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya — and urged followers to take action. Check it out.
- On Bluesky, we shared a post from The Houston Chronicle highlighting Nora Benavidez’s remarks at SXSW on how Elon Musk’s dangerous actions at X have lowered the content-moderation bar across all social-media platforms. Read it here.
- On Instagram, we shared our latest job opening: We’re hiring a civic media campaign manager to work remotely from Wisconsin and build powerful campaigns to expand access to news and information across the state. Help us spread the word.
- And on Facebook, we shared our response to the news that the U.S. Commerce Department is looking to overhaul a $42.5 billion program to fund broadband deployment in rural areas — a shift that would directly benefit Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet service. Learn more.
Thank you for reading!
Free Press has an important role to play in the months and years ahead. Our team has specialized skills that will be needed to confront and combat the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. We’ve fought a Trump administration and the media moguls enabling it before, and we’ll do it again. Will you rush a donation to Free Press today? Your gift will help us do what’s needed to fight authoritarianism.
Thank you for everything you do to help power our movement,
All of us at Free Press and Free Press Action
freepress.net
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