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Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

A judge ordered ([link removed]) Rümeysa Öztürk’s release today. But it's still the 45th day she spent incarcerated by the U.S. government for writing an op-ed. Hopefully this shameful chapter in First Amendment history is nearing a close. Other press freedom news below.

A memo we obtained shows the Trump administration put migrants in cages in El Salvador based on lies and wanted to investigate the press for exposing those lies. AP Photo/Salvador Melendez

Memo obtained by FPF shows DOJ’s new anti-press policy is based on lies

Last week, we argued ([link removed]) that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reversal of her predecessor’s policy restricting subpoenas of journalists will help President Donald Trump lie to the public.

This week we proved it. A memorandum released following a public records request by Lauren Harper, our Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy, confirmed prior reports that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe Trump’s claims that Venezuela’s government controls the Tren de Aragua gang. Bondi’s memo cited that same reporting as an example of damaging fake news that results from leaks.

As it turns out, the journalists who reported the intelligence agencies’ position got it exactly right, and the leaks in question only damaged Trump’s reputation by exposing the deception behind his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to ship Venezuelans to gulags in El Salvador. What better way to further our late co-founder’s legacy than exposing presidential lies to justify atrocities abroad?
READ OUR PRESS RELEASE ([link removed])

Attacks on law firms and nonprofits endanger the press

It doesn’t take a law degree to see that Trump’s attacks on law firms ([link removed]) and nonprofits ([link removed]) could also do irreparable harm to press freedom.

To learn more about what’s at stake, we spoke to legendary First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams; general counsel for The Intercept, David Bralow; and Albert Sellars, partner Kendra Albert.
READ OR WATCH THE CONVERSATION ([link removed])

Ed Martin should be disbarred

Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was mostly in the news for palling ([link removed]) around with white supremacists when Trump pulled ([link removed]) his nomination for the permanent job as top prosecutor in Washington. But he’s also spent his career making a mockery of the ethical rules governing attorneys.

That’s why Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and Demand Progress filed a comprehensive disciplinary complaint ([link removed]) against Martin. As our Advocacy Director Seth Stern explained, Martin’s antics, like sending “bogus letters and tweets to intimidate people exercising First Amendment rights and his threats to target news outlets President Trump dislikes, should disqualify him from practicing law, full stop.”
READ MORE ([link removed])

Lights, camera, national security crisis!

Trump’s recent announcement that he plans to impose a 100% tariff on movies made outside the United States has created ([link removed]) more confusion ([link removed]) than the ending of “Inception ([link removed]) .”

What is Trump talking about when he claims ([link removed]) that making movies abroad threatens national security? When Trump claims to be protecting the homeland from foreign adversaries, he is often actually protecting his own false narratives from domestic scrutiny.
READ MORE ([link removed])


** Administration seeks to appoint itself the sole arbiter of truth
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Trump’s vilification of the press should be seen in the context of his larger agenda to discredit any arbiter of fact and fiction that has not kissed the ring.

The goal is to make Trump’s “alternative facts” the only facts. That’s why the administration is going after not only journalists, but everyone from prestigious universities ([link removed]) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to small medical journals ([link removed]) in Glenview, Illinois.
READ THE OP-ED ([link removed])


** What does Fullerton, CA, have to hide?
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We joined First Amendment Coalition in a letter objecting to a ban on newspaper distribution in government buildings by the city of Fullerton, California.

As the letter explains, “The ban sends the message … that the city is hostile to the free press and discourages criticism of its policies, preferring that residents only read government-approved messaging.”
READ THE LETTER ([link removed])

WHAT WE’RE READING


** AL JAZEERA
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** Fear and intimidation at Newark airport ([link removed])
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A Palestinian-American journalist was interrogated at the border about her reporting, but she refuses to stay silent. Journalists must continue to speak up about these abuses.


** ARS TECHNICA
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** Jury orders NSO to pay $167 million for hacking WhatsApp users ([link removed])
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NSO Group has a long history of helping dictators and authoritarians spy on journalists and activists. Hopefully, this multimillion-dollar verdict will finally get their attention.


** INSTITUTE FOR FREE SPEECH
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** Montana governor signs landmark bill, as state becomes the 37th to enact anti-SLAPP protections ([link removed])
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Legislatures in red and blue states alike understand there’s nothing partisan about protecting journalists, activists, and everyone else from anti-speech lawfare.


** THE ASSOCIATION OF FOREIGN PRESS CORRESPONDENTS USA
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** Takeaways from AFPC-USA’s 2025 World Press Freedom Day panel ([link removed])
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FPF’s Seth Stern’s “remarks painted a stark picture of press freedom under direct political attack. He warned that without structural protections, the First Amendment itself is being tested, and norms that were once assumed unbreakable are now being shattered.”


** COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
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A student journalist covered a pro-Palestine protest. Soon, her graduation came under threat ([link removed])

Columbia hit a new moral low by targeting a student journalist for her reporting on a pro-Palestinian sit-in before changing course. Lesson learned? Nope. The university then stooped even lower by suspending student journalists ([link removed]) for covering protests.
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HOW TO SHARE SENSITIVE INFORMATION WITH THE PRESS ([link removed])

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Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 ([link removed]) where not otherwise indicated.

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