Dear friend of press freedom,

A month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the effect on the independent press has been disastrous. In Russia, Putin’s government has effectively outlawed war reporting, leading international outlets to pull their staff from the country and local outlets facing raids, intimidation, and outright censorship. And in Ukraine, at least five journalists have already been killed covering the war.

Some organizations, especially those with large international operations, are turning to a combination of high- and low-tech mechanisms to reach Russian readers, ranging from Tor hidden services to old-fashioned shortwave radio.

The Supreme Court upheld and potentially expanded the “state secrets” privilege in a pair of decisions this month, undermining legal accountability efforts aimed at expansive government programs developed in the wake of the so-called “War on Terror.”

The conduct described in the two cases — the use of torture in overseas “black sites” and the targeting of mosques for invasive surveillance — is heinous and widely-reported. That the government can avoid accountability for these acts by claiming they are too secret to litigate is a great shame.

Elsewhere in government secrecy, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a transparency ruling that would have allowed historians to access 50+-year-old documents related to the Nixon’s administration’s attempt to prosecute a New York Times reporter for obtaining and publishing the Pentagon Papers. That episode is an important chapter in the story of American press freedom — yet it has been deemed too secret to release, despite the clear implications for journalists’ rights today.