Report shows continuing abuses at protests despite drop in arrests

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Dear friend of press freedom,

Here are some of the most important stories we’re following from the U.S. and around the world. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward it to friends and family. If someone has forwarded you this newsletter, please subscribe here ([link removed]) .

It’s also the end of the year, and we count on donations from supporters like you to keep us fighting for press freedom rights everywhere. Please consider donating to Freedom of the Press Foundati ([link removed]) on ([link removed]) today.
Stephanie Sugars, FPF

A last minute objection from Sen. Tom Cotton unfortunately blocked the PRESS Act’s inclusion in Congress’s year-end omnibus package. More on our blog ([link removed]) .

Despite the setback, we are proud that FPF’s advocacy persuaded ([link removed]) Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin to vocally support the PRESS Act and helped get the bill the Republican cosponsor ([link removed]) it needs to ultimately succeed in Mike Lee.

The PRESS Act remains the strongest “shield” bill we’ve ever seen and we’re not going to let one anti-press senator stop us (and the coalition of almost 40 ([link removed]) organizations we assembled) from continuing the fight into 2023. Cotton may think ([link removed]) journalists should keep wartime abuses under wraps for the sake of troop morale, but most Americans want an aggressive and unrestrained press free of government surveillance.

We will continue doing everything in our power to make that a reality.


** Arrests drop but journalists covering protests remain at risk
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FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker released its annual arrest report ([link removed]) this week, reporting 12 arrests of journalists and 18 journalists facing ongoing charges.

The arrest number is down significantly from 2021, and especially 2020, but only because there were fewer mass protests this year. The report notes that eight journalists were detained over one weekend following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The report also notes a growing trend — which we encourage — of reporters suing for damages after wrongful arrests. The entire report is available here ([link removed]) .


** Open records abuses underscore need for reforms
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We wrote about ([link removed]) recent incidents — including a Google-funded lawsuit to block the public from learning how much water it uses to cool data centers — that illustrate how government agencies and powerful corporations weaponize exemptions to open records laws to reduce accountability.

In fact, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that agencies even claim their procedures for determining whether exemptions apply are themselves exempt from disclosure ([link removed]) .

Open records laws are in serious need of reform if they are to serve their intended purpose of boosting transparency as opposed to giving the government built-in excuses to deny information to the public.

Relatedly, FPF joined an amicus brief ([link removed]) earlier this month opposing the Baltimore Police Department’s effort to charge Open Justice Baltimore $245,123 (reduced from an initial fee of over $1,000,000) for records OJB requested under the Maryland Public Information Act. The Department denied a public interest fee waiver based on a self-serving assertion that the materials sought — records of investigations of police officers —“would not likely contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations” of BPD.


** FPF pushes attorney general to drop charges against Julian Assange
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Earlier this month, FPF, along with several other press freedom and civil liberties organizations, sent a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop the Justice Department’s criminal and extradition proceedings against Julian Assange.

As the letter explained ([link removed]) , “it is time for the Biden administration to break from the Trump administration’s decision to indict Assange — a move that was hostile to the media and democracy itself. Correcting the course is essential to protect journalists’ ability to report freely on the United States without fear of retribution.”

— Seth Stern, Director of Advocacy


** What we’re reading
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No free PACER as U.S. lawmakers exclude proposal from spending bill ([link removed]) . Another notable and unfortunate exclusion from the omnibus bill was the Open Courts Act. That bill would have provided free access ([link removed]) to PACER, the service federal courts use to provide online access to court records. Currently, PACER charges $0.10 per page, a number which has no correlation to any cost of administering the poorly designed and rarely updated site.

Congress instead reduced judicial transparency by passing the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, ([link removed]) which purports to keep judges safe by allowing them to request takedowns of their personal information, broadly defined to include, for example, where their spouses work. The likely unconstitutional law will inhibit reporting on conflicts of interest (Ginni Thomas, for example). Not only that, the fact the federal judiciary supported a law like this diminishes judges’ credibility whenever they are called upon to decide a case involving First Amendment freedoms.
Protester terrorism charges come amid legal battle over other arrests of demonstrators, journalists ([link removed]) . A freelance journalist was reportedly arrested while covering a protest of an Atlanta “public safety training center” before being released without charge. He reported that his notes were also seized by police.

That’s bad enough, but the article in the SaportaReport also contains shocking video of police threatening ([link removed]) another reporter with a trespassing arrest unless he either deletes footage or agrees to tell the police’s side of the story. Police eventually back down but not without threatening the reporter that “I’m sure our paths will cross again.” The video is illustrative of how police use petty offenses they don’t enforce against non-journalists as a pretext to bully the press. Officers are not judge, jury and executioner — even assuming the journalist trespassed, they have no right to unilaterally convict him and impose an unconstitutional “sentence” of destruction of news footage. They obviously knew better, which is why they didn’t follow through after the reporter stood his ground.

Globe journalist forced to testify despite First Amendment concerns ([link removed]) . A court forced Boston Globe journalist Joshua Miller to testify about his reporting on a Harvard admissions scandal. FPF had joined a proposed amicus brief opposing the subpoena ([link removed]) that the judge ultimately allowed. Miller’s testimony was limited to authenticating his published articles (as opposed to giving up confidential sources) but all subpoenas of journalists cast a chilling effect on First Amendment freedoms. There is little benefit to counter that significant cost because most news reporting is, by nature, hearsay, which is inadmissible in court. Prosecutors should build their own cases rather than piggybacking on the hard work of journalists.


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