Not all that long ago, a Florida state law told newspapers what they could publish.
A political candidate could have equal space in a newspaper to reply to criticism. It did not matter if the criticism was true and the reply was false. Equal time was the rule on TV. Florida thought it should apply to newspapers.
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Read More… from Knight Foundation: A news industry ‘less able’ to defend freedom
From Boing Boing: Freedom of the Press Foundation has taken charge of the DeadDrop project, an open-source whistleblower submission system originally coded by the late transparency advocate Aaron Swartz. In the coming months, the Foundation will also provide on-site installation and technical support to news organizations that wish to run the system, which has been renamed “SecureDrop.”
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From Portage Daily Register: The First Amendment is very clear in its 45 words that it protects a “free press” along with our rights to religious freedom, free speech and the rights to assemble and petition.
But the founders, in effect, placed a responsibility on that free press in return for being the only profession named in the Bill of Rights: The news media were to be a “watchdog on government,” providing us with the facts, perspective and sometimes contrarian views that help citizens better chart the course of their government.
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Read More… from Gene Policinski: John Doe cast tests press freedom
From Talking Points Memo: WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel on Thursday approved a measure defining a journalist, which had been an obstacle to broader media shield legislation designed to protect reporters and the news media from having to reveal their sources.
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Read More… from Senate panel approves definition of ‘journalist’
From FOX News: Newly uncovered court documents reveal the Justice Department seized records of several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation — even listing a number that, according to one source, matches the home phone number of a reporter’s parents.
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Read More… from DOJ seized phone records for Fox News numbers, reporter’s parents
Press release from New England First Amendment Coalition: The New England First Amendment Coalition registered "extreme dismay" at the government seizure of phone records of The Associated Press and urged Attorney General Eric Holder to work for passage of a federal shield law and take other steps to avert a repeat of the intrusion that was part of a probe into a security leak.
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Read More… from NEFAC says Holder should push for shield law, train Justice personnel on subpoenas
From The New York Times: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters from penalties for refusing to identify confidential sources, and that would enable journalists to ask a federal judge to quash subpoenas for their phone records, a White House official said.
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From NBC: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department used a secret subpoena to obtain two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors without notifying the news organization, a senior department official tells NBC News, saying the step was necessary to avoid “a substantial threat to the integrity” of an ongoing leak investigation.
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Read More… from AP calls government’s record seizure a ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’
From Savethenews.org
Earlier this month, we issued a challenge to our members. We asked them to take a day off from work, visit their local television stations and … rifle through their filing cabinets.
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