press freedom

On Sunday, the president reiterated his claim that “fake news” outlets are “the enemy of the people” and called journalists “very dangerous and sick” in some of his most inflammatory comments about the press.

A federal judge on Tuesday lifted a controversial order requiring The Los Angeles Times to delete information in an article published over the weekend. U.S. District Judge John Walter walked back his original decision after the Times protested with the support of newsrooms across the country, citing First Amendment concerns.

President Trump attacked the media once again on Thursday, calling them “downright dishonest” and “really bad people” during a campaign-style rally in Montana.

The RTDNA Voice of the First Amendment Task Force is offering support to journalists in Charlottesville, Va., who may have been arrested while covering Saturday’s protests involving alt-right nationalist organizations and groups opposing them.

Is Fox News a stalwart defender of the press freedoms it depends on? Well, that may depend on the year. It might even depend on who is the president.

The RTDNA Voice of the First Amendment Task Force today expressed concern regarding actions taken Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and U.S. Capitol Police officers to prevent journalists from taking photos or videos of officers arresting protesters outside the Senate chamber.

How can America have a feel-good birthday when one of the pillars of our 241-year-old republic is under near-daily assault from the highest levels of the government?

On Tuesday, President Trump warmly welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House. Just hours later, we found out that Trump would like to put reporters in jail. There’s a connection here. And it’s not good news for America’s journalists or the citizens who depend on them to hold their government accountable.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A leading European human rights official says that influence coming from governments and the rapid development of new technologies are among key challenges facing public broadcasters, […]

The United States’ ranking for press freedom declined last year, driven in part by Donald Trump’s attacks on the news media, which also triggered a decline in other democracies, an international media organization said Wednesday. Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the World Press Freedom Index based on its assessment of the legal environment and government threats to journalists, ranked the United States 43rd out of 180 nations.

A coalition of advocacy organizations including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Index on Censorship have settled on a name for their forthcoming press freedom website, and a journalist to lead it. Peter Sterne, who has covered digital and print media for Politico since 2014, will spearhead U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a site dedicated to compiling and maintaining a database of press freedom incidents in the United States.

Dan Shelley, the incoming executive director of the RTDNA, says the new Voice of the First Amendment Task Force will look to give better air cover to hardworking journalists under unprecedented attack for doing their jobs.

The philanthropy established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar will contribute $100 million to support investigative journalism, fight misinformation and counteract hate speech around the world. One of the first contributions, $4.5 million, will go to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Washington-based group behind last year’s Panama Papers investigation, which revealed offshore businesses and shell corporations, some of which were used for purposes such as tax evasion.

Trump’s attacks on the mainstream news media have not only energized them, but have prompted them to work together to plot a common strategy to preserve and expand their First Amendment rights and protections. National and local broadcasters should support this effort, providing money and speaking out.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin tells roughly 500 broadcasters at NAB’s State Leadership Conference that they need to stand strong in the face of President Trump’s press bashing. “As local broadcast news organizations, you have a greater ability to defend the integrity of the media because your listeners and viewers trust you more than just about any other media.”

The six journalists charged with felony rioting at the Trump inauguration were among 230 people detained in the anti-Trump demonstrations.

“Values are what matter most. And this is a good time to talk about them. A good time to reaffirm what we as journalists stand for,” Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, said when accepting the Hitchens Prize. “This is a time we are compelled to fight for free expression and a free press—rights granted us under the Constitution, yes, but also the very qualities that have long set us apart from other nations.”

It’s one thing to wage a press war as a candidate. It’s another to do it from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when you control what information is made public.

The independence and diversity of Europe’s media is under threat from political interference and concentrated ownership, according to a report from the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute in Florence, released after the group conducted a detailed examination of media plurality across 19 European Union member states.

Tensions between reporters and public information officers — “hacks and flacks” in the vernacular — aren’t new. Reporters have always wanted more information than government officials have been willing or able to give. But journalists say the lid has grown tighter under the Obama administration, whose chief executive promised in 2009 to bring “an unprecedented level of openness” to the federal government.