Freedom of the Press

The NSA kept illegally spying on Americans for years after Snowden blew the whistle, according to a FOIA release.

This is exactly why Section 702, an easily abused warrantless surveillance authority, needs reform.

Time for Congress to stand up to the intel community and protect our privacy.

https://www.pogo.org/investigates/declassified-report-reveals-nsa-broke-surveillance-rules

Journalists widely reported on the deposition videos of former DOGE staffers because they're important and newsworthy.

Ordering them removed can't be squared with the First Amendment. The court should immediately lift this unconstitutional prior restraint.

https://abcnews.com/Politics/groups-fight-release-doge-deposition-videos-after-judge/story?id=131150741

FCC Chair Brendan Carr is again openly abusing his power, this time to threaten news outlets that report on the war in Iran.

Every newsroom and lawmaker must call this out and push back.

The U.S. doesn’t have state-run media, no matter how much Carr and Trump wish it did.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-iran-fcc-brendan-carr

New rules for Stars and Stripes prove the Pentagon is at war with itself. You can't claim to promote "independent," "impartial," and "credible" coverage while simultaneously doing everything to undermine it.

Our troops and their families deserve better.

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-03-13/pentagon-modernization-plan-stars-and-stripes-21051529.html

Trump is helping Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, son of a top supporter, gain control of CNN.

That’s an attack on the First Amendment — just like if Biden had steered the sale of Fox News to a donor.

Watch Trevor Timm explain and subscribe: https://freedom.press/newsletters/

Prosecutors will continue undermining press freedom until they’re held accountable with real consequences.

https://freedom.press/issues/judges-rebuke-of-doj-in-raid-on-journalists-home-exposes-bigger-problem/

"NPPA finds it stunning that one of the nation’s highest officials is more concerned with his personal vanity than with complete and accurate reporting of briefings during a war against Iran in which Americans have lost their lives."

https://nppa.org/news/833

ICE abductions of noncitizen journalists like Estefany Rodríguez "take the reporters best equipped to cover immigration enforcement off the beat," we told The Independent.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/estefany-rodriguez-florez-ice-arrest-nashville-b2933760.html

While a U.S.-Israel war is ravaging the Middle East, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his staff are worried about “unflattering” photos.

Pentagon briefings are supposed to inform the public — not serve as photo-ops.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/11/hegseth-press-briefings-photos-iran/

"This policy change is illegal," said Ginger Quintero-McCall, a public interest lawyer who represents FPF.

"It would not surprise me at all to learn that the administration reassigned employees who objected to this illegal policy of secrecy."

https://www.wired.com/story/cbp-privacy-threshold-analysis-foia/

Proton Mail is great for end-to-end encrypted emails, but as a recent story of an unmasked user highlights, it must comply with Swiss authorities — who may share user data with allies.

Read our newsletter to learn about what it can and can’t protect.

https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/proton-mail-is-not-for-anonymity/

NEW: For years, our loyal supporters have asked: Besides donating, how can we help you defend press freedom?

Well, now you can with our brand new action center — the tool enables you to seamlessly contact your elected representatives.

Take action today:

https://freedom.press/action/

We are calling on ICE to immediately release journalist Estefany Rodriguez, who has covered immigration, including ICE actions, for the local Spanish-language news site Nashville Noticias.

Read the letter we signed with 40 other press freedom and civil society groups:

https://www.freepress.net/news/coalition-41-press-freedom-groups-calls-immediate-release-nashville-based-journalist-arrested

The Trump administration used a federal law prohibiting protests around houses of worship to criminally charge journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort.

Now, New York State wants to create its own similar buffer law.

FPF's Caitlin Vogus explains:

https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/house-worship-buffer-zones-criminalize-21957918.php

"Buffer zone proposals under consideration in New York risk criminalizing journalism about protests that occur at or near houses of worship," FPF's Caitlin Vogus writes.

"When journalists are prevented from covering protests, the public is less informed."

https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/house-worship-buffer-zones-criminalize-21957918.php

The Oscars in solitary confinement: "The Alabama Solution" might win an Academy Award this weekend.

Meanwhile, its incarcerated filmmakers are in lockdown because there’s no legal protections for imprisoned whistleblowers.

FPF’s Seth Stern, Corinne Shanahan and Jeremy Busby explain:

https://inquest.org/the-oscars-in-solitary-confinement/

🔔 Join FPF's Harlo Holmes and Davis Erin Anderson for an Ask Us Anything session at a DOC NYC workshop to learn about digital security protection for documentarians and filmmakers.

And make sure to sign up for our digital security newsletter to get weekly tips on how to secure your devices and do your work online safely at freedom.press/newsletters.

🗓️ Thursday, March 26, 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT

RSVP:

https://www.docnyc.net/event/ask-us-anything-digital-security-for-doc-filmmakers/

The notion “that prosecutors should be the arbiters of journalistic practice and that anyone accused of bias is not entitled to the same level of First Amendment protections is deeply chilling,” Joel Simon writes in CJR.

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/inside-the-legal-defense-of-georgia-fort-and-don-lemon-abbe-lowell-leita-walker.php?mc_cid=2842290bff&mc_eid=b64f4be302

ICE has detained yet another journalist, Estefany Rodríguez.

If you're a journalist reporting on ICE and want more information about how to protect against potential retaliation against you or your sources, listen back to our event from last year with leading journalists on the immigration beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPPo0YzKfnA

The Trump administration has supercharged its abuse of the secrecy system to keep the press and the public in the dark about the Iran war — even as we’re footing the bill to the tune of $1 billion a day.

Watch Trevor Timm explain, and subscribe: https://freedom.press/newsletters

📩 Read in our weekly newsletter (and subscribe):

- The public deserves to know when Iran war reporting is stifled
- Florida should not get its own mini-CIA
- A judge finally called a newsroom raid what it is
- Assange case coming back to bite ‘conventional’ journalists
- Plus, what we're reading...

https://freedom.press/issues/press-must-be-transparent-about-wartime-censorship/

The Espionage Act has been used to criminalize whistleblowing and newsgathering for years.

Join us for a webinar to learn about Rep. Rashida Tlaib's bill to reform the archaic law.

🗓️ March 12, 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT

RSVP: https://freedom.press/reform-espionage-act

We don’t yet know if Estefany Rodríguez’s detention was in retaliation for her reporting but we certainly wouldn’t be surprised.

ICE abductions of noncitizen journalists take the reporters best equipped to cover immigration enforcement off the beat.

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/03/05/journalist-estefanty-rodriguez-ice-detention-colombia/

For years, we warned that the case against Julian Assange could be used against mainstream journalists, despite what many pundits said.

Well … now, it’s happening.

Watch FPF's Trevor Timm expose how the Trump administration is citing the WikiLeaks case in court to target journalists’ rights.

The Espionage Act has been used to criminalize whistleblowing and newsgathering for years.

Join us for a webinar to learn about Rep. Rashida Tlaib's bill to reform the archaic law.

🗓️ March 12, 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT

RSVP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmXN7TNpLuA

For nearly a year, DHS tried to keep secret that it had killed a U.S. citizen.

Then came a FOIA request from American Oversight.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/03/05/texas-dhs-shooting-citizen-killed/

If the feds, with their institutional expertise and legal constraints, cannot consistently avoid abusing surveillance powers, why should we assume newly created state intelligence offices will do better?

Read more from FPF's Seth Stern and Lauren Harper:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/01/florida-cia-intelligence-unit-surveillance-views

Excessive government secrecy is growing.

The Classified Catalog by FPF helps you keep track of the administration's assault on our right to know so you can report, research, and fight back.

Check it out here:

https://freedom.press/the-classifieds/the-classified-catalog-launches-to-track-secrecy-news/

“I would like to say that the best encryption is the noisy bar where you're whispering to somebody. But we always do have to think about surveillance architecture, which is incredibly prevalent,” FPF's Harlo Holmes told @Wired@mstdn.social.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-organize-safely-in-the-age-of-surveillance/

"Without leaks we wouldn't know about ICE claiming authority to enter homes without warrants, DHS baselessly labeling protesters as domestic terrorists," or "ICE surveillance tools pulling from vast pools of data," FPF's Seth Stern told Axios.

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/06/trump-media-leaks-journalist-sources

DHS says filming ICE is illegal and amounts to doxxing.
They’re absolutely wrong.

Recording law enforcement in public spaces is protected by the First Amendment — and courts have affirmed that right time and again.

Watch our executive director Trevor Timm explain.

📩 Read in our weekly newsletter (and subscribe):

• House committee votes to subpoena Seth Harp for Venezuela reporting
• John Cusack wants to talk about paywalls
• The document giving ICE 80 million Medicaid patients’ data
• Plus, what we’re reading…

https://freedom.press/issues/identifying-government-officials-is-not-doxxing/