The News/Media Alliance applauds Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) for introducing the Free Speech Protection Act, which would provide protections on the federal level from strategic lawsuits against public participation (“SLAPPs”) designed to chill free speech.
October 21-27, 2024 – Free Speech Week is nonpartisan, non-ideological event to raise awareness and celebrate the importance of free speech and a free press in the United States.
This month, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of one of the most important Supreme Court cases – New York Times v. Sullivan – that significantly shaped free speech protections for the press and the public at large.
On October 26, the Alliance joined a brief in Banks v. Hoffman, filed in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
As we celebrate Free Speech Week, we highlight the important role that local media, who promote these freedoms, play in every local community.
Some seeking to punish accountability journalism and free speech will bring costly and frivolous “SLAPP” suits against publishers. State anti-SLAPP laws exist to help defendants dismiss meritless claims, but the laws vary significantly from state to state. Federal anti-SLAPP legislation currently under consideration would help discourage these frivolous lawsuits.
At a time when the First Amendment is being tested and questioned – perhaps more than ever before – it is important that we reflect on where we are and where we are going in the face of the vast technological changes that are impacting our press and our democratic systems, especially the rise of the big tech platforms and their role in making editorial decisions previously delegated to newspaper publishers.
Journalists are out there every day on the front lines to uncover the facts and understandings that will allow us to find our way back to a more productive democracy where decisions can be made based on mutually agreed-upon facts.
The Alliance joined the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and 36 other media organizations urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to scrap a proposal introduced in September that would restrict visas for foreign journalists working in the United States.
As we head into what is going to be a truly historic election, we must remember the importance of the freedoms granted by the First Amendment and the value of the free press. For many years – but especially in the last four years – journalists in the United States have been literally under attack for doing their jobs.
