We strongly support Australia’s Right to Know media freedom campaign, set to launch on October 20, which calls for ending the criminalization of journalists working to report the truth and to hold accountable the Australian government and those in positions of power.
On September 23, free-press advocates from the National Press Club Journalism Institute and Reporters Without Borders, along with more than 100 volunteers (including myself), canvassed Capitol Hill to ask legislators to support efforts to free American journalist Austin Tice, who has been held captive in Syria since 2012.
As we celebrate National Newspaper Week, we are raising awareness about our five First Amendment freedoms, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution — freedom of the press, speech, religion, petition and assembly — and the ways the news media help promote and protect those freedoms. Those five freedoms seem so basic, and we sometimes may take them for granted, but there are surprisingly few channels that allow us to exercise all five freely.
Regardless of whether or not Julian Assange is a “journalist,” the May 23 indictment of Assange crosses a clear constitutional line. In the 102-year history of the Espionage Act, the United States has never deployed that Act to punish the publication of information. An interpretation of the Espionage Act to criminally punish publication of information plainly violates the First Amendment.
The News Media Alliance applauds Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) for bicameral introduction the Journalist Protection Act.
With the release of our newest ad last week, we — along with our Support Real News partners — are responding to recent attacks on the media, highlighting the importance of press access for the preservation of our democracy. In the ad, we called on the public to support press access, noting that the ability of reporters to accurately inform the public depends on their ability to ask questions of those in power.
Journalists report the facts, giving their readers and viewers the details they need to make informed decisions about their lives and the world around them. While they are usually background players, in recent weeks they have taken center stage, not as the storytellers, but as the story. During last night’s Super Bowl LIII, The Washington Post highlighted this point in an ad about the value of journalists to our democracy.
Denying press access is a violation of your First Amendment right to a free press. Without press access, we all lose. As part of our Support Real News campaign, the News Media Alliance is proud to provide two ads for use in your print and online publications.
While student journalists may not be facing the exact same threats as their adult counterparts, there are serious threats to the student press, and the current anti-press environment has only made things worse. But luckily for students across America, the Student Press Law Center is ready to assist young journalists no matter their legal or ethical predicament.
As part of Free Speech Week, we’re looking back at some of the biggest moments in the history of our First Amendment right to a free press and the impacts those moments had on the press as we know it today.
