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.
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.
While a federal shield law would not supersede state laws, protection on the federal level would send a clear message about the importance of preserving the relationships journalists have with their sources.
LawView tracks state and federal bills that would affect news media publishers. Currently, we’re following legislative proposals falling in one of eight different topics as they pertain to news media: drones, online political ad disclosure, anti-SLAPP, federal, public notices, Freedom of Information Act, First Amendment and telemarketing.
Around the world, journalists put themselves in danger every day to deliver the news and inform the public. Some of those reporters work in deadly war zones, while others are under attack from tyrannical leaders and under political pressure to keep quiet about the truth they see. Yet, every single day, journalists around the world go to work to report the news and tell the people in their communities what they need to know. Tragically, many journalists never make it home to see the impact their work has had.
News Media Alliance President and CEO David Chavern today called on the major technology platforms, namely Facebook and Google, to take responsibility for the role they play in deciding, via their “secret algorithms,” how and to whom news is distributed, and the subsequent impact of those decisions on civil society.
