First Amendment Coalition Sues DOJ Over Seizure Of Reporter’s Records
The First Amendment Coalition filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in San Francisco alleging that the DOJ violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by failing to provide the documents related to the secret collection of a journalist's phone and email records.
Death Penalty Reporter’s Case For Access Can Move Forward
Buzzfeed News investigative reporter Chris McDaniel can move forward with his lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections to be allowed to witness executions, a federal appellate court held. McDaniel— […]
State of the First Amendment Scores a B-
Every quarter the Newseum Institute produces a “report card” on how the current administration is faring on the five freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Thirteen First Amendment experts […]
BuzzFeed News Demands Access To Texas Detention Facility On First Amendment Grounds
BuzzFeed News sent a letter sent to the Chief Counsel of U.S. Customs and Border Protection requesting access to a centralized processing center in McAllen, Texas for a previously scheduled […]
Newspaper Challenging RI Judge In Federal Court For Banning Juror Contact
The Providence Journal is moving a First Amendment complaint against a Superior Court judge to federal court for declaring a ban on reporter contact with jurors after a trial. The […]
Journalist Cleared of Criminal Trespass Charges
Following a one-day trial, North Dakota Judge Thomas Schneider ruled that journalist Jenni Monet complied with law enforcement orders while reporting on the demonstration at the Dakota Access Pipeline. The […]
The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment expert, Gene Policinski, originally published this commentary on May 11, 2018, on the Newseum blog, and has given First Amendment Watch permission to reprint. […]
President Trump Takes Fake News Accusations To New Level Tweeting Negative Coverage Equals Fake News
Presidents make use of all forms of communication to get their message out to voters. No other President has so effectively used Twitter as President Trump who has called it his "own form of media" used to counter "fake news." In his latest deluge, President Trump equates negative news coverage with "fake news" and threatens to revoke press credentials (again). The central role of the First Amendment is to protect the people in their writings about government affairs and government officials—and especially when it is negative, as that is when the government is most likely to try to punish writers. As James Madison wrote in his Virginia Report of 1800, freedom of the press protects the "right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.”