Fwd: The public pays for records lawsuits

Fri Mar 15 02:52:06 PDT 2024

Noticed this mentions successful litigation against withholding of records !

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Freedom of the Press Foundation <newsletter at freedom.press>
Date: Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 14:12
Subject: The public pays for records lawsuits
To: <baffo32 at gmail.com>

Why Texas senators should support the PRESS Act

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Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

Here are some of the most important stories we’re following from the U.S.
and around the world. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward
it to friends and family. If someone has forwarded you this newsletter,
please subscribe here (https://freedom.press/subscribe/) .

San José Spotlight City Hall reporter Jana Kadah conducts a phone
interview. The Spotlight was awarded $500,000 in attorneys fees in its
public records lawsuit against the California city after a judge determined
the records were wrongly withheld. Courtesy of Ramona Giwargis

** Who pays for public records lawsuits? The public
------------------------------------------------------------

Public records and freedom of information laws are fundamental for
government transparency.

But when journalists fight for access to wrongfully withheld records at the
state and local level, the public is paying the price, according to a new
article (
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/the-public-is-paying-the-price-for-local-government-secrecy/)
published by our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/)
for Sunshine Week. Over the past year alone, local governments have paid
journalists at least $1.6 million in attorneys fees — all of which was
financed by taxpayers — following public records lawsuits.

Read more on the Tracker’s website (
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/the-public-is-paying-the-price-for-local-government-secrecy/)
about the high costs caused by pointless fights against records requests,
as well as proposed legislation in various states that might make it harder
for the public to access public records. Or, listen to a discussion of
these issues on X (
https://x.com/FreedomofPress/status/1767672077916438614?s=20) with Freedom
of the Press Foundation (FPF) Advocacy Director Seth Stern, Tracker Senior
Reporter Stephanie Sugars, and the director of the Joseph L. Brechner
Freedom of Information Project, David Cuillier.

To explore more of the Tracker’s coverage of select, egregious records
denials exposed by lawsuits against state agencies, search the incident
database using the #public records (
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=public+records) tag.

Texas senators should support the PRESS Act

The PRESS Act — the federal shield bill that passed the House this year —
is the most important First Amendment legislation (
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4442351-why-political-rivals-can-and-should-come-together-for-press-freedom/)
in modern history.

It’s currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which includes
both senators representing Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

FPF’s Seth Stern joined First Amendment lawyer Gene Schaerr of Protect The
1st (https://www.protect1st.org/) to write an op-ed for The Dallas Morning
News (
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/03/12/cruz-and-cornyn-should-support-the-press-act-to-protect-press-freedom/)
about why Cornyn and Cruz should help get the PRESS Act across the finish
line. Both Cruz and Cornyn have spoken out against anti-press measures,
Stern and Schaerr explain, making their support for the PRESS Act a
“no-brainer.”

But the PRESS Act still needs more support to go the distance, especially
from Republican committee members. If you’re in Texas, consider contacting
Sen. Cruz (https://www.cruz.senate.gov/contact/write-ted) and Sen. Cornyn (
https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/share-opinion/) to express your support for
the legislation. Or reach out to your senator, if you’re in one of these
dozen-and-a-half states (
https://freedom.press/newsletter/press-for-the-press-act/) .

Read the full op-ed here (
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/03/12/cruz-and-cornyn-should-support-the-press-act-to-protect-press-freedom/)
.

Burke charges are a ‘hack’ job

We’ve written before (
https://freedom.press/news/indictment-of-journalist-raises-serious-first-amendment-concerns/)
about how the indictment of journalist Tim Burke — based on his online
newsgathering exposing outtakes from Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ye,
formerly known as Kanye West — raises disturbing questions about just how
much the government will stretch a federal hacking law, the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act, to criminalize journalism.

Now, writing in Ars Technica (
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/charges-against-journalist-tim-burke-are-a-hack-job/?utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=ars&utm_source=twitter)
, FPF Deputy Director of Advocacy Caitlin Vogus and ACLU Surveillance and
Cybersecurity Counsel Jennifer Stisa Granick unpack these charges, and the
dangers they pose to journalists.

“Journalists need never ask corporations for permission to investigate or
embarrass them, and the law shouldn’t encourage or force them to,” Vogus
and Granick write. “Just because someone doesn’t like what a reporter does
online doesn’t mean that it’s without authorization and that what he did is
therefore a crime.”

Read the full op-ed here (
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/charges-against-journalist-tim-burke-are-a-hack-job/?utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=ars&utm_source=twitter)
.

The media are getting easier to push around

“Reporters and news organizations in hundreds of communities have faced
interference, intimidation, and harassment from local officials in recent
years,” writes Paul Farhi in The Atlantic this week (
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/local-government-bullying-press/677692/)
, citing data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Case in point: the arrest and prosecution of a local publisher (
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alabama-publisher-charged-over-report-on-grand-jury-investigation/)
and reporter (
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alabama-reporter-faces-felony-charge-for-article-on-grand-jury-investigation/)
in Atmore, Alabama. They’re charged with felonies for simply publishing a
story (
https://archive.is/o/G4OhZ/https://atmorenews.com/2023/10/25/boe-investigations/)
, based on an anonymous leak, revealing a grand jury investigation into
possible financial fraud by the local school system.

Farhi links this and other abuses to decreased public and financial support
for the news industry, as well as “the hostile climate that surrounds
reporting these days.”

“Local authorities seem to have gotten the message that they can get away
with this,” FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm told Farhi, who also cites
FPF’s coverage of the alarming increase in prior restraints (
https://www.cjr.org/opinion/prior-restraints-opinion-seth-stern-contempt-court.php)
against the press.

Read the full article here (
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/local-government-bullying-press/677692/)
.

** What we’re reading
------------------------------------------------------------

Israeli tank strike killed 'clearly identifiable' Reuters reporter - UN
report (
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-tank-strike-killed-clearly-identifiable-reuters-reporter-un-report-2024-03-13/)
. A United Nations investigation has confirmed what civil society (
https://rsf.org/en/rsf-video-investigation-death-reuters-reporter-issam-abdallah-lebanon-journalists-vehicle-was)
and news organizations (
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/)
have already shown: Israel violated international law when it killed
Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah and wounded six other journalists in
Lebanon last year. Israel must ensure those responsible for Abdallah’s
death and other attacks on journalists (
https://cpj.org/2024/03/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/)
are held responsible and that killings of journalists stop (
https://freedom.press/news/press-rights-groups-demand-protections-for-journalists-in-israel-gaza-war/)
.

ACLU Urges Senate to Reject TikTok Ban Bill Following House Passage (
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-urges-senate-to-reject-tiktok-ban-bill-following-house-passage)
. Banning TikTok would be censorship (
https://freedom.press/news/unconstitutional-tiktok-ban-would-open-the-door-to-press-censorship/)
. Period. Journalists and media outlets use the platform to share news
stories, and millions of Americans use it to consume news. Censoring
communications from foreign countries — let alone entire platforms — is
plainly unconstitutional. That’s why FPF joined the ACLU and other free
speech and civil liberties organizations in a letter urging Congress to
reject the TikTok ban bill (
https://www.aclu.org/documents/coalition-letter-to-house-of-representatives-opposing-h-r-7521)
. You can also tell Congress to stop the TikTok ban (
https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-stop-the-tiktok-ban) .

Lawmakers approve controversial bill to limit public access to government
records (
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2024/03/11/lawmakers-approve-controversial-bill-to-limit-public-access-to-government-records/)
. The New Jersey legislature is fast-tracking a bill that would gut the
state’s Open Public Records Act, despite opposition from everyone under the
sun: residents, journalists, civil liberties advocates, activists, voting
watchdogs, lawyers, and even some state officials. It’s painfully ironic
and wrong that New Jersey lawmakers are taking this step during Sunshine
Week. New Jersey should not pass this bill.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says that if police radio transmissions aren’t
encrypted, the terrorists will win (
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/11/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-says-that-if-police-radio-transmissions-arent-encrypted-the-terrorists-will-win/)
. “No one involved in this shift towards encrypted NYPD communications has
ever bothered to recognize the cognitive dissonance that says protecting
private people’s communications is a net loss for society while protecting
cop communications is a net gain.” That’s exactly right. Police in New York
City and elsewhere shouldn’t dodge journalists and public accountability (
https://freedom.press/news/police-dodge-journalists-by-encrypting-radio/)
by encrypting police radio.
https://twitter.com/freedomofpress
https://www.facebook.com/FreedomOfThePressFoundation/
https://freedom.press/

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