Journalism

Bill, Supported By White House and Media; Organizations, Addresses National Security Concerns and Creates a Legal Protection for Journalists Guarding Sources' Anonymity

October 30, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Arlen Specter (D-PA) today released a revised version of the Free Flow of Information Act which has received backing from the White House and the newspaper industry. The bill includes new provisions that further protect national security interests while providing legal protection for journalists guarding the anonymity of their sources.    » read more »

Legislation named in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter killed on the job in Pakistan

October 1, 2009 -- Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today introduced the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, legislation that would direct the State Department to include information relating to freedom of the press worldwide in annual country reports on human rights practices.

The legislation is named in honor of Wall Street Journal South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl, who in 2002 was kidnapped and brutally murdered by extremists in Pakistan. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 742 journalists have been killed on duty since the organization began tracking these crimes in 1992.    » read more »

Bill, Endorsed By 72 Media Organizations, Would Create a Legal Protection For Journalists Guarding Their Sources' Anonymity

September 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) urged the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday to approve a revised version of the reporter shield bill authored by him and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), calling it a “balanced bill” that will guard journalists’ ability to protect their sources in many cases, while still compelling the disclosure of certain information that seriously impacts national security.    » read more »

June 20, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge, Joseph M. Demarest issued the following statement concerning New York Times Reporter David Rohde:

"On June 19, David Rohde, a reporter for the New York Times contacted family members to advise he had escaped from his abductors. Rohde was taken hostage in Afghanistan on November 10, 2008. The FBI is working with the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense to see that Mr. Rohde receives medical attention and is reunited with his family."    » read more »

Senate Unanimously Passes Kaufman Resolution Supporting a Free Press and Free Speech in Iran

June 19, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Senate passed a resolution introduced by Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) and co-sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) that reinforces the universal values of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and supports the Iranian people as they take steps to peacefully express their voices, opinions, and aspirations in the aftermath of the June 12th election.

The resolution also condemns censorship and intimidation of the press in Iran, and pledges support to the Iranian people seeking access to news and other forms of information.    » read more »

May 29, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- A published report in The New York Post on May 29, 2009, regarding the FBI's external, unclassified computer network contains factual errors and inaccuracies.

The New York Post reported that "a vicious cyber-virus is crippling the FBI's computer and e-mail systems—continuing to jam the G-men's vast communications network more than NINE DAYS after being first detected."

Fact: The FBI's external, unclassified e-mail system is not crippled, nor was it jammed for nine days. The external, unclassified network was shut down by the FBI as a precautionary measure. Within 48 hours of identifying the issue and mitigating risks, e-mail traffic was largely restored to the external, unclassified network.    » read more »

12 May 2009 -- US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was released from jail in Iran on Monday following international and domestic protests at her detention. A court heard an appeal against her conviction on Sunday and commuted her eight-year sentence to a suspended two-year term on the charge of "collecting classified information".

The court imposed a five-year ban on her working as a journalist in Iran. Amnesty International, which had campaigned for her release, welcomed the news.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- August 11, 2008 -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) sent a letter Monday to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller pressing the Director to provide more information to Committee members about the misuse of so-called “exigent letters.” Press accounts last week revealed that Mueller apologized to editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post for a 2004 breach of Department of Justice guidelines regarding subpoenas for reporters’ phone records.    » read more »

April 7, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling on her to condemn a recent ruling by a prominent Saudi cleric against two Saudi journalists for reporting what he considered heretical articles.

Barack Obama mural, Brooklyn: Photo by Erica (CC)

According to recent reports, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak issued a fatwa last month stating that two journalists should be put to death if they did not retract their articles. Last week, over 100 Arab rights groups also condemned the fatwa.    » read more »

31 March 2008 -- A U.S.-based press freedom organization has criticized Venezuela's growing restrictions on freedom of the press, Cuba's jailing of journalists and U.S. court pressure on reporters to reveal confidential sources.

The Inter American Press Association wrapped up its midyear meeting Sunday in Caracas with a statement that accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of using attacks and intimidation to curb criticism of his government.

Last year Mr. Chavez refused to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television and replaced it with a state-run channel that airs government propaganda.

The IAPA also said Cuba's detention of 25 journalists amounted to a demonstration of total intolerance.    » read more »

Iraq Vets Plead for More Coverage of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Five Years into the Iraq War, Few Americans Even Know the Death Toll

March 18, 2008 -- NEW YORK - On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation's first and largest non-partisan organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is calling on the press to report on the current conflicts more thoroughly. Coverage of the wars has dropped sharply in recent months.    » read more »

11 February 2008 -- U.S. television network CBS says two of its journalists have gone missing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

In a brief statement Monday, CBS says efforts are under way to find the journalists, whose names were not released. The network says it has been in touch with the journalists' families and asked that their privacy be respected.

Reports from Basra quote witnesses as saying about eight gunmen kidnapped the CBS journalists today from the city's Sultan Palace Hotel.    » read more »

January 24, 2008 -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is giving high praise today to the Utah Supreme Court for adopting the state’s first reporter privilege rule. The Utah Supreme Court adopted the draft of Rule 509 Reporter Privilege, a proposal that had been supported by the Attorney General. Shurtleff has been working with legislators, prosecutors, journalists and the Supreme Court for the past two and a half years to come up with a workable and reasonable rule that would allow reporters to protect confidential informants.    » read more »

18 December 2007 -- A new report says 2007 has been the deadliest year for journalists in more than a decade, with 64 members of the media killed in direct connection to their work.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released the figures Tuesday. It reported 56 killings of media workers last year.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- November 15, 2007 -- The closure of three independent radio stations by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) earlier this week has left war-torn Mogadishu virtually devoid of reliable media outlets as the situation in Somalia becomes increasingly desperate, Freedom House said today.

The station closures coincide with the arrests of human rights activists Ali Farah Mohammed and Amir Hashi Ibrahim of the Center for Peace and Democracy (CPD), a human rights organization in Mogadishu that was also temporarily closed earlier this week.    » read more »