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Press Freedom Jeopardy?

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 12/6/24

Headline:  “Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is a Grim Sign for Press Freedom”

“Donald Trump is just weeks away from returning to the White House, and when he gets there, it is all but assured that he will attack press freedom (FAIR.org, 11/14/24; NBC, 12/4/24).

“But the will and desire to clamp down on free speech and expression isn’t just a Trumpian phenomenon. A US District Court of Appeals panel, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok because of its alleged Chinese government control (AP, 12/6/24).

“All corners of government, joined by members of both major parties, concur that national security concerns should allow the government to scrap First Amendment principles. This means that Trump’s aggressiveness against free speech isn’t an anomaly of his Make America Great Again movement, but a general feature of American state power. The enormity of this decision, if upheld by the notoriously conservative Supreme Court, is a dire sign of what is to come.”

https://fair.org/home/appeals-court-upholding-tiktok-ban-is-a-grim-sign-for-press-freedom/

TikTok – Medium of Free Speech or Espionage?

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Update:

Article in Washington Post by Madalin Necsutu and Anthony Faiola, 11/6/24

Headline:  “Romanian court annuls presidential vote after Russian interference claims”

Subhead:  “Calin Georgescu won the first round of the election after being propelled by TikTok. Romania’s security services pointed to ‘Russian hybrid actions.’ “

“The Constitutional Court took the extraordinary step of annulling Romania’s presidential election Friday after the country’s security services assessed that the nation had been the target of ‘Russian hybrid actions’ that used TikTok to promote a candidate who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/06/romania-court-annuls-presidential-election/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Headline:  “Appeals court upholds nationwide TikTok ban-or-sale law”

Subhead:  “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit made the expedited decision ahead of the TikTok ban’s looming Jan. 19 deadline, in a high-profile case pitting national security concerns against free speech.”

“A federal appeals court has turned away a challenge to a fast-approaching nationwide ban of short-video app TikTok unless it divests from Chinese ownership, placing national security before free speech concerns and bringing the app’s 170 million U.S. users closer to losing access to the wildly popular platform.

“he U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday sided with the Justice Department, which argued that the U.S. government has the authority to ban TikTok based on the national security risk that TikTok could be pressured by the Chinese government to expose Americans’ data or influence what they see. TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, is based in China.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/06/tiktok-ban-court-ruling-justice-department-bytedance/

Journalists Will Be Muzzled?

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Article in The Columbia Journalism Review by Kyle Paolette, 11/22/25

Headline:  “A New Normal”

Subhead:  “If Donald Trump returns to the White House, the Espionage Act offers a clear path for him to stifle press freedom.”

“It’s the summer of 2025, and the home screen of every major news outlet bears the same image: a journalist being escorted by a cloud of black suits across a brick plaza to a hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the first American reporter ever to be charged under the Espionage Act.”

“. . .Since the eighties, the Espionage Act has served as the primary means of prosecuting government employees for disclosing confidential information. This century, the threat has grown significantly. During the George W. Bush administration, Judith Miller—a Times reporter whose coverage of the Iraq War drew upon what turned out to have been fabricated intelligence—was jailed for refusing to reveal a source being investigated under the Espionage Act. . . .”

https://www.cjr.org/covering_the_election/new-normal-paoletta-trump-espionage-act-project-2025-prosecute-enemies.php

Canada Leads Battle of Media Titans

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Article in The Guardian by Leland Cecco, 11/29/24

Headline: “Canadian media companies sue OpenAI in case potentially worth billions”

Subhead: “Litigants say AI company used their articles to train its popular ChatGPT software without authorization”

“Canada’s major news organizations have sued tech firm OpenAI for potentially billions of dollars, alleging the company is “strip-mining journalism” and unjustly enriching itself by using news articles to train its popular ChatGPT software.

The suit, filed on Friday in Ontario’s superior court of justice, calls for punitive damages, a share of profits made by OpenAI from using the news organizations’ articles, and an injunction barring the San Francisco-based company from using any of the news articles in the future.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/29/canada-media-companies-sue-openai-chatgpt

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Article in the New York Times by Matina Stevis-Gridneff, 11/29/24

Headline:   “Major Canadian News Outlets Sue OpenAI in New Copyright Case”

Subhead:  “A coalition of some of Canada’s biggest media companies is seeking billions of dollars in compensation for what they say is copyright infringement on their work through ChatGPT.”

“These artificial intelligence companies cannibalize proprietary content and are free-riding on the backs of news publishers who invest real money to employ real journalists who produce real stories for real people,” said Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada.

“A coalition of Canada’s biggest news organizations is suing OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, accusing the company of illegally using their content in the first case of its kind in the country.

Five of the country’s major news companies, including the publishers of its top newspapers, newswires and the national broadcaster, filed the joint suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday morning.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/world/canada/canada-openai-lawsuit-copyright.html

Revenge Against Media Coming

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 11/27/24

Headline:  “Trump’s Eruption of Rage at NYT Offers Unnerving Hint of What’s Coming”

Subhead:  “As Trump rants at the Times after coverage of his creepy young aide, former Times public editor Margaret Sullivan reflects on what his press crackdown may look like—and how the media can respond.”

“This week, Donald Trump erupted in fury at The New York Times. He appeared triggered by a story about an aide named Natalie Harp, who serves as his gatekeeper with creepy levels of devotion. What caught our eye is that in his rant, Trump demanded that the Times show obeisance to him because he won the election, perhaps providing an early glimpse of how he will seek to cow the media into submission. We talked to Margaret Sullivan, the former Times public editor and author of the great Substack American Crisis, who explains what Trump’s crackdown on the press might look like—and how well the media will respond to it. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is . . .” – in the link below:

https://newrepublic.com/article/188857/trumps-eruption-rage-nyt-offers-unnerving-hint-whats-coming

Precedent for Arresting Reporters?

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Article in The Guardian by Paul Karp, 11/126/24

Headline:  “US lawmakers urge Biden to pardon Assange to send ‘clear message’ on media freedom”

Subhea:  “Exclusive: James McGovern and Thomas Massie warn US president they are ‘deeply concerned’ the WikiLeaks founder’s plea deal sets worrying precedent”

“President Joe Biden has been urged to pardon Julian Assange by two US congressmen who warn they are ‘deeply concerned’ the WikiLeaks founder’s guilty plea deal sets a precedent for prosecuting journalists and whistleblowers with espionage offences.”

“. . . ‘ “Put simply, there is a long-standing and well-grounded concern that section 793 [of the Espionage Act], which criminalizes the obtaining, retaining, or disclosing of sensitive information, could be used against journalists and news organizations engaged in their normal activities, particularly those who cover national security topics.’ ”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/27/joe-biden-urged-to-pardon-julian-assange-congressmen-letter

Media Group in India Sues OpenAI

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Posted in Slashdot by msmash on Tuesday 1/19/024

Headline:  “Indian News Agency Sues OpenAI Alleging Copyright Infringement (techcrunch.com)”

“One of India’s largest news agencies, Asian News International, has sued OpenAI in a case that could set a precedent for how AI companies use copyrighted news content in the world’s most populous nation.

“From a report: Asian News International filed a 287-page lawsuit in the Delhi High Court on Monday, alleging the AI company illegally used its content to train its AI models and generated false information attributed to the news agency. The case marks the first time an Indian media organization has taken legal action against OpenAI over copyright claims.”

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/11/19/1718229/indian-news-agency-sues-openai-alleging-copyright-infringement

War on the Media?

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Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 11/15/24

Headline:  ” ‘Potentially Ominous Trend’ for Press Freedom as Trump Wages Legal War on News Outlets”

Subhead:  ” ‘Governments and powerful figures threatening journalists and media outlets with costly legal battles and bankruptcy is a common tactic against press freedom in repressive countries,’ said one journalist.”

” ‘The press freedom fire is at our door step now,’ said one Washington Post journalist on Thursday night after news broke that two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, he has already begun to wage legal warfare against on the news media.

“The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR)reported that days before the election, a lawyer for Trump, Edward Andrew Paltzik, sent a letter to The New York Times and Penguin Random House demanding $10 billion in damages for publishing articles and a book that were critical of the president-elect, who was convicted of 34 felony counts earlier this year”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/new-york-times-trump-unfit

Don’t Like Media – Sue ‘Em

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Article from The Guardian by Maya Yang, 11/15/24

Headline:  “Trump sues for billions from media he says is biased against him”

Subhead:  “President-elect intensifies longstanding media hostility by filing lawsuits against New York Times, CBS and others”

“With only two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon has been waging lawfare by a flurry of lawsuits against media companies and publishers that have been critical of him.

“The lawsuits come amid growing fears of what a second Trump term would mean for press freedom as Trump intensifies his longstanding hostility against the media – which he called ‘the enemy camp’ in his victory speech last week.”

“. . .In response to Trump’s re-election victory and his repeated attacks against journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called Trump’s threats against the press a ‘clear and direct danger to media freedom.’

“ ‘The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency – expected to continue in his forthcoming second term – poses great risks to media inside and outside the country,’ ” CPJ added.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/trump-sues-media-outlets-bias

Reporter Behind Bars

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Article from Committee to Protect Journalists, 11/11/24

Headline:  “Turkish journalist Furkan Karabay arrested over reporting on opposition arrest”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to immediately free reporter Furkan Karabay, who was seized from his home at dawn on Friday after he published a report about the arrest of an opposition mayor.

” ‘Journalist Furkan Karabay is the latest in a long line of journalists who have ended up behind bars in Turkey simply for publishing critical reporting and commentary,’ said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Karabay must not waste months of his life in prison, waiting to be indicted and tried. Turkey’s constant oppression of the free press is an obstacle to citizens’ rights to access information”.

https://cpj.org/2024/11/turkish-journalist-furkan-karabay-arrested-over-reporting-on-opposition-arre