Press Freedom

Community Media Saved!

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Article in Poynter by Sopie Endrud, 6/11/25

Headline: “Facing severe budget cuts, a local television station leaned on its community — and succeeded”

Subhead:  “Prince George’s Community Television in Maryland saw an impending 75% budget slash. Instead of capitulating, the station made its value known”

“The campaign to save Prince George’s Community Television culminated at a two-hour-long county budget hearing, where 37 people wearing ‘Save CTV’ pins implored their county council to save the station.

“Jaylan Sims stood at the lectern on April 28, his voice cracking as he held up his volunteer ID card from nine years ago.

“ ‘I kept it in my room because CTV meant that much to me,’ he told the council.

“ ‘They taught me things that no other news station teaches,’ he continued. He had been allowed to use CTV’s camera and teleprompter to complete class assignments at Bowie State University. Now, a recent graduate, he credited CTV for making that achievement possible. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/prince-georges-community-tv-saved-budget-hearing/

Public Media Could be in Trouble

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PUBLIC MEDIA IS NOT STATE-CONTROLLED MEDIA

Article in The Washington Post by Patrick Marley, 6/10/25

Headline:  “Rural Republicans used to back NPR. Then MAGA changed everything.”

Subhead:  “Public media is facing its biggest challenge as it fights off a vote to eliminate its federal funding.”

“. . .Polarized views of public broadcasting, along with a splintered and increasingly online media environment, pose a problem for NPR, PBS and their audiences, who will need some Republicans to break ranks to prevent the cuts that Trump is demanding as part of a larger package of budget reductions that the House will consider as soon as Tuesday. . .”

“According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in March, 43 percent of Americans supported continuing federal funding for NPR and PBS, 24 percent backed ending funding and 33 percent were unsure. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/10/npr-cuts-rural-congress/

 

No Protection for Journalists?

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Article in Common Dreams by Eloise Goldsmith, 6/9/25

Headline:  “Reporters Without Borders Decries ‘Wave of Violence’ Against Journalists at LA Protests”

Subhead:  ” ‘These protests are a matter of huge public interest and the public has a right to know exactly what’s going on,’ said the executive director of RSF USA.”

“The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, on Monday condemned recorded attacks carried out largely by law enforcement, but also by protestors, against journalists reporting on protests that took place in Los Angeles this past weekend. . .”

” ‘The wave of violence against journalists on the streets of Los Angeles this weekend is unacceptable. These protests are a matter of huge public interest and the public has a right to know exactly what’s going on. The only way that can happen is if journalists are allowed to do their jobs freely,’ said Clayton Weimers, the executive director of RSF USA.

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/los-angeles-rsf-reporters-immigration

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Article in in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 6/9/25

Headline:  “Law enforcement injure multiple journalists, others assaulted while covering Los Angeles protests”

“We are greatly concerned by the reports of law enforcement officers’ shooting non-lethal rounds at reporters covering protests in Los Angeles. Any attempt to discourage or silence media coverage by intimidating or injuring journalists should not be tolerated,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. ‘ . . .“

Read the full article at:

https://cpj.org/2025/06/law-enforcement-injure-multiple-journalists-others-assaulted-while-covering-los-angeles-protests/

Reporters Expose Things

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 6/9/25

Headline: “Doin’ It Live”

Subhead:  “A timely televised play won’t save the republic.”

“Fuck it! We’ll do it live! These, of course, are the immortal words of Bill O’Reilly. But George Clooney had a similar thought recently—involving a different former CBS newsman—when he decided to mount a live televised production of Good Night, and Good Luck, a Broadway play that he cowrote, based on a movie that he cowrote, based on Edward R. Murrow’s famous takedown of the demagogue Joseph McCarthy in the fifties. . .”

“Of course, Clooney and CNN were also interested in televising the show because its subject matter is supremely relevant right now, as every journalist covering it dutifully pointed out. The historical echoes ‘are extraordinary,’ even ‘eerie,’ CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, noting the play’s themes of ‘unrestrained political power, corporate timidity and journalistic integrity.’ Clooney told the Times that, “unfortunately, this play always is timely. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/doin-it-live-clooney-cnn-good-night-good-luck-tv-live-broadcast-murrow-friendly-mccarthy.php

War on Media Continues

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Article in The Hill by Ellen Mitchell, 6/8/25

Headline:“Hegseth brings warfighter men  tality to media relations “

“The Defense Department’s relationship with reporters has gone from bad to worse following a string of missives from Secretary Pete Hegseth and his office aimed at controlling the Pentagon press corps.

“Hegseth’s war on the media includes taking desks away from legacy outlets, locking the doors to one of the few places reporters have access to the internet in the Pentagon, and restricting their movement within the building. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5338740-hegseth-brings-warfighter-mentality-to-media-relations/

Journalists Can’t Say Opinions?

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 6/8/25

Headline:  “ABC News suspends journalist after calling Trump and adviser ‘world-class haters’ “

Subhead:  “Terry Moran to be evaluated after now deleted post said Stephen Miller is ‘richly endowed with capacity for hatred’ “

“ABC News has suspended its senior national correspondent after he described top White House aide Stephen Miller as “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” on social media.

“In a now deleted post, Terry Moran, who recently conducted an interview with Donald Trump, said that the president and his deputy chief of staff, Miller, were both ‘world-class’ haters. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/abc-news-suspends-journalist-stephen-miller-trump

Cancelling Free Radio

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 6/4/25

Headline:  “Q&A: Tamara Bralo on Fighting to Protect Radio Free Asia’s Journalists”

Subhead:  “ ‘It’s difficult to remain calm when you’re dealing with this much trauma.’ ”

“he veteran journalist Tamara Bralo was at home in the Washington, DC, area when she learned one Saturday morning in March that the Trump administration was trying, via executive order, to terminate funding for Radio Free Asia, an international broadcaster under the US Agency for Global Media—part of a broader attempt to gut USAGM, which also oversees outlets including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/tamara-bralo-interview-radio-free-asia-rfa-protect-journalists.php

When Free Press is Gone

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Article in Poynter by Ren LaForme, 6/3/25

Headline:  “Opinion | We’re tracking the rising threats to press freedom”

Subhead:  “Because the warning signs are no longer subtle”

“There’s a saying: Health is a crown the healthy wear that only the sick can see. Most of us don’t recognize the treasure of good health until it’s gone.

“I wonder whether, when the dust settles, America will feel the same about press freedom — a right our Founding Fathers valued so deeply that they made it the First Amendment. . . .”

Read the full article here:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/press-freedom-watch/

Writing Laws to Stifle Press

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 6/3/25

Headline:  “The Insidious Spread of ‘Foreign Agent’ Laws Continues”

Subhead:  “Hungary and other nations are pushing a Russian-style crackdown on the press.”

“. . .Last month, Fidesz, Orbán’s party, introduced a bill, with the innocuous-sounding title ‘On the Transparency of Public Life,’ that essentially aims to legislate his rant. The bill would allow Hungary’s (decidedly less innocuous-sounding) ‘Sovereignty Protection Office’ to recommend the blacklisting of organizations, including news outlets, that receive funding from abroad and are deemed a threat to sovereignty—an incredibly broad designation that, per Politico, includes activities such as ‘influencing public opinion, promoting democratic debate, or challenging state-defined values like Christian culture and traditional family roles.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/insidious-spread-foreign-agent-laws-continues-hungary-orban-trump-fara.php

Barriers to Reporting

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Article in Huffpost by Julia Frankel, 6/2/25

Headline: “Israel Bars Media From West Bank Villages On Tour Organized By Oscar Winners”

Subhead:  “The directors of “No Other Land,” a film about Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the territory, had invited journalists to interview the area’s residents.”

“Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie “No Other Land.”

“The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.

“In video posted on X by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is “no passage” in the area because of a military order. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-bars-media-west-bank-palestinian-oscar-winners_n_683db860e4b095a13841143c