Press Freedom

Stopping Blackmail by Paying?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 5/19/25

Headline:  “Trump threatens ABC News over Qatar jet coverage”

“President Trump is threatening ABC News over its coverage of a luxury jet he is set to receive from Qatar, a decision that is drawing criticism from both congressional leaders and national security experts.

“ ‘Why doesn’t Chairman Bob Iger do something about ABC Fake News,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday, name-checking the Disney CEO who presides over the broadcast news network.

“The president referenced a multimillion-dollar settlement the network paid him late last year over comments made by George Stephanopoulos in which the ‘This Week’ anchor falsely said Trump had been convicted of sexual assault. The company retracted and apologized for the remarks. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5307218-trump-threatens-abc-news-qatar-jet-coverage/

Cover the News – Get Suspended?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Meghnad Rose ahd Ann Okes, 5/19/25

Headline:  “Columbia Keeps ‘Investigating’ Student Journalists Covering Pro-Palestine Protests”

Subhead:  “Reporters on campus say it’s a threat to press freedom.”

“On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 7, Celeste Gamble was in Columbia University’s Butler Library, studying for her final exams, when about a hundred student protesters launched an occupation of the reading room. . .”

“Gamble, twenty, is a reporter for WKCR, Columbia’s student radio station. She pulled out her press ID, recognizing that the timing had given her unique access. . .”

“Less than twenty-four hours later, Gamble, Lahr, Huckabee, and a reporter from the Columbia Daily Spectator all received notice from the university that they’d been suspended for being ‘involved in a disruption at Butler Library’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/student-journalist-columbia-covered-a-pro-palestine-protest-graduation-under-threat.php

 

 

Giving Radio Away on Silver Platter?

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UPDATE

 

Article in Slashdot by Staff

Headline: “Verizon Secures FCC Approval for $9.6 Billion Frontier Asquisiton”

“The Federal Communications Commission has approved Verizon’s $9.6 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, valuing the Dallas-based company at $20 billion including debt. The approval comes after Verizon agreed to scale back diversity initiatives to comply with Trump administration policies.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who previously threatened to block mergers over DEI practices, praised the deal for its potential to “unleash billions in new infrastructure builds” and “accelerate the transition away from old, copper line networks to modern, high-speed ones.” The acquisition positions America’s largest phone carrier to expand its high-speed internet footprint across Frontier’s 25-state network. Verizon plans to deploy fiber to more than one million U.S. homes annually following the transaction.”

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/05/16/194255/verizon-secures-fcc-approval-for-96-billion-frontier-acquisition

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 5/16/25

Headline: “Verizon Cowardly Capitulates to Trump and Carr’s Racist Bullying”

“On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission, under the direction of President Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, approved Verizon’s acquisition of Frontier Communications. The deal hands control of Frontier’s telecommunications networks in 25 states to Verizon, further consolidating a broadband industry with limited choices and exorbitant prices for consumers.

The price tag of the deal, however, is much higher than the $20 billion announced by the two companies. Buried in the FCC’s approval order, but proudly touted in the agency’s press release, is the claim that Verizon got the deal done only after promising to end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. . . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/verizon-cowardly-capitulates-trump-and-carrs-racist-bullying

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Article in Slashdot by BeauHD, 5/14/25

Headline:  “FCC Threatens EchoStar Licenses For Spectrum That’s ‘Ripe For Sharing'”

“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened to revoke EchoStar licenses for radio frequency bands coveted by rival firms including SpaceX, which alleges that EchoStar is underutilizing the spectrum. ‘I have directed agency staff to begin a review of EchoStar’s compliance with its federal obligations to provide 5G service throughout the United States per the terms of its federal spectrum licenses,’ Carr wrote in a May 9 letter to EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen. EchoStar and its affiliates ‘hold a large number of FCC spectrum licenses that cover a significant amount of spectrum,’ the letter said. . .”

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/05/13/2247256/fcc-threatens-echostar-licenses-for-spectrum-thats-ripe-for-sharing

FCC Free Speech Discussion

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Article in Free Press by Staff. 5/15/25

Headline: “PRESS ADVISORY: On May 28, Join FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in Los Angeles for a Discussion of the Growing Threats to Free Speech Across America”

“Please join FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez for an in-person discussion of the administration’s efforts to chill dissent and censor a free press. Gomez has spoken out as the U.S. president and his FCC chairman harass and bully news outlets that don’t toe the administration’s authoritarian line. ‘Let’s be clear about what this administration is doing,’ she recently told CNN. ‘It is on a campaign to censor and control’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-advisory-may-28-join-fcc-commissioner-anna-gomez-los-angeles-discussion-growing-threats

 

Law Should Support Journalists

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 5/15/25

Headline: “Legal support for journalists is evolving to meet rising threats to press freedom”

Subhead: “Legal organizations are adapting to a growing climate of hostility, offering new programs and resources to help journalists navigate emerging risks”

“At a time when attacks on press freedom are heightening, including from the White House and President Donald Trump himself, legal support for journalists is shifting to meet new challenges.

“Over the five years of its existence, Lawyers for Reporters has provided pro bono legal assistance to local and mission-driven journalism organizations throughout the country. In that time, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice initiative has had about 300 clients. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/legal-help-journalists-press-threats-trump-administration/

Local Small Stations Hurt the Most?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Andrew Mercein, 5/8/25

Headline:  “Rural and Tribal Public Radio Stations Brace for Funding Cuts”

Subhead:  “Small broadcasters fear they will be unintended victims of national culture wars.”

“Today, stations like KSTK (Wrangell, Alaska) are facing an existential crisis. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to cease all funding to NPR and PBS and to eliminate indirect sources of public financing like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually to stations nationwide. The move could wipe out funding appropriated through 2026 and 2027, endangering stations that already operate on razor-thin margins. “If CPB funding disappears, I don’t know how we’d survive,” said Cindy Sweat, KSTK’s general manager. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/news/npr-pbs-cpb-trump-public-radio-funding.php

Student Journalists Under Threat?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Meghnad Bose, 5/6/25

Headline:  “A Student Journalist Covered a Pro-Palestine Protest. Soon, Her Graduation Came Under Threat.”

Subhead:  “A botched challenge to press freedom at Columbia University’s Barnard College.”

“. . .In early April, Georgia Dillane, a Barnard senior who works at WKCR, Columbia’s radio station, got a “fact-finding” email from Barnard’s Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services (CARES) that would eventually place her graduation under threat.”

“. . .Gary Maroni, the director of CARES, had written to each of them requesting a meeting ‘to provide any information you would like to share, including information that refutes any suggestion that you were involved, are a witness, or have information about this incident’ . . .”

“Dillane, Gamble, and the rest of the WKCR team were taken aback. “There would potentially be questions about what I knew as a journalist having an ear to what was going on, and they would try to extract that from me,” Dillane said. She didn’t want to violate journalistic ethics, or her sources’ trust. “I owe it to those that I report for, WKCR and its listeners, to be honest, truthful, and objective,” she said. “To pander to the calls of the administration to extract information to then target students is not something that I feel morally aligned with. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/news/student-journalist-columbia-covered-a-pro-palestine-protest-graduation-under-threat.php

Influential Media Empire at Stake

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Article in AP by Staff, 5/6/25

Headline:  “Nevada hearing may give first public view into legal spat over control of Murdoch media empir

“A hearing Wednesday before Nevada’s high court could provide the first public window into a secretive legal dispute over who will control Rupert Murdoch’s powerful media empire after he dies.

“The case has been unfolding behind closed doors in state court in Reno, with most documents under seal. But reporting by The New York Times, which said it obtained some of the documents, revealed Murdoch’s efforts to keep just one of his sons, Lachlan, in charge and ensure that Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant.

“Media outlets including the Times and The Associated Press are now asking the Nevada Supreme Court to unseal the case and make future hearings public. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the afternoon in Carson City, the capital. . .”

“Murdoch’s media empire, which also includes The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, spans continents and helped to shape modern American politics. Lachlan Murdoch has been the head of Fox News and News Corp. since his father stepped down in 2023.”

https://apnews.com/article/rupert-murdoch-media-empire-family-trust-nevada-a36b4a453630f8848d5d4282e813e94d

Happy World Press Freedom Day!

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Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage, 5/3/25

Headline:  ” ‘A cocktail for a misinformed world’: why China and Russia are cheering Trump’s attacks on media”

Subhead:  “Today on World Press Freedom Day, there are warnings that US attempts to withdraw from promoting independent journalism will have far-reaching effects”

“As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) – the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda – he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration.

“Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be ‘eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law’. The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. . .”

“It used to be that the US would put pressure on other countries for undermining free expression. . .”

“In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the state broadcaster RT described it as an “awesome decision”. The Global Times, an English-language Chinese state media publication, crowed that the broadcasters had been discarded by the White House “like a dirty rag”, ending their “propaganda poison’ ”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2025/may/03/a-cocktail-for-a-misinformed-world-why-china-and-russia-are-cheering-trumps-attacks-on-us-media

Another Newspaper Attack

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/2/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump threatens The New York Times as his press attacks continue”

Subhead:  “He lashed out after a Times report said Paramount may settle his baseless lawsuit — a move tied to its pending sale”

“President Donald Trump unleashed more unhinged attacks on the press Wednesday, going after both CBS’s “60 Minutes” and The New York Times — even going so far as to threaten legal action against the Times.

“His “60 Minutes” attacks are nothing new. He already is suing CBS’s owner, Paramount, claiming the network deceptively edited an interview last October with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to, in effect, help her win the election. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-nyt-liable-tortious-interference/