Attorneys for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press are suing the U.S. Justice Department to obtain records on the Trump administration’s approach to longstanding guidelines for seizing journalists’ records. The lawsuit, filed on May 11 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes just days after the Washington Post reported that three of […]
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Reporters Committee: Justice Department’s probes into Minneapolis, Louisville police must investigate treatment of press
April 29, 2021 – The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a coalition of 91 media organizations are urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate law enforcement’s treatment of the press as part of the Justice Department’s civil rights probes into the local police departments in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Louisville, Kentucky. In an April 29 letter […]
Reporters Committee condemns arrest of CNN crew in Minneapolis
May 29, 2020 – On May 29, Minnesota state police arrested a crew of three journalists from CNN while they were reporting on protests in Minneapolis. The incident took place as the crew was broadcasting live, capturing footage showing that prior to their arrest, they clearly identified themselves as members of the media and attempted […]
Reporters Committee statement on executive order targeting social media companies
May 28, 2020 – On May 28, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at giving the government a freer hand in regulating content online. The order focuses on legal and constitutional guardrails that most often apply to online platforms that host content created by third parties, but the executive order as a whole could […]
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asks court to authorize release of grand jury materials included in Mueller report
April 2, 2019 – This morning the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a request in the federal district court for the District of Columbia for an order that would authorize the public release of grand jury material that is “cited, quoted, or referenced” in the report submitted to Attorney General William Barr […]
Reporters Committee suing Justice Dept., FBI for records of documentary filmmaker impersonations
Aug. 21, 2017 – On Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the agency failed to act on a Freedom of Information request for records about the FBI’s impersonation of documentary filmmakers. The complaint stems from a request […]
Fourth Amendment protects against warrantless seizure of cellphone location records, amicus brief argues
Aug. 14, 2017 – Today the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a coalition of 19 other media organizations submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Carpenter v. United States. The coalition brief urges the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the U.S. […]
Bruce Brown: No president gets to jail journalists
May 16, 2017 – The New York Times has published a story with details of a memo written by former FBI Director James Comey documenting a conversation he had with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in February. The memo was shared with senior FBI officials and close associates of Comey, and read to […]