Gov. Moore's office says citing personal litigation to duck routine media inquiries by sending them for legal review is “basic due diligence.”
We guess every other gov agency ever wasn’t very diligent, because we’ve never seen this kind of nonsense before.
https://www.washingtonsun.com/media/wes-moore-sinclair-news?redirected=notus_org
This decision is a stinging defeat for Trump’s assault on the free press and a powerful vindication of the First Amendment.
As Judge Kelly recognized, presidents don’t get to use their power to purge journalists because they don’t like what they report.
https://freedom.press/issues/court-delivers-second-stinging-blow-to-white-house-press-ban/
Amendments to a Canadian surveillance bill shortened the length of time providers would have to store your conversational metadata. That's still a no-go for Signal.
Read more in our digital security newsletter — and subscribe:
https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/signal-we-wont-comply-with-canadian-surveillance-bill/
This court has shut down the flimsy “national security” excuse for the White House press ban twice now.
Now it’s held that the ban violates the First Amendment, too. Trump can’t purge reporters from the White House because they don’t flatter him.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/13/politics/judge-gives-cnn-white-house-access-media-ban
FPF on Tuesday led a letter from a coalition of rights organizations to Maryland Governor Wes Moore demanding he cease his troubling practice of sending routine inquiries from Sinclair-owned media outlets into legal review black holes, citing a personal defamation case against him by Sinclair Chairman David Smith.
https://freedom.press/issues/rights-orgs-tell-wes-moore-to-stop-retaliating-against-news-outlets/
Follow our FOIA Feed account (@foiafeed), an automated aggregator that cuts across over a dozen news outlets and highlights reporting that makes use of the Freedom of Information Act and other public records laws.
The government shouldn’t be able to secretly obtain journalists’ phone records without court approval.
But DHS is abusing its authority to do just that.
Read more about what Congress, journalists, and tech companies can do about it:
https://freedom.press/issues/these-secret-subpoenas-are-targeting-journalists/
The government shouldn’t be able to secretly obtain journalists’ phone records without court approval.
But DHS is abusing its authority to do just that.
Read more about what Congress, journalists, and tech companies can do about it:
https://freedom.press/issues/these-secret-subpoenas-are-targeting-journalists/
Cases in Arkansas and California show how desperately we need a federal law against lawsuits intended to chill free speech.
Read more from FPF's Seth Stern in The Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2026/10/13/google-data-center-slapp-lawsuit/
📩 Read our latest newsletter:
- Government's alarming legal argument to prop up media ban
- DOJ: Truth Social profiteering is Trump’s version of "fireside chats"
- Why "independent" editorial boards can’t protect journalism
- Plus, what we're reading...
https://freedom.press/issues/the-national-security-panic-button/
The government’s argument in defense of Trump’s effort to ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico claims that publication of national security information alone breaks the law and that journalists should know that.
This is a dangerous argument.
FPF's Caitlin Vogus explains.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-media-ban-doj-journalists-press-freedom
“Any time you see a number that ends in a million, it’s a rare example,” FPF's Lauren Harper told Eugene Weekly about the absurd $2.7 million fee for public records.
“Legislators really need to get serious about instituting things like mandatory fee waivers.”
Learn about the power of independent journalism through "My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile," a documentary about dissident Russian journalists, which opens at NYC's Film Forum tomorrow.
Tickets:
https://my.filmforum.org/events/my-undesirable-friends-part-2
A forensic extraction device used by law enforcement and some authoritarian regimes may be able to bypass your iPhone’s automatic reboot feature.
Read more about the potential risks from Magnet Forensics’ Graykey in our digital security newsletter — and subscribe.
https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/police-forensic-tools-may-bypass-key-phone-security-feature/
How much should records related to a single police officer’s misconduct file cost?
$2.5 million, according to the city of Eugene, Ore.
Read about this story and more in our secrecy newsletter, The Classifieds.
https://freedom.press/the-classifieds/a-25-million-foia-bill-for-one-cops-files/
How much does it cost to get information about a cop who punched someone in the face?
About $2.5M, plus 44,816 hours of staff time, according to the Eugene, OR, Police Department.
If that sounds absurd, it’s because it is.
Watch Lauren Harper explain:
📩 Read in our latest newsletter:
- Paramount’s "independent" editorial board
- Outrageous FOIA fee bullying in Oregon
- DOJ ignores journalist shield law, again
- New bill targets government surveillance of its critics
- Plus, what we're reading...
https://freedom.press/issues/paramounts-sham-editorial-independence-board/
Check out Prison Policy Initiative's roundup of reporting guides around incarceration, featuring two from FPF alongside many others.
Read more:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/10/01/reporter-guides/
The legal rationale behind killing people shouldn't be a secret.
This FOIA ruling is a step in the right direction — but hurdles to disclosure, and accountability, remain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/us/politics/judge-trump-memo-boat-strikes.html
We’ve repeatedly pointed out that Daniel’s Law and similar statutes could become tools for censoring journalism.
This is a perfect (and awful) example. It’s every bit as bad as we warned.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/30/new-orleans-judge-criminal-case-cbs-affiliate