First Amendment News

No one paid much attention to the plight of residents in a small town in coal country Kentucky suffering from no running water or fouled water that caused rashes or over a number of years cancer. But when the local and regional press stepped up to cover the story and lend support to protesting local residents, the water district was forced to seek adequate financing and fix the disintegrating infrastructure.  (The Ground Truth Project, April

Fearful that cuts to staff with devastating effects on its ability to report the news is just a prelude to shutting down the newspaper altogether, Denver Post editors and reporters published a rebuke of their hedge-fund owners. The lead editorial in the issue asked the owners to sell to those who would support strong journalism. The Denver Post is the only major newspaper left in Denver and has won nine Pulitzer Prizes. (The New York

Quartz reporter David Yanofsky found himself in 2015 facing a fee of $174,000 to access two databases of the U.S. International Trade Administration that included information of U.S. visitors by origin, age, residency port of entry, visa type and initial destination. (Quartz, April 3, 2018, by David Yanofsky) The Department of Commerce charges  travel and travel-related companies for information, but a federal district judge ruled that there was no justification for charging the press for

The New York Times wrote that President Donald Trump’s attacks of the news media in the U.S. inspired crackdowns on the press in Malaysia and India, confused the public about lies and the truth and weakened trust in news outlets careful about only publishing verifiable reports. (The New York Times, April 4, 2018, by The Editorial Board) Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post, April 4, 2018, writes that with four out of five Americans believing

Attorneys for a neo-Nazi web publisher are claiming that their client’s alleged intimidation and harassment of a Jewish real estate agent is protected by the First Amendment. The publisher Andrew Anglin launched an internet trolling attack that resulted in hundreds of phone calls, text messages and e-mail attacks of Tanya Gersh and her family. (Courthouse News Service, April 3, 2018, by David Reese) The attorneys claimed Anglin was engaging in political speech and in encouraging