First Amendment News

A new poll shows college students place diversity and inclusion above free speech rights. Administered in the Fall of 2017 by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, the poll found 53 percent of students wanted diversity and 46 percent free speech. Men favored free speech over diversity and inclusion, 61 percent versus 39 percent, whereas women favored diversity over free speech, 64 to 35 percent. More white students than black students stood with free speech. (Inside

The federal government set a new standard for censorship this year as it withheld records from citizens and journalists. In rejecting requests for documents the government cited U.S. law or claimed it could not find any information on the topic. On average, out of five requests, it only fulfilled one. (Associated Press, March 12, 2018, by Ted Bridis) A review of recent Freedom of Information Act history shows a dramatic increase in the number of

Claiming that Al Jazeera undermines American interests, a group of U.S. lawmakers urged Attorney General Sessions to consider forcing it to register as a foreign agent. The news outlet is chartered by the Qatari government. (The Tower, March 7, 2018, by TheTower.org Staff) Al Jazeera reacted by calling the legislators’ action an assault on the free press. The legislators claimed that Al Jazeera favored Hamas, Hezbollah and the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, but Al

The New York Times is suing the Justice Department for records on Ukrainian and pro-Russian lobbying. The Times first filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents in August 2017 but had not received any response. Of particular interest is correspondence between the Justice Department and a Ukrainian pro-Russian political party that paid Paul Manafort $750,000 for lobbying work. Manafort later worked as chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. (Courthouse News Service, March

As the sun shines on Sunshine Week, recognizing the importance of open government, the California legislature is still operating partially in the dark. The legislature has exempted itself from the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. A proposition passed by voters required the legislature to publish bills 72 hours before a vote, but legislative records are still not open to the public.  (The Orange County Register, March 12, 2018, by The Editorial Board) A