KOSA's impact "could be devastating not only to kids’ access to factual, accurate information but also on news outlets that depend on online audiences to survive," Caitlin Vogus writes in The Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/29/opinion/kids-online-safety-act-speech-police/
Virtually every time the government has cracked down on leaks claiming some kind of threat to the homeland, the real threat has been to its own reputation. But this time we know the truth almost immediately, thanks to leaks.
Freedom of the Press
Recent leaks reinforce why journalist-source confidentiality needs protecting
Virtually every time the government has cracked down on leaks claiming some kind of threat to the homeland, the real threat has been to its own rep...
We are urging leaders of civic and other major institutions to defend free speech amid the Trump administration's "multi-front assault on First Amendment freedoms." Read the rest of the open letter we signed alongside six other organizations:
Knight First Amendment Institute
An Open Letter to Leaders of American Institutions
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Whether people can be jailed and deported for writing op-eds in the United States is not a "thorny legal issue," CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/14/us/judge-rules-to-release-badar-khan-suri
KOSA won’t keep kids safe. But it will keep kids from accessing information online and censor the internet for everyone.
Freedom of the Press
The Kids Online Safety Act will censor student journalists
Celebrate Student Press Freedom Day by telling Congress not to pass this self-defeating bill
It's easy to view Trump's attacks on the press as products of his thin-skinned vindictiveness. And they are. But he's also long dreamed of building a media empire and may be abusing his power to weaken the competition.
Freedom of the Press
Trump attacks the press not just as an authoritarian but as a business rival
If the president claims his businesses are competitors of the media outlets he undermines, the press should take him at his word β€” and sue.
Judge orders immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts student detained by ICE β€œThat literally is the case. There is no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed.” https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-ice-release-00338953
It's shameful that six weeks after Ozturk was abducted we're fighting about jurisdiction. It should take any judge anywhere in the United States seconds to rule that people can't be imprisoned for writing op-eds. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/g-s1-64726/federal-court-rules-student-rumeysa-ozturk-detention-vermont-challenge
The Trump administration claimed that the leak of this memo was so dangerous that it necessitated opening criminal investigations and creating new, stricter rules around leaks to the media. We wanted to see if that was true β€” and it wasn’t.
Freedom of the Press
FOIA win by FPF undermines new DOJ policy on journalists and sources
The FOIA release also undercuts rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport a group of Venezuelans to El Salvador.
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Democrats Had a Shot at Protecting Journalists From Trump. They Blew It.
The Intercept
Democrats Had a Shot at Protecting Journalists From Trump. They Blew It.
Senate Democrats had a legislative path to shield journalists and their sources from surveillance and subpoenas. They didn’t act.