Journalism

One of the US government’s strongest forces for internet freedom is in danger, and supporters are calling on the public for help. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a small US organization devoted to protecting digital speech across the world, has helped support nearly all of the most prominent encryption projects at various points — including Signal, Tails, Qubes, and the Tor Project. But after the abrupt firing of the fund’s entire leadership team, current recipients say their contractually promised funding is now at risk.

For decades, US government-funded foreign broadcasting has distinguished itself from that of undemocratic nations with its commitment to quality journalism and editorial independence.

Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker who recently took over a United States global media agency, removed the chiefs of four news organizations under its purview (Bay Fang of Radio Free Asia; Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Alberto M. Fernandez of Middle East Broadcasting Networks; Emilio Vazquez of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting), according to people with knowledge of the decision, in an action that raises questions about their editorial independence.

Voice of America is one of the largest and most trusted independent news agencies in the world. Efforts to blacklist VOA journalists from interview requests to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are an unprecedented attack on press freedom in the United States. VOA is often one of the few critical and independent voices available in countries without a free press, such as Russia and China.

In the last decade, the smartphone has become a tool for witnessing police violence toward African Americans. From the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, we reviewed the footage and talked to the people who captured it, to see how the accounts of racial injustice became clearer as the phones evolved. “This is our only tool we have right now. It is the most effective way to get us justice,” said Feidin Santana, who used his smartphone in 2015 to film a police officer killing Walter Scott in South Carolina. “The smartphone is a weapon that tells the story.

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a Senate resolution condemning attacks against members of the media and reaffirming the centrality of a free and independent press and peaceful assembly to the health of democracy in the US. The resolution comes in the wake of the arrest on May 29 of CNN reporters covering protests in Minnesota. This was just one of dozens of reported instances of journalists and photographers being roughly handled by police officers while covering nationwide protests even after having identified themselves as members of the press.

Recently, 11 local broadcasters were caught airing “news” segments that were actually advertisements praising Amazon’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Experts say the ads—which featured an Amazon public relations representative pretending to be a reporter—not only violated the law, but are a shining example of how media consolidation is slowly destroying quality local journalism. The ads were part of an Amazon press release lauding the company for its “innovation” during the COVID-19 crisis.

This report argues that Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s targeted advertising business models, and the opaque algorithmic systems that support them, are the root cause of their failure to staunch the flow of misinformation. This report reinforces the need to adopt a human rights framework for platform accountability.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced the nomination of a Trump administration pick — whose nonprofit organization is being investigated for possible tax violations — to lead a federal media agency with oversight of a news service that has come under increasing criticism from President Donald Trump. The 12-to-10 party-line vote came after testy debate among senators over the propriety of voting on Michael Pack’s nomination to lead the US Agency for Global Media while his organization is being scrutinized by the District of Columbia’s attorney general.