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SEJ Speaks on FOI Issues

Information on SEJ's actions advocating access to environmental information — and supporting the media's right to know on behalf of the public — from 2010 to the present are listed below. Previous years are archived: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002 (the year SEJ's Freedom of Information Task Force was formed).

 

December 16, 2024

SEJ Speaks on Incoming Administration Threats to Journalists

The Society of Environmental Journalists is concerned that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump may seek retribution against media outlets that have carried news or opinions at odds with his views or policies. In particular, Kash Patel, Trump’s current pick for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has promised to take legal action against journalists. The oath that Trump and his Cabinet must swear to take office requires them to uphold the Constitution — all of it, including the First Amendment. Toward that end, SEJ calls on them to pledge never to prosecute, punish, deport, jail or harass journalists solely for what they report.

November 26, 2024

SEJ Calls for Passage of Federal Journalist Shield Law

The Society of Environmental Journalists urges the U.S. Senate to pass S. 2074, the bipartisan PRESS Act, in the current Congress. It is urgently needed and long overdue.

October 24, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Demanding NY DA Drop Charges Against Indian Time Journalist

SEJ joined with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and 19 press freedom groups in a letter calling for charges to be dropped against Isaac White, a reporter for Indian Time who was arrested while covering a tribal rights protest in northern New York.

June 20, 2024
SEJ Joins Call To Decline Charges Against Stanford Student Journalist

SEJ joined with the Student Press Law Center, the First Amendment Coalition and 23 other free speech and press organizations in calling for charges to be declined against Dilan Gohill, a Stanford Daily reporter arrested June 5 while covering a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Stanford University.

June 5, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Demanding Authorities Drop Prosecution of Oregon Journalist

SEJ joined with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and eight press freedom groups in a letter calling for the release of an independent journalist photographer who was arrested while covering the break up of a Gaza protest at Portland State University.

May 30, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Urging Sen. Dick Durbin To Enact PRESS Act

SEJ joined with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and 130 civil liberties and journalism organizations and individual law professors and media lawyers in sending a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and ranking member Sen. Lindsey Graham, urging them to schedule a markup of the PRESS Act right away.

  • Read the coalition's letter to Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham. NOTE: The text has been updated to reflect additional organizations and individuals who joined the letter since it was originally sent on May 30, 2024, and to link to the updated letter, dated June 4, 2024.
  • FPF release.

May 7, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Urging Dismissal of Charges Against The Dartmouth Journalists

SEJ joined with the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and 12 journalism organizations protesting the arrest of two Dartmouth student journalists rounded up with protesters as police cleared a campus encampment.

  • Read the coalition's May 7, 2024 letter to Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock and Prosecutor Mariana C. Pastore.
  • SPLC release.
  • May 7, 2024 Update: After the letter was sent, Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock submitted a letter to the editor to The Dartmouth stating, among other things, that “the student journalists for The Dartmouth who were on the Green to report on the protests should not have been arrested for doing their jobs. We are working with local authorities to ensure this error is corrected.”
  • May 9, 2024 Update: The government has declined to pursue charges against two Dartmouth College student journalists arrested last week in what First Amendment advocates — including the Student Press Law Center — denounced as deeply concerning to a free press.

May 7, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Calling for Removal of Barriers to Newsgathering Around Key Bridge Incident

SEJ joined with the Society of Professional Journalists, D.C. Chapter, and the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association in appealing to Maryland's governor to free state officials to speak about the Key Bridge situation.

May 1, 2024
SEJ Joins Statement on Fox 7 Austin Photographer Arrest/Charge

SEJ joined a Society of Professional Journalists coalition of 43 signatories, including journalism organizations, First Amendment advocacy groups and media unions, calling on the Texas Department of Public Safety to abandon its misguided pursuit of criminal charges against photojournalist Carlos Sanchez, who was arrested while covering protests at the University of Texas at Austin.

March 18, 2024
SEJ Joins NPPA Amicus Brief — Donald Nicodemus v. City of South Bend, Indiana and State of Indiana

SEJ joined with the National Press Photographers Association and four media organizations in a case challenging an Indiana statute making it a misdemeanor to get "too close" to a police officer.

March 11, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Opposing Bill To Weaken New Jersey's Open Public Records Act

SEJ joined with a coalition of New Jersey organizations in a letter opposing New Jersey legislation (bill S-2930/A-4045) that would eviscerate the state's public records law.

March 11, 2024
SEJ Joins Letter Urging Legislators To Strengthen New York State Foil for Sunshine Week

SEJ joined with a coalition of New York organizations in sending a letter in support of a package of four bills to strengthen New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

March 6, 2024
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Human Rights Defense Center v. U.S. Park Police

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 26 media organizations in a case challenging a federal court decision ordering a “clawback” (aka return and not publish) of records provided in response to. The FOIA request allegedly mistakenly included names that should have been redacted. For a number of reasons, the amicus brief posits that the appeals court should vacate the portion of the district court’s order imposing a prior restraint on HRDC (see the release).

February 12, 2024
SEJ Joins FPF Letter — Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr

SEJ joined with a coalition of 25 civil liberties, environmental rights and press freedom organizations, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, National Lawyers Guild and Defending Rights and Dissent, in sending a letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. The letter raises concerns about efforts in the case against Stop Cop City protesters to criminalize burner phones and other tools commonly used by journalists, as well as activists, to protect confidentiality.

February 8, 2024
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Martinez v. ZoomInfo

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 26 media organizations in a case involving California's anti-SLAPP statute, which is being reheard en banc by the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals. The dispute is in part about the fee provisions in the law. Being an important element of an important law, journalists and news media have an important stake. The brief supports neither party; rather, it provides legislative history and policy arguments concerning the purpose of the statute and legal arguments regarding the substantive nature of fee-shifting and application of fee provisions in federal court.

  • Download the Martinez v. ZoomInfo amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On March 1, 2024, the parties in Martinez v. ZoomInfo alerted the Court of Appeals that they had reached an agreement and settled their dispute, and the Court cancelled the en banc argument scheduled for later this month. The California anti-SLAPP statute therefore fortunately remains untouched for the present.

December 20, 2023
SEJ Statement on Journalist Safety in Gaza

The Society of Environmental Journalists joins other press organizations in decrying the continued killing, wounding and harassment of journalists in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The statement calls on all parties in the conflict to respect international law, ensure press safety and conduct thorough investigations into all acts of violence against journalists.

November 3, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Florio v. Gallaudet University

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 30 media organizations in support of Gallaudet University and The Washington Post in a case concerning application of the group libel doctrine in a case involving The Post's reporting about a Gallaudet University fraternity.

October 26, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Banks v. Hoffman

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 23 media organizations in support of David Hoffman et al. in a complex, anti-SLAPP-related, defamation case that could have great consequences for the news media and the public, resulting in the defendants seeking rehearing by the entire appeals court bench.

  • Download the Banks v. Hoffman amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On Jan. 23, 2024, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued an order vacating the panel decision and scheduling the case for review by the full court. On April 17, 2024, the Reporters Committee, joined by 32 media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists), filed a second friend-of-the-court brief urging the Court of Appeals to affirm the trial court’s order dismissing the defamation lawsuit.

October 20, 2023
SEJ Statement on Flatwater Free Press Reporter Yanqi Xu

The Society of Environmental Journalists stands with Flatwater Free Press reporter Yanqi Xu, whose work was dismissed by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on the basis of her nationality. In response to Xu’s reporting on high nitrate levels in groundwater on Pillen’s hog farms, the governor said on live radio that he will not read the story because the “author is from Communist China.”

October 4, 2023
SEJ Joins FPF Letter — Department of Justice/Tim Burke

SEJ joined with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and 49 media and other organizations in sending a letter to the Department of Justice demanding transparency on the investigation of Florida journalist Tim Burke for finding newsworthy content online. Like in Marion, Kansas, the prospect of criminal charges for routine newsgathering has a chilling effect on journalism. The FBI raided Burke’s home over his online newsgathering, but no one has explained how he broke the law.

September 13, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Letter — Live Audio at the Supreme Court

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 61 media organizations in sending a letter to the Supreme Court asking it to make permanent the live audio feeds of oral arguments that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

September 7, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Citizens for Fauquier County v. Town of Warrenton

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 media and transparency organizations in support of Citizens for Fauquier County in a public records case concerning the disclosure of records about recent changes to Virginia zoning laws and related applications by Amazon to use land for data centers.

August 11, 2023
SEJ Joins FPF Letter — Judicial Conference/Remote Public Audio Access

SEJ joined with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and 31 media organizations in sending a letter to the Judicial Conference Secretary about remote public audio access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings. The letter states, in part, "Federal and state courts successfully gave the public remote audio access to proceedings with witness testimony during the pandemic. As this experience shows, the public and the judicial system benefit tremendously from remote public audio access to proceedings with witness testimony, and it is possible to provide this access without compromising the integrity of proceedings or the courts' work."

August 7, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — The Commonwealth of Virginia v. Sawyer

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 8 media and transparency organizations in support of Heather Sawyer, executive director of the nonprofit government watchdog American Oversight, for whom an Arlington trial court ruled requiring the Virginia governor's office to comply with the state's Freedom of Information Act. The ruling was appealed. The amicus brief posits that the appeals court should affirm the trial court's ruling that Sawyer is entitled to the records under Virginia's public records law.

May 10, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — United States v. Hay

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 7 media organizations in support of Bruce Hay in a case about whether long-term pole camera surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. "The technology at issue in this case poses an untenable threat to confidential association, and with it the freedom to gather the news. The press could not, under constant official scrutiny, provide the vigorous check on government that the Constitution recognizes and protects. A probable-cause warrant, and nothing short of it, is necessary to protect the rights enshrined in the First Amendment from persistent, pervasive, and targeted government surveillance."

April 21, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Zeitlin v. Cohan

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 media organizations in support of William Cohan, a ProPublica reporter who was been sued for libel and sought the protection of New York's anti-SLAPP law. "Providing anti-SLAPP protection for speech like the Article is essential to ensuring that journalists — including, especially, freelancers like Cohan and those at nonprofit and local news outlets — are not deterred from publishing reporting that drives public discourse, social movements, and reforms."

April 17, 2023
SEJ Endorses "Preserving and Protecting Local News Month" Resolution

SEJ joined colleagues in the journalism-group sector in endorsing a congressional resolution expressing support for maintaining local news.

Coverage:

April 17, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Housley v. Ventura County

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 media organizations in support of Ventura County in a California public records legal dispute. In this case, media groups sought autopsy findings after a mass shooting, and families of some victims went to court to block release, claiming a violation of privacy. The Superior Court determined that the autopsy reports are subject to disclosure under the public records law and that the victims’ families were not entitled to a preliminary injunction to prevent their disclosure. The families of the victims then appealed to the California Court of Appeal. The amicus brief posits that the California Court of Appeal should affirm the Superior Court’s decision because there is significant public interest in access to autopsy records, particularly when those records concern tragic events. The brief provides examples of reporting on autopsy records from California and around the country and explains how such reporting has helped to spur meaningful reforms.

March 23, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Gray Media Group v. City of Charlotte

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 media organizations in the North Carolina Court of Appeals in support of a court ruling to close a big public-records loophole. The amicus brief posits that the appeals court should find that the requested records were, at all times, public records subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act, and reverse the district court’s order denying WBTV’s motion for summary judgment — because the city’s interpretation of the Public Records Act threatens to stymie reporting on matters of public concern.

Coverage:

March 15, 2023
"Take a Number:" SEJ's Report on Growing FOIA Backlogs

If justice delayed is justice denied, can the same be said of information? The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond to requests for documents within 20 business days, barring “unusual circumstances.” But an SEJ review finds that key federal environmental agencies are taking months and even years to respond to records requests.

February 16, 2023
SEJ Joins NPPA Amicus Brief — Price v. Garland/Haaland/Benge

SEJ joined with the National Press Photographers Association and 12 other organizations in support of a Supreme Court review of the National Park Service's regulations requiring a permit and fees for any commercial filming on NPS lands.

February 3, 2023
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — United States v. Team Finance

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 17 media organizations in support of Loren Adler in a case challenging a ruling denying an effort to unseal court documents. It involves the confidential settlement of a Medicare/Medicaid fraud case, but the underlying issue of concern is that rulings like this deny journalists and the public access to court proceedings and records.

December 15, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Palin v. The New York Times Company

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 51 media organizations in support of the New York Times in Sarah Palin's libel suit against the paper. A judge dismissed her lawsuit; Palin appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Second Circuit should affirm the district court's ruling in favor of The New York Times.

December 12, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — American Society for Testing and Materials v. Public.Resource.Org

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 10 media organizations in support of Public Resource in a case concerning the public's ability to freely access industry-created, copyrighted safety standards that are incorporated by reference into federal and state laws and regulations. The amicus brief posits that the D.C. Circuit should affirm the district court’s decision, which has been appealed, that Public Resource's reproduction of the standards was largely fair use because 1) by compiling and publishing incorporated standards free of charge, Public Resource has empowered the press and the public to fulfill the important function of scrutinizing and disseminating the law and 2) a decision that deprives the press and public the opportunity to freely access and review incorporated standards will harm the public interest and is inconsistent with the other legal protections for robust access to similar materials.

December 2, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Baltimore Police Department v. Open Justice Baltimore

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 14 media organizations in support of Open Justice Baltimore in a case challenging the denial of a public-records search fee waiver to the nonprofit social justice group which was seeking internal investigation records of the Baltimore Police Department. The amicus brief posits that the court should affirm the holding of the Court of Special Appeals that the BPD’s denial of Open Justice Baltimore's fee-waiver requests was arbitrary and capricious because 1) fee waivers play an important role in ensuring that journalists and other requesters are able to pursue access to government records for the benefit of the public and 2) the BPD's arguments are contrary to the legislative purpose of the Maryland Public Information Act and, if accepted, would threaten news reporting on matters of public concern.

November 23, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Electronic Frontier Foundation v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 media and right-to-know organizations in support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which filed a petition to unseal materials contained in several search warrants issued by the San Bernardino County Superior Court that allowed the county sheriff to use cell-site simulators to track the location of cell phones. The petition was challenged, and in 2021, a trial court denied EFF's petition. EFF then filed a petition asking the California Supreme Court to hear the case. The amicus brief posits that the California Supreme Court should grant EFF's petition.

November 15, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — United States v. Brand

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 39 media organizations in support of Boston Globe reporter Joshua Miller's motion to quash a subpoena for his testimony regarding an interview he did for a 2019 story about an admissions scandal at Harvard University. The amicus brief posits that the district court should grant Miller’s motion to quash the subpoena because, among other reasons, the use of compulsory process against a non-party journalist chills newsgathering by eroding trust between reporters and their sources and undermining the public’s perception of the news media’s independence.

  • Download the United States v. Brand amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On Nov. 21, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied the media coalition’s motion for leave to file the friend-of-the-court brief, concluding that “a trial court presiding over a criminal prosecution should not receive or consider volunteered submissions by non-parties except as may be specifically authorized by statute or other authority.”

September 27, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — National Police Association v. Gannett and Associated Press

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 38 media organizations in support of the Associated Press and Gannett-owned Indianapolis Star in a libel case in Indiana, which reflects thorny legal issues involving the posting of news digitally via the web. Gannett and the AP filed a motion to dismiss the NPA's complaint. The district court granted the motion. The NPA appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Seventh Circuit should reject the NPA's proposed continued-publication rule and affirm the district court's dismissal of the association's claims.

September 27, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — State of Nevada v. Telles

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 42 media organizations in support of a motion by the Las Vegas Review-Journal to keep authorities from reviewing the personal electronic devices of their murdered reporter Jeff German before they can see if there are any communications on them with confidential sources.

  • Download the State of Nevada v. Telles amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Updates: During a hearing on Sept. 28, 2022, Justice of the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron said she did not have jurisdiction to hear arguments concerning the Las Vegas Review-Journal's request to prevent authorities from searching Jeff German's electronic devices. On Oct. 5, 2022, a judge granted a temporary restraining order that prevents Nevada law enforcement from inspecting or searching reporter German's electronic devices for 15 days. On Oct. 10, 2022, the Reporters Committee and 54 news organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) filed a second friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Review-Journal with the District Court of Clark County, Nevada. During a hearing on Oct. 11, 2022,  Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson granted the Review-Journal's request to block authorities from immediately searching German's electronic devices. The judge asked the parties to discuss a possible process for reviewing the journalist’s devices. On Oct. 19, 2022, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department appealed Judge Johnson’s preliminary injunction order to the Nevada Supreme Court. As a result, Judge Johnson stayed further proceedings while the appeal is pending and denied the Reporters Committee's request to participate as amicus, instructing RCFP to seek leave to appear as amicus in the appellate proceedings. On Aug. 7, 2023, the Reporters Committee and 53 news organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Nevada Supreme Court in support of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The brief highlights the robust, nationwide consensus that reporter-source confidentiality is essential to effective newsgathering and argues that the Nevada Shield Law bars the search. On Oct. 5, 2023, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the protection of the state’s shield law survives a reporter’s death and that the district court “abused its discretion” by entering a search protocol that would have allowed Las Vegas law enforcement officials to review the materials found on Jeff German’s electronic devices. In reversing and remanding the lower court’s decision, the state Supreme Court directed the district court to enter a new protocol that tasks a third-party team with conducting the search.

September 19, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Doe v. Volokh

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 14 media organizations in support of intervenor Eugene Volokh, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, in a case challenging the use of a pseudonym in court filings by police officer "John Doe." The officer sued the town where he works over being included on a "do-not-call" witness list of officers "who have engaged in misconduct reflecting negatively on their credibility or trustworthiness." Volokh's motion was denied by the district court. The amicus brief posits that the First Circuit should reverse the district court's order denying Volokh’s motion to unseal and oppose pseudonymity.

September 13, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP/ProPublica Media Coalition Letter — US v. Mays

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, ProPublica and 37 media organizations in sending a letter to the Department of Defense, urging the immediate public release of records related to a court-martial concerning one of the worst non-combat warship disasters in recent memory. The media coalition expressed concerns about the Navy’s legal basis for denying public access to nearly the entire court record in the court-martial of Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays, who is accused of setting fire to the USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020.

August 29, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Jha v. Khan

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 17 media organizations in support of Varisha Khan in an appellate court case concerning an anti-SLAPP law passed in Washington but with implications for similar laws in other states. The amicus brief posits that the trial court, which denied Khan's motion to have the "false light invasion of privacy" lawsuit brought by Siddharth Jha dismissed, erred in several ways, including by failing to take into account the fair report privilege and First Amendment protections for opinion, and by permitting the plaintiff to amend his pleadings without an adequate demonstration of good cause in line with the Washington legislature's intent.

August 26, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Behar v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 29 media organizations in support of investigative journalist Richard Behar in a petition for rehearing concerning a Second Circuit panel decision holding that records passed by the campaign and transition team of candidate/President-elect Trump to the Secret Service were not "agency records" under FOIA. The amicus brief focuses on how the panel's decision departs from, and is at odds with, the Supreme Court's definition of "agency records" in DOJ v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136 (1989). It also emphasizes the deleterious consequences that such a test for "agency records" would have on the newsmedia's ability to gather communications related to third-party influence on the federal government.

July 12, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Courthouse News Service v. Gabel

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 27 media organizations in support of Courthouse News Service et al. in an appeals case about guaranteeing prompt public access to civil court filings in Vermont. The amicus brief posits that the Second Circuit should affirm the lower court's decision prohibiting the Vermont court system from delaying public access to electronically filed civil complaints until after the pre-access review process is complete because 1) timely access to newly filed civil complaints benefits the news media and the public; and 2) the First Amendment requires contemporaneous access to civil complaints.

June 30, 2022
SEJ Joins NPPA Letter Opposing Arizona Bill That Would Restrict Video of Police

SEJ joined with the National Press Photographers Association and 26 media organizations urging the Arizona governor to veto legislation passed there that makes it  "unlawful for a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity if the person making the video recording does not have the permission of a law enforcement officer and is within eight feet of where the law enforcement activity is occurring." SEJ previously joined in signing a letter to the legislature opposing this bill.

June 10, 2022
SEJ Issues Statement of Concern on Journalist and Activist Missing in Brazil

The Society of Environmental Journalists joins journalism organizations and many other individuals and groups in calling for Brazilian authorities to redouble their search for British freelance journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, with whom Phillips was traveling on an assignment. They have been missing since early June 5 from a remote area in the western part of Brazil’s Amazonas state. They had reportedly received death threats shortly before their disappearance.

June 1, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Sullivan v. The University of Washington

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 media organizations in support of The University of Washington and PETA in a case concerning efforts to obtain the identities of members of the University of Washington's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee under Washington's Public Records Act because "Access to information about the identities of advisory committee members engaged in public business is not only critical to the news media's ability to keep the public informed, but also serves to guard against private-industry capture of committees constituted to serve the public's interests; such access allows the news media and the public to evaluate the credentials and affiliations of those making decisions about topics of public import and helps ensure that advisory committees are appropriately constituted."

  • Download the Sullivan v. The University of Washington amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Updates:
    On Feb. 17, 2023, the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the district court’s decision. “The committee members’ performance of their official duties is not protected by the First Amendment right of expressive association,” Judge Sandra S. Ikuta wrote in the court’s opinion, “so the disclosure of public records that relate to performance of such duties does not impinge on that right.” On remand, the district court reinstated the preliminary injunction — this time, on the grounds of a constitutional right to informational privacy. PETA once again appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
    On June 8, 2023, the Reporters Committee and 12 media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) filed a second friend-of-the-court brief in support of PETA, urging the Ninth Circuit to reverse and vacate the district court’s preliminary injunction barring the disclosure of the IACUC members’ appointment letters under Washington’s Public Records Act. 
    On Dec. 13, 2023, the Ninth Circuit denied the preliminary injunction on standing grounds. In the interim, PETA and Northwest Animal Rights Network submitted additional public records requests to the university concerning its sale and treatment of nonhuman primates, which, according to the IACUC, once again implicate the identities of its members. Thus, these requests led to another lawsuit seeking to, again, enjoin the university from disclosing the IACUC’s membership. The district court granted a preliminary injunction, concluding that “the degree of need for public access to the specific information at issue here is relatively low.”
    June 5, 2024: On appeal, the Reporters Committee and 12 media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) filed a third friend-of-the-court brief in support of PETA urging the Ninth Circuit to reverse and vacate the district court’s preliminary injunction barring the disclosure of IACUC members’ identities under Washington’s Public Records Act. 
    On Dec. 4, 2024, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court, finding that the committee members “are not likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that UW’s disclosure of their identities as members of the IACUC would violate their constitutional right to informational privacy.” The appeals court sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings.

April 28, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Letter Condemning LA County Sheriff's Threat To Investigate LA Times Reporter

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 30 media organizations condemning LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva's recent threat to investigate Los Angeles Times reporter Alene Tchekmedyian after she revealed a cover-up of abuse of a jail inmate.The letter says, in part, "your explicit threat to pursue a retaliatory investigation of a journalist covering the official conduct of you and the Department is an affront to the First Amendment and a violation of your public trust with the people of Los Angeles." Villanueva previously used his official powers to retaliate against and intimidate journalists in 2020.

April 27, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Letter Recommending Changes to US Supreme Court's Proposed Rule on Sealing Judicial Records

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, National Public Radio and 41 media organizations urging the U.S. Supreme Court to make improvements to a recently proposed rule that would govern the Court’s practices for sealing judicial records. The Supreme Court proposed a rule addressing the sealing of court documents last month, more than two years after a news media coalition led by the Reporters Committee and NPR (and signed by SEJ) highlighted in a Dec 16, 2019 letter concerns about the sharp increase in sealed filings since the 1990s and asked the Court to adopt a rule that would state a clear standard for when judicial filings may be sealed.

April 1, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Kurland v. Glassdoor

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 media organizations in support of job-search website Glassdoor in a defamation case concerning the application of New York's amended anti-SLAPP law. The amended law allows for journalists and other targets of SLAPP lawsuits to recover attorney’s fees and costs — known as “fee shifting” — as long as the court finds that the plaintiff’s claims were substantially baseless, as happened in this case, yet the trial court denied attorney’s fees to Glassdoor. The amicus brief argues that the legislative history of the amended anti-SLAPP law, as well as its plain text, make clear that fee-shifting is mandatory when a defendant prevails on a motion to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP law.

February 19, 2022
SEJ Objects to Bill Restricting First Amendment Right To Record Police Activity

SEJ joined with the National Press Photographers Association and 25 other media, First Amendment and photography organizations in filing an official objection to an Arizona bill that would restrict the First Amendment right to record police activity. HB 2319 would make it illegal to shoot video of police within 15 feet without their permission. It also gives officers discretion to consider it “interference” when someone is recording their activities inside a building and allows them to order a person to stop recording in that circumstance. The proposed legislation clearly violates the First Amendment under Ninth Circuit precedent and would chill legitimate news coverage of policing.

January 26, 2022
SEJ Objects to OSTP Backing of Reporting Restrictions

SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists wrote today to the Biden Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, thanking them for their work on the "Protecting the Integrity of Government Science" report while pointing out its shortcomings. The letter urges them "to amend or supplement the report by stating, in the clearest and strongest terms possible, that federal scientists need no one’s permission to share their research or knowledge with journalists and the public." Today's communication is a follow-up on last July's letter signed by 25 groups, including SEJ.

January 25, 2022
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Egbert v. Boule

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 33 media organizations in support of Robert Boule, an inn owner near the U.S.-Canada border, who sued Customs and Border Patrol agent Erik Egbert for damages stemming from an alleged violation of Boule's First and Fourth Amendment rights. This is an issue with important consequences for members of the news media. In connection with recent protests, too many federal officers have arrested or used force against reporters engaged in lawful newsgathering, and the threat of personal liability is an indispensable deterrent against constitutional violations of that kind. The brief highlights those incidents; explains why remedies other than damages are often unavailable or ineffective in that context; and describes the courts' track record of successfully adjudicating those constitutional claims.

  • Download the Egbert v. Boule amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On June 8, 2022, the Supreme Court issued a decision concluding that "there is no Bivens action for First Amendment retaliation." (The inn owner had brought his claims pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1971 ruling in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, in which the Court recognized a right to sue federal officials for damages arising from a violation of certain constitutional rights.)

December 22, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Letter Urging Congress To Withdraw Subpoena for Photojournalist's Records

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 54 media organizations urging a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to withdraw its subpoena for freelance photojournalist Amy Harris' telephone toll records. On Dec. 15, Harris had sued the committee over its demand for her records, arguing that her communications are protected by the First Amendment, common law and the District of Columbia’s shield law.

December 15, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Courthouse News Service et al. v. Glessner

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 27 media organizations in support of Courthouse News Service et al., in a Maine-based case arguing that courthouses have a duty to make civil lawsuits available to the public as soon as they're filed, not when they get around to logging them in.

December 3, 2021
SEJ Calls for Investigation Into Journalists' Arrests and Ongoing RCMP Violations of Journalists' Right to Report

The Society of Environmental Journalists sent a letter today to Canada's Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino calling for an investigation into the illegal arrests of journalists Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano, who were documenting Indigenous-led opposition to a pipeline project in British Columbia. The letter also urged decisive action to end the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) repeated violations of journalists’ right to report.

November 22, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Project Veritas v. New York Times Company

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 49 media organizations in support of the New York Times in its appeal of a judicial order barring it from publishing anything more about Project Veritas. Background: Earlier this month the Times published a story that included excerpts of memoranda prepared by an attorney for Project Veritas. Subsequently, Project Veritas asked the state court handling the defamation case to enter a prior restraint against the Times, arguing that the memoranda excerpted in the Times’ article were subject to the attorney-client privilege. The court granted Project Veritas’s request. The Times appealed, but the Appellate Division, Second Department denied the newspaper’s request. The amicus brief posits that the court should not impose the restraints contemplated by the order and dissolve the restraints that the order has already imposed because 1) the restrictions on publication and newsgathering contemplated by the court’s order — as well as the interim restrictions currently imposed by it — violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on prior restraints, and 2) the restrictions described in the order would have grave ramifications for journalists’ ability to gather and report newsworthy information in the public interest.

  • Download the Project Veritas v. New York Times Company amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: During a hearing on Nov. 23, the trial court declined to lift the prior restraint against the New York Times while the court continued to deliberate. A month later, the trial court ordered the Times to immediately turn over or destroy documents in its possession that reflect legal advice from Project Veritas’s attorney. The Times quickly objected to the order, and the appeals court temporarily stayed the portions requiring immediate action.
  • In support of the Times’ objections to the prior restraint and the order to turn over documents, the Reporters Committee and a coalition of 63 news organizations, including SEJ, filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Jan. 12, 2022, urging the appeals court to immediately vacate the lower court’s decision and order. “If upheld,” the media coalition’s brief argues, the lower court’s decision “would create a powerful incentive for litigants to bring frivolous suits in order to suppress news reporting they perceive as unfavorable.”

November 11, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Tuggle v. United States

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 14 media organizations in support of Travis Tuggle, a private individual whose home was monitored for years, without a warrant, by law enforcement agencies using video cameras attached to nearby utility poles. Tuggle asked a federal district court in Illinois to suppress the evidence collected through the pole camera surveillance, arguing that it constituted a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court denied his motion, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision. Tuggle then asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. The amicus brief posits that the Supreme Court should grant Tuggle’s petition and reverse the decision of the Seventh Circuit because 1) targeted, persistent and long-term camera surveillance threatens First Amendment freedoms, including the freedom to gather the news, and 2) the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant before investigators engage in targeted, persistent and long-term camera surveillance that would chill First Amendment rights.

November 3, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Planet Aid, Inc. v. Reveal

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 31 media organizations in support of Reveal (of the Center for Investigative Reporting), which in 2016 published a series of articles and broadcasts about Planet Aid's links to an alleged cult and its apparent misuse of taxpayer funds in connection with agricultural programs in Africa. The publication led to calls for reform and the loss of funding to the nonprofit organization, which sued Reveal for defamation in Maryland. Reveal succeeded in transferring the case to the Northern District Court of California, after which it filed a motion to strike under California's anti-SLAPP law. Following nearly two years of discovery, the district court granted Reveal's motion. Planet Aid appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In its brief on appeal, Planet Aid suggests that California's anti-SLAPP law should not apply in federal court. The amicus brief posits that the Ninth Circuit should affirm the district court's decision in favor of Reveal.

  • Download the Planet Aid, Inc. v. Reveal amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling in favor of Reveal. The court found, among other things, that Planet Aid is a limited purpose public figure and that a reasonable fact finder could not find, by clear and convincing evidence, that Reveal acted with actual malice in publishing the allegedly defamatory statements.

October 26, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — CoreCivic v. Candide Group

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 32 media organizations in support of Candide Group, run by Forbes senior contributor Morgan Simon, in a defamation case brought by CoreCivic, a private prison company, after Forbes ran a series of articles about its detention of family members separated at the border. CoreCivic sued Simon for libel, and Simon moved to strike the company’s claims under California’s anti-SLAPP law. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in Simon’s favor; CoreCivic appealed. The amicus brief posits that the Ninth Circuit should affirm the district court’s decision in favor of Simon and reject CoreCivic’s argument, which, if adopted, would deprive Californians — including journalists — of vital, substantive protections against claims arising out of the exercise of their First Amendment rights.

October 26, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — CoreCivic v. Candide Group

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 32 media organizations in support of Candide Group, run by Forbes senior contributor Morgan Simon, in a defamation case brought by CoreCivic, a private prison company, after Forbes ran a series of articles about its detention of family members separated at the border. CoreCivic sued Simon for libel, and Simon moved to strike the company’s claims under California’s anti-SLAPP law. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in Simon’s favor; CoreCivic appealed. The amicus brief posits that the Ninth Circuit should affirm the district court’s decision in favor of Simon and reject CoreCivic’s argument, which, if adopted, would deprive Californians  — including journalists  — of vital, substantive protections against claims arising out of the exercise of their First Amendment rights.

October 25, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — VIP Pet Grooming Studio, Inc. v. Sproule

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and nine media organizations in support of Robert and Sarah Sproule, who in May 2020 took their puppy to VIP Pet Grooming Studio, Inc. The puppy began acting strangely during the groom and sadly died days later. Robert wrote one-star Yelp and Google reviews of VIP, alleging it was responsible for the dog's death and warning other pet owners to stay away. VIP sued the Sproules for defamation. Eight days later, on November 10, 2020, New York's amended anti-SLAPP law took effect, providing significant new protections for defendants sued over their speech on issues of public interest. The Sproules moved to dismiss the case under that law. The trial court sided with VIP, saying the anti-SLAPP law did not apply because the Sproules' speech did not concern an issue of public interest. The Sproules appealed. The amicus brief urges the appellate court to reverse the decision and hold that 1) the anti-SLAPP amendments apply retroactively and 2) they protect the Sproules' speech as an issue of public interest. The brief explains that holding otherwise risks chilling journalism and consumer advocacy on local businesses and other subjects, and undermining the purpose of the New York Legislature’s anti-SLAPP reforms.

October 12, 2021
SEJ Urges Dismissal of Prosecution of Oregon Journalist

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 47 media organizations calling on the City of Medford, Oregon to drop all charges against April Ehrlich, a journalist for the National Public Radio member station Jefferson Public Radio, who was arrested and charged with trespass and resisting arrest while doing her job — covering the city's eviction of homeless people from a municipal park.

  • Read the Oct 12, 2021 RCFP release and the coalition's letter.
  • Updates: On Oct. 14, 2021, Medford City Attorney Eric Mitton responded to the Reporters Committee’s letter, suggesting that RCFP’s recitation of the facts and our views regarding the First Amendment might somehow prejudice Ehrlich’s right to a fair trial. Reporters Committee attorneys responded to Mitton in a second letter sent on Oct. 20, 2021, reiterating the media coalition’s request that the city dismiss the pending charges with prejudice and addressing his misunderstanding about the coalition’s recitation of the facts.
  • In advance of a September 2022 trial, the Reporters Committee and a coalition of 52 news media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) submitted a third letter in support of Ehrlich on Aug. 12, 2022, once again urging the dismissal of trespass charges against her. The letter to the Medford Municipal Court argues, among other things, that the First Amendment protects the right of the press and public to document government operations, including encampment sweeps. In August 2022, a judge dismissed all charges against Ehrlich.

September 23, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — National Press Photographers Association v. McCraw

SEJ joined with the Texas Association of Broadcasters, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 44 media organizations in support of the National Press Photographers Association in a case challenging a Texas law that restricts the use of UAVs (aka drones) to gather aerial images. The law permits their use by some selected occupations, but not by journalists or for newsgathering purposes. The amicus brief posits that Texas' regulations discriminate against the news media, and the state’s justifications for that disparate treatment cannot survive the strict scrutiny that the First Amendment requires.

  • Download the National Press Photographers Association v. McCraw amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: On March 28, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas held that Texas’ drone-use restrictions violated the First Amendment. After the state of Texas appealed, the Reporters Committee filed a second friend-of-the-court brief on Nov. 23, 2022, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to affirm the lower court's ruling. The brief, joined by the Texas Association of Broadcasters and 27 news organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists), argues that provisions of the Texas law “discriminate against the press without justification.” On Oct. 23, 2023, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling. While the appeals court rejected NPPA’s facial challenge, it did not foreclose future as-applied challenges to the drone regulations. After the National Press Photographers Association filed a petition for rehearing en banc, the Reporters Committee joined a coalition of news organizations in urging the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its previous ruling. 
  • Update: On May 13, 2024, the Society of Environmental Journalists joined with the Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB) and 16 media organizations in filing this amicus brief in support of the National Press Photographers Association's petition for cert in NPPA v. McCraw, the challenge to Texas's state drone restrictions. The amicus brief makes three principal points: (1) that image-capturing drones are an important newsgathering tool, especially in communicating life-saving information to the public; (2) that the Texas law has chilled drone use by TAB station members (the original client for this brief); and (3) that helicopters are not viable alternatives to drones.     

September 8, 2021
SEJ Urges Supreme Court To Make Live Audio Streaming Permanent and Accessible

SEJ joined with the Project on Government Oversight and 73 other organizations in asking the Supreme Court to make permanent the pandemic practice of allowing live audio streaming of arguments before them.

July 26, 2021
SEJ, J-Groups Urge White House To Let Government Experts Speak Freely to Journalists and Public

SEJ joined with the Society of Professional Journalists and 23 other journalism groups in sending a letter today to the White House to request a meeting with the White House Scientific Integrity Task Force. The groups wish to discuss protection against interference in journalists' work, stating facts and making recommendations.

July 16, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp.

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 29 media organizations in support of hiQ Labs, a company that provides data science services to human resource departments, which has been locked in litigation with LinkedIn over hiQ’s practice of collecting information from public LinkedIn profiles. The case concerns whether the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act forbids "scraping" of data from public websites. This can affect news organizations involved in data journalism. The amicus brief posits that the Ninth Circuit should reinstate its conclusion that the CFAA does not prohibit scraping a public website, regardless whether the site has purportedly ordered a visitor to stop.

July 14, 2021
SEJ Calls on EPA To Restore 'Fishbowl' Transparency for Press

Today, SEJ wrote a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan calling on him to make clear that EPA scientists and staff are permitted and even encouraged to share their expertise and work with journalists. This comes on the heels of a leaked internal email reminding EPA employees in one of the agency's offices that they are not allowed to respond directly to press queries. Shortly after he took over, Regan had reaffirmed a pledge made by EPA's first and longest serving administrator, William Ruckelshaus, to operate the agency "in a fishbowl." The letter says that requiring agency experts to refer all press queries to the press office is not in keeping with the transparency he characterized as essential to restoring and maintaining public confidence in the agency's actions.

  • Full text of SEJ's July 14, 2021 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Note: The letter includes an attachment which quotes the passages in the EPA's Scientific Integrity Policy to which SEJ objects.

July 2, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Faulk v. Leyshock/City of St. Louis

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 28 media organizations in support of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Michael Faulk who in 2017 was maced and arrested by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police as he covered protests sparked by the acquittal of former police officer Jason Stockley in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Faulk brought a civil rights action in federal court. One of the officers involved moved to dismiss the case. The district court denied the motion, and the police officer appealed. The amicus brief posits that the Eighth Circuit should affirm the lower court's denial of the defendant's motion to dismiss.

June 25, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — CPI v. FOMB

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 26 media organizations in support of Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), an investigative nonprofit news organization, which sought documents from the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) under Puerto Rico’s constitution and public records law. Litigation ensued, with FOMB claiming it could not be sued in federal court under the Eleventh Amendment and that it was exempt from compliance with Puerto Rico’s public records laws because they conflict with its obligations under PROMESA. In district court, CPI successfully argued that the Board may be sued in federal court and is not exempt from Puerto Rico’s public records laws. The Board appealed the district court’s rulings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the First Circuit should affirm the district court’s ruling that the Board is subject to disclosure obligations under Puerto Rico law, upholding CPI's — and the public's — right to know.

June 22, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Thurlow v. Nelson

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 13 media organizations in support of Maine's anti-SLAPP statute.

June 3, 2021
SEJ Urges State Dept. To Help Free U.S. Journalists Detained in Myanmar

Today, the Society of Environmental Journalists has written the U.S. State Department urging it to do all in its power to free two U.S. journalists working in Myanmar who have been imprisoned since the military seized power there in February. Danny Fenster, managing editor of the independent news outlet Frontier Myanmar, was detained May 24 as he prepared to fly to the U.S. for a family visit. Nathan Maung, editor-in-chief of the local news outlet Kamayut Media, was seized in March.

May 27, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — ACLU v. United States

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 33 media organizations in support of the ACLU in a case concerning whether the press and public have a right to see opinions justifying decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the entity that authorizes surveillance activities by intelligence agencies. The amicus brief posits that the Supreme Court should agree to hear the case in order to recognize that the FISC and FISCR (FISC’s court of review) have jurisdiction to hear right-of-access motions, and that there is a qualified First Amendment right of access to FISC opinions and orders.

May 21, 2021
SEJ Joins ACLU Amicus Brief — Sharron Tasha Ford v. City of Boynton Beach

SEJ joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and 8 media and civil rights organizations in a case involving significant First Amendment issues around the recording of police performing official duties in public places. Ford was arrested for recording her interactions with the police. A Florida appeals court upheld the ruling. The amicus brief posits that the ruling should be overturned as it could block the press and the public from videotaping police.

April 29, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Coalition Urging DOJ Investigation of Police Treatment of Press at Protests

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 90 media organizations in sending a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging investigation into law enforcement’s treatment of the press as part of the Justice Department’s civil rights probes into the local police departments in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Louisville, Kentucky. The letter highlighted the dangers U.S. journalists have faced while covering racial justice protests following the police murder of George Floyd — and the First Amendment and democratic rights of journalists to cover policing and report to the public.

  • Full text of the coalition's April 29, 2021 letter to U.S. DOJ Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
  • Apr 29, 2021 RCFP release.
  • Update: The DOJ decided to seek input on the use of force against journalists as part of the Minneapolis matter, convening a virtual meeting on June 30, 2021 regarding their investigation into "whether the City of Minneapolis or MPD engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force; discriminating against people, including on the basis of race or disability status; or using force against members of the press or individuals who are engaging in free speech activities that are protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."

April 22, 2021
SEJ Calls on DOJ To Expand Investigation of Minneapolis Police Department

Today, SEJ wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General Merrick B. Garland condemning actions by law enforcement during the recent protests over police killings of Black people in Minnesota, which interfered with journalists’ ability to report on matters of intense public interest and concern. SEJ called on the Department of Justice to expand its investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department to include the violations of civil rights and of the First Amendment stemming from police targeting journalists in Brooklyn Center and anywhere else in Minnesota that occurred during the recent protests.

April 16, 2021
SEJ Urges NY Attorney Grievance Committee To Make Rudy Giuliani’s Disciplinary Proceedings, Records Public

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 31 media organizations in writing to the New York Supreme Court's Attorney Grievance Committee calling for the release of all records relating to disciplinary proceedings currently pending against former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani. The letter argued that the public should have access to the records given the substantial public interest in Giuliani’s role in challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election while serving as lead legal counsel for former President Donald Trump.

April 12, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Lepore v. United States

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 38 media organizations in support of Jill Lepore, historian/staff writer for The New Yorker, who requested a court to grant access to normally sealed grand jury records from the Pentagon Papers case 50 years ago. The district court ordered the records disclosed, invoking its inherent authority to do so. The government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the First Circuit should affirm the district court’s order authorizing disclosure of the requested grand jury records, which serves the public interest as the historical significance of the requested materials outweighs continued grand jury secrecy.

March 24, 2021
SEJ Calls on President Biden To Hold Saudi Government Accountable for Khashoggi Murder

The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote to President Biden today, calling on him to keep his campaign promise to speak out publicly against the murder of the Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. A recent report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Khashoggi. The letter states, in part, "For the sake of civilized society everywhere, press freedom must be upheld worldwide, not just in the U.S. No person or nation should be allowed to get away with committing or ordering violence against journalists, who perform an essential role in informing the public."

March 1, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — PETA v. Stein

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 16 media organizations in support of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in a North Carolina "ag-gag law" case with ramifications beyond the agricultural industry, affecting all businesses, journalism and democracy. The brief argues that the district court was correct to apply a First Amendment analysis to the law, which infringes upon constitutionally protected newsgathering rights and unconstitutionally abridges the right to make audiovisual recordings. In particular, the law was specifically intended to disrupt the relationship between employee whistleblowers noting unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and the journalists that rely on those sources for their reporting.

February 24, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — AFT Michigan v. Project Veritas

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 17 media organizations in a case where the Michigan Supreme Court is being asked to either affirm a lower court’s decision from nearly 40 years ago (that the consent of only one involved party is required in order to lawfully record a conversation) or rule that the state’s eavesdropping statutes prohibit the recording of a conversation unless all parties consent to it. The amicus brief posits that the Michigan Supreme Court should affirm the one-party consent principle as it serves vital First Amendment interests. A ruling in favor of the all-party consent interpretation would subject journalists and their sources to potential criminal and civil liability, and would create a chilling effect on newsgathering and reporting in Michigan.

February 19, 2021
SEJ Urges Interior To Let the Sun Shine In Again

The Society of Environmental Journalists sent a letter today to Interior Secretary-Designate Debra Haaland with a list of more than a dozen recommendations for letting the sun shine more fully in the Department of the Interior, including respecting the vital role that journalists play in our democracy. The letter states, in part, "For the sake of our democracy and the people’s right to know how their resources are being managed, it’s time for Interior to help restore government transparency and accountability. We urge you to renew the agency’s commitment to the mission of informing the public about what the government is doing to address risks to human health and the environment."

February 11, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — United States v. Moore-Bush

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 7 media organizations in a case which, on one level, is about whether authorities need a search warrant to use round-the-clock camera surveillance to make a drug case — a 4th Amendment issue. However, the brief argues it has First Amendment implications, too, if authorities use the same tactics to try to ferret out leaks to reporters.

February 3, 2021
SEJ Calls on U.S. EPA To Renew Committment for Journalists To Inform Public

SEJ wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Administrator-Designate Michael Regan, calling for the agency to take steps to ensure that journalists are able to effectively convey essential information to the public. The letter says, in part, "We are calling on President Biden and you as Administrator to commit the agency to restoring government openness and transparency, and to respect the vital role that journalists play in our democracy."

February 3, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Evans v. U.S. Department of Labor

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 32 media organizations in support of the Center for Investigative Reporting and its reporter, Will Evans, in a case involving a company's attempt to intervene after a federal district court sided with Evans and CIR, ruling that FOIA-requested records were not commercial in nature and therefore could not be withheld. The underlying issue is about how Congress intended the Freedom of Information Act to guarantee timely responses to requests for records. The amicus brief posits that the appeals court should affirm the district court’s decision to deny Synopsys’s motion to intervene for the purpose of reconsideration and reverse its order allowing Synopsys to intervene and appeal.

January 27, 2021
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Callahan v. United Network for Organ Sharing

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 6 media organizations in support of Randall Callahan et al. in a case concerning the right of public access to court records. It involves a legal challenge to the way a nonprofit organization decides who gets liver transplants in the US. The broader issue is over whether the specifics of that organization's policies and practices should be unsealed in court documents for all to see. The amicus brief argues that how the federal appeals court decides this issue could affect news media coverage of litigation in general.

January 21, 2021
SEJ Petitions Biden/Harris To Restore Government Openness and Respect for Journalists

Today, SEJ wrote President Biden and Vice President Harris, petitioning them "to commit your administration to restoring openness and transparency throughout the federal government, and by your words and actions, to help restore respect for the vital role journalists play in our democracy" and providing concrete steps to do so.

January 19, 2021
SEJ Seeks Exemption for Media To Wear Body Armor

SEJ joined the New York Press Photographers Association, National Press Photographers Association and nine other media organizations in writing to New York legislators regarding that state's law criminalizing wearing of protective vests, noting "some members of the media wear ballistic vests for protection, especially in more dangerous situations including protests and large public gatherings."

December 21, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Microsoft Corp. v. United States

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 media organizations in support of Microsoft Corporation which last year challenged a government order prohibiting the company from telling anyone that it had received a search warrant for the email accounts of two employees of a multinational company, which is a Microsoft customer. Their request was denied; Microsoft appealed. The amicus brief, for the appeal, argues that the government should not have carte blanche to search journalists' files in the cloud, and when it does get that access, it shouldn't be automatically allowed to place a gag order on the keeper of the cloud storage to prevent informing those targeted by the search.

December 2, 2020
SEJ Urges Inclusion of Journalists in NY Phase 2 COVID-19 Vaccine Program

SEJ joined with the National Press Photographers Association and six other media organizations in sending a letter to the state of New York requesting COVID-19 vaccine priority for journalists as so many of them have direct contact with the public, thereby exposing themselves to risk of infection covering the pandemic and other essential news.

November 23, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Index Newspapers et al. v. United States Marshals Service et al.

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 59 media organizations in support of a reinstated injunction barring federal agents from targeting journalists for assault and arrest during protests. Background: In June 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of journalists targeted by law enforcement while covering Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon. The Nov 23 brief posits that dispersal orders must be narrowly tailored to accommodate newsgathering and cannot constitutionally be applied to journalists who have not committed an unlawful act other than failure to disperse.

November 6, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce v. Evers

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 5 media organizations in support of Tony Evers et al. and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after Wisconsin business groups filed suit to prevent the release of state Department of Health records containing the names of businesses with at least 25 employees where at least two employees tested positive for COVID-19 or had close contacts that were investigated by contact tracers. For muliple reasons, the amicus brief posits that the court should deny the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary injunction and dismiss plaintiffs’ lawsuit.

  • Download the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce v. Evers amicus brief (PDF).
  • Nov 6, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: In a bench ruling issued on Dec. 1, the court denied motions to dismiss submitted by the state of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and granted the plaintiffs’ temporary injunction enjoining the Department of Public Health from releasing the records at issue. On appeal, the Reporters Committee and 13 media organizations urged the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court’s decision and to direct that the case be dismissed. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed on March 12, 2021, the media coalition argued that the business groups’ lawsuit is impermissible under Wisconsin’s Public Records Law, and that timely access to information required to be disclosed under the Public Records Law serves the public interest, especially during a public health crisis. On April 5, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that the state of Wisconsin and the Journal Sentinel are entitled to dismissal of the case with prejudice. The court concluded that the trade associations failed to state any claim upon which relief could be granted; specifically, because the trade groups failed to allege that release of the records would harm any legally protectable interest, declaratory judgment is unavailable to them.

November 4, 2020
SEJ Urges NC Police Department To Drop Charges Against Journalist

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 media organizations in sending a letter urging the Graham Police Department in North Carolina to drop charges against Tomas Murawski, a reporter for the Alamance News, who was recently arrested while reporting on a demonstration.

October 28, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Schwab v. Blay

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 9 media organizations in support of blogger Shlomie Klein, who was sued in 2018 (along with Joyce Blay and others) by Yecheskel Schwab and his business, Datamap Intelligence, LLC, for posts on two websites, jleaks and hefkervelt. Klein has attempted to invoke New Jersey's shield law but the trial court has not permitted it. The amicus brief posits that the court should hold that Klein, like other journalists connected with nontraditional news media, can invoke the New Jersey shield law’s protections.

October 26, 2020
SEJ Urges DHS To Scrap Proposed Changes to Foreign Journalist Visas

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 36 media organizations in submitting written comments to the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the federal government’s proposed changes to foreign journalists’ visas could chill newsgathering and subject U.S. reporters abroad to retaliation.

October 22, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Turner v. US Agency for Global Media

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 media organizations in support of Grant Turner and four other senior executives at the U.S. Agency for Global Media who CEO Michael Pack suspended in August. Turner et al. sued the agency, Pack and his aides to enforce the statutory “firewall” that preserves the editorial independence of the congressionally funded broadcasters administered by the USAGM. The amicus brief posits that the court should grant the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent USAGM, Pack and his aides from further interfering with the editorial independence of the broadcasters administered by the agency.

October 13, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Blankenship v. Blakeman

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 23 media organizations in support of Fox News contributor Bradley Blakeman after Don Blankenship, the former chairman and CEO of Massey Energy, filed a defamation lawsuit against him earlier this year. Blakeman filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit under the Virginia anti-SLAPP statute. However, the district court denied the motion to dismiss, leading Blakeman to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the court should hold that Virginia’s anti-SLAPP law provides immunity from suit and not merely immunity from liability; therefore, the district court’s denial of Blakeman’s motion to dismiss is appealable.

September 28, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Ukraine Relief v. Gurzhiy

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 12 media organizations in support of Ruslan Gurzhiy, publisher of The Slavic Sacramento, who was sued by Ukraine Relief, claiming that the online Russian-language news site published three defamatory articles about the plaintiffs’ alleged misuse of humanitarian aid donations intended for Ukrainians. The court denied the online news site the protection of California law, saying that it hadn't proven it qualified as a weekly news publisher. Gurzhiy appealed. The amicus brief posits that the Court of Appeal should reverse the trial court’s denial in part of Gurzhiy’s motion to strike because the California retraction statute does apply to The Slavic Sacramento and bars the plaintiffs’ claims.

  • Download the Ukraine Relief v. Gurzhiy amicus brief (PDF).
  • Sep 29, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On Nov. 8, 2021, the California Court of Appeal issued a ruling reversing in part and affirming in part the trial court’s order on Gurzihy’s anti-SLAPP motion. The Court of Appeal “reject[ed] arguments by Gurzhiy and amici curiae that the retraction statute applies to bar plaintiffs’ claims except for special damages” because the “record does not show that The Slavic Sacramento constitutes a daily or weekly publication[.]” Gurzihy then asked the California Supreme Court to review the case. And on Jan. 20, 2022, the Reporters Committee and 12 media organizations, including SEJ, filed a letter in support of Gurzihy’s Supreme Court petition, arguing that the Court of Appeal erred in finding that The Slavic Sacramento did not show it is a “weekly news publication” within the meaning of the state’s retraction statute. The letter also argued that the Court of Appeal’s holding undermines the ability of local and foreign language news outlets to avail themselves of the statute’s protections.

September 25, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Ness v. City of Bloomington

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 media organizations in support of Bloomington, Minn., resident Sally Ness, who filed a lawsuit against the city challenging ordinance that restricts photography or filming in public parks, including forbidding photos or videos of children in parks without the consent of parent or guardian. Ness took issue with a nearby mosque and school using the park as a playground and began filming to document her complaints. The case was dismissed by the Minnesota District Court; Ness appealed to the Eighth Circuit. If allowed to stand, and especially if replicated elsewhere, such restrictions may have a chilling effect on news photography or video in public places out of fear that they may be prosecuted if a child is unwittingly included in the images. Hence, the amicus brief posits that the Eighth Circuit should reverse the district court’s decision and strike down the city ordinance as unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

  • Download the Ness v. City of Bloomington amicus brief (PDF).
  • Sep 25, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On Sept. 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a published opinion in this case, reversing the district court’s decision and finding that the city ordinance banning photography and recording of minors in public parks, absent parental consent, violates the First Amendment as applied to the plaintiff’s activities here. The court agreed with the Reporters Committee’s friend-of-the-court brief that this was a content-based restriction and not “narrowly tailored” as applied to Ness, because she seeks to record “a matter of public interest — purported violations of permits issued by the city — and does not intend to harass, intimidate, or exploit children.” Although the court did not address whether the ordinance is unconstitutional in all cases, the decision indicates that the ban would likewise be unconstitutional as applied to journalists who record or photograph matters of public interest in public parks.

September 24, 2020
SEJ Supports Future of Local News Commission Act

SEJ joined 20 other media associations and organizations to support the Future of Local News Commission Act, which would form a nonpartisan, independent commission to develop recommendations for supporting local news "and its ability to sustain democracy by informing the American public about critical issues."

September 16, 2020
SEJ Condemns Arrest of KPCC Reporter Josie Huang

SEJ joined RCFP and 64 media associations and organizations in a letter calling on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to drop charges against Josie Huang, a journalist for the National Public Radio member station KPCC, who was violently arrested while she was reporting on a Sept. 12 protest. The media coalition also urged the department to take immediate steps to prevent such an arrest of a member of the news media from occurring again.

September 16, 2020
SEJ Urges US Supreme Court To Continue Livestreaming Oral Arguments

SEJ joined RCFP and 49 media organizations in a letter urging the U.S. Supreme Court to continue providing live audio of oral arguments for the upcoming term. The media coalition’s letter mirrors a similar request they sent to the Supreme Court last October asking for live audio in six high-profile cases, which was denied.

September 11, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — BH Media Group v. Clarke

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 media organizations in support of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Guardian News & Media, Associated Press, and Gannett, which in 2019 filed a lawsuit against the director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, contending that the department violated their First Amendment right to access the entirety of execution proceedings when it changed its execution protocol in 2017. VDOC Director Harold Clarke filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted. The district court held that the First Amendment access right applies only to certain pre-judgment adjudicatory proceedings in a criminal prosecution. The district court determined that, because an execution occurs post-judgment, it is categorically excluded from the First Amendment right of access. The news organizations appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Fourth Circuit should reverse the district court’s decision dismissing the news organizations’ complaint and remand the matter to the district court so it can apply the history and logic framework to its decision, to protect First Amendment right of access.

September 9, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Giuffre v. Maxwell

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 33 media organizations in support of Virginia Giuffre, one of the victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein. This appeal specifically concerns the unsealing of transcripts of an April 2016 deposition given by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and former associate, and that of a non-party “Doe 1,” as well as court records quoting from and summarizing the transcripts. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the deposition records should be unsealed. Maxwell appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Second Circuit should, in the public interest, affirm the district court’s order unsealing the deposition records.

August 31, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Kelly

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 17 media organizations in support of ALDF which in 2018 filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and attorney general of Kansas, arguing that a state law that criminalizes taking photographs and making audio and video recordings at agricultural facilities, among other things, is unconstitutional. In January, a district court ruled partially in favor of the advocacy groups; the state then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Tenth Circuit should affirm the district court’s judgment and strike down the Kansas ag-gag law as unconstitutional.

  • Download the Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Kelly amicus brief (PDF).
  • Aug 31, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On Aug. 19, 2021, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that held three subsections of Kansas’s “ag-gag” statute unconstitutional.
  • Update Apr 27, 2022: In November 2021, Governor Kelly filed a petition for writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court denied the petition on Monday, April 25, 2022, leaving in place the Tenth CIrcuit's affirmance of the district court's order finding three subsections of Kansas's Ag-Gag statute, K.S.A. § 47-1827(b)-(d), unconstitutional.

August 26, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — McGlothlin v. Hennelly

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 14 media organizations in support of South Carolina resident Kevin Hennelly who was sued by James McGlothlin, a wealthy businessman who owns a coal, oil, and gas exploration company, claiming that Hennelly defamed him in a Facebook post and in the comments section of a local online newspaper. Both parties moved for summary judgment, and a federal district court in South Carolina granted summary judgment to Hennelly. While the court held that McGlothlin was a “private figure,” it found that a reasonable jury could not prove that Hennelly acted recklessly or with disregard for McGlothlin’s rights, a requirement for a private figure to collect damages under South Carolina law. McGlothlin then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the Fourth Circuit should affirm the district court’s judgment of no defamation liability for Hennelly. But to protect the free flow of information and to properly account for the plaintiff’s wealth and influence, the Fourth Circuit should reverse the district court’s holding that McGlothlin is not a public figure.

August 21, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Buffalo Police Benevolent Association v. Brown

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 media organizations in support of the City of Buffalo after the Buffalo police union and firefighters’ association sued the mayor of Buffalo and other city entities to prevent them from publishing police misconduct records. The unions are seeking a preliminary injunction to delay the release of “non-final” and “unsubstantiated” misconduct allegations pending the resolution of the lawsuit. The amicus brief posits that the court should deny the unions’ request for an injunction.

August 13 and 14, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Uniformed Fire Officers Association v. De Blasio (Second Circuit) and (SDNY)

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and more than 30 media organizations in signing two briefs supporting the New York Civil Liberties Union, which had FOIA'd a database of previously unavailable police misconduct records, after a lawsuit brought by fire and police unions challenging the release of certain police misconduct records entered a temporary restraining order enjoining the NYCLU and the city of New York from publishing any records previously shielded by Section 50-a, including the database. The district court later removed the NYCLU from the scope of the temporary restraining order, a decision that the unions have since appealed. The amicus brief posits that the Second Circuit should deny the unions’ request for a stay.

  • Download the Uniformed Fire Officers Association v. De Blasio (Second Circuit) amicus brief (PDF).
  • Aug 13, 2020, RCFP release (Second Circuit).
  • Download the Uniformed Fire Officers Association v. De Blasio (SDNY) amicus brief (PDF) (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York).
  • Aug 14, 2020, RCFP release (SDNY)
  • Update: On Aug. 20, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an order denying the unions’ motion for a stay pending appeal and terminating its previous order staying the district court’s order (Second Circuit).
  • Update: In an oral decision on Aug. 21, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected the unions’ petition for a preliminary injunction. Specifically, the Court noted that the police unions had cited no examples which lend credence to their claim that publicizing these records will create a risk of harm to police officers. In its decision, the Court discussed the Citizens Police Data Project, a searchable database of police disciplinary records of Chicago’s police officers, and touched on the value that such databases have for the public. The Court carved out a narrow exception to its ruling for a specific subset of records that may implicate collective bargaining agreements (SDNY).

August 7, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Alasaad v. Wolf

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and 12 media organizations in support of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who sued the heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that suspicionless searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border violated Fourth Amendment protections.

August 6, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Denson v. Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 media organizations in support of Jessica Denson, a former staffer for Donald J. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, who filed a class-action lawsuit against the campaign to nullify the nondisclosure agreement each staffer was required to sign. The amicus brief posits that the district court should grant summary judgment to the current and former Trump campaign staffers who have signed the challenged nondisclosure agreement and hold that the nondisclosure agreement is void and unenforceable.

 

August 3, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 27 other media organizations intervening in a court argument over overuse of the "deliberative process" exemption to the Freedom of Information Act. The underlying case concerns science agency advice to the Environmental Protection Agency over possibly harmful effects of utility cooling water. Environmental groups won their case on appeal, and it is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. A coalition of journalism groups, led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed an amicus brief Aug. 3 supporting rejection of the "deliberative" exemption in this case — and release of the information.

July 31, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Lokhova v. Halper

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 29 media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Stefan Halper, an American foreign policy scholar and senior fellow at the University of Cambridge. Svetlana Lokhova, a Russian-born graduate student, filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and NBCUniversal, saying the news organizations defamed her when they reported on a 2014 dinner at the University of Cambridge, at which General Michael Flynn, who was then director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, met Lokhova but failed to notify officials of that interaction. Lokhova claims that Halper worked with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to orchestrate the news organizations' coverage of her encounter with Flynn. Most of her claims were dismissed because they were filed after the one-year statute of limitations had expired. Lokhova appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, arguing that several of her defamation claims are within the statute of limitations because the original publishers and third parties hyperlinked to or retweeted the allegedly defamatory articles within the statute of limitations period. The amicus brief posits that the Fourth Circuit should reject Lokhova's republication theory and affirm the district court’s dismissal of the majority of her claims as time-barred.

July 23, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Committee to Protect Journalists v. CIA

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 31 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In 2018, CPJ submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to five federal agencies related to the Saudi Arabian government’s execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. All but the State department invoked the "Glomar" doctrine, claiming that acknowledging the existence or non-existence of documents responsive to the requests would compromise national security. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the Glomar responses, granting summary judgment for the government. CPJ appealed. The amicus brief posits that the D.C. Circuit should reverse the district court’s decision that the intelligence agencies adequately justified their Glomar responses to the FOIA requests.

July 14, 2020
SEJ Supports Des Moines Register Reporter Andrea Sahouri

SEJ joined an Iowa Freedom of Information Council letter asking that the Polk County Attorney drop charges against Andrea Sahouri, a reporter for the Des Moines Register who was pepper-sprayed and detained while obeying an order to disperse. She had been covering protests of police brutality after the death of George Floyd.

July 8, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Van Buren v. United States

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 40 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Nathan Van Buren, a Georgia police officer who allegedly used his credentials to access confidential information from a state criminal database in exchange for a private loan. He was charged with one count of honest-services wire fraud and one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for “exceeding authorized access” to a computer. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld his original conviction, adopting an expansive construction of the CFAA that threatens to chill First Amendment activity. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Van Buren’s appeal in April and he has since filed his opening brief. The amicus brief posits that the Supreme Court should reverse the appeals court’s decision and adopt a narrower interpretation of the CFAA to avoid constitutional concerns.

July 6, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Courthouse News Service v. Schaefer

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 27 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Courthouse News Service, which filed a lawsuit against two Virginia circuit courts after their clerks began delaying access to newly filed civil complaints in 2018. The filing delays prevented the legal news service and other news organizations from reporting on litigation in a timely fashion. In January 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of CNS, holding that the clerks deprived the news service of its First Amendment right to contemporaneously access newly filed civil complaints. The clerks have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The amicus brief posits that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed.

June 30, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Cato Institute v. SEC

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 13 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of the Cato Institute, which filed a lawsuit challenging the SEC's gag order preventing companies and individuals that reach settlements with the agency from publicly denying them, including when speaking with members of the press. The complaint was dismissed and Cato appealed. The amicus brief posits that the D.C. Circuit should vacate the district court’s decision.

June 16, 2020
SEJ Denounces Denver Police Attacks on Journalists

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committe for Freedom of the Press and 39 other media and press freedom organizations in sending a letter to Denver officials denouncing police attacks on credentialed journalists in Denver, Colorado, and calling for education of law enforcement about their legal obligation to protect members of the press.

  • Download the June 16, 2020, letter from the media/press freedom organizations to Denver's mayor, police chief and public safety director (PDF).
  • June 16, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On July 8, 2020, Murphy F. Robinson III, Denver's executive director of Public Safety, responded to the Reporters Committee's letter, stating that "Denver's law enforcement officers are trained to respect First Amendment rights, and any intentional violation of such rights will not be condoned or tolerated under my leadership." Download Robinson's letter (PDF).

See also:

June 10, 2020
SEJ Calls On Governors To Protect Journalists Covering Protests

SEJ joined with PEN America, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 44 other press freedom organizations and experts in sending letters to each U.S. governor, as well as the mayor of Washington, D.C. The letters called on all leaders to uphold press freedom and ensure law enforcement is accountable for recent actions against journalists covering protests. Further, the letters urged the state leaders to publicly affirm the right of journalists and citizens to record police in public places as they carry out their official duties; to exclude the media from curfews; and to provide greater transparency from state officials regarding threats or attacks on journalists throughout the state.

 

June 9, 2020
SEJ Stands With Journalists of Color Speaking Out About Systemic Racism

SEJ stands with journalists of color who are shedding light on systemic racism, inequities, and discrimination inside and outside of the newsroom. We condemn violence against people who are peacefully protesting police killings of Black people, and violence against journalists reporting on them. We condemn the silencing of Black voices in any newsroom, as well as voices from other underrepresented communities.

June 8, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Gibson Bros, Inc. v. Oberlin College

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 media and other organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Oberlin College. In 2016, students there protested after an altercation at Gibson's Bakery between three Black students and a white employee of the family run shop. In 2017, the bakery and two of its owners filed a libel lawsuit against Oberlin College and its vice president, arguing, among other things, that they defamed the bakery by distributing a protest flyer and Student Senate resolution. Defendants were found guilty of defamation based on the court's findings that they acted negligently, awarding the bakery and its owners a total of $44 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Oberlin appealed. The amicus brief posits that the appeals court should reverse the jury’s verdict, and should clarify that the "actual malice" standard of fault applies in defamation actions against redistributors in order to ensure that defamation suits do not inhibit the First Amendment protected redistribution of speech by news outlets, booksellers and libraries.

June 8, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Jones v. Professional Background Screening Association

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 23 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of nonprofit PBSA's efforts to obtain “all court records” related to a specific individual that the company wished to screen. As journalists rely on criminal court documents, the amicus brief posits that the Supreme Court of Arkansas should affirm the trial court’s entry of partial summary judgment for PBSA and reverse the trial court’s entry of partial summary judgment for the court clerk (Jones).

June 6, 2020
SEJ Denounces NY Police Attacks on Journalists

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committe for Freedom of the Press and 120 other media and press freedom organizations in sending a letter to New York officials requesting they "take immediate, concrete steps to end the series of police arrests and attacks on credentialed and clearly identifiable journalists in New York City" covering protests that began after a white police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.

  • Download the June 6, 2020, letter from the media/press freedom organizations to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea (PDF).
  • June 6, 2020 response from the NYC mayor's office confirmed receipt of the group's letter and included this statement: "For your awareness, officers have been informed that journalists are exempt from the curfew and within their legal rights to be at protests documenting what they see. Further, journalists should not be subject to any arrests."
  • June 7, 2020, RCFP release.

June 5, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Philadelphia Bail Fund v. Arraignment Court Magistrate Judges

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 13 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of nonprofit Philadelphia Bail Fund which filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of certain Pennsylvania court rules that prevent the public, including the news media, from making audio recordings of bail hearings. Judgement went to the nonprofit, then was appealed by the magistrates. The amicus brief posits that the Third Circuit should affirm the district court’s ruling that the Philadelphia Bail Fund has the right to record bail hearings.

June 3, 2020
SEJ Comments on OMB's Proposed FOI Fee Schedule

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committe for Freedom of the Press and 16 other media organizations in submitting comments to the Office of Management and Budget on proposed revisions to the Uniform Freedom of Information Act Fee Schedule and Guidelines. The comments address two issues: 1) the elimination of a definition of “representative of the news media,” (thereby affecting who can apply for a fee waiver) and 2) the addition of a statement that the Guidelines do not address the reduction or waiver of fees under FOIA.

June 3, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Vaught

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of four animal and human rights organizations which challenged the constitutionality of an Arkansas ag-gag law, filing a federal lawsuit against Peco Foods and the operators of Prayer Creek Farms. The defendants won a motion to dismiss the complaint. The amicus brief posits that the Eighth Circuit should hold that the plaintiffs have standing to challenge Arkansas’ unconstitutional ag-gag law.

 

June 2, 2020
SEJ Demands Minnesota Officials Stop Police Attacks on Journalists

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committe for Freedom of the Press and more than 100 media and press freedom organizations in sending a letter to Minnesota officials demanding that police immediately stop attacking journalists covering protests that began after a Minneapolis police officer (a white man) killed George Floyd (a Black man), on May 25. The letter stresses that law enforcement is not immune from the law when officers violate First Amendment rights. The letter was sent to Minnesota officials; however, the legal rules outlined therein are applicable to jurisdictions throughout the U.S.

May 31, 2020
SEJ Speaks Out Against Police Assaults on Journalists

There have been multiple incidents over the last few days of police spraying tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets at journalists covering demonstrations and unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis last week. These assaults represent an attack on the freedoms to which all Americans are entitled under the U.S. Constitution. SEJ calls on all law enforcement officers and agencies to respect journalists’ First Amendment right to cover the demonstrations as well as police conduct. The people have a right to know, more than ever before, during this critical time. Read more.

May 13, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Perry v. Hollingsworth

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 35 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of plaintiff Kristin M. Perry et al. seeking release of the 2010 video recordings of the historic Proposition 8 case, a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Video recordings of the 12-day bench trial were entered into the record but filed under seal. In 2017, public radio and television station KQED filed a motion with the district court to unseal the video recordings. The court ruled the recordings should be kept under seal until Aug. 12, 2020. On April 1, 2020, the proponents filed a motion to continue the seal on the video recordings permanently. KQED opposed the motion. The amicus brief posits that the district court must deny the proponent’s motion to continue the seal and release the video recordings on Aug. 12, 2020.

May 12, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Center on Privacy and Technology v. New York City Police Department

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 24 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of the Center on Privacy and Technology, a Georgetown University think tank which filed a records request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law seeking records related to the New York Police Department’s use of facial recognition technology. Nearly three years later, after court orders compelled NYPD to turn over records to CPT, NYPD officials said they had accidentally turned over records that they should not have disclosed. A court order required CPT to return some of the records and prohibited the think tank from referencing the NYPD documents as the source of the information that it published. CPT appealed and was denied, and seeks leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, a higher appellate court. The amicus brief supports this action as the court’s decision denying appeal sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the First Amendment rights of journalists who obtain information using the Freedom of Information Law.

May 12, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Husch Blackwell v. Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of law firm Husch Blackwell which, in 2019, filed a request under WMATA’s Public Access to Records Policy seeking access to a third-party consultant’s report concerning the concrete used to construct a new subway line fraught with budget issues, delays and setbacks. After the request was denied, Husch Blackwell filed a lawsuit against WMATA, which the district court ruled against, stating the report fell under a FOIA exemption. The amicus brief posits that the court should reverse its order granting summary judgment in favor of WMATA and reject the consultant corollary theory, which helps keep agencies’ communications with private-sector consulting companies shrouded in secrecy.

April 22, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Application for Leave To Intervene — Biancardi v. Italy

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 28 other media organizations in applying for leave to intervene (via submission of written comments) in a “right-to-be-forgotten” case before the European Court of Human Rights. The case, Biancardi v. Italy, concerns the application of the right to be forgotten against an online newspaper that refused to comply with a request to delete a story about a 2008 stabbing incident between two brothers. The media coalition's comments will primarily focus on the balance between the right to be forgotten and the right to freedom of expression, without commenting on the facts or merits of the case.

April 13, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Soderberg v. Carrion

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs in a case concerning Maryland Code of Criminal Procedure s.1-201, which provides that “a person may not record or broadcast any criminal matter, including a trial, hearing, motion, or argument, that is held in trial court or before a grand jury" (the "Broadcast Ban"). The plaintiffs are journalists and community organizations who possess recordings of several Maryland criminal hearings and trials, which are routinely made available by Maryland courts themselves. The plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the Broadcast Ban. The district court dismissed their lawsuit because it held that the Broadcast Ban is a reasonable "time, place, and manner" regulation akin to restrictions on courtroom broadcasting (like Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53). Plaintiffs appealed, noting that they are not challenging the prohibition on broadcasting inside the courtroom, but rather are challenging the Broadcast Ban insofar as it prohibits them from disseminating recordings that the courts themselves make public. The amicus brief posits that the Fourth Circuit should reverse the district court’s decision and instead rule that the Broadcast Ban is an unconstitutional, content-based prohibition on speech, because it bars journalists from disseminating audio recordings from Maryland criminal proceedings.

  • Download the Soderberg v. Carrion amicus brief (PDF).
  • April 13, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On June 15, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the district court erred in treating the Broadcast Ban as a content-neutral time, place and manner regulation subject to intermediate scrutiny, holding that it is instead subject to strict scrutiny pursuant to precedent governing restrictions of the broadcast of lawfully-obtained material. The Fourth Circuit vacated and remanded the case to the district court for application of strict scrutiny.

April 10, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — CNN v. FBI

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 28 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of CNN, which in June 2017 filed a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI after the bureau refused to release memos written by former FBI Director James Comey detailing his conversations with President Donald Trump. Subsequently, at the district court, both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, which was granted. CNN appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which remanded the case back to the district court. On remand, the FBI and CNN both cross-moved for summary judgment again; CNN also filed a motion to unseal the declarations filed in support of the FBI’s first motion for summary judgment. While CNN’s motion to unseal was pending, Special Counsel Mueller’s report was released, and the government released portions of the previously-withheld declarations. However, it continued to redact portions of a declaration filed by an FBI special agent, known as the Archey Declaration. In response to CNN’s motion to unseal, the district court ordered the full unsealing of the Archey Declaration. The FBI has appealed the district court’s order unsealing the Archey Declaration in full. The amicus brief posits that the appellate court should affirm the district court’s conclusion that the Archey Declaration must be fully unsealed, pursuant to the common law right of access.

April 9, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Gottwald (Dr. Luke) v. Sebert (Kesha)

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in Gottwald (Dr. Luke) v. Sebert (Kesha). Mega music producer Dr. Luke is suing his one-time musical protege Kesha for libel as she alleged that he raped her and then filed a sexual harassment case against him. The amicus brief is in support of Kesha, because Dr. Luke is claiming he's not a public figure. Why it matters: how courts interpret 'public figure' impacts the work of journalists.

  • Download the Gottwald (Dr. Luke) v. Sebert (Kesha) amicus brief (PDF).
  • April 9, 2020, RCFP release.
  • Update: On April 22, 2021, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed the trial court’s ruling in favor of Dr. Luke. On June 17, 2021, the Reporters Committee, along with a coalition of 23 media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists), filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Kesha’s motion for leave to appeal, arguing that the trial and the appellate courts erred in holding that Dr. Luke is not a public figure. After Kesha appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, the Reporters Committee and 28 media organizations (including the Society of Environmental Journalists) filed another friend-of-the-court brief in support of the pop star on March 3, 2023. The Reporters Committee’s brief argues that the trial court and the Appellate Division erred in holding that Dr. Luke is not a public figure for purposes of the standard applicable to his defamation claims. On June 13, 2023, the New York Court of Appeals held that Dr. Luke is a limited public figure “who must prove by clear and convincing evidence that [Kesha] acted with actual malice.” On Jun 22, 2023, Dr. Luke and Kesha announced that they had reached a settlement over the rape and defamation claims. On June 13, 2023, the New York Court of Appeals held that Dr. Luke is a limited public figure “who must prove by clear and convincing evidence that [Kesha] acted with actual malice.” On Jun 22, 2023, Dr. Luke and Kesha announced that they had reached a settlement over the rape and defamation claims.

April 9, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Welsh-Huggins v. Office of the Prosecuting Attorney

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 11 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Andrew Welsh-Huggins, a reporter for the Associated Press, who requested surveillance camera footage of a shooting targeting a judge outside an Ohio courthouse. A special master of the Court of Claims found that the footage was subject to release under the Ohio Public Records Act, rejecting "conclusory assertions" by the records custodian that the footage constituted a "security record" under R.C. 149.433(A). The Seventh District Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the Court of Claims, applying a de novo standard of review and finding that the footage was a security record. The reporter appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. The amicus brief posits that the Seventh District should have applied an abuse of discretion standard when conducting its review and that its expansive view of security records under R.C. 149.433(A) is contrary to both Ohio Supreme Court precedent and the view of jurisdictions outside Ohio that have evaluated public access to the same or similar records.

  • Update: On Nov 24, 2020, the Ohio Supreme Court released an opinion in Welsh-Huggins ordering the release of the Jefferson County courthouse footage and reversing the court of appeals. (PDF).

March 18, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Tah v. Global Witness Publishing

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in a defamation action brought by two former Liberian officials against Global Witness Publishing, a non-profit organization, arising out of a report describing bonus payments the officials received after negotiating a deal with Exxon for oil rights off the Liberian coast. The district court dismissed the action under Rule 12(b)(6), but denied Global Witness's motion to dismiss under the D.C. anti-SLAPP Act, holding that the Act did not apply in federal court. The officials appealed the dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) and Global Witness cross-appealed the denial of its motion under the Act. The amicus brief posits that the appeals court should hold that the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act applies in federal court.

March 16, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — The New Mexican, Inc. v. Public Service Company of New Mexico

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 23 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in The New Mexican's writ petition to ask the New Mexico Supreme Court to review a decision of the First Judicial District Court dismissing The New Mexican's counterclaims against the Public Service Company of New Mexico (“PNM”) and BHP Billiton New Mexico Coal, Inc. (“BHP”). The amicus brief posits, among other things, that the district court’s dismissal of The New Mexican’s counterclaims will inhibit news reporting on matters of public concern, and open news organizations up to additional “sham” lawsuits intended to stifle their work.

February 21, 2020
SEJ Protests SBA "No Journalists" Environmental Roundtable

The Small Business Administration announced an "environmental roundtable" Feb. 28, as being “open to all interested persons, with the exception of the press." The Society of Environmental Journalists, through its Freedom of Information Task Force, has protested this in a Feb 21 letter. "By excluding the press," wrote Task Force Chair Timothy B. Wheeler, "you cast a shadow of suspicion that these roundtables are somehow a private back door to influencing the federal government."

  • Read the text of SEJ's February 21, 2020, letter to the SBA Acting Chief Counsel Major L. Clark III.

February 19, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — La Liberte v. Reid

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 20 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in La Liberte v. Reid. In 2018, Roslyn La Liberte filed a defamation lawsuit against MSNBC host Joy Reid after the journalist shared comments and photos on her social media accounts that showed La Liberte interacting with a teenager during a city council meeting about immigration legislation. The suit was dismissed and the court also awarded Reid her attorney’s fees, as permitted by the California anti-SLAPP law. La Liberte appealed. This amicus brief supports Reid seeking affirmance that the appeals court should uphold the ruling of the trial court that Reid is entitled to recover attorneys’ fees under the California anti-SLAPP statute.

February 5, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Carroll County E911 v. Hasnie

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 other media organizations in filing an amicus brief in Carroll County E911 v. Hasnie. Carroll County refuses to disclose 911 recordings pertaining to a November 2016 house fire in which four Flora, Indiana children died — even after reporter Aishah Hasnie filed a complaint with the Office of the Public Access Counselor, which issued an advisory opinion that the records were not exempt from disclosure.

February 3, 2020
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Parekh v. CBS

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 55 journalism groups and other interested parties in filing an amicus brief in Parekh v. CBS, supporting the right of CBS and reporter Brian Conybeare to recover attorneys’ fees under the Florida anti-SLAPP statute. "[I]f this Court holds that the state-law fee-shifting provision does not apply in federal court, Florida SLAPP plaintiffs will simply file their meritless lawsuits in this circuit’s federal trial courts, and chill constitutionally protected speech."

Updates:

  • March 23, 2020: The 11th Circuit denied the motion for leave to file an amicus brief in Parekh v. CBS, citing Rule 29(a)(2) ("[A] court of appeals may prohibit the filing of or may strike an amicus brief that would result in a judge's disqualification.")
  • June 19, 2020: The 11th Circuit issued its opinion in Parekh v. CBS, affirming the dismissal of the plaintiff's case and awarding fees under Florida's anti-SLAPP statute.

January 30, 2020
SEJ Joins Protest of Sec. Pompeo Treatment of NPR, Media

The Society of Environmental Journalists SEJ has protested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's retaliation against, and abuse of, National Public Radio and its reporters. SEJ President Meera Subramanian signed the January 30 letter. Read more.

January 22, 2020
SEJ Condemns Indonesia Arrest of Mongabay Journalist

The Society of Environmental Journalists condemned Indonesia’s arrest and imprisonment of Philip Jacobson, an editor for the environmental news site Mongabay. In a Jan. 22 letter to the ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia and to officials with the U.S. Department of State, SEJ President Meera Subramanian called for Jacobson’s prompt release, for charges against him to be dropped and for his passport to be returned. Read more.

January 16, 2020
SEJ Opposes Press Restrictions for Trump Impeachment Trial

The Society of Environmental Journalists joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 56 other media organizations in a letter opposing restrictions on the press during the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. SEJ speaks out about right-to-know issues, such as this one, which would hinder journalists’ efforts to share timely and accurate updates and commentary with the American public.

December 19, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Perlman v. Vox Media, Inc.

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 22 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in support of Vox Media after Perlman filed a defamation lawsuit for hyperlinks and accompanying descriptions for 2012 stories that were included in a subsequent 2014 article, claiming this republished the earlier stories. The amicus brief posits that the court should reject the plaintiff's republication theory as 1) Perlman's claims are time-barred under the single-publication rule and 2) a republication rule that deters hyperlinking would deprive internet users of an essential tool for understanding information online.

  • Download the Perlman v. Vox Media amicus brief (PDF).
  • December 19, 2019 RCFP release.
  • Update: On June 24, 2020, the Superior Court of the State of Delaware granted Vox's motion for summary judgment. The court held that claims based on 2012 articles were time-barred and that a 2014 article did not republish the 2012 articles, as was argued in the groups' brief. After the plaintiffs appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court, the Reporters Committee (and 40 media organizations, including SEJ) filed another friend-of-the-court brief on Dec 7, 2020, again arguing that the hyperlink in the 2014 article did not republish the 2012 articles. On March 18, 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s decision in favor of Vox.

December 16, 2019
SEJ Urges Supreme Court To Adopt New Rule on Sealing

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, National Public Radio and 50 other journalism groups in sending a letter to the Supreme Court of the United States documenting a marked increase in the number of sealed records at the Court and requesting the adoption of a new Court rule on sealing.

November 6, 2019
SEJ Urges Congress To Address Communication Between Journalists and Federal Agencies

SEJ joined with the Society of Professional Journalists and 27 other journalism groups in urging members of Congress to address the ongoing issue of censoring and restricting federal employees' communication with journalists. "It is essential to public welfare and democracy that this issue is addressed. Not allowing experts to speak freely to reporters is authoritarian and keeps sources from explaining a variety of things that are the public's business," the groups say in the letter.

October 16, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 24 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, a copyright case before the United States Supreme Court. The case concerns whether Georgia can copyright its only official annotated code. (The state claims copyright in only the annotations, not the statutory text, but the practical effect is to deny access to the entire official code.)

October 4, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Martin v. Rollins

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in support of K. Eric Martin and Rene Perez in Martin v. Rollins, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to affirm the trial court's decision that Massachusetts' wiretapping statute is unconstitutional to the extent it prohibits secret recording of police officers and other government officials while in the public performance of their duties and where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

 

October 3, 2019
SEJ Urges Audio Livestreaming in Six SCOTUS Cases

SEJ joined a media coalition of 32 groups in signing an amicus letter asking the Supreme Court to provide live audio, or in the alternative same-day audio, in the Court's six cases on October 8 (Title VII nondiscrimination cases) and on November 12 (DACA cases). The coaltion argued that the court's usual policy of releasing audio recordings of oral arguments at the end of the week on which they are heard would "impede journalists' ability to provide same-day coverage of the arguments to readers, viewers and listeners who rely on the news media for information about these crucial issues of significant public interest."

September 11, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Pitch v. U.S.

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 51 other journalism groups and interested parties in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit's en banc rehearing of Pitch v. United States. The issue in the case is whether district courts can exercise their inherent authority to order disclosure of grand jury materials in extraordinary circumstances expressly enumerated in Rule 6(e).

August 6, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Machado Amadis v. Department of Justice

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 35 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in Juan Machado Amadis v. Department of Justice, trying to get the court to establish firm boundaries on new language inserted by Congress in 2016 in the Freedom of Information Act that allows agencies to withhold documents if they "foresee" their disclosure could harm some interests protected by one of the exemptions provided in the law. The groups want the court to set a high standard for invoking that language.

June 27, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — ALDF v. Reynolds

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 21 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in Animal Legal Defense Fund et al. v. Reynolds, a case before the Eighth Circuit concerning the Iowa ag-gag statute, which criminalizes "agricultural production facility fraud." Several animal rights and environmental organizations challenged the statute, arguing that it impermissibly restricts their freedom of speech under the First Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs, holding that the statute is a content-based restriction on speech that cannot satisfy either strict scrutiny or intermediate scrutiny.

The amicus brief argues that:

  1. The news media and agricultural facility employees have mutually reinforcing First Amendment interests in informing the public regarding the health and safety of the nation’s food supply, and that the statute chills the reporter-source relationship. The brief highlights several historical and recent examples of important reporting that relied on sources within the agricultural industry;
  2. The conspiracy provision of the statute amplifies this chilling effect by creating the potential for liability of journalists working with sources to learn about agricultural facilities;
  3. The statute is an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech subject to strict scrutiny; and
  4. The timing of the adoption of the statute and statements by members of the Iowa legislature make clear that it was adopted in reaction to undercover investigations and resulting media coverage that cast an unwanted spotlight on Iowa’s agricultural industry, and not to protect private property and address bio-security concerns, as the state has argued.
  • Download the ALDF et al. amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • Update: In March 2022, a federal judge ruled the [2019] law unconstitutional, prompting Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds and other state officials to appeal to the Eighth Circuit. On August 15, 2022, SEJ joined the RCFP and 20 media organizations in filing a new amicus brief in support of ALDF et al., which posits that the Eighth Circuit should affirm the district court’s decision and hold Iowa’s ag-gag law unconstitutional.
  • Update: On Jan. 8, 2024, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Iowa’s ag-gag law and reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the advocacy groups. “Ultimately,” the panel’s opinion states, “Plaintiffs’ facial challenge fails because the Act has a plainly legitimate sweep and it is narrowly tailored to achieve the State’s significant government interests.”

June 26, 2019
SEJ Objects to EPA's 'Freedom of Information Act Regulations Update'

The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), in a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, objected to the EPA's June 26 Final Rulemaking entitled "Freedom of Information Act Regulations Update." The letter states that the rule "enables the agency to limit public access to EPA records that are legally public information" and "the highly irregular procedure of issuing a final rule without proposal or public comments is unjustified and unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)."

Coverage of the FOIA rule issue:

June 19, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Briefs — Washington Post v. DOJ and ACLU et al. v. DOJ

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other journalism groups in filing amicus briefs in two related cases, Washington Post v. Department of Justice and ACLU et al. v. Department of Justice. The cases concern motions to unseal a contempt proceeding that the DOJ reportedly brought against Facebook to compel it to comply with a technical assistance order to allow the government to carry out a wiretap of certain voice communications made over Facebook Messenger. The amicus briefs support the appeals of the Washington Post and the ACLU, EFF, and Riana Pfefferkorn of the denial of their motions to unseal certain judicial records in the contempt proceeding.

May 31, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — National Lawyers Guild v. City of Hayward

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 32 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief supporting the National Lawyers Guild after Hayward charged NLG more than $3000 for police bodycam footage of a protest related to the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The brief argues that the California Court of Appeal erred in holding that the fees are permitted under the California Public Records Act and that the ruling threatens public access to all electronic records.

  • Read more here.
  • Download the amicus brief (PDF).
  • Opinion of the court (PDF), May 28, 2020. The Court held in favor of NLG, holding that the California Public Records Act does not permit the City of Hayward to require NLG to pay for the cost of redacting police bodycam videos requested under Act.

May 16, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Fine Point Films Limited

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 19 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief supporting Fine Point Films Limited and documentary filmmakers Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, whose homes and offices were raided by police in connection with the alleged "theft" of an unpublished draft of a government report. The report, sent to them anonymously, was featured in their film "No Stone Unturned" (probing the unresolved 1994 Loughinisland or "World Cup" massacre in Northern Ireland). The brief argued that the search warrants were unlawful and improperly executed. Update May 31, 2019: The Belfast High Court in Northern Ireland quashed the warrants that authorized the raids, ruled that everything seized from the filmmakers must be returned, and police have dropped the criminal investigation into the filmmakers.

  • Read more here.
  • Download the amicus brief (PDF).
  • Update: On May 29, 2019, the Belfast High Court in Northern Ireland quashed the warrants that authorized the raids on filmmakers Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey’s homes and offices. Read more.
  • Update: On July 10, 2020, the Belfast High Court in Northern Ireland explained its earlier decision to quash the warrant authorizing the raids on the filmmakers. Read more.

May 14, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — CIR v. SEPTA

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 19 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief supporting the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), which sued the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) after it rejected their advertisement highlighting their reporting on racial disparities in mortgage lending.

  • Read more here.
  • Download the amicus brief (PDF).
  • Update: On Sept. 17, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the County of Lackawanna Transit System’s ad policy discriminates based on viewpoint, and therefore violates the First Amendment. The decision reversed the district court’s judgment and instructed the district court to grant declaratory relief and issue an injunction barring enforcement of the policy’s religious speech ban. On Sept. 14, 2020, the Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion, holding that two provisions of SEPTA’s advertising policy violate the First Amendment because they are incapable of reasoned application. The Court therefore reversed and instructed the district court to grant declaratory relief and issue a permanent injunction preventing SEPTA from enforcing the challenged provisions to exclude the Center for Investigative Reporting’s advertisement.

May 6, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Frasier v. Evans

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 37 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief supporting plaintiff Levi Frasier in Frasier v. Evans, a case before the 10th Circuit. Frasier brought the suit alleging First and Fourth Amendment claims against five Denver police officers after the officers detained, questioned and threatened him with arrest after he filmed them on his tablet arresting and beating someone on a public street. The amicus brief filed by the journalism groups supports Frasier's argument that the First Amendment right to record police in public was clearly established during the time of the incident at issue, in August 2014, in addition to the right being clearly established now.

  • RCFP release of May 6, 2019.
  • Download the amicus brief (PDF).
  • Update: On March 29, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, ruling that the officers are entitled to qualified immunity. The court remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.
  • Update: On July 8, 2021, Frasier filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to hear the case. On August 13, the Reporters Committee and 44 media organizations (including SEJ) filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Court to grant the petition and recognize the importance of the right to record.

May 3, 2019
SEJ Joins J-Groups in Advocating for Access to Information on World Press Freedom Day

On World Press Freedom Day, SEJ joined with other journalism groups to call for freedom of the press, access to information and the protection of journalists. SEJ signed on to a joint resolution that resolves to uphold the democratic process by committing to guard against the spread of misinformation, and hosted a journalists' roundtable at Colorado State University's Denver Center, "Straddling the Climate and Policy Divide."

April 26, 2019
SEJ Joins RCFP Amicus Brief — Gubarev v. BuzzFeed

SEJ joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 31 other journalism groups in filing an amicus brief in support of BuzzFeed in a defamation case that arose from the January 2017 BuzzFeed article that published the “Trump-Russia dossier,” also known as the “Steele dossier.” The amicus brief argues that the BuzzFeed article at issue reported on an “official proceeding” subject to New York’s fair report privilege, and that the district court’s dismissal of the case under the fair report privilege should be affirmed.

  • Download the Gubarev v. BuzzFeed amicus brief (PDF).
  • RCFP release.
  • December 15, 2021 update: The case had been scheduled for oral argument this week, but Gubarev voluntarily dismissed his appeal with prejudice. Accordingly, the District Court decision in favor of Buzzfeed, and its conclusion about the applicability of the fair report privilege to the case, remains in place.

March 25, 2019
SEJ Joins Groups in Support of Argus Leader Media

The Society of Environmental Journalists, along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 35 other media organizations, filed an amicus brief in support of the Argus Leader in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader, which is currently before the US Supreme Court. This case involves the interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act's "trade secrets" exemption. The Food Media Institute claims an expansive interpretation of trade secrets, amounting to any undisclosed information which could harm it. The Argus Leader and the media coalition argue that this interpretation is so broad as to be dangerous to the public interest.

March 11, 2019
SEJ Joins Call for Affirmation of Dismissal of Defamation Lawsuit Against the NYT

The Society of Environmental Journalists joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 39 other media organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal appeals court to affirm its November 6, 2018 decision dismissing the defamation lawsuit brought against The New York Times by Dr. Carlo Croce, an Ohio State University professor and cancer researcher. The brief argued that the ruling should be affirmed as it upholds protections upon which journalists rely to report on live controversies on matters of public concern. Update July 17, 2019: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the New York Times article in question is not defamatory

January 28, 2019
SEJ Objects to Interior Dept. Proposal To Gut FOIA Rules

The Society of Environmental Journalists has objected to the Interior Department's proposal to limit the amount of records the public can request under the Freedom of Information Act. SEJ commented on a rulemaking that would let Interior deny FOIA requests if it felt they called for "unreasonably burdensome" searches. FOIA allows for no such restrictions.

The SEJ comments say, in part, "The proposed rule would violate the spirit as well as the letter of the Freedom of Information Act. It would effectively make it harder for journalists and the public to obtain documents and information on how DOI is managing America's lands, water, wildlife, and energy resources."

SEJ also joined a coalition of journalism groups led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in another set of formal comments objecting to the Interior proposal.

January 10, 2019
SEJ President Quoted in Media Matters for America

Bobby Magill, president of the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists, was quoted in a January 10, 2019 Media Matters for America blog post, "EPA nominee Andrew Wheeler is gaming the media ahead of his confirmation hearing":
"'It looks to me like they're sort of returning to form,' Magill said. 'This suggests that they are returning to their previous press strategy under Scott Pruitt.'"

November 8, 2018
SEJ Objects to White House Ban of Acosta

SEJ tweeted out this statement today about the White House's unprecedented and disturbing retribution against CNN's Jim Acosta:
"The Society of Environmental Journalists objects to the White House pulling the press credential of CNN's Jim Acosta. It is a reporter's job to ask challenging questions, and when those in power respond with retribution, it amounts to unacceptable censorship. The unprecedented and unwarranted revocation of Acosta's press pass is based on a provably false allegation by Sarah Huckabee Sanders that accused Acosta of "placing his hands on" a female White House intern. We urge the White House to restore Acosta's credential immediately."

October 11, 2018
SEJ Urges Investigation into Khashoggi's Disappearance

SEJ, one of 30 journalism and free press organizations, representing thousands of journalists and their supporters, joined the United States government and others in urging a full investigation into the disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Read the text of the letter here.

September 26, 2018
SEJ Insists Parks Canada Fulfills Transparency Promise

SEJ and the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) wrote Parks Canada executives and the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change calling for transparency and greater public accountability, and insisting that journalists be able to speak freely and openly with Parks Canada staff and scientists in a timely manner, whether that be on the phone, in person, or in the field.

August 16, 2018
SEJ Decries Anti-Press Rhetoric

SEJ joined ~350 other journalism groups and news media in urging President Trump to abandon the "enemies of the people" rhetoric which could incite violence and hinder the journalism that protects democracy. SEJ's statement said, "We urge the president to change his dangerous course and declare that journalists are not "enemies," but patriots whose work ensures the viability of our democracy." Find the full text of SEJ's statement here.

July 16, 2018
SEJ Objects to US Geological Survey Interview Curbs

The Society of Environmental Journalists and 10 other journalism groups have written Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke urging him not to interpose political appointees between reporters and the scientists they need to interview. Read more here. Find the full text of the letter here.

June 26, 2018
SEJ Calls on EPA Admin to Stop Assault on Government Transparency

A top House Democrat is accusing EPA of deliberately politically screening and slow-walking the fulfillment of Freedom of Information Act requests — and journalism groups are objecting to the delay. The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 26, calling on him to "to end this assault on government transparency now." Read more here. Find the full text of the letter here.

May 23, 2018
SEJ Objects to EPA Exclusion of Reporters from PFAS Summit

The Society of Environmental Journalists has strenuously objected to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's exclusion of reporters from its May 22-23 "Summit" meeting on the toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water. Read more here. Find the full text of the letter here.

April 3, 2018
SEJ Urges EPA Press Office To Answer Reporters' Questions

The Society of Environmental Journalists has urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to answer reporters' questions directly, rather than referring them to published articles by their favored media. Read more here. Find the full text of the letter here.

January 22, 2018
SEJ Asks EPA Press Office for Information Access

The Society of Environmental Journalists has written EPA's public affairs office to ensure basic responses to journalists' information requests, after a less than smooth first year of the Trump administration. See what five key items SEJ asked for, and the full text of the letter here.

December 6, 2017
SEJ, Other Journalism Groups, Support Net Neutrality

The Society of Environmental Journalists has joined other journalism and open-government groups in urging the Federal Communications Commission not to end its established net neutrality rule. When an internet service provider also owns a news outlet, then they can give their own news content an advantage if the net is not neutral. This will tend to push out smaller news media companies and increase concentration in the news industry. Read more.

October 17, 2017
SEJ Objects Over EPA Response to AP Story

SEJ President Bobby Magill has written the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the Society of Environmental Journalists, objecting to a Sept. 3 release from EPA's Office of Public Affairs that criticized an Associated Press story about Superfund sites during Hurricane Harvey floods. The EPA release was factually inaccurate and attempted to discredit an embarrassing story by falsely smearing a reporter by name. SEJ called on the EPA to "engage constructively with the press and stop attacking journalists for doing their jobs." Full text of SEJ letter here. Plus, read a full writeup in last month's WatchDog column.

August 2, 2017
SEJ, J-Group Coalition Launch Press Freedom Tracker

The Society of Environmental Journalists joined 20+ press freedom groups to launch the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a new website dedicated to documenting press freedom abuses across the United States. The site will serve as a repository for data at a time when journalists in the U.S. are facing hostility, legal charges, assault and other forms of harassment.

July 27, 2017
SEJ Protests Restrictions on Filming Protestors

The Society of Environmental Journalists signed onto a National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) letter, along with several other j-groups, protesting the restrictions on filming protesters being arrested outside the Senate chamber on July 25, 2017.

March 2, 2017
SEJ Calls for Standing Rock Journalists' Charges To Be Dropped

The Society of Environmental Journalists has joined other press-freedom groups in calling for charges to be dropped against at least 10 journalists arrested in recent months for covering the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Some of those journalists were in court March 2, 2017.

February 23, 2017
SEJ Objects to Non-Public FERC Comment Meeting Format

In the face of rising protests from anti-fracking and anti-pipeline activists, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has adopted a format for some meetings that prevents the press from covering public comment in real time. The Society of Environmental Journalists has expressed concern to FERC about this practice, which also prevents the public from engaging in dialogue.

January 25, 2017
SEJ Objects to Trump EPA Gag Order, Threat of Data Removal

SEJ, in a January 25, 2017 letter, strongly urged the Trump administration to reopen communications between the federal agencies and the public immediately. Furthermore, we urged the Trump administration to maintain public access to scientific information related to climate change and all other environmental issues that was available on federal government websites prior to January 20th.

January 18, 2017
SEJ Joins 60 J-Groups Requesting Meeting with Trump Admin on News Media Access

On January 18, 2017, the Society of Environmental Journalists signed onto a Society of Professional Journalists letter, along with some 60 other journalism groups, to the Trump administration asking for a meeting on news media access. Eight more groups backed the letter after it was sent. The journalism groups asked for transparency from the incoming administration, and for “an executive order prohibiting the restrictive public information policies that have been the status quo.” They asked not just for a meeting, but for the administration to “engage in a public discussion with us about the Trump administration’s commitment to the free flow of information from the White House and all federal government, to the American people.” The letter also recapitulated access issues that had remained unresolved during the Obama administration.

December 13, 2016
SEJ Protests CBP Barring of Canadian Photojournalist En Route to Standing Rock

The Society of Environmental Journalists has voiced "grave concerns" in a December 13, 2016 letter to the U.S. government over an incident in which Ed Ou, a Canadian photojournalist en route to cover the Dakota Access Pipeline protests for the CBC, was searched at the U.S. border by Customs and Border Protection, then prevented entering.

October 19, 2016
SEJ Objects to Prosecution of Pipeline Journalists

The Society of Environmental Journalists has written law enforcement officials at the state and federal levels, objecting to prosecution of journalists who have been covering protests against the Dakota Access Pipe Line and other pipelines.

November 18, 2015
SEJ Again Opposes "Commercial Fees" for Journalists on Public Lands

After journalism groups protested federal rules imposing fees and permits on journalists working on public lands, the Senate Energy Committee November 19 approved a bill that would exempt newsgathering. By voice vote, the panel first approved an amendment containing the exemption, and then approved the underlying bill, S. 556, known as Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015.

Aug 10, 2015
SEJ Asks Obama To End Press Office Blockades

SEJ, which has complained about press-office restrictions for years, joined over 50 other journalism groups in signing yet another letter requesting government transparency. The groups had sent a letter to the White House in July 2014, a followup in Aug 2014, resulting in a non-response response from the WH later that month.

Related coverage:

June 30, 2015
SEJ Urges Agency Openness During National Spill Crises

At the Spills of National Significance (SONS) Draft Communications Strategy forum on June 8, and in a June 30 letter, SEJ urged SONS communicators to release data fully and promptly, to acknowledge uncertainties and gaps, and to give journalists good access to officials, experts and places.

April 2, 2015
SEJ Appeals EPA Stonewalling of FOIA on Media Policy

The U.S. EPA has been stonewalling a June 2014 SEJ request for documents describing its policies for dealing with news media. Now SEJ is appealing the long delay in responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by calling it what it is — a denial of information.

February 4, 2015
SEJ Opposes Photo Fees and Permits in Va. Parks

The Society of Environmental Journalists and 13 other groups objected to requirements for permits and fees for photography in the public parks of Fairfax County, Virginia. In a February 4, 2015, letter to the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA), the groups asked the agency to revise its rules to protect photojournalists' First Amendment rights.

December 3, 2014
SEJ Calls on Forest Service To Clarify Photo Permit Directives

The Society of Environmental Journalists joined a coalition of journalism groups calling on the U.S. Forest Service to make clear in its directives that journalists, documentarians, and media photographers do not need permits to take pictures in National Forest Wilderness or other public lands. The groups submitted formal comments recommending specific language in a Forest Service rulemaking on wilderness lands. But they urged the Forest Service to apply that language to all of its lands. The Society of Environmental Journalists was active in drafting the comments.

October 23, 2014
SEJ Urges Obama To Take Stand on Bipartisan FOIA Bills

The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote President Barack Obama October 23, 2014, urging him to take a strong position supporting legislation that would strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Bipartisan FOIA improvements may be one of the few pieces of legislation with a chance to clear the lame duck 113th Congress before control shifts to Republicans in 2015.

October 1, 2014
SEJ Opposes USFS "Commercial Filming" Permits

SEJ and seventeen journalism, photography, and First Amendment groups wrote U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell opposing the proposal to finalize a directive requiring permits for "commercial filming" in Forest Service Wilderness areas. Tidwell has already said the USFS does not want to restrict journalism on wilderness lands, but the groups seek changes to regulatory language that would make this clear.

September 26, 2014
SEJ FOI Chair Talks to Forest Service Chief Tidwell

After proposing a directive that seemed to require permits and fees for journalists working in U.S. Forest Service wilderness lands, the USFS announced that it had never intended the restrictions to apply to journalists. Tim Wheeler, chairman of the Society of Environmental Journalists' Freedom of Information Task Force, talked with USFS Chief TomTidwell to clarify the USFS position. Here's his report (SEJ WatchDog of September 26, 2014).

Coverage: "USFS schedules meetings to respond to concern over wilderness filming and photography permit proposal," The Olympian, November 5, 2014, by Craig Hill.

August 12, 2014
SEJ Protests EPA's Scientist "Don't Talk" Policy

An April 4, 2014 memo (not made public at the time) from EPA's chief of staff made clear that members of the agency's many science advisory panels are not to talk to the news media or Congress without permission. In an August 12th letter, SEJ was joined by SPJ, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Center for Science and Democracy, the American Geophysical Union, and the Society for Conservation Biology in protesting the policy. The groups urged EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy "to clarify that members of the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and the twenty other EPA science advisory committees have the right and are encouraged to speak to the public and the press about any scientific issues, including those before these committees, in a personal capacity without prior authorization from the agency."

July 8, 2014
SEJ Urges Obama To Stop PIO Spin at Fed Agencies

SEJ, SPJ and 36 other journalism groups wrote a letter July 8, 2014, calling on President Obama to stop the excessive controls and political spin of information at many federal agencies. The groups wrote, "We ask that you issue a clear directive telling federal employees they're not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so. We believe that is one of the most important things you can do for the nation now, before the policies become even more entrenched."

June 5, 2014
SEJ Objects to EPA "No Attribution" Presser

The Society of Environmental Journalists has objected to the Environmental Protection Agency's "no attribution" ground rule for a press teleconference that was part of its June 2, 2014, roll-out of its carbon emissions rule for existing power plants. The background briefing — which supplemented Administrator Gina McCarthy's on-record statement — made questions difficult on this complex rule.

Coverage:

April 9, 2014
SEJ "Condemns" Military Treatment of Blade Reporters

SEJ sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, condemning "in the strongest terms" the treatment of two Toledo Blade journalists March 28 by military police outside a Lima, Ohio, tank plant. The journalists were on public property when they were detained by military police. Photographer Jetta Fraser's camera was confiscated, even though she was taking pictures of what was in plain public view. Fraser was held in handcuffs, and military police threatened sexual violence against her.

April 8, 2014
SEJ Objects to Capitol Police Detention of Energy Reporter

SEJ sent a letter to U.S. Capitol authorities objecting to the March 28, 2014 incident in which Bloomberg BNA reporter Ari Natter was briefly detained by a Capitol Police officer in the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building. Natter was trying to ask a question of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy at the time. The letter was sent to Terrance W. Gainer, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, and others. Gainer oversees the Capitol Police.

March 18, 2014
SEJ Wants To Know Who's in Charge at EPA

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has said she wants to run an open agency. So why do reporters have to wait days — or weeks — to talk to agency sources after they call the press office? As 300,000 residents of Charleston, WV, faced a drinking water crisis in January 2014, it took EPA a week to find an official who could talk to the Charleston Gazette. EPA is supposed to be the main federal agency responsible for enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act. SEJ executive director Beth Parke and Joseph Davis, director of the SEJ WatchDog Project, write an op-ed looking for answers.

January 20, 2014
SEJ, SPJ Urge EPA, CDC to End Press Office Obstacles in Public Health Crises

Journalists had trouble overcoming EPA and CDC press office obstacles and getting access to agency experts and officials during this month's drinking water contamination crisis in Charleston, WV. SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) sent a letter of complaint on January 20, 2014 to heads of both agencies and their press offices, urging them to adopt specific practices to end press office stonewalling and increase transparency, especially in times of crisis.

August 7, 2013
SEJ Calls CHP's Media Treatment "Unacceptable"

On July 23, 2013, the California Highway Patrol arrested Steve Eberhard, a photojournalist for the biweekly Willits News, allegedly for "trespassing" on the overpass construction site where protesters had chained themselves to construction equipment. SEJ wrote CHP's commissioner August 7, 2013, stating CHP's "treatment of the media at the CalTrans construction site in Willits, CA, is unacceptable" and "directly contravenes the right to gather news that derives from the First Amendment."

May 14, 2013
SEJ Condemns DOJ for AP Phone Records Grab

SEJ strongly condemned the Department of Justice’s overly broad investigation of the Associated Press’ newsgathering operations as an infringement of First Amendment press freedoms. The DOJ secretly seized telephone records for more than 20 phone lines used by AP journalists and offices, including cell and home phone lines of more than 100 journalists, obtaining the names of sources and confidential information about the newsgathering operations.

April 9, 2013
SEJ Objects to Threatened Arrest of Reporter at Ark. Oil Spill

The March 29, 2013, spill from ExxonMobil's Pegasus Pipeline near Mayflower, Arkansas is a big deal for several reasons. But the most important thing about the Mayflower spill may be that ExxonMobil and the federal agencies involved seemed to be trying to keep news media from getting close enough to see what is going on. SEJ protested the media treatment by Exxon, EPA, and PHMSA in the incident.

April 9, 2013
SEJ Reiterates Need for Greater EPA Openness with the Media

As the Obama administration's secrecy and unresponsiveness to the media has escalated, and with Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the EPA facing confirmation, SEJ sent a statement to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee requesting they ask some hard questions and address this ongoing problem.

November 15, 2012
SEJ Backs Member Threatened by DOI Official

SEJ wrote US DOI Secretary Ken Salazar about the Election Day incident of intimidation in Colorado, when the Secretary threatened to "punch out" SEJ member Dave Philipps, senior investigative reporter with the Colorado Springs Gazette. Doing his job as a journalist (after unsuccessful attempts to contact Salazar through official channels), Philipps asked Salazar about the BLM wild horses issue, including sales to buyer Tom Davis, who is now under investigation for shipping the protected animals out of state in violation of brand inspection laws. In the letter, SEJ said "Such a threat was intemperate and uncalled for, and went well beyond the bounds of civil discourse. It disrespected the role of journalism and journalists in a democratic society, as well as their public audience." SEJ also connected the dots between the ongoing difficulty environmental journalists have gaining access to Obama administration officials and the necessity of posing their questions when the opportunity does arise.

September 25, 2012
SEJ Petitions Cambodia To Investigate Journalist's Murder

SEJ joined Internews' Earth Journalism Network in signing onto a letter/petition calling for an investigation into the murder this month of Cambodian journalist Hang Serei Oudom, a reporter with the local newspaper Vorakchun Khmer Daily. Oudom had reportedly been covering illegal logging activities. Details.

June 19, 2012
SEJ Supports Public Disclosure of Crop-Subsidy Recipients

SEJ supported an amendment filed by Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) and cosponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that would have required public disclosure of the identities of recipients of crop insurance subsidies. The amendment was never offered on the floor — after Senate leaders reached a deal on which of nearly 250 filed amendments would be offered. SEJ takes positions on freedom-of-information issues affecting environmental journalists through its Freedom of Information Task Force, under a long-standing mandate from the SEJ board of directors.

February 6, 2012
SEJ Condemns Ejection of Filmmaker from Energy & Environment Hearing

SEJ strongly objected to the ejection of Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox from the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing concerning the Environmental Protection Agency’s policies and the enforcement of water quality issues surrounding natural gas drilling or "fracking." In a letter addressed to Honorable U.S. Representative Andy Harris, Chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, SEJ stated "Journalists come in all stripes, and documentary filmmakers have a long and storied history of informing the public about important policy matters, especially the sorts of environmental protection issues Mr. Fox covered in his film, 'Gasland.'"

  • Text of February 6, 2012, SEJ letter to Rep Andy Harris, Chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology: MS Word or PDF.
  • Full story: WatchDog of February 8, 2012.

January 27, 2012
SEJ Asks EPA To Return to Openness with Journalists

SEJ wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, after a spate of unreturned phone calls and ignored emails, in an attempt to get the agency to resume quarterly conference calls to discuss access issues. The calls abruptly ended late last year after Adora Andy's departure from the agency. The letter also addressed the fact that "we continue to hear on an almost daily basis from SEJ members in a variety of news outlets that they get the run-around when trying to schedule interviews, gather basic information, or get answers to important questions for their stories. While it’s clear to us that members of the major, national media organizations have quality access to you and to top EPA insiders, our members who are working for small newspapers and radio stations or toiling away as freelancers are hit with repeated hurdles when they try to do their jobs."

September 2, 2011
SEJ Calls for Improvement to EPA Science Policy

SEJ submitted formal comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on its draft Scientific Integrity Policy, dated Aug. 5, 2011. The letter stated "SEJ finds the proposed policy lacking in a number of important areas. It also falls short of what is needed to achieve EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s previously stated goal for transparency that 'promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing.'"

August 19, 2011
SEJ Comments on "Unacceptable" NOAA Science Policy

In formal comments, SEJ stated that the section of NOAA guidance policy requiring advance public affairs approval of media interviews — and minders sitting in on those interviews — thwarts open communication between scientists and reporters, which is "unacceptable in a free society."

June 29, 2010
SEJ Urges NRC To Improve Openess

SEJ made some cogent suggestions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of an open-government exercise. One of the first suggestions was that NRC should lose the "minders" that babysit agency people while they talk to reporters. SEJ also asked that the NRC's press operation to do its job: keeping reporters and the public apprised of real news.

June 4, 2010
SEJ Writes USCG About Media Access on Gulf Coast

Following the Deep Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, SEJ sent a letter to U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen expressing deep concern that "journalists are being prevented from doing their Constitutionally protected jobs: to provide information to the public about the mammoth oil disaster playing out on the Gulf Coast."

March 24, 2010
SEJ Comments on How To Make EPA More Open

SEJ has urged the US Environmental Protection Agency to open up its press-relations procedures and abandon Bush-era restrictions as a way of furthering President Obama's declared open-government goals. Under his "Open Government Initiative," President Obama ordered federal agencies to establish open-government web pages where agencies could solicit public input on how to improve openness. EPA solicits comments on its OpenGov page and OpenEPA/Share Your Ideas. SEJ, on behalf of its member environmental journalists, offered eight suggestions.

March 19, 2010
SEJ Urges Congress to Pass "Faster FOIA" Bill

SEJ wrote Congressional leaders expressing support for the bipartisan "Faster FOIA" bill introduced this week. The bill (S 3111) would establish an advisory panel to examine agency backlogs in processing FOIA requests — and make recommendations for faster processing and reduced backlogs. It was introduced by Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX).

February 24, 2010
SEJ Urges White House To Lose the "Minders"

SEJ wrote White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer asking for an end to the practice of requiring permission from the press office at federal agencies before reporters can talk to federal employees — and requiring Saddam-style PIO "minders" to sit in on interviews. More than a dozen other journalism groups have complained about the practice to the FDA and other agencies.

 

Initiatives: 
Freedom of Information
Topics on the Beat: 
Government
Journalism & Media
Laws & Regulations
Region: 
National (U.S.)
Visibility: 
Public

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