In video comments, the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you." So people have a First Amendment right to worship that DOJ will protect, but journalists suddenly have no First Amendment right to report on issues of public interest and concern? We disagree.
Thursday's arrests of Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort like the recent raid on the Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson demonstrate the administration's lawless crusade against routine journalism. In normal times the expectation is that even when a journalist's conduct might technically fit the legal elements of a crime jaywalking to get footage of a protest, for example prosecutors will exercise their discretion and judgment to not apply the law in a manner that chills the free press. Those assumptions are inverted now.
Lemon's arrest, alongside that of Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort, has sent shockwaves through press freedom and civil rights communities, raising urgent questions about the government's treatment of journalists covering protests and other matters of public concern. Both reporters were engaged in newsgathering related to demonstrations over recent federal actions in Minneapolis when they were taken into custody.
Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda says she has regained access to her TikTok account, one day after saying she was banned from the video-sharing platform. Owda told Al Jazeera on Thursday that she thought that international media attention and pressure from nongovernmental organisations had helped get back her TikTok account, although now visitors and followers must type her full username to find her popular account on the site.
The decision extends a policy that has barred foreign correspondents from entering Gaza to report on conditions there, unless reporters are prepared to embed with the Israeli army. At the hearing on Wednesday, justices appeared frustrated with the government's explanations for maintaining the blanket ban on independent press access, which has remained in place since Israel launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people of Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
Footage from the meeting captured protesters flipping the middle finger at cameras and putting their hands up in Paige's face to interrupt her reporting. You are afraid of me, aren't you? protester Jason Reedy seethed at Paige, according to her story. Paige wrote that her and the Posts photographer left the meeting after it was shut down by the protesters; she said they did not leave because they were intimidated into silence, but because the situation had become unsafe and our job was to report.
Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department would resume seizing reporters' phone records to find leakers. In April, Bondi rescinded former Attorney General Merrick Garland's policy restricting federal prosecutors from forcing journalists to reveal their sources. Zoom in: According to the Washington Post, Natanson was at her Virginia home when agents arrived. The FBI warrant said the search was part of an investigation into a Maryland system administrator accused of "accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports," per the affidavit cited by the Post.
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