Welcome to the May 2024 edition of the Free Press Update, our newsletter recapping as much of our work from the last month as we can fit into one email. Let’s get into it:

What Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron Told Congress About Attacks on Public Media

In testimony before the House, Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron urged lawmakers to protect funding for NPR.

Free Press Action President and Co-CEO Craig Aaron testified before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee seeking evidence of alleged political bias at NPR.

While Congress has a role in overseeing the operations and financial management of NPR, threats to defund it based on a perceived failure to cover certain topics or hire certain people strike at the heart of journalistic freedom. Read Craig’s recap of his testimony.

Tell the Senate: Pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act!

Right now, law-enforcement and immigration agencies like the FBI and ICE are violating our constitutional rights by purchasing our online data — including our location and search histories — without a warrant.

But Congress can take action: There is currently bipartisan support to prohibit these practices with the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. The House passed this bill in April, and it’s critical the Senate does the same ASAP. Take action to urge your senators to get this legislation over the finish line by adding your name to our petition today.

The Movement to Build a New Future for Local News and Civic Information

Free Press Action's Alisha Wang Saville delivering remarks about a California local-journalism bill

Despite its importance to our democracy and civic health, local journalism has largely remained outside of legislative agendas.

Fortunately, this could soon change. Following historic steps forward in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington over the past few years, state legislatures are increasingly springing into action to address the collapse of local journalism.

Learn more from our blog post about the state of the fight for local news and civic information.

Why Ending Section 230 Would Create Problems

Getting rid of Section 230 would destroy the internet as we know it. Photo credit: DALL-E

Calls to end Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have picked up steam in the past few years, as advocates and lawmakers search desperately for ways to hold tech companies accountable for their conduct and their algorithms.

Policymakers see harmful content online — focusing particularly on what they see as its damaging effects on children — and claim that companies like Meta, Google and Twitter use the law to avoid taking responsibility for what happens on their websites. But it’s not that simple. Learn more about the serious problems that could emerge if Congress ends Section 230.

A View from the Field

Free Press staffers and allies with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (in blue) the day the agency voted to restore Net Neutrality and reinstate its Title II authority. Photo credit: Timothy Kar

Check out the latest updates from the field as Free Press and Free Press Action staffers work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a more just and equitable media system. Below are snippets from our latest View from the Field blog — you can read the entire post here!

• Free Press mobilized more than 200 civil-society organizations, researchers and journalists to call on tech platforms to take six specific steps to safeguard election integrity in 2024. We hosted a press briefing featuring leaders of this global coalition, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa and Free Press’ Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights Nora Benavidez and Co-CEO Jessica J. González. Read Democracy Deferred, our report on the companies’ responses to our demands.
• News Voices Philadelphia Program Manager Cassie Owens and guest facilitator Naila Francis organized a grief-care workshop in Philadelphia. This grew out of community gatherings Free Press held in Philly in 2023, where therapists and organizers noted that grief care could benefit community members experiencing harm from crime coverage. News Voices Director Vanessa Maria Graber co-hosted the event and Naila led the workshop, where participants met by a lake and took part in grief education, journaling prompts, group discussion and meditative practices. Multimedia Communications Manager Imani Oakley took part in the gathering.
• On April 25, Free Press staffers including Amanda Beckham, Yanni Chen, Alex Frandsen, Heather Franklin, Timothy Karr, B'Asia Settles and Matt Wood attended the FCC’s monthly meeting and celebrated when commissioners voted to restore the Net Neutrality protections and reinstate the agency’s Title II authority to hold companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon accountable for harming internet users. "We’ve been fighting for this moment since well before the Trump FCC threw out strong Title II rules in 2017," said Co-CEO Craig Aaron.

The Free Press Feed

Are you connected with Free Press on social media? If not, we’ve featured some posts from the past month below — but be sure to stay in the loop by following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and TikTok!

• BIG NEWS! We’re now on another social-media platform: Bluesky! Follow us.
• On Instagram, we celebrated World Press Freedom Day and how student journalists are providing an excellent example of how to cover campus protests. Check it out.
• Our Facebook community was thrilled to hear about the FCC’s fines against the nation's largest wireless carriers for illegally sharing their customers’ location data without first securing their consent. Learn more.
• On TikTok, we shared a clip of Co-CEO Craig Aaron’s testimony in Congress in support of public media. Watch the video.

Thank you for reading! The info here represents only a tiny fraction of what Free Press and Free Press Action are doing every day to fight for your rights to connect and communicate. With so many crucial fights on the horizon — such as urging tech platforms to do more to combat election disinformation and calling on Congress to stop government surveillance — we could use your support. Will you make a gift today? We rely on contributions from grassroots donors like you because we don't take a cent from business, government or political parties.

Thank you for everything you do to help power our movement,

All of us at Free Press and Free Press Action
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