I'm biased, of course, but it's hard to imagine a nonprofit program having a more substantial impact on the news industry than @rcfp.org's Local Legal Initiative. This program has shown time and again that local investigative journalism can thrive when reporters have access to free legal support.
Michelle Obama suggested people eat vegetables and conservatives lost their minds.
A new @theguardian.com analysis of ICE records reveals that most people targeted for deportation for the first time in 2025 have no criminal history.
The news outlet’s reporting is based on data it obtained through a FOIA lawsuit with free legal support from @rcfp.org attorneys.
🚨 We're hiring two positions to expand @rcfp.org's Local Legal Initiative, which provides journalists free legal services to pursue investigative stories in their communities.
➡️ Minnesota LLI attorney
➡️ LLI staff attorney
View the positions and apply:
🎉 Great news!
@rcfp.org's @a-marshall-plan.bsky.social and Allyson Veile represented @marisakabas.bsky.social in her fight to access the footage.
Learn more + read court documents in the case: www.rcfp.org/litigation/k...
Proud of the #FOIA team at @rcfp.org that pried these records lose!
Is Trump the most anti-press president in U.S. history?
We asked Harold Holzer, historian and author of “The Presidents vs. the Press,” for his thoughts on that and much more in a new interview.
New: A federal judge unsealed documents that reveal the FBI's justification for raiding the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson.
The records were made public after @rcfp.org asked the court to unseal search warrant materials related to the raid.
New opinion for @us.theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
A text graphic that reads "We're hiring! We work to advance press freedom. Come work with us!" with the Reporters Committee logo.
‼️ We're expanding @rcfp.org's Local Legal Initiative to Minnesota — and hiring an in-state attorney to provide local journalists and newsrooms free legal help to pursue impactful reporting in their communities.
Learn more and apply: smrtr.io/wM-xy
Now is a perfect time to support press freedom with a donation to @rcfp.org: Through Sunday, our friends at Subject Matter will be adding $100 to each contribution, up to $5,000!
It's a great opportunity to maximize your impact in defense of the First Amendment. Donate here:
A Tennessee judge has ordered the state to provide journalists expanded access to execution proceedings after a news media coalition — represented by @rcfp.org attorneys — challenged restrictions on press witnesses.
NEW: In a friend-of-the-court brief, @rcfp.org urged a federal court to reject the Pentagon’s new press access policy and supported @nytimes.com's lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
Until this week's FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's house, the Justice Department had “never executed a search warrant at the home of a reporter in a national security leak case,” notes @rcfp.org's Gabe Rottman. [via @cnn.com]
News:
Last night, @rcfp.org filed a motion in EDVA to unseal records related to the WaPo reporter warrant.
Currently all of the judicial records are sealed, including the affidavit purporting to justify the government’s actions.
Read our application here: www.rcfp.org/fbi-raid-was...
This morning, the FBI executed a search warrant at a @washingtonpost.com reporter’s home.
@rcfp.org President Bruce D. Brown called it “a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press.”
Read his full statement: www.rcfp.org/fbi-search-w...
“Anytime that Congress tries to get in the business of inquiring into or interfering in constitutionally protected newsgathering, it’s a problem,” said @rcfp.org's Gabe Rottman. [via @washingtonpost.com]
My favorite winter solstice tradition, courtesy of Olafur Arnalds and friends: youtu.be/QzEsaXYYLIE?...
Journos, remember:
"Reporters sometimes dislike the idea of litigating because they want their work — not themselves — to be the story... But access to information is a muscle that must be flexed... We must fight against each attempt to chip away at our legal rights."
Amen to this from @rcfp.org!
Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor? I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, “Should I smile or not smile?” and I said, “How would you want to be portrayed?” We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do, too.”
The Vanity Fair photographer from the Susie Wiles story.
Holy. Shit.
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
“Wear your name on a lawsuit as proudly as you do your byline.”
www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour...
During the Friday discussion, Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who was recently named as the panel’s new chair, was overheard telling another panel member that he wanted to talk to “some of the higher-ups” about the panel’s work. “You know, I feel like, you know, it’s, sort of like we feel like a little bit like puppets on a string as opposed to really being an independent advisory panel,” according to a transcript of the exchange captured by videoconferencing software and obtained by The Washington Post. Asked about those remarks, Milhoan wrote in a text message, “There are pressures from many organizations: federal, industry, medical organizations that are trying to influence by ad hominem attacks, when we are trying to look at and ask for data.”
!!!
The Post obtained hot mic comments by the chair of RFK Jr.'s CDC vaccine committee.
"We feel like a little bit like puppets on a string as opposed to really being an independent advisory panel" wapo.st/4atob4M
A quote from RCFP's Gabe Rottman: “The Pentagon’s press access policy is unlawful because it gives government officials unchecked power over who gets a credential and who doesn’t, something the First Amendment prohibits. The public needs independent journalism and the reporters who deliver it back in the Pentagon at a time of heightened scrutiny of the department’s actions.”
Today, @nytimes.com filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon over its new press access policy.
In a statement supporting the lawsuit, @rcfp.org's Gabe Rottman said the policy is "unlawful" and violates the First Amendment.
Read more: www.rcfp.org/nyt-pentagon...
An ICE agent, who is being arrested for drunk driving and nearly killing his little kids & others, tries to stop the arrest by racially profiling the officers arresting him. Amazing to watch the courtesy given to him as he is belligerent and uncooperative
Covering a No Kings rally this weekend?
Review @rcfp.org's legal guide that explains how to stay safe and avoid arrest while reporting on protests: rcfp.org/resources/po...
It's also available as a concise tip-sheet: www.rcfp.org/wp-content/u...
RCFP President Bruce D. Brown speaking on stage at a podium with a green banner behind him reading Freedom of the Press Awards 2025.
2025 Freedom of the Press Awards honorees pose with their awards statues. From left: Brad Kutrow, Bob Cohn, Amanda Bennett, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Terry Baquet.
Attendees sit at tables during the 2025 Freedom of the Press Awards.
2025 Freedom of the Press Awards statues, clear glass obelisks, sit on a table bathed in blue light.
Last night's #RCFPAwards25 was an inspiring celebration of press freedom — and a reminder that there are champions of the First Amendment fighting for the public's right to know at a time when America's free press is under attack.
Our thanks to everyone who supported the event.
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Just 8 days left to apply for a full-time staff attorney role at RCFP! Come litigate things with our amazing team:
jobs.smartrecruiters.com/ReportersCom...
The Pentagon is ordering journalists to sign a gag pledge—even with respect to gathering unclassified information. Here are the facts.
#Pentagon #Journalism #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment #Democracy #BreakingNews #NewsExplained
The William Calley Most Improved Award
