Denmark made the widely-criticised CSA Regulation a priority on the very first day of their Council presidency, but show little willingness to actually find a compromise that will break the three-year long deadlock on this law. The Danish text recycles previous failed attempts and does nothing to assuage the valid concerns about mass surveillance and encryption. Not only is Denmark unlikely to be able to broker a deal, it also stands in the way of EU countries finding an alternative, meaningful, rights-respecting solution to tackling CSA online.

The post Denmark wants to break the Council deadlock on the CSA Regulation, but are they genuinely trying? appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

ICYMI

During the August 24th meeting, it was announced that the United States Pirate Party would begin hosting new member meetings for anyone interested in joining the party.

While our Pirate National Committee meetings over IRC (hosted bi-weekly on weeks between our meetings livestreamed to YouTube) are open to the public, we understand some people might feel more comfortable asking questions in a more direct, personable manner.

As well, not everyone who wants to get involved with the party knows where to start or, in some cases, feel comfortable joining the US Pirate Party Discord Server (which is otherwise the most effective way to get in contact with the party).

The answer? On the first Friday of every month, the United States Pirate Party will host not one, not three, but TWO meetings for those interested in getting involved with the USPP.

The meetings will provide a low stress, open invitation opportunity for those who have questions or inquiries about their state party, information on how to get involved, on-the-ground work and everything in-between.

The meetings will be held the first Friday on the month, starting Sept. 5th, with the two meetings taking place at NoonET and 5pmET.

You are encouraged to be there, or lest you invoke your status as a “square”.

And as always, thank you for your continued support of the United States Pirate Party.

Vote Pirate. Victory is Arrrs.

uspirates.org/icymi-new-monthl…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

For 150 days, Rümeysa Öztürk has faced deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and for 69 days, Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for covering a protest. Read on for more, and click here to subscribe to our other newsletters.

​​New strategies to help journalists in Gaza

Letters and condemnations have their place in press freedom advocacy, especially when dealing with a persuadable audience. But that playbook isn’t working for journalists in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his arms supplier, President Donald Trump, don’t care about journalists’ lives, let alone their freedoms.

Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) board member and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Azmat Khan and her colleagues, Meghnad Bose and Lauren Watson, spoke to over 20 journalists and activists, including FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm, in search of novel ideas to stop Israel’s slaughter of journalists and concealment of war crimes. Read more in Columbia Journalism Review.

FPF complaint opposes U.S. attorney’s retaliation against press

It’d be journalistic malpractice for reporters to ignore a prominent public official listing a boarded-up house as his residence to claim eligibility for his position. But that’s not how John Sarcone III, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, sees it.

He was reportedly “incensed” by reporting from the Times Union of Albany and ordered the paper removed from his office’s media list. In response, FPF, Demand Progress Education Fund, and Reinvent Albany filed a complaint with New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee. Read more here.

Oregon cops cosplay as journalists

Eugene police threatened documentary filmmaker Tim Lewis with arrest if he didn’t back up while filming them. But Lewis noticed another reporter wearing a vest marked “PRESS” filming without police harassment.

Turns out he wasn’t a reporter at all — he was a police public information program coordinator. As FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern told Double Sided Media, “Police officers obstructing lawful journalism and giving their own publicly funded propagandists the exclusive right to record them up close is unconstitutional, un-American, and absurd.”

Eugene police have reportedly said they will replace the word “press” with “videographer.” Read more here.

Kansas school district fails to censor student journalists

A group of students sued Lawrence Public Schools in Kansas over the district’s use of surveillance software against students, including student journalists. Naturally, the student newspaper wanted to report on the case. But the principal ordered them not to, and the students believed their faculty adviser would be fired if they disobeyed.

Major news conglomerates have caved to official pressure, but not these kids. They sought a court order prohibiting the school from censoring them, leading the principal to drop his censorial directive and a judge to remind the district that the adviser was legally protected from retaliation. Then they published their story. Read it here.

Puerto Rico’s fake news law is unconstitutional

A district court rightly struck down Puerto Rico’s “fake news” law, which criminalized raising “false alarms” about public emergencies. Now, FPF and other rights organizations are urging an appellate court to affirm the ruling in a legal brief authored by the University of Georgia School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic.

The brief explained how the law could be selectively enforced to chill reporting that officials dislike. Read more here.

What we’re reading

Pritzker signs bill to protect freedom of press, Illinois journalists (WCIA). A nonsensical court ruling excluded news reporting from the protection of Illinois’ law against strategic lawsuits against public participation. FPF worked with local organizations and lawyers to help fix the mess.

Human rights groups to university administrators: Dismantle surveillance to defend free speech now (Fight for the Future). Surveillance technology has no place on college campuses and especially in student newsrooms. We joined a letter calling on universities to dismantle these dangerous tools.

Lawyers ask judge to order ICE to free Spanish-language journalist from immigration detention (Associated Press). Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s targeting of Mario Guevara — a lawful U.S. resident — based on his journalism is a flagrant First Amendment violation. He must be released.

US: Excessive force against LA protesters (Human Rights Watch). HRW usually focuses on wars and atrocities. Now, they’re investigating LA cops’ violence against protesters and journalists. It’s not because it’s a slow atrocity news week — it’s because the situation in LA really is that bad.

Israel says it killed a Hamas commander. It killed a Pulitzer-winning journalist (The New York Times). “The military made no attempt to obscure this brazen strike on civilians, which is a war crime.” And as +972 Magazine explained, it’s far from the first time Israel smeared journalists as terrorists to justify killing them. Its army has a unit tasked with linking journalists to Hamas.

Watchdog or ‘witch hunt’? Highland releases final review of town clerk’s office (River Reporter). Good for the upper Delaware region’s River Reporter for not letting an embattled town supervisor’s veiled threat of a SLAPP stop it from doing its job.

Journalists planning to cover McCormick, Perry event in Pennsylvania must prove their US citizenship (Penn Live). “Journalists who are citizens should decline to attend if their peers are excluded. They should spend their Tuesday investigating politicians and arms manufacturers rather than covering their photo ops,” Stern said.

For the Record is MuckRock’s weekly newsletter that keeps you informed on public records transparency battles, threats and wins. Sign-up to get original reporting, access to FOIA trainings and more.

freedom.press/issues/new-strat…

Poland’s surprising compromise to ease the deadlock on the CSA Regulation – which has been stuck in the Council of EU Member States for the past three years – met with failure. This blog recaps the Polish compromise, the positions of the Member States on the proposal, and it could mean for the future of one of the most criticised EU laws of all time.

The post 16 countries burned Poland’s bridges on the CSA Regulation: What now? appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Read about EDRi’s work in 2024 to build an inclusive and equitable digital world. Last year, we witnessed massive changes in the political realm after the European elections in June, and resisted growing attacks on important digital rights legislation while staying rooted in our long-term vision for digital futures.

The post EDRi Annual Report 2024: Reinforcing digital rights and justice in uncertain times appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

This document pool contains updates and resources on the EU's proposed 'Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse' (CSA Regulation)

The post CSA Regulation Document Pool appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Any serious journalist would tell you that it’d be journalistic malpractice for a local journalist not to report that a prominent public official listed a boarded-up house as his official residence in order to claim eligibility for his position. But that’s not how John Sarcone III, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, sees it.

He was reportedly “incensed” by reporting from the Times Union of Albany and ordered his subordinates to remove it from his office’s media list. In response, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), Demand Progress Education Fund, and Reinvent Albany have filed a complaint against Sarcone with New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee.

As the complaint explains, “Sarcone is the chief legal officer charged with enforcing federal law in a district that covers over 30,000 square miles and is home to 3.4 million people. And yet he either does not know or does not care about the ‘practically universal agreement that a major purpose of [the First] Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs.’”

The complaint requests that the Committee open an investigation to determine whether Sarcone's conduct violates New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct, and exercise its power to impose sanctions, which can include disbarment.

FPF’s Director of Advocacy Seth Stern said: “All licensed attorneys — but especially top prosecutors entrusted to protect the public, not just their clients — should know better than to retaliate against newspapers for basic public-interest journalism. Sarcone has repeatedly abused his office in his brief tenure. The committee should ensure he can no longer undermine the Constitution and embarrass the legal profession.”

Demand Progress Education Fund Special Advisor Kate Oh stated: “A prosecutor who so flagrantly disregards his ethical and professional obligations and tramples over the First Amendment rights of the press should not be empowered to enforce the laws of our nation. Sarcone’s professional history is littered with red flags and must be investigated. No less than the public’s faith in the rule of law is at stake.”

Reinvent Albany Executive Director John Kaehny said: “With great power comes great responsibility, and U.S. Attorneys like John Sarcone are among the most powerful people in America. Unfortunately, Mr. Sarcone has grossly abused his authority and betrayed the public trust. Mr. Sarcone's flagrant misuse of his authority to retaliate against the Albany Times-Union and his repeated, well-documented dishonesty are completely unacceptable, unethical, and violate basic democratic norms and rules of professional conduct. The Times Union is one of the most respected newspapers and civic institutions in New York, and it's chilling to see it attacked by an unethical U.S. Attorney with a personal grievance.”

You can read the complaint here or below. If you’d like further comment, please contact media@freedom.press or eric@demandprogress.org ,or info@reinventalbany.org.

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Every Thursday of the week, Bastian’s Night is broadcast from 21:30 CEST (new time).

Bastian’s Night is a live talk show in German with lots of music, a weekly round-up of news from around the world, and a glimpse into the host’s crazy week in the pirate movement.

If you want to read more about @BastianBB: –> This way

piratesonair.net/bastians-nigh…

Boston Police (BPD) continue their efforts rollout more surveillance tools. This time on social media.

Tuesday, August 19th, the Boston Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on the Boston 2024 Surveillance Technology Report including police usage of three new tools to monitor social media posts. Any tool BPD uses will feed into the Boston Regional Information Center (BRIC) and Federal agencies such as ICE, CBP and the FBI.

If you want to tell the Boston Public Safety committee to oppose this expansion of surveillance, please show up on the 19th virtually. Details are posted, but to sign up to speak, email ccc.ps@boston.gov and they will send you a video conference link. We especially encourage Boston Pirates to attend and speak against this proposal. The Docket # is 1357.

masspirates.org/blog/2025/08/1…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

It’s the 143rd day that Rümeysa Öztürk is facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and the 62nd day that Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for covering a protest. After more than two months in detention, press freedom groups are again demanding Guevara’s immediate release. Read on for more, and click here to subscribe to our other newsletters.

LAPD lies about attack on reporters

Last Friday, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department wantonly violated a court order by assaulting, detaining, and jailing journalists covering a protest.

Then, the LAPD falsely told California station KABC-TV that two people were detained at the protest for “pretending to be media.” The two were, in fact, journalists, but you wouldn’t know it from KABC-TV’s report, which uncritically parroted the LAPD’s claims.

Journalists must be skeptical of LAPD statements about its treatment of the press. The department knows that it violates the First Amendment and California law to detain or interfere with journalists covering protests, but it does it anyway. It won’t stop until the press reports accurately on all of the LAPD’s abuses, and the public makes clear that it won’t stand for them.

Read more here.

Israel kills journalists in Gaza to silence reporting

Two weeks ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on the Israeli Defense Forces’ threats to Anas al-Sharif, meant to scare him into ceasing reporting. He didn’t, and now he’s dead.

Al-Sharif was one of four Al Jazeera staff correspondents and two freelancers killed by the IDF in an Aug. 10 targeted strike. The others were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammad al-Khaldi.

“Israel is killing journalists for exposing its atrocities in Gaza,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) director of advocacy Seth Stern. “We can’t let our leaders get away with mere performative condemnations while the money and weapons Israel uses to exterminate journalists and other civilians keep flowing.”

Read the full statement here.

Two years since ‘a massive failure’ of the justice system in Kansas

This week marked two years since the shocking police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of Record co-owner Joan Meyer, who passed away the day after the raid.

FPF spoke to investigative journalist Jessica McMaster, whose award-winning coverage of the raid for KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, had us glued to her social media feed for weeks.

“This was a massive failure by several people within the justice system,” McMaster said, speaking about the raid. “I think it’s hard for a lot of us to grasp that so many people, in positions of power, failed in such spectacular fashion to do their jobs.”

Read the full interview here.

How a climate change researcher makes FOIA work

Rachel Santarsiero, director of the Climate Change Transparency Project at the National Security Archive, knows how to use the Freedom of Information Act to uncover information the government would rather keep secret. This week, FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper spoke to Santarsiero, who shared her expert FOIA tips.

“The key with any agency is sending targeted requests asking for specific types of documents, a date range, and the office or official who would’ve been responsible for the records,” Santarsiero explained.

Santarsiero also recommends that requesters build relationships with FOIA officers, always appeal denials, and check federal website reading rooms and other publicly available source materials. “You’ll be surprised what you can find hiding in plain sight,” she said.

Read the whole interview here.

What we’re reading

Eyewitness to Gaza’s death traps: Whistleblower Anthony Aguilar in conversation with Defending Rights & Dissent (Defending Rights & Dissent). With journalists being killed or shut out in Gaza, whistleblowers are even more important. Watch Anthony Aguilar’s firsthand account of blowing the whistle on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Trump administration outlines plan to throw out an agency’s FOIA requests en masse (404Media). This is “an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible, because who in their right mind checks the federal register regularly?” FPF’s Harper said.

Appeals court upholds block on Indiana’s 25-foot police buffer law, citing vagueness (Indiana Capital Chronicle). Hopefully, Tennessee’s and Louisiana’s “buffer” laws will be next, and other states will think twice before passing these unconstitutional laws.

Sorry, scanner listeners: BPD is encrypting its transmissions starting this weekend (Boston.com). Just like in New York City, encrypting police radio transmissions and adding a delay makes it harder for journalists to report and the public to stay informed.

freedom.press/issues/lapd-lies…

404 Media

2025-08-13 21:53:37

Trump Administration Outlines Plan to Throw Out an Agency's FOIA Requests En Masse

The Department of Energy (DOE) said in a public notice scheduled to be published Thursday that it will throw out all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests sent to the agency before October 1, 2024 unless the requester proactively emails the agency to tell it they are still interested in the documents they requested. This will result in the improper closure of likely thousands of FOIA requests if not more; government transparency experts told 404 Media that the move is “insane,” “ludicrous,” a “Pandora’s Box,” and “an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible.”

The DOE notice says “requesters who submitted a FOIA request to DOE HQ at any time prior to October 1, 2024 (FY25), that is still open and is not under active litigation with DOE (or another Federal agency) shall email StillInterestedFOIA@hq.doe.gov to continue processing of the FOIA request […] If DOE HQ does not receive a response from requesters within the 30-day time-period with a DOE control number, no further action will be taken on the open FOIA request(s), and the file may be administratively closed.” A note at the top of the notice says it is scheduled to be formally published in the Federal Register on Thursday.

The agency will send out what are known as “still interested” letters, which federal agencies have used over the years to see if a requester wants to withdraw their request after a certain period of inactivity. These types of letters are controversial and perhaps not legal, and previous administrations have said that they should be used rarely and that requests should only be closed after an agency made multiple attempts to contact a requester over multiple methods of communication. What the DOE is doing now is sending these letters to submitters of all requests prior to October 1, 2024, which is not really that long ago; it also said it will close the requests of people who do not respond in a specific way to a specific email address.

FOIA requests—especially complicated ones—can often take months or years to process. I have outstanding FOIA requests with numerous federal agencies that I filed years ago, and am still interested in getting back, and I have gotten useful documents from federal agencies after years of waiting. The notion that large numbers of people who filed FOIA requests as recently as September 2024, which is less than a year ago, are suddenly uninterested in getting the documents they requested is absurd and should be seen as an attack on public transparency, experts told 404 Media. The DOE’s own reports show that it often does not respond to FOIA requests within a year, and, of course, a backlog exists in part because agencies are not terribly responsive to FOIA.

“If a requester proactively reaches out and says I am withdrawing my request, then no problem, they don’t have to process it,” Adam Marshall, senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told me. “The agency can’t say we’ve decided we’ve gotten a lot of requests and we don’t want to do them so we’re throwing them out.”

“I was pretty shocked when I saw this to be honest,” Marshall added. “I’ve never seen anything like this in 10 years of doing FOIA work, and it’s egregious for a few reasons. I don’t think agencies have the authority to close a FOIA request if they don’t get a response to a ‘still interested’ letter. The statute doesn’t provide for that authority, and the amount of time the agency is giving people to respond—30 days—it sounds like a long time but if you happen to miss that email or aren’t digging through your backlogs, it’s not a lot of time. The notion that FOIA requesters should keep an eye out in the Federal Register for this kind of notice is ludicrous.”

The DOE notice essentially claims that the agency believes it gets too many FOIA requests and doesn’t feel like answering them. “DOE’s incoming FOIA requests have more than tripled in the past four years, with over 4,000 requests received in FY24, and an expected 5,000 or more requests in FY25. DOE has limited resources to process the burgeoning number of FOIA requests,” the notice says. “Therefore, DOE is undertaking this endeavor as an attempt to free up government resources to better serve the American people and focus its efforts on more efficiently connecting the citizenry with the work of its government.”

Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told me in an email that she also has not seen any sort of precedent for this and that “it is an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible, because who in their right mind checks the federal register regularly, and it should be challenged in court. (On that note, I am filing a FOIA request about this proposal.)”

“The use of still interested letters isn't explicitly allowed in the FOIA statute at all, and, as far as I know, there is absolutely zero case law that would support the department sending a mass ‘still interested’ letter via the federal register,” she added. “That they are also sending emails is not a saving grace; these types of letters are supposed to be used sparingly—not as a flagrant attempt to reduce their backlog by any means necessary. I also worry it will open a Pandora's Box—if other agencies see this, some are sure to follow.”

Marshall said that FOIA response times have been getting worse for years across multiple administrations (which has also been my experience). The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have cut a large number of jobs in many agencies across the government, which may have further degraded response times. But until this, there hadn’t been major proactive attempts taken by the self-defined “most transparent administration in history” to destroy FOIA.

“This is of a different nature than what we have seen so far, this affirmative, large-scale effort to purport to cancel a large number of pending FOIA requests,” Marshall said.

Limitations on Use of “Still-Interested” Inquiries

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