The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Degitalisierung: Der Bärendienst
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KW 37: Die Woche, in der wir die Ratlosigkeit überwinden
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Omas gegen Rechts: „Wir machen weiter. Es gibt keine andere Option.“
It’s time to declassify 9/11 records
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
It’s Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the deadly attacks on the U.S. and the beginning of the “war on terror.” It’s time for critical records on the attacks to be declassified, but they’re unlikely to see the light of day. Plus, the government gives up on wiretapping charges against a Florida journalist and Congress must do more to protect the press from “Petty” Pete Hegseth.
Crucial 9/11 documents still secret
The executive order covering classification calls for most historical records to be declassified 25 years after they’re created, which means millions of pages about the Sept. 11 attacks qualify for release this December — records that survivors and victims’ families have been trying to obtain for years.
But systemic failures throughout the declassification system mean that these records are unlikely to become public anytime soon. Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper wrote for MS NOW about the vital information in these documents, and the path the Trump administration could take to bring justice for survivors and transparency to the public.
Drop the rest of the charges against Tim Burke
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice moved to abandon its appeal of a lower court’s dismissal of felony wiretapping counts against Florida-based independent journalist Tim Burke. Burke exposed unaired outtakes of antisemitic remarks from a Fox News interview with musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West; the government then raided his newsroom and hit him with numerous charges under the Wiretap Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The ordeal isn’t over — the CFAA charges remain pending, and the government could reindict Burke under the Wiretap Act.
FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern called on the DOJ to drop the rest of the charges, saying, “By confiscating most of Tim Burke’s newsroom equipment for years and getting multiple extensions in court before ultimately dropping its appeal, the DOJ has successfully held Burke’s journalism hostage and used the legal system to punish him for reporting on a clearly newsworthy issue.”
Protect journalists from ‘Petty’ Pete
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is an incompetent propagandist — despite his myriad censorship efforts, few Americans have favorable views of him or his Iran war. But he could get a lot more effective at selling the public on lies if the independent information ecosystem continues to erode. As Stern writes, U.S. lawmakers need to get serious about protecting journalists and whistleblowers to prevent Hegseth and his colleagues in the Trump administration from stamping out independent journalism like their authoritarian idols abroad.
Stars and Stripes censorship looks familiar behind bars
Hegseth remains persistent. One of his more recent efforts to control the narrative has been taking an axe to the staff at military newspaper Stars and Stripes after they published reporting he didn’t like about the USS Abraham Lincoln. To FPF contributor Jeremy Busby, who’s been incarcerated for 28 years in Texas, the crackdown was reminiscent of the fate of Texas prison newspaper The Echo, where the content has been neutered by prison officials. Busby breaks down what happens when news outlets become tools of the state, or vanish altogether.
Government health agencies are lockboxes
Federal health agencies control information of life-or-death importance, but their stonewalling of reporters has reached new heights. At a webinar last week, reporters Bob Herman of the Boston Globe’s STAT, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Robert King of Politico, along with FPF Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus, recounted the obstacles they and others have faced in getting information from these agencies, and the strategies they’ve found for pushing past them to get to the story.
What we’re reading
Historic local news coalition of national, state organizations urge Gov. Newsom of California to support AB 2222
Rebuild Local News
California AB 2222’s proposed journalist employment tax credits would also strengthen reporting capacity, and safeguard essential coverage. That’s why we and dozens of others are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to support the bill.
Carr warns broadcasters about airing fake polls, says new guidance could be on the way
Broadband Breakfast
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr can call news he doesn’t like fake news and polls he doesn’t like fake polls, but there’s a real First Amendment and he doesn’t get to veto it whenever his thin-skinned puppeteer in the White House gets his feelings hurt.
Kimmel pulls Talarico interview after FCC threat
The Hill
It’s shameful that the FCC is abusing its authority to prevent Americans from hearing directly from candidates during election season. Interviews with political candidates are chilled thanks to the FCC, and news programs aren’t immune from it.
Pentagon employee DataRepublican posts inside info about hacks against the far left
The Intercept
The government’s support for an influencer who praises domestic hacking would mark an escalation in the Trump admin’s dissent crackdown. “It’s the difference between open-source intelligence” and “jumping into people’s machines,” FPF Chief Security Programs Officer Harlo Holmes told The Intercept.
Longread: Mark Ruffalo, Paramount, and weaponized antisemitism
It’s Not You, It’s Media
Paramount officials continue disingenuously labeling those who don’t want the war-profiteering Ellison family using its Trump administration ties to take over more media outlets as antisemites. “How dare they falsely invoke antisemitism for something as selfish as their business interests?” asked FPF’s Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose.
Free speech protection bill headed to North Dakota Legislature next year
KFGO
Red or blue, states across the U.S. have adopted laws against SLAPPs — strategic lawsuits against public participation — because they recognize that free speech deserves strong protection. North Dakota should too. An anti-SLAPP law would keep the state from becoming a magnet for frivolous lawsuits aimed at silencing speech.
Group of bipartisan lawmakers ask US government to ban several hack-for-hire firms
TechCrunch
At least one of these companies was behind a global censorship campaign to silence news reporting about its hacking activities. American companies shouldn’t do business with groups that engage in cyberattacks against Americans and then try to silence journalists who expose it.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Investitionspflicht für Streaming-Dienste: EU-Kommission legt Weimer Steine in den Weg
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Nach Wahl in Sachsen-Anhalt: Mehr als 30 Demos am Wochenende gegen AfD geplant
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Meta Überwachungsbrille: Datenschutzbehörde warnt vor erheblichen Risiken
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Neuer Name, alte Baustellen: Das sind die Hürden zum Start der digitalen Brieftasche „d‑you“
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Digitaler Omnibus: Neues Bündnis will das Ende der Cookie-Banner einläuten
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Überwachungsbrillen: Warum deutsche Gerichte Smart Glasses nicht verbieten
Pirate Party of Israel is Running in October 2026 elections
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
The Pirate Party of Israel is back on the ballot!
Israel is a very contentious country, featuring a vast range of political ideologies. The Likud party under Netanyahu has held onto power for much of the past decade, during which time the country´s citizens, institutions and image have suffered tremendously. The country has a very fragmented multi-party political system, and fringe parties routinely catch on public sentiment and win seats in [color="#000000"]Knesset (Israeli parliament). The country went through five national elections in just over three years, from April 2019 to November 2022. A list must receive at least 3.25% of votes to get into parliament, making the threshold a formidable barrier for smaller parties.[/color]
The Pirate Party of Israel (PPIL) hopes to improve the situation and bring new ideas and ideologies into the public sphere and political discourse. On Sept. 7, their list was accepted for the national election. This is their 8th time since 2013. They campaign on issues of government transparency, freedom of speech, privacy and individual rights, as well as new political ideas and imagination about how democracy can work. The party works on transparency with hundreds of volunteer observers at polling stations, ensuring representatives follow the process until the last vote is counted.
This year the party has an esteemed new member. Prof. Dan Ariely, the behavioral economist, has now joined the Pirate Party of Israel and handed the elections committee the necessary papers to register as a candidate for Israel’s 2026 election. The news broke in surprising fashion when Prof. Ariely himself arrived with other PPIL representatives at the Knesset to submit the list of candidates.
Prof. Ariely is also a bestselling author whose famous books include Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.
With a feeling of optimism, the Israeli party has submitted a list of 25 candidates. Also participating at the top of the list are longtime Pirate participants Dr. Ohad Shem-Tov and Noam Kuzar. Israel goes to the polls on October 27, 2026. The 3.25% threshold has so far eluded the party.
Pirate Party of Israel 2026 Election Campaign
For a political movement accustomed to being treated as a marginal party, the addition of Prof. Ariely has already prompted new discussions and greater awareness of Pirate ideas and ideology. Ariely has approached these elections as something of a political experiment, declaring that “politics is fun”, and describing the Pirate Party as a natural destination for people without a political home, an alternative for people who feel the existing system does not represent or work for them.
The Israeli Pirate Party was founded in 2012 and first contested a national election in 2013. Its broader program includes government transparency, freedom of speech, privacy and individual rights, changes to intellectual-property law, free high-speed internet as a democratic right, environmental protection, and greater public participation in government. Their platform attempts to spin the question of “Who should govern Israel?” to “How should Israelis govern themselves?”.
The party has already built an online system into its website called “The Deck”, which is based on LiquidFeedback and liquid democracy, combining direct and delegative voting. Members can vote directly on decisions or delegate their vote on a particular issue to someone they trust. That delegation can later be withdrawn. Discussions and decisions remain visible, with digital tools allowing participation between elections rather than limiting citizen influence to a ballot every few years.
Pirate Party of Israel Platform
A large number of media outlets have already picked up the story in Israel:
https://www.ynet.co.il/news/elections2026/article/rj4yfhnoze
israelhayom.co.il/news/politic… jpost.com/israel-election-2026… ua.news/en/politika/den-arieli… *Regarding the last article, PPIL would like to thank UA.News for its international coverage of their campaign, but they point out that the image accompanying the story is not actually a real candidate but an AI-generated one.
See all media coverage collected by the Pirate Party of Israel
We hope to share further good news, as well as interviews and media in English, about their election campaign soon.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Kameras und Drohnen in Berlin: Was Verhaltensscanner erkennen sollen
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Folge von US-Sanktionen: Internetkollektiv Autistici/Inventati stellt Betrieb ein
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KW 36: Die Woche, in der uns flau im Magen war
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Politische Werbung: Transparenz, die man suchen muss
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Autistici/Inventati: Pauschaler Terrorvorwurf
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Zukunft des MDR: „Die Schwergängigkeit bietet einen wirksamen Schutz“
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Mehr als Social-Media-Verbot: Familienministerin will Alterskontrollen ausweiten
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Schultablets von Apple: Stadt darf andere Hersteller nicht ausschließen
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Für deine Grundrechte: Die Hütte brennt! Wir gehen rein.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Vor der Wahl in Sachsen-Anhalt: AfD ist Partei mit größter Sichtbarkeit auf TikTok
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Politische Werbung: Mit ihrem Verbot helfen Meta und Google der AfD
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KI-Korrekturhilfe für die Schule: Lerne schreiben wie ein Chatbot
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Wahlen ohne Werbung: Wie Google und Meta die aktuellen Wahlkämpfe verändern
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Messenger-Überwachung: Immer mehr Polizei überwacht Messenger wie WhatsApp
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KI-Ergebnisse bei Google: Informationsroulette bei den Landtagswahlen
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Smart Glasses und Barrierefreiheit: “Meta hat kein Blinden-Hilfsmittel entwickelt”
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
EU-Verordnung: Sächsischer Innenminister fordert Ausweitung der Chatkontrolle
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Interview: „Die Geheimdienstreform untergräbt das Vertrauen zwischen Ärzten und Patienten“
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KW 35: Die Woche, in der die Räume für die Zivilgesellschaft enger werden
Release sealed documents in Herridge reporter’s privilege case
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
We want to see the sealed documents a judge considered when imposing an $800-per-day fine on journalist Catherine Herridge for refusing to identify a source. Plus, a ubiquitous contract clause is making freelancers’ work more risky, the Pentagon has a journalist burn book, and conservatives are sounding the alarm about Donald Trump’s FCC.
FPF demands unsealing of documents in reporter’s privilege case
Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge was held in contempt of court for refusing to divulge sources for her reporting at Fox News on an investigation of a scientist and university president with alleged ties to the Chinese military, leading to a (currently paused) $800-per-day fine. The court’s misguided ruling may have been informed by documents about the FBI’s probe into the scientist that were filed under seal, even though the investigation is over and the documents aren’t classified. This week, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) filed a motion to unseal those documents.
“The public deserves to see the documents behind this ruling and judge for itself whether the facts warrant undermining journalist-source confidentiality,” FPF Senior Adviser Caitlin Vogus said. “It’s especially galling that while the court demands Herridge reveal her sources, it keeps the basis for its own decision secret.”
Trump’s new scheme: suing for damages when his policies are criticized
Last week, Trump threatened the Center for American Progress with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit, alleging he was personally defamed by the think tank’s report concluding that his administration’s deployment of the National Guard to various U.S. cities did not reduce crime.
Trump’s attempt to turn criticism of government policy into a personal attack he can profit from in court isn’t just petty and self-involved — it undermines the First Amendment and long-standing principles at the heart of our democracy, FPF’s Vogus writes.
Oppressive clause in freelancer contracts chills journalism
Indemnification clauses are a common feature of freelancer contracts, placing freelancers on the hook for legal fees and judgments arising from their articles, even if they did nothing wrong. These clauses are terrible for journalism — making reporters less likely to submit stories that might aggravate their subjects — and don’t actually do anything to shield outlets from liability.
As more reporters get laid off from their full-time jobs and publications rely increasingly on freelancers, FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern writes that it’s past time for them to cut these clauses out of freelance contracts.
Pentagon blacklists journalists
The U.S. Central Command maintains a secret blacklist of journalists whose questions the press office has decided to “disregard,” The Intercept revealed this week — one of many steps the Pentagon has taken during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s tenure to vilify the press and obstruct its work.
Stern told The Intercept, “This should put to rest the Pentagon’s prior claims that its anti-press policies — like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information — are somehow content neutral.”
Why Republicans should hate what the FCC is doing
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, a super-loyalist to the president known to wear Trump’s gilded face as a lapel pin, has made clear that he views the agency’s role as furthering Trump’s agenda. But his actions, including threatening ABC’s licenses over their content decisions, shouldn’t just scare those who are anti-Trump — he’s creating a precedent for the next president’s FCC to engage in similar censorship.
FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm runs down the dangers of this FCC’s actions for Americans of all political stripes, and the conservatives who are sounding the alarm about it.
Federal health agencies won’t talk to the press
Healthcare reporters have been dealing with widespread stonewalling from government agencies. In a live webinar next Tuesday, Sept. 1, hosted by FPF and the Association of Health Care Journalists, Vogus and three healthcare reporters will talk about why these problems persist, how reporters can overcome the stonewalling to get to the story, and what the public can do to push for greater transparency.
What we’re reading
Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes leaders who criticized DOD’s interference
The Washington Post
Hegseth’s conduct is unbecoming of the First Amendment. Stars and Stripes exists to produce independent journalism. When their team expressed concern over government censorship, the Pentagon went to war ... with the truth.
Mark Ruffalo links Paramount to Oracle’s Israeli military ties. The studio calls remarks ‘antisemitic’
The Hollywood Reporter
Larry Ellison said he wants to surveil everyone — Jewish, Palestinian, or neither — to keep us on our best behavior. It’s not antisemitic to talk about how his government-subsidized surveillance, war, and “scary technology” businesses may impact his family’s media outlets.
AP, Reuters call for accountability on anniversary of Gaza strike that killed journalists
The Associated Press
Israel is killing journalists for exposing its atrocities in Gaza, while the money and weapons to do it keep flowing from the U.S. News outlets need to keep pushing for accountability and access.
This mysterious ‘astroturf’ group popped up to defend the Paramount merger
The Intercept
There is no real grassroots support for Trump steering more media outlets to the Ellison family, but an astroturfing firm that previously partnered with Flock Safety wants you to believe otherwise.
ChatGPT gets all up in your iMessages
FPF Digital Security Digest
ChatGPT can now send messages on your behalf, using Messages for macOS. Our security training team digs into how it works, and what it all means for the privacy of our conversations.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Berliner Polizeigesetz: Linke und Grüne ziehen vor den Verfassungsgerichtshof
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Interaktive Karte: An diesen Orten sollen bundesweit neue Rechenzentren entstehen
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Polizeigesetz Thüringen: „Haben, haben, haben – und dann schauen, was passiert“
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Autistici/Inventati: USA sanktionieren italienisches Internetkollektiv
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
KI-Befugnisse in Thüringen: Polizeigewerkschaft kritisiert Polizeigesetz
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Jugendschutz im Sonderangebot: Meta kauft sich frei
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Polizeigesetz Niedersachsen: „Das vergiftet alles“
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Ethisches Hacken: Raus aus der Grauzone
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please log in.
Schattendatenbank: Datenschützer mahnen Schufa ab