“#Congress mandated #VOA to report reliable & authoritative news, not to outsource its #journalism to outlets aligned w/the president’s agenda,” they wrote in a stmnt. “VOA already has talented & professional #journalists ready to tell America’s story in line w/the VOA Charter, but we are blocked from our own newsroom. That is why we will continue fighting for our rights in court.”

State of #press #freedom around the #world

Welcome to #Berlin, the capital of #Zionist repression
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/welcome-berlin-germany-capital-zionist-repression

On 28 March, the Zionist #German Jewish weekly Judische Allgemeine Zeitung happily announced that Tel Aviv would become Berlin's newest twin city, with all factions of the Berlin House of Representatives agreeing to the decision.

They do so even as large parts of the world are gradually distancing themselves from this regime.

Such a decision reflects common interests and values that supposedly bind the cities and their populations together.

And the ones on display in this partnership are telling: while one side commits #genocide, the other supports, promotes, and finances it; while one carries out ethnic cleansing, the other feigns ignorance; while one deliberately targets children, #journalists, and #medical personnel, the other looks away and prattles on about #HumanRights while one starves a people to death, the other merely shrugs.

#germany #zionazis #germanComplicity #GenocideEnablers #Gaza #Palestine #gazagenocide #warcrimes #IsraelWarCrimes
@palestine @israel via @banned_tweets_of_john_cusack

@inkorrupt

100%

silly me, I thought this was a #US problem.

I guess corporate media gonna be corporate all over everywhere.

Who are your #independent #journalists? If they're on #mastodon, I'd like to #follow them.

#FreePress advocates expressed alarm about the inclusion of #journalists…, as well as the possibility of their communications being released to the public, which goes “considerably well beyond the scope of what…leak investigations in the past have typically focused on,”says Grayson Clary, staff atty at the #Reporters Cmte for #FreedomOfThePress. Rather, the effort seems like “a tactic designed to…make it much harder for journalists to strike up those source relationships in the first instance.”

In total, he sought communications about 16 organizations, including #Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center & DHS’s’s #Cybersecurity & Infrastructure #Security Agency (#CISA), as well as…about 39 individuals.

Notably, this includes several #journalists: In addition to #Bellingcat & #AnneApplebaum, the document also asks for communications w/ #NBCNews senior reporter #BrandyZadrozny.

Garland changed the policy after the revelation in 2021 that the #DOJ, under #Trump AG #BillBarr, had secretly pursued email records of reporters at The NYT, WaPo & CNN during Trump’s first term. At the time, Garland said that a flat ban on such tactics was necessary to “allow #journalists to perform the crucial work of informing the public without fear of legal consequences.”

@youranonriots

"I ASK YOU NOW: DO NOT STOP SPEAKING ABOUT GAZA. DO NOT LET THE WORLD LOOK AWAY. KEEP FIGHTING, KEEP TELLING OUR STORIES-- UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE"

-- Hossam Shabat

> His final message he left behind

quote text in bold text over photo of Hossam Shabat in blue press vest..

@palestine

After threatening to target the media several hundred times since he first announced his candidacy for President, Trump is now instructing his bootlicking Attorney General Pam Bondi to make his war on journalists possible. Although Bondi is acting in the context of hunting down leakers in the Department of Defense, the reality is that Downmarket Mussolini will almost certainly come for his critics in the media and the sources they speak to, next.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bondi-journalism-protections

Bondi Shreds Biden-Era Protections for Journalists as Trump White House Hunts Leakers

"As part of a renewed crackdown on leaks, Bondi said she is issuing revised Justice Department regulations stating that media outlets "must answer subpoenas" related to efforts to uncover sources of unauthorized disclosures within the federal government.

"The policy contemplates the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media, subject to the Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, and the approval of the department's leadership in some instances," the memo states. "The attorney general must also approve efforts to question or arrest members of the news media."

As I alluded to above, I find US corporate media's bloodless, minutiae-focused reporting on Bondi's actions here curious and alarming given that the Trump regime is giving itself the power to come after them and their journalists. Obviously the regime is acting in response to the embarrassing leaks surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the investigation DNI Tulsi Gabbard is conducting into those leaks. None of this is happening in a vacuum however, and I don't know who it serves to report only in the narrow context of the regime's narrative here.

Like let's cut the crap right? During his first administration, Trump's Department of Justice already tried to go after reporters to expose their sources. Trump is a guy who threatened journalists with implied carceral sexual assault if they didn't give up their sources, on the campaign trail. The Kelpto Kaiser has literally said negative reporting about himself and his regime should be "illegal." The regime is weaponizing the FCC and holding McCarthy-esque hearings lead by fascist conspiracy crank-turned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to target NPR and PBS for criticizing Trump and admitting LGBTQ people exist in American life. Trump is literally exerting so much pressure on CBS over the editing on a 60 Minutes segment featuring Kamala Harris (a woman he already beat in the 2024 US election) that the program's longtime editor resigned because the show's independence was compromised.

I honestly couldn't give a rats ass about warmongers working for a fascist regime who get caught leaking, but surely it doesn't take a psychic to realize that the would-be dictator already targeting media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda, is going to use new Department of Justice guidelines that let him more freely target media that criticize or oppose his fascist agenda, to further target media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda. This isn't rocket science here. For corporate media outlets to pretend this story is purely about internal leaks inside Pete Hegseth's staff strains credulity, and would appear to be very shortsighted indeed.

Update. One of many good points by Alice Meadows and Suze Kundu:
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/04/30/trump-v-research-how-we-could-turn-the-threats-into-opportunities/

When #Trump cuts budgets and staffing at science agencies, and terminates research grants, #journalists should write about the effects on people (less cancer research, more cancer), not just the effects on universities (less funding, more belt-tightening).