January Update

Covering the Streets

Throughout US history, the ability of journalists to cover protests has been fundamental to the protection of other First Amendment rights. Civil rights leader John Lewis once proclaimed, “If it hadn’t been for the media, for brave, courageous journalists, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.” This is why media organizations have frequently called on the public to stand up for the rights of journalists to report the news.

But recent events in Minneapolis have inverted this calculus. Instead, media institutions need to defend the rights of average citizens recording and documenting what they observe, including the activities of law enforcement. Such informal news gathering is not only critical to public understanding, it increasingly forms the backbone of media reports and analysis. Journalists also depend on the same legal protections as more informal “newsgatherers” in order to do their work. Media organizations can and should become more active participants in legal efforts to defend what is called “the right to record.” They can do this without compromising their journalistic role.

New Knight Press Freedom Fellow

The JPI is delighted to welcome Mohammed R. Mhawish as a Knight Press Freedom Fellow. Mohammed is an award-winning journalist from Gaza and contributor to The New Yorker and New York magazine. He has written for The Economist, The Nation, and Al Jazeera English.

The Knight Fellowship program was developed to support journalists at risk and allow them to continue to work. While at the Newmark School, Mohammed will continue his writing and reporting while working on a book project. He will also participate in lectures and discussions at the school.

If you want to learn more about Mohammed’s background please listen to this interview with David Remnick for The New Yorker Radio Hour. You can also read Mohammed’s feature on living under Israeli surveillance in New York magazine.

New Webpage

We’ve given the JPI website a refresh. Take a look here. As part of the redesign, we’ve updated our Press Freedom Briefings (with a new-look Risk Assessment Toolkit coming soon). The old Google Doc versions are no longer active, so reach out via our Stay Connected page if you’d like to access the updated resources.

Safety Summit 2026

Thanks to support from MacArthur Foundation and the Legal Clinic Fund, the Safety Summit has now become an annual event. The Safety Summit 2026 took place on January 15 at the Newmark School. It brought together newsroom leaders, press freedom defenders, legal advocates, and safety experts to discuss how to mount the best defense against lawfare, or more specifically a criminal prosecution targeting a journalist or media outlet. The JPI is preparing a new Press Freedom Briefing outlining the risks and providing guidance on how media organizations can best prepare. As soon as it’s ready we’ll alert you and post on our new webpage.

Please Read

CJR has an important piece on journalist safety called Reporting while Trans. This package was the outgrowth of the safety for trans journalists discussion that the JPI hosted in October.

And while you’re reading CJR, please check out my most recent columns. In January, I published a story on the effort by Carroll Bogert, the new chief executive of The City, to build a coalition of New York media outlets to engage with ICE and Border Protection about the coverage of immigration enforcement. You can also read my feature on the notorious gossip blogger Perez Hilton and his efforts to protect his sources. I spoke with On the Media about how when it comes to defending our rights we need to take an expansive view of what constitutes journalism.