In the News

Freedom of the press is a protected right of this democracy, but it seems that our federal government has either forgotten, or is ignoring that fact.

On Friday, we took yet another step toward the authoritarian nirvana outlined in Project 2025 when the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for reporting on protests in Minneapolis.

The right of journalists to cover the actions of our government and community was deemed so important by our founders, that it was written into the First Amendment to the U.S.Constitution. It’s listed right along with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, and the freedom to petition our government for grievances.

Asked which one of the three branches of the new government he would be willing to do without, Thomas Jefferson is reported to have responded (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Any of them, but we can’t keep a democratic republic without a free press.”

Crow Statement on the Arrest of Independent Journalists

Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06), a three-time combat veteran and former Army Ranger, released the following statement: 

“There’s nothing more American than the right to dissent and question authority. It’s who we are and how we became a country. I went to war three times for our nation. I swore to uphold the Constitution. There’s no way in hell I’m letting Donald Trump take these rights away now.

“Independent journalists like Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are being arrested simply for doing their jobs: seeking the truth. It’s an attack on every American’s right to know what its government is doing.

“Generations of Americans have fought and sacrificed for our freedoms. It’s our obligation now to defend them.”

Rep. Brittany Pettersen Statement on Freedom of the Press:

“The government arresting Don Lemon, a respected reporter, while he’s covering the administration is the stuff of authoritarian regimes.

Having a free press is more important than ever while the U.S. president acts with complete recklessness, routinely disregards our constitutional rights, and uses his position to go after anyone who tried to hold him accountable.

We cannot be silenced.” 

Statement from the Institute for Nonprofit News

INN has signed on to a coalition letter penned by the National Association of Black Journalists, and as an INN member, Ark Valley Voice has endorsed this statement, objecting to this threat to press freedom: 

“We wish it weren’t necessary to say that the federal government’s arrest of journalists for reporting on a public event violates the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of the press. We wish that INN member Center for Broadcast Journalism were not dealing with having its co-founder Georgia Fort in federal custody.

But it is, and they are, and so we will. Please see National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)’s coalition statement and raise your voice in defense of freedom of expression: https://lnkd.in/eF5Udd7b.”