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Freedom of the Press Initiative |
| With the freedom of the press under assault on multiple fronts, ClassACT HR73’s Justice & Civic Engagement Committee has launched a new initiative to safeguard this cherished liberty. The constitutional freedom that permits citizens to scrutinize governments and to hold elected officials accountable, and that allows journalists to report local, national and international news, is under threat. The time has come to protest these incursions and to protect the First Amendment and our democracy. The committee will be writing articles, putting on programming, and working on internal projects with this goal in mind. If you are interested in getting involved in this initiative, please email us at classacthr73@gmail.com with the subject, "Freedom of the Press." |
Freedom of the Press ClassACTion Alerts
With the freedom of the press under assault on multiple fronts, ClassACT HR73’s Justice and Civic Engagement Committee has launched a new initiative to safeguard this cherished liberty. The constitutional freedom that permits citizens to scrutinize governments and to hold elected officials accountable, and that allows journalists to report local, national and international news, is under threat. The time has come to protest these incursions and to protect the First Amendment and our democracy. The committee will be writing articles, putting on programming, and working on internal projects with this goal in mind.
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June 29, 2026 11:43 AM
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June 18, 2026 2:59 PM
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December 19, 2025 11:01 AM
Freedom of the Press Forums
Freedom of the Press: Views from the Front Line
May 6, 2026
The forum’s moderator Richard Tofel ’79, who was the founding general manager of ProPublica and the assistant publisher of the Wall Street Journal, headed a panel that included attorneys David McGraw, deputy general counsel and senior vice president at the New York Times, along with Bruce Brown, president of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Francia García Hernández, a reporter for Block Club Chicago who covered Operation Midway Blitz. The panelists took up current crises such as unprecedented legal threats to news organizations and reporters, the politicizing of regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the concentration of ownership of media outlets, and the decline of local newspapers.
Press Freedom Under Assault: Preserving Our Democracy
July 10, 2025
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The panel discussed how developments like the diminishment of local news and the concentrated ownership of outlets are now converging to limit the breath and depth of the news we all receive. Sylvester Monroe ’73, Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy and a former reporter and editor for Newsweek, Time and the Washington Post, moderated. The distinguished panel of journalists included Geoffrey Cowan, University Professor of Communication at USC and a distinguished First Amendment attorney; Susan Goldberg, the president and CEO of GBH, the largest producer of PBS content and a major provider of NPR programming; and Kevin Merida, the former executive editor of the Los Angeles Times and the former managing editor of the Washington Post.
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