@zidan.bsky.social
Platforms | Press Freedom | Journalism Good takes and bad jokes. Dark humor and 🦋hite 🦋ine. Deputy director, audience, @freedom.press and @pressfreedomtracker.us. @zidanism on that other site.
BREAKING via Reuters
U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation.
We don’t yet know if Estefany Rodríguez’s detention was in retaliation for her reporting but we certainly wouldn’t be surprised.
ICE abductions of noncitizen journalists take the reporters best equipped to cover immigration enforcement off the beat.
The Espionage Act has been used to criminalize whistleblowing and newsgathering for years.
Join us for a webinar to learn about Rep. Rashida Tlaib's bill to reform the archaic law.
🗓️ March 12, 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT
RSVP: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmXN...
For years, we warned that the case against Julian Assange could be used against mainstream journalists, despite what many pundits said.
Well … now, it’s happening.
Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social expose how the Trump administration is citing the WikiLeaks case in court to target journalists’ rights.
Very good point, Erik, or just provide free healthcare for all. ;-)
I know this will not necessarily cover engineering and law, but at least, it shows that the intention is not gatekeeping, or capture as you called it, but rather having well-informed citizenry.
Uncensored reporting “might not fix the secrecy surrounding this war, but it could lead to greater demand for transparency and greater skepticism of official narratives in the run-up to the next ‘forever war.’ Maybe it could even help avoid the next one altogether.”
@seth-stern.bsky.social writes:
“The censorship infrastructure surrounding this war is extraordinary. On the American side, self-proclaimed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has virtually eliminated press access to the military and limited press credentialing to journalists who pledge to remain official stenographers.”
04.03.2026 21:48 — 👍 53 🔁 33 💬 3 📌 3
@zeteo.com’s @premthakker.bsky.social reports on the Pro-Israel campaign to stop “The Voice of Hind Rajab” from winning an Oscar: A group led by top Hollywood executives and linked to the Israeli government is trying to smear the film about the little innocent girl killed by Israeli forces in 2024.
04.03.2026 21:10 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0“There was so much fear on the part of our corporation and their bottom line … It really had a chilling effect on everything we were doing in the political space," says award-winning radio political reporter @sovernnation.bsky.social who recently retired after over three decades at KCBS Radio in SF.
04.03.2026 19:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
🔔 TODAY: Government officials are citing journalism as "doxxing" to threaten press freedom.
Join our webinar with @telliotter.bsky.social, @royalpratt.bsky.social, @sovernnation.bsky.social, and @charlie4change.bsky.social to learn more.
🕑 2 pm ET
RSVP: freedom.press/journalism-isnt-doxxing
"Full María Machado treatment.”
03.03.2026 19:38 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Greece: Convictions in ‘Predatorgate’ scandal offer rare accountability in abuse of surveillance technology
03.03.2026 19:29 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
ICE activity is pushing readers to nonprofit news sites that cover immigrant communities www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/ice-...
14.02.2026 15:03 — 👍 21 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 0
The language in a controversial Florida bill that aims to create a state intelligence operation “allows scrutiny based on ‘views’ and ‘opinions’, a standard that echoes some of the darkest chapters of American surveillance history.”
“Surveillance authorities, once created, rarely disappear.”
At least 108 girls b/w ages 7 & 12 were killed at their school in Minab. An IRGC base is nearby & was likely the target.
Initial attempts to deflect US/Israeli blame for the strike by claiming an Iranian misfire hit the school are undercut by vid of the base also being struck. Given the location...
Collapse Without Liberation: The Structural Reordering of the Middle East
“Zionism is not only an occupation or nationalist expansion, but also a specific form of organizing capitalism in the region,” @ahmednaji.bsky.social writes.
Post See new posts Conversation Laura Rozen @lrozen · 2h From US admin official background briefing recording listening to, seriously question if US negotiators understood what Iranians were proposing. One official keeps saying acronym for “IAEA” wrong. They seem astonished Iran would not agree to the US supplying them nuclear fuel Laura Rozen @lrozen · 2h They took as suspicious proposals that Iran saw as concessionary. Laura Rozen @lrozen · 2h Explains why Oman FM tried to come to DC to explain what US negotiators may not have fully understood Laura Rozen @lrozen Am not saying what Iran proposed would have been enough, I dont know, but it seems US negotiators did not have the expert guidance to understand it correctly
On top of all the reporting that this war of aggression was planned well in advance, it seems that the reporting also indicates that the US political leadership are quite literally too stupid to understand basic diplomacy. I mean literally not smart enough.
28.02.2026 23:27 — 👍 8187 🔁 2455 💬 232 📌 238
We obtained the first publicly released satellite image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound in Tehran, after it was struck by Israel/US. There are several destroyed buildings. Current whereabouts of Iran's supreme leader are unknown; compound used as his official residence. 🛰️📸: @airbus.com
28.02.2026 11:16 — 👍 303 🔁 153 💬 19 📌 18
“Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal. These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny—the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,” CA AG says.
Via @prospect.org
David Ellison "will readily throw the First Amendment, CNN's reporters and HBO's filmmakers under the bus if they stand in the way of expanding his corporate empire and fattening his pockets," FPF Seth Stern said.
Read more from @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social:
A federal judge is furious at the DOJ over withholding info on the raid on a Washington Post journalist’s home.
Plus, Florida plans to have its own spy quads to monitor views it doesn't like.
Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social highlight these stories and more, and subscribe: freedom.press/newsletters
New: As David Ellison prepares to take control of CNN, legendary CBS News producer Mary Walsh, who is exiting, sent a goodbye note to colleagues.
In the note, Walsh writes, "We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that."
I I hope our principled Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social can do something about it!
#FreeLeqaa
As relieved as I am by the news of Ellie Aghayeva’s release, I’m equally horrified by the lawlessness of that federal agency that continues to run rampant — detaining innocent students and migrants and upending their lives.
I hope Aghayeva uses her platform to demand #FreeLeqaa.
JUST IN: A federal judge says the Trump administration has been “terrorizing” refugees — violating the promise America made to them when they fled persecution at home — by locking them up illegally. He blocked the policy for those in MN storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
27.02.2026 22:35 — 👍 5730 🔁 1870 💬 47 📌 49
“It does not take a scholar of legal ethics to conclude that government lawyers should not be allowed to make up a violent and organized terrorist invasion of a major American city," @freedom.press' @seth-stern.bsky.social
He rightly calls the government claims "nonsense" and "fabricated hysteria"
@freedom.press Thursday filed an attorney disciplinary complaint against a DOJ lawyer ridiculous remarks to a federal judge in Chicago that ICE violations of protesters and journalists’ rights were justified by “a riot with violent terrorist organizations attempting to dox ICE" and their families.
27.02.2026 20:48 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
📩 Read in our weekly newsletter (and subscribe):
- When profit is paramount — and press freedom isn’t
- Order restricting Natanson search didn’t go far enough
- Government lawyers: Don’t make up terrorist attacks
- Learn how to FOIA from the pros
- Plus, get to know what we’re reading...
A little-read set of court docs from the FBI’s WaPo raid in Jan. show the risks journalists and sources face if devices are seized.
They also reveal key lessons on how small precautions can make a big, big difference.
Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social explain and subscribe: freedom.press/digisec
"Ellison has already shown his cards."
"Censorship is bad for business."
WBD exes, shareholders should recognize that selling companies that depend on 1A to censorial WH is not only morally wrong but harmful to their bottom line.
@seth-stern.bsky.social sends a moral warning that WBD should heed.
