Skip to content

Press Freedom

UK Court Orders Police Return Devices To Journalist Asa Winstanley

A British court has ruled that UK police must hand back electronic devices seized from The Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley in October 2024, in what lawyers have described as a “resounding victory for press freedom.” All seven seized items were handed back on Tuesday, Winstanley confirmed in a statement. The recorder of London, Mark Lucraft, London’s highest circuit judge, on 13 May ruled that a search warrant used by London’s Metropolitan Police to seize seven items from Winstanley’s home was unlawfully issued. “I am very troubled by the way in which the search warrant was drafted, approved and granted where items were to be seized from a journalist,” Judge Lucraft wrote in his ruling.

EU Sanctions Red. Media For Covering Crackdown On Palestine Protests

The EU Council’s latest sanctions, intended to deter Russia’s war with Ukraine, include red. media founder Hüseyin Doğru, and AFA Medya (which operates red.), citing their coverage of Germany’s pro-Palestine protests which the council claims “supports” Russia. Since the EU began rolling out one sanctions package after another in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the targeting of Doğru marks the first time the EU has used this weapon in the service of Germany’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity, a crackdown which has been condemned by UN officials and human rights groups.

Indiana State Officials Sued For Blocking Media Access To Executions

The state of Indiana has a law that blocks journalists from observing executions at the Indiana State Prison. But on May 5, a coalition of media organizations filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law as unconstitutional. In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) sued Indiana state prison officials on behalf of the Associated Press, Gannett, the Indiana Capital Chronicle, TEGNA, and WISH-TV. “Indiana’s total prohibition on access for the press to attend and witness executions is an outlier among death penalty states and the federal government and severely limits the ability of reporters and news organizations, including Plaintiffs, to exercise their First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit declares.

Chris Hedges Report: The West Serves As Israel’s Police

Richard Barnard, Sarah Wilkinson, Asa Winstanley and Richard Medhurst. These are some of the canaries in the coal mine for what is to come in the West as the region’s elite quickly becomes Israel’s international police. Medhurst joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to talk about his own experiences in the United Kingdom and Austria, where federal agents and police arrested him and searched his home under draconian counterterrorism laws. “I was just trying to tell the truth as best as I could with the facts that we had at that time and that’s it. And I think they’re trying to make an example out of me, definitely,” Medhurst tells Hedges.

Trump DOJ Adopts Policy Permitting Journalist Arrests

United States Attorney General Pam Bondi ended a Justice Department (DOJ) policy that explicitly discouraged federal prosecutors from forcing journalists to reveal their sources and other sensitive information, including information obtained from potential leaks. With new guidelines, members of the news media who refuse to cooperate with prosecutors could be arrested for contempt. If accused of contempt, they could be fined or jailed. The move by Bondi comes as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has “referred” three alleged “intelligence leakers” to the DOJ for criminal prosecution.

This Is An All-Out War On The First Amendment

There are reasons that the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, is an opaque entity for many people. The fact that there is a federal agency setting the terms for media companies’ operations conflicts with many Americans’ understanding of the press corps as a group of brave, independent individuals looking to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. There are, in fact, many community-supported, differently structured news outlets doing just that. But, listeners know, the big major papers and stations and channels we may look to for news are owned and sponsored by big profit-driven corporations that share the status quo–supporting interests of other big profit-driven corporations.

The Global Community Must Demand Justice For Palestinian Journalists

In the deadliest year for journalists in recorded history, nearly two-thirds of the total deaths were Palestinians killed by Israel.  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports 85 journalists were killed by Israel in 2024, and 78 in 2023. The group previously reported Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as the “most dangerous situation for journalists” ever recorded. The international community – from newsrooms to academic institutions to government bodies and beyond – must heed the call of Palestinians demanding justice and accountability for Israel’s human rights violations against journalists and for the protection of media workers in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Free Yves Engler

On February 20, long-time Canadian Dimension columnist and contributor Yves Engler was arrested by Montréal police at the behest of pro-Israel media personality Dahlia Kurtz. In today’s Canada, offending Zionist influencers is apparently enough to land you behind bars. Canadians involved in progressive politics, from the left-wing of the NDP and Greens to the Communist Party, read Engler’s work and admire his commitment to social struggle. For decades, he has organized in support of just causes, from helping stop war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at Concordia University in 2002, to tirelessly confronting Canadian politicians about their complicity in the genocide in Gaza, to penning a vast catalogue of work that shatters complacent illusions about Canada’s benevolence and reveals the often cynical, profit-driven, anti-democratic heart of Ottawa’s foreign policy.

Yves Engler: ‘I’m Being Charged For Responding To Anti-Palestinian Hate’

Tomorrow, the Montreal police will arrest me for posting to social media against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Today, I received a phone call from a Montreal police officer by the last name of Crivello. She asked me to come to a downtown police station where I will be charged for harassment and indecent communication. Crivello said a complaint was submitted against me months ago by a legal firm on behalf of racist media personality Dahlia Kurtz. Crivello said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter. Guilty as charged.

Swiss Official Who Jailed Journalist Ali Abunimah Is Pro-Israel Fanatic

The Swiss official who ordered the arrest of renowned Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah justified doing so on the false and defamatory basis that Abunimah is “an Islamist Jew-hater.” Mario Fehr, the head of Zurich’s Department of Security, made the bogus accusation in a recent comment to the Swiss publication NZZ, which also falsely characterized Abunimah as an “Islamist” and an “extremist.” Swiss authorities detained Abunimah on Jan. 25, after they initially allowed him entry into Switzerland following an hour-long interrogation.

Austrian Police Detain Richard Medhurst; Accuse Him Of Being Hamas

British independent journalist Richard Medhurst said Thursday he was detained this week by Austrian police and intelligence agents and accused of being a member of Hamas. Medhurst, who lives in Austria and is a fierce critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said police raided his home on Monday, took his devices and interrogated him. “They essentially lured me into a trap,” he said on a video posted on X. The journalist said immigration authorities called him to a meeting where they threatened to revoke his residency because of his reporting on Palestine and Lebanon.

Switzerland Deports Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah

The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah was deported by Switzerland on Monday after spending two nights in jail. Abunimah described his experience in a statement he made upon arrival to Istanbul airport late Monday. He said that he was “cut off from communication with the outside world” and “not even permitted to contact my family.” He said that police accused him of “offending against Swiss law” but was not presented with any charges. Abunimah added that he was questioned “by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family.”

Switzerland: Another Journalist Arrested For Wrongthink About Israel

They’ve arrested another pro-Palestinian journalist, this time in Switzerland. The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah has reportedly been detained by Swiss police in Zurich, after having been interrogated for an hour and released the previous day when entering the country. Abunimah, who is Palestinian-American, has played a leading role in exposing and critiquing the apartheid abuses of Israel for many years. In October of last year, Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley saw his home raided by British “counterterrorism” police in response to his social media posts about Israel’s western-backed abuses in the middle east.

Biden’s Legacy: The World Is More Unsafe For Journalists

President Joe Biden’s administration proclaimed numerous times that “journalism is not a crime” and that the United States government supports “free and independent media around the world.” Biden said the “free press is crumbling” in his farewell address. But the reality is that Biden and his administration helped make the state of the free press more fragile. Over 200 journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli military forces armed by the Biden administration. Other client states, like India and Saudi Arabia, trampled on the human rights of reporters without fearing much criticism.

Journalists Thrown Out Of Antony Blinken’s Final Briefing

Two journalists were removed from Secretary of State Antony Blinken's final news conference on Thursday after interrupting Blinken's remarks to heckle him about the United States' policy toward Gaza, a day after a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel was announced. One of the reporters, independent journalist Sam Husseini, was physically carried out of the briefing room by security. Less than two minutes into Blinken's remarks, as he was thanking the reporters in the attendance for "asking tough questions," Max Blumenthal, the editor in chief of The Grayzone—an independent news—addressed Blinken, saying loudly in reference to the cease-fire deal:"300 reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs.
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.