🔵 The Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 is out! We analysed 182 countries to see how they scored in the fight against corruption. Check out your country’s score! ⬇️ #CPI2025

The immigration case against Rümyesa Öztürk is over, and rightfully so. Writing an op-ed is protected speech, not a deportable offense. Now, the administration must be held accountable for abusing the immigration system to punish expression.

@freedom.press filed an attorney disciplinary complaint against Gordon Kromberg — the federal prosecutor who signed search warrant targeting WaPo reporter — for violating “an ethical rule that requires lawyers to reveal relevant legal authority to the court, even if it undermines their arguments.”

The Onion’s front page, everyone.

On the one hand, Marco Rubio never should have been acting archivist of the United States. On the other hand, his replacement will probably be no better. Read this story and more in our latest secrecy newsletter, The Classifieds, (and subscribe):

The havoc ICE is wreaking on the First Amendment simply cannot stand in our democracy. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social recount the numerous gruesome attacks on reporters in Minnesota. It goes way beyond the arrest of Don Lemon.

In MN, a legal observer — who was identified by a federal agent using facial-recognition technology — was stopped in her car and threatened with arrest if she continued following agents. The agent falsely claimed she was “interfering” with their job. A few days later, her global entry was revoked.

+972 & The Guardian report that Sameer Zeidan, a longtime US resident w/ 5 US-citizen children, a US-citizen wife, was deported along w/ 7 other Palestinians after he failed to renew his green card, despite living in the S for over 2 decades. 📌 Here’s what +972 write: — Sameer Zeidan, a 47-year-...

Judge rebukes ICE’s use of force against journalists; “Democracy Dies in Downsizing." Watch @freedom.press's @trevortimm.bsky.social spotlight this week’s top press freedom news, and subscribe: freedom.press/newsletters

👀 Apparently, Ross Douthat invited Seth Harp to debate him on Douthat's "Interesting Times" NYT podcast. Harp says that the episode was recorded, Douthat got crushed, and RD/NYT decided not to publish it. What? x.com/sethharpesq/...

🔔 At the top of the hour: Immigration enforcement reporting can be dangerous. Learn how lessons from one community can apply elsewhere with journalists @eltragon.bsky.social, @franciagarciah.bsky.social, @nigrotime.bsky.social, and @kevinhfoster.bsky.social. 🔗 freedom.press/covering-immigration

If you feel it's time to support journalism not owned by a billionaire, but rather by the workers themselves, subscribe here now: hellgatenyc.com/membership/

Records from Donald Trump’s first term are now subject to release under FOIA. @freedom.press has already filed over two dozen requests targeting critical transparency gaps. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social explain why this is important, and how you can file FOIAs for Trump’s first term yourself.

“Whether by lawsuit or intimidation, the administration has been eroding press freedom and independence, and by acquiescence, some in the media have encouraged their own surrender,” Harold Holzer, author of “The Presidents vs. the Press,” tells @rcfp.org.

A billionaire's rationale: - Pay a bribe of $75 million to acquire one of the worst documentaries of all-time and curry favor with a megalomaniac autocrat ✅ - Invest to maintain the legacy of one of the world's most important newspapers (that also accounts for 0.1% of his wealth) ❌

These quotes just make me sad and angry at the same time: "The feeling in the newsroom is that the way they’ve handled this is like some kind of sick psychological warfare." Links to media reporting on the layoffs have been “passed around like samizdat" It felt like “a guillotine over our heads.

“The newspaper's finances are barely a rounding error compared to Bezos's wealth, but what its journalists do—accountability journalism about the rich and powerful—does not serve someone who is rich and powerful,” @jasonkoebler.bsky.social writes in @404media.co.

#SaveThePost: You can also help support laid-off journalists by contributing to the Washington Post 2026 layoff fund:

❗Marco Rubio is out at the National Archives. The race to fill his shoes continues. The front runner, a sentient trash can.

Thanks for the flag, @wyden.senate.gov. @freedom.press will make a request for a copy of this letter (and any CIA response) our 38th FOIA this year. Keep the tips coming!

Uncalled for, beyond disgusting, sick, cruel and racist, all at the same time.

🚨 If you’re an iPhone user who is at elevated risk, enable Lockdown Mode to maximize device security settings. If you are an Android user, enable Advanced Protection. And note this may have a small impact on your use of the device. ➕ Want specifics? Reach out to us for training!

DHS Secretary says filming ICE is illegal and amounts to doxxing. They’re absolutely wrong. Recording law enforcement in public spaces is protected by the First Amendment — and courts have affirmed that right time and again. Watch @freedom.press’s @trevortimm.bsky.social explain.

New from 404 Media: the FBI has been unable to get into the iPhone of raided Washington Post journalist because the phone had Lockdown Mode enabled. Apple markets Lockdown Mode mostly to stop spyware like NSO. Here, a real world example of it stopping access too www.404media.co/fbi-couldnt-...

The amount of BS that this admin. can claim or present in any form, including to courts, might be unprecedented in the history of BS. "The judge’s compromise validated the notion that immigration agents operate under extreme risk, justifying extraordinary protective measures by our legal system."

As with its baseless claims about Pretti, the govt "presented no evidence supporting its proclamations that Martinez, a union carpenter, was a higher-up in the Latin Kings gang with the ability or intent to put out hits on Bovino" or other agents, @seth-stern.bsky.social writes in @theintercept.com.

More people than ever are using @signal.org to exchange information in large groups. But as groups grow, so does the risk to your messages’ privacy. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to use Signal groups more safely. Our security team shows you how.

Here’s the Company That Sold DHS ICE’s Notorious Face Recognition App: Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens. www.wired.com/story/mobile...

In Minnesota, we’re seeing the Trump admin. "testing the waters, especially with independent journalists, because they’re perceived as easier prey ... They are seen as easier to target because there’s not a big legal defense to instantly swing into action and have a big budget to support them"

The Trump admin didn't tell the judge about the law that bars searches on newsrooms and homes of reporters before the raid of the Washington Post journalist. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

🔔 LIVE NOW: Join us for an urgent national town hall on press freedom featuring FPF's @trevortimm.bsky.social, and other leading voices across journalism and civil rights, hosted by NABJ in partnership with Black Star Network. 🔗 www.youtube.com/live/OpqX0Gf...

With John Adams, "the idea that you couldn’t make fun of the president has that same kind of megalomania and insecurity that we sometimes attach to President Trump. Adams was both egotistical and insecure," Harold Holzer, author of “The Presidents vs. the Press," tells @rcfp.org.

high quality redactions from DOJ ht @tker.co

On this development, Jem Bartholomew writes in @columjournreview.bsky.social this morning: "At the time of writing, I couldn’t find a single story on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Washington Post websites referencing this development; in the UK, The Guardian put it on the front page."

Israeli Military Accepts Gaza Health Ministry Death Toll of Over 71,000 Palestinians Killed During the War: Although many international experts have accepted the data as reliable, and even conservative relative to the true death toll, Israel had refused to accept the count until now.

The charges against Lemon and Fort “could be viewed as red meat for MAGA’s ever-hungry content creators.” @columjournreview.bsky.social

New: privacy-focused telecom Cape has introduced what it calls "disappearing call logs." Rather than keeping data on who you called and when for months or years, Cape says it deletes those records after 24 hours. www.404media.co/privacy-tele...

ICE watchers with cell phones are just as vital to accountability journalism as old-school whistleblowers. Shooting, killing and otherwise targeting them is an attack on press freedom and transparency.

The front page of tomorrow's Minnesota Star Tribune: Feb. 1, 2026

Utterly pathetic and historically unprecedented.

In his characteristically sharp, observational style, my @freedom.press colleague @seth-stern.bsky.social analyzes the “symbiotic” relationship between cellphone videographers and journalists, including videographers providing "crucial source material for reporters who can’t be everywhere at once."

3 MN reporters stress how crucial citizen journalism, mobile footage are for their work "Our public service journalism would not be able to perform the same type of video analyses of the Renée Good and Alex Pretti shootings without the bystanders being willing to record and then upload ... videos."

The charges against @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social “are absolutely frivolous,” FPF’s Seth Stern tells CNN’s Victor Blackwell. Trump’s point “is not to win. The point is to intimidate and chill lawful newsgathering.”

👂 Can I share a personal note? I’ve worked in press freedom for nearly a decade, at two of the leading organizations in the field. For years, staying in the office until late meant helping coordinate emergency campaigns to free journalists jailed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, or other places.

🔴 Three things you should know about the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort (hint: this never ends well for the government). 1. They were just doing their job. 2. The government keeps losing these cases. 3. We must call out attacks on journalists of color. Watch @adamrose.bsky.social explain:

From taunting journalists as “fake news” to now outright arresting them, the charges against Don Lemon signal that Donald Trump’s attacks on the press have reached a chilling new extreme. More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...

A reminder: Rümeysa Öztürk has now been facing deportation for 311 days for co-writing an op-ed the government didn’t like, and journalist Ya’akub Vijandre remains locked up by ICE over social media posts about issues he reported on. Read our newsletter (and subscribe) ⤵️

LATEST: Don Lemon released by a federal judge after he was charged by the Trump administration with violating the freedom of religion of worshippers at a Minnesota church where he was covering a protest earlier this month.

🔴 The arrest of Don Lemon is blatant censorship. And he is not the only one: Thursday’s arrests of Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort demonstrate the administration’s lawless crusade against routine journalism Read FPF's @seth-stern.bsky.social's op-ed in the @us.theguardian.com.