Protecting journalists and FOIA
 ONA joined two actions with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press critical to media protections. The first objects in the strongest terms to St. Louis County’s recent decision to pursue criminal charges against a number of journalists arrested or detained last summer during the protests in Ferguson, Mo. “The best way for Ferguson to show that it will respect the First Amendment rights of journalists covering the continuing controversy there,” the letter stated, “is to rescind these charges immediately.”
ONA also joined an RFCP brief regarding Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)‘s appeal of a district court decision that held that emails sent or received by a government employee using his or her personal email account are not covered by FOIA, even if those emails relate to the person’s official duties. Given the widespread use of personal email accounts at all levels of government, we believe the decision as stands would eviscerate FOIA. Learn more about ONA’s legal work.
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ONA Weekly No. 72
IJNet’s journalism safety toolkit will help you protect yourself in tough environments — be it physical safety or digital security. Many of the resources are translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. IJNet has also included a list of helpful handbooks and guides from other organizations.
If you’ve been waiting to register for ONA15, now’s the time! We are very close to selling out (which we’ve done for the past eight years, so don’t sleep on this). Your conference pass will get you access to three days of inspiring journalism sessions, workshops, networking and a few outside parties and events that you don’t want to miss.