A new press pass aims to repair a broken faith landscape

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A new press credential aims to find a way for reporters to work freely in a more fragmented and hostile media landscape.

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) announced this week that they will provide press credentials to newsrooms in the INN network. Those include Mother Jones, Indoor climate news, ProPublicaAnd The Marshall Projectamong a total of 549 points of sale.

“For many traditional media organizations, press credentials have always been handed out, and because those organizations were so well-known, that kind of brand recognition gives those reporters and photojournalists a little bit of protection,” said Jonathan Kealing, head of the Institute of Nonprofit News. network officer, said.

“But as we see the media ecosystem being reinvented, many of these newer organizations may not be as well known to law enforcement, or, quite frankly, may not have the resources to hand out press passes.” The INN hopes that this initiative can bridge this gap. The press passes issued by the group include the Institute for Nonprofit News name and the names of the individual newsrooms, along with photographs of the journalists. The back of the card lists the hotline number for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which connects journalists with legal assistance.

The effort is a response to the steady rise of Police violence that journalists have faced in recent years, and to recommendations in a report released last month by the U.S. Department of Justice that outlines “best practices” for police-press interactions at protests. A recommendation was that journalists carry press credentials.

Kealing acknowledges that even with a press pass, journalists still experience obstacles and attacks from the police. There are examples of journalists receiving their press passes taken taken away by the police. Many journalists, especially independent journalists and freelancers, have fought or are still facing unlawful charges against them, such as trespassing or unlawfully congregating while on the job. wear press passes. “The report is careful to say that there is nothing inherent in the media that means journalists are given special rights, but it does recognize that the media has a specific job to perform, and that this is a constitutionally protected job,” Kealing said.

The RCFP, which provides pro bono legal assistance to journalists, will also train law enforcement officers on how to recognize and work with members of the media. They hope they can help police officers become comfortable with smaller nonprofit newsrooms. “It will help in thinking about this new breed of news organizations,” Kealing said. “These types of standardized credentials are an indication that these organizations are serious journalists practicing serious journalism.”

Feven Merid is CJR’s staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow.