(Washington, DC) — Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday prohibited prosecutors from seizing journalists’ records in leak investigations with some exceptions, a reversal of past policy. PEN America’s Washington director, Nadine Farid Johnson, said the following:
“We welcome this critical step towards greater protections for journalists and press freedom in the U.S. At a moment when journalists are under increasing and varied threats, this policy change sends an important message and helps mend some of the damage done by the previous administration’s hostility towards journalists and disregard for the essential role of freedom of the press in a democracy.”
Earlier this year, PEN America urged the Biden-Harris administration to undo the attacks the Trump White House waged on reporters.