Mississippi Opens the Playbook for Dismantling a Free Press

[Loulit01]

Opinion​

Slow-moving lawsuits intended to drain newsrooms of their limited financial resources and editorial bandwidth. Threats of jail time for journalists who expose political corruption and refuse to give up their sources and turn over their notes. Judges with close ties to the politicians who have attacked reporters and their coverage.
It is not difficult to see how the lawsuit against us could become part of a broader effort to dismantle press freedoms for journalists across the nation. If journalist freedoms are stripped from us in Mississippi or elsewhere, the corruption and wrongdoing from our government leaders could go more easily unseen. Every citizen — not just the journalists — would be harmed.

While we hope our case doesn’t go this far [SCOTUS], we could be on the front end of yet another instance that proves you don’t have to live in Mississippi to be profoundly affected by our government’s and our courts’ stances on constitutional rights.

No pay wall.

Opinion | Mississippi Opens the Playbook for Dismantling a Free Press (Published 2024)

A politician’s defamation case against a small Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization is designed to drain its financial resources.

www.nytimes.com

Another day I can't believe I'm living in the United States.

 

[SenorXm/Sirius]

Mississippi is ranked 50th in everything for a reason..And they want to stay 50th..

 

[Pyrite]

By Adam Ganucheau --- Mr. Ganucheau is the editor in chief of the nonprofit news organization Mississippi Today, based in Jackson, Miss.


Slow-moving lawsuits intended to drain newsrooms of their limited financial resources and editorial bandwidth. Threats of jail time for journalists who expose political corruption and refuse to give up their sources and turn over their notes. Judges with close ties to the politicians who have attacked reporters and their coverage.

If you think these things sound outlandish in America, take a close look at what’s happening here in Mississippi. All these possibilities are the subject of very serious conversations I’m having this week with my colleagues as the editor in chief of Mississippi Today, a nonprofit newsroom that covers the state’s politics.

A former governor of our state — a central subject of our Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporting — filed a motion on Tuesday asking a judge to find our newsroom in contempt of court because we refused to turn over our notes and sources to him. Breaching the confidentiality of sources violates one of the most sacred trusts — and breaks one of the most vital tools — in investigative journalism. No serious news organization would agree to this demand....

 

[Pyrite]

Phil Bryant is the former Mississippi Governor. During his last year in office, the misuse of tens of millions of TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program] dollars became public. Bryant has not been charged. Nor is he being sued (to recover funds).

But

Mississippi ex-governor releases texts in welfare scandal

Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has released his text email messages related to a welfare fraud investigation, including money spent for a university volleyball arena. Republican Bryant said Thursday that he told the state auditor about possible misspending. The auditor says from 2016 to...

apnews.com

May 4, 2023

...Attorneys for some of the defendants in the civil suit have filed court papers that include text-message exchanges between Bryant, Favre and others about spending welfare money on the volleyball arena.

In November, Bryant’s attorney cited executive privilege in seeking to block a subpoena that sought more information from the former governor. In March, three news organizations — the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, the Mississippi Free Press and Mississippi Today — filed papers opposing Bryant’s effort to seal any information he would provide to the court....

 

[Hamish Howl]

Opinion​

Slow-moving lawsuits intended to drain newsrooms of their limited financial resources and editorial bandwidth. Threats of jail time for journalists who expose political corruption and refuse to give up their sources and turn over their notes. Judges with close ties to the politicians who have attacked reporters and their coverage.
It is not difficult to see how the lawsuit against us could become part of a broader effort to dismantle press freedoms for journalists across the nation. If journalist freedoms are stripped from us in Mississippi or elsewhere, the corruption and wrongdoing from our government leaders could go more easily unseen. Every citizen — not just the journalists — would be harmed.

While we hope our case doesn’t go this far [SCOTUS], we could be on the front end of yet another instance that proves you don’t have to live in Mississippi to be profoundly affected by our government’s and our courts’ stances on constitutional rights.

No pay wall.

Opinion | Mississippi Opens the Playbook for Dismantling a Free Press (Published 2024)

A politician’s defamation case against a small Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization is designed to drain its financial resources.

www.nytimes.com

Another day I can't believe I'm living in the United States.

The current SCOTUS would approve of this.

 

[multivita-man]

Mississippi is ranked 50th in everything for a reason..And they want to stay 50th..

Its legacy as a cotton plantation state. Rich planters paranoid first about slave revolts and worried that poor whites would turn on them, too, so they gave whites jobs and status controlling blacks on the plantations, which continued in an albeit different form post-slavery.

This is a Mississippi cotton gin in 1890, the same year the state passed a highly regressive Jim Crow-era constitution...which is still on the books.

Shorpy Historical Picture Archive :: Mississippi Gin: 1890 high-resolution photo

Vintage photographs available as fine-art prints or digital stock images

www.shorpy.com