Small-town newspapers across America are disappearing due to economic pressures from online media and corporate consolidation. In some cases, governments are actively working to undermine and destroy the remaining papers. These papers should be able to rely on the courts to protect them from government abuses, but all too often, the courts fail to do their job.
A recent incident in Marion, Kansas exemplifies this problem. On August 11th, the police in this small town brazenly raided the office of the weekly Marion County Record and the home of its publisher. They seized reporters’ computers, phones, and other materials. The police claimed that the raid was necessary for an ongoing investigation, but it was widely seen as an attempt to intimidate and silence the paper.
The publisher of the Marion County Record, Eric Meyer, stated that the paper had been digging into allegations of past misconduct by the town’s police chief. This may have contributed to the police’s aggressive actions. However, after facing widespread condemnation, the Marion County attorney issued a statement acknowledging that there was insufficient evidence to justify the raid.
These types of government raids on newspapers’ offices and publishers’ homes, where reporters’ materials are seized, are reminiscent of authoritarian regimes like Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Unfortunately, such incidents are not isolated, as the US Press Freedom Tracker documents numerous offenses against American journalists every year.
These abuses include not only searches and seizures but also arrests, physical assaults, intimidation, and denials of access to information. All of this places a heavy financial burden on newspapers already struggling to survive.
The decline of newspapers is a troubling trend. From 2004 to 2019, the United States lost a quarter of its papers, mostly small local papers like the Marion County Record. Without these local papers, vital stories may go unreported, and communities may remain uninformed about important issues.
The importance of local newspapers is precisely why American law provides strong protections for independent journalism. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, and the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 prohibits law enforcement from searching or seizing a journalist’s work product without substantial justification.
Unfortunately, the enforcement of these laws falls largely on the courts. While some judges diligently protect press freedoms, others fail to do so. This problem starts at the top, with the US Supreme Court showing ambivalence towards protecting journalists’ rights.
The court has not decided any significant press freedom cases in decades, and its lack of focus on this issue has given law enforcement and lower courts the impression that journalists can be targeted without consequence. This problem is particularly pronounced in smaller communities where there is less outside scrutiny.
Judges in various parts of the country have issued dubious rulings against journalists, allowing censorship, demanding disclosure of sources, and upholding questionable prosecutions. These actions intimidate journalists and undermine press freedom.
The Marion County Record intends to sue the police department over the raid, and other news organizations are standing behind them. However, the damage has been done, and legal recourse takes time and money. Many financially strained small-town newspapers will think twice before challenging local authorities, which further erodes press freedom.
Protecting local newspapers requires action at multiple levels. Nonprofits and donors should provide more support to organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which assist journalists under attack. State legislatures should strengthen legal protections for the press, and news organizations should advocate for judges to enforce these protections.
As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The only security of all is in a free press.” A healthy democracy depends on independent journalism that is shielded from government interference. An attack on press freedom in one community is an attack on democracy everywhere.
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