“Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.” So said, The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais in a joint letter on November 28, calling on the US Department of Justice to drop the charges and stop the extradition of Julian […]
Cincinnati Police Attempt to Silence Freelance Journalist
A Cincinnati police officer is suing four defendants for libel. One is NWU member Julie Niesen. They are being sued for calling out Officer Ryan Olthaus on social media for flashing the OK sign at a black woman attending a City Council hearing during the BLM protests. That hand-sign has been adopted by the white supremacist […]
Journalists Are Not Police Informants!
On July 24, a Seattle judge ruled that journalists from The Seattle Times and four cable news outlets must turn over previously unreleased photos and videos to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). The police are demanding 90 minutes’ worth of material gathered from a protest on May 30, following the racist police murders of George […]
Police “Confiscate a Newsroom” to Try to Reveal a Confidential Source
On Friday, May 10, ten San Francisco police officers and two FBI agents raided the home of freelance journalist and videographer Bryan Carmody. They showed up with sledge hammers and battering rams with guns drawn, and a search warrant looking for “stolen or embezzled” property. In reality, they were not so much looking for a […]
NWU to Partner with VLA NY
NWU is partnering with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts NY. This is a new member benefit that our members will have access to in navigating the difficult world of building a freelance writing career. NWU became a non-profit institutional member of VLA and the first fruit of this new relationship is that VLA will represent […]
RIP Sister Ursula K. Le Guin
It is with great sorrow and the deepest respect that we bid farewell to Sister Ursula K. Le Guin, a ground-breaking author, radical, feminist and revolutionary as well as a literary giant. What’s more, she was one of us, a member of NWU. She was the author of more than 20 novels, a dozen books […]
Statement in Support of Freedom of the Press
NWU is proud to stand with more than 90 allied organizations in issuing this Statement in Support of Freedom of the Press. “In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the […]
Preparing for Trump’s Attacks on the Press
NWU is working more closely with other writers’ groups to develop a strategy to combat the Trump Administration’s hostility towards a free press and the public’s right to know. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s opening press briefing, where he attacked the media and took no questions, and Kellyanne Conway’s theory of “Alternative Facts” are […]