From “satisfactory” to “problematic”: How Congress crushed free speech in 2024

A 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that a remarkable 73 percent of adult Americans believe a free press is either extremely or very important to the well-being of society—though only a third of those polled believe that US media are completely free to report news. Citing reports by the Associated Press and the Columbia Journalism Review, the Pew Research Center noted that “recent high-profile incidents such as a police raid on a Kansas newsroom and a government seizure of a Florida journalist’s materials have raised questions about press freedom in the U.S.” Pew reported its findings in anticipation of World Press Freedom Day and before Reporters Without Borders published the 2024 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index. The United States ranked fifty-fifth among 180 nations for press freedoms in 2024, according to RSF, which defines press freedom as “the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.” RSF found press freedom is “problematic” in the United States, which earned a score of 66.59 out of a 100, a decline of nearly five points, compared to 2023 when the United States ranked forty-fifth in the world based on “satisfactory” levels of press freedom. Noting that the United States was “once considered a model for freedom of expression,” RSF reported that in 2024, “major structural barriers to press freedom persist,” including, for instance, highly concentrated media ownership that appears “to prioritize profits over public interest journalism,” declines in both local news and public trust in media, and the enactment of state and local laws that limit journalists’ access to public spaces. Echoing the xenophobia that fueled anti-terrorism legislation after 9/11, in April 2024, the House of Representatives took aim at non-profits, passing—by a vote of 382–11—legislation that would authorize the secretary of the treasury to unilaterally remove the tax-exempt status of any 5013 nonprofit determined to be a “terrorist supporting organization.” The legislation prompted the Charity & Security Network, a resource and advocacy center for nonprofit organizations that work in conflict zones, to warn policymakers of “the parade of horribles that could cascade from this broad legislation that uses the targeting of charities as a vehicle for larger political motives.” Although numerous anti-terrorism laws already restrict nonprofits—like other organizations—from providing funding to foreign terrorist organizations, making the proposed legislation “redundant and unnecessary,” according to the Charity & Security Network, the Senate quickly introduced a companion measure, S. 4136, after the House voted its approval.