CPJ endorses updated reporter privacy protection bill against unreasonable government searches and seizures

The Committee to Protect Journalists has endorsed an updated reporter privacy protection bill that would strengthen and modernize journalist protections against unreasonable government searches and seizures in connection with their reporting.

Introduced in the U.S. Congress by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Becca Balint on March 27 as S.4268 and H.R. 8093, the Privacy Protection Updates Act would reform the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PPA), which safeguards against searches of reporting material in most circumstances. The new bill will address significant loopholes to ensure the government will disclose the PPA in warrant applications, courts will review any emergency seizures within 48 hours, materials that are illegally searched or seized can be suppressed, and protections will apply to materials in the cloud.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department ignored the PPA when the FBI raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson and seized her devices in January. The DOJ said it acted at the Pentagon’s request in relation to a leak investigation. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia criticized government lawyers for omitting any reference to the PPA in the search warrant application and ordered that the court review the seized materials independently. The DOJ has appealed, and the case is ongoing.

The Privacy Protection Updates Act is also endorsed by Demand Progress, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Protect the 1st Foundation.

Read the sponsors’ press release here.