1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

I am writing today to urge my elected officials to respect freedom of the press, and to ask you to call on the Harris administration to do the same. The recent arrest (https://www.commondreams.org/news/richard-medhurst) of Richard Medhurst at Heathrow Airport in London under the Terrorism Act highlights the growing repression of journalists covering Palestine. Freedom of press is one of the founding principles of our democracy in the United States. Yet the Biden/Harris administration has ignored calls such as those made by five Senators in a letter to Biden (https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-welch-van-hollen-kaine-booker-call-on-biden-to-urge-israeli-egyptian-governments-to-allow-journalists-into-gaza-protect-free-press) in December and by Human Rights watch (https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/10/letter-president-joe-biden-re-protecting-journalists-and-press-freedom-israel-gaza) in January, just before Israel was added to the list (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/18/journalists-jailed-imprisoned-israel) of worst jailers of journalists on January 18th. At that time, the number of journalists jailed by Israel rivaled Iran. But instead of heeding those calls, just last week, three journalists (https://www.voanews.com/a/journalists-arrested-covering-dnc-protests-prompting-press-freedom-concerns-/7754527.html) were arrested at the DNC in Chicago while doing their jobs documenting a pro-Palestine protest. Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy, yet these incidents reveal a concerning disregard for this principle. Please demand that the Biden administration take a stronger stand against such abuses and reconsider support for countries that violate press freedoms. I look forward to seeing you take action towards justice on this issue.