Committee to Protect Journalists

04/30/2025

The first 100 days of the Trump administration have been marked by a flurry of executive actions that have created a chilling effect and have the potential to curtail media freedoms. These measures threaten the availability of independent, fact-based news for vast swaths of America’s population.

CPJ has noted a significant increase in the number of newsrooms seeking safety advice, concerned that the changing national political environment could threaten their ability to report without fear of retribution from authorities.

This report provides a snapshot of the Trump administration’s policies that directly affect press freedom. The fate of American democracy and journalists’ ability to work without fear are intertwined. The blitz of policy changes from the White House and its appointees set a concerning tone for local governments domestically, and authoritarian-minded rulers globally, and has deepend a climate of hostility toward journalists.

The threat to freedom of the press is occurring in a larger context in which First Amendment rights, more broadly, are being eroded. The administration’s sweeping moves to arrest and attempt to expel at least one green card holder and at least one foreign national on a student visa who both advocated for Palestinian rights have put the right to dissent at stake. The gutting of information from myriad federal websites has risked the public’s ability to access pluralistic historical narratives. On the legal front, a constitutional crisis looms as the administration appears reluctant to adhere to certain court orders countering its acts.

A robust and independent press can cover these issues and hold the powerful to account. A weakened press will struggle to tell the story of America to its people.

Since 2013, CPJ has published reports that critically assess Democratic and Republican administrations’ relationships with the media. While CPJ typically waits a year or longer to evaluate the impact of an administration on press freedom, the organization is publishing this special report as a sign of alarm about the myriad actions and statements in a very short time that have been detrimental to the media environment.

This special report identifies three ways in which the Trump administration is chipping away at U.S. press freedom: by limiting access to information, instituting new regulations, and targeting journalists and newsrooms with lawsuits and investigations. It then spells out the impacts – current and potential – of these trends for the national, state, and local press. This report also explains how newsrooms are responding, and what CPJ and other press freedom groups are doing to uphold journalist rights in a precarious environment. Finally, it contains recommendations to the Trump administration, to Congress, and to newsrooms on ways to improve press freedom.