NPC Press Freedom Panel: Reporting Under a Hostile President

In the heat of a presidential campaign, candidates make many promises – and threats. Some are serious, others have little chance of going anywhere. A panel of lawyers and journalists examined the potential impact the 2016 campaign’s rhetoric could have on the news media, including: access issues and policies of different administrations and campaigns; the historical and legal underpinnings of First Amendment protections against lawsuits brought by public officials and public figures; and the impact a changed Supreme Court could have on those protections. The panel includes:

• Chuck Tobin, partner, Holland & Knight LLP, moderator
• Kenneth Jost, author of Supreme Court Yearbook, and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center
• Anita Kumar, White House correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers
• Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times
• Katie Townsend, litigation director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press