EVENT: 'Independent Media & the New McCarthyism'

At 2 pm ET/11 am PT on August 27, Dissenter editor Kevin Gosztola will moderate a panel on the latest attacks on independent journalism.

The panel is organized by Defending Rights and Dissent and will feature Chip Gibbons, the policy director for Defending Right and Dissent, Jenin Younes, an attorney representing Grayzone reporter and editor Max Blumenthal in his border stop case, and Seth Stern, the advocacy director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Go to YouTube, click the "Notify Me" button, and watch the discussion when the panel goes live.

According to Defending Rights and Dissent, "[J]ournalists who don't toe the official line are in the government's crosshairs," as President Donald Trump's administration more broadly ramps up its McCarthyism against dissent.

"As is often the case in authoritarian repression of the press, independent and alternative media are the first to be attacked," Defending Rights and Dissent adds. "The Trump administration has stopped journalists at the border and seized their phones, raided reporters’ homes in search of their sources’ information, and smeared political commentators as potential ‘extremists’ using guilt-by-association."

This discussion will challenge the intensifying crackdown on journalists and emphasize the need to stand up for press freedom for everyone engaged in reporting and news gathering.