Press Freedoms Under Pressure: Clinical Perspectives on the State of Press Freedoms in Texas in 2024

Authors

Peter B. Stefensen, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of LawFollow
Thomas S. Leatherbury, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of LawFollow

Abstract

Amid existential challenges to the press as an institution, public accountability journalists in Texas are navigating their own set of difficulties. For those who report on state and local entities, journalists are encountering increasingly constrained avenues for obtaining public information, a greater tendency for government bodies to prioritize image control over transparency, a higher likelihood of retaliation from public officials for performing important accountability work, and a judiciary that seems to respect the press less and less. By surveying journalists, and members of press and legal organizations who support accountability journalism, we use their accounts to evaluate these trends, to attempt to memorialize these challenges, and to assess what they mean for the state of press freedoms in Texas in 2024. We conclude that the current state of press freedoms in Texas, and the relationship between the press and the institutions they report on, can charitably be described as strained. From a clinical perspective, this gives us a benchmark to evaluate our progress moving forward, as we enter the First Amendment Clinic’s fifth year of operation and reflect on the first seventy-five years of the SMU Clinical Programs.

Recommended Citation

Peter B. Stefensen & Thomas S. Leatherbury, Press Freedoms Under Pressure: Clinical Perspectives on the State of Press Freedoms in Texas in 2024, 77 SMU L. Rev. 605 (2024)