{"id":14403,"date":"2023-11-14T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=14403"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:08:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:08:39","slug":"news-take-free-press-focus-preventing-another-capital-gazette-shooting-why-we-need-the-journalist-protection-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/news-take-free-press-focus-preventing-another-capital-gazette-shooting-why-we-need-the-journalist-protection-act\/","title":{"rendered":"News Take: Free Press Focus: Preventing Another Capital Gazette Shooting: Why We Need The Journalist Protection Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“His sixth life term was for my attempted murder. … I wish every day we could go back to June 27th and have it be like it was with my coworkers and me working in our newsroom and just try to tell the stories from our community. … That’s what keeps me going is trying to honor my colleagues. I struggle every day with PTSD and depression and anxiety … It’s something that I don’t think will ever go away.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Paul Gillespie, <\/em>Capital Gazette<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this backstop of federal protection in the event that local authorities decline to act whenever a journalist is attacked \u2026 it will send a strong message to the American people that violence against anyone, particularly journalists, seeking and reporting the truth on behalf of the public, will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Dan Shelley, RTDNA<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Guests: Paul Gillespie, Capital Gazette<\/em> and Dan Shelley, RTDNA<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this first episode of News Take: Free Press Focus, a subseries of the News Take podcast, we hear from RTDNA CEO Dan Shelley and Capital Gazette<\/em> Photojournalist Paul Gillespie about the dangers that journalists face on the job and what can be done to combat the threat of violence. Gillespie is one of six survivors of the 2018 shooting at the Capital Gazette<\/em> in Maryland and speaks on his experience and the importance of shielding journalists from harm. Dan Shelley speaks to RTDNA\u2019s major priority in passing the Journalist Protection Act, a law that would make assaulting a journalist a federal crime. With extensive experience in the media industry, both Gillespie and Shelley illustrate the significance of journalists as a whole and what we, as a community, can do to support them.<\/p>\n

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:<\/h4>\n

Don\u2019t forget to subscribe<\/span> to the News Take podcast<\/strong> by clicking \u201cFollow\u201d and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or\u00a0click on your preferred platform: <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple<\/a>, and\u00a0<\/strong>YouTube Music<\/a>.<\/p>\n