From the SPJ International Community: Call to Action on Journalist Visa

• Visa rule changes and how they affect journalists in US

• Update on VOA restoration

• Press Freedom News Reports from Around the World

• SPJ National Conference program line up

As we noted last week, the Trump Administration is moving ahead with its plan to limit how long foreign journalists and students can stay in the United States. Under the announced rules, journalists will have to renew their I visa every 240 days. Student visas will be limited to a four-year validity period.

During the comment period for the rule change last year more than 22,000 people and organizations submitted comments, of which the vast majority were in opposition to the changes.

Last week the Foreign Press Association and the SPJ International Community hosted an online session to discuss the ramifications of the proposed changes. Olivia McLaren, a New York-qualified lawyer and a partner at Weightmans LLP, based in Scotland walked the audience through what the changes could mean for non-American journalists working in the States.

Ian Williams, President of the FPA, and Dan Kubiske, Chair of the SPJ International Community, both said the only way to stop the changes from taking effect is to have Congress act by September 15. The two proposed a meeting of journalism groups, student rights organizations and others who might be affected by the visa rule changes to see if some unified action might be possible to get Congress to act.

The meeting will be held on Zoom, Thursday, July 30 at 10 am ET. All are welcome. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass on the link for the meeting.

Click HERE to sign up for the session.

If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass on the link for the meeting.

We missed this item from earlier this week.

The plaintiffs who have sued the Trump Administration to force the restoration of VOA filed a new motion to require the government to explain its lack of action following Judge Royce Lamberth‘s order to undo the March 2025 shutdown of VOA and USAGM. The plaintiffs note that the government’s recent status reports provide almost no information about what it has done to restore the agency.

Read the plaintiffs’ motion.

• Al Jazeera: Journalist killed in Mexico after years of exposing corruption

• Reporters Without Borders: Inside Burkina Faso’s BIR-C: the cyber militia targeting journalists via disinformation and online harassment

• Committee to Protect Journalists: Hungary’s initial media reforms are promising but lasting safeguards still needed

• Global Investigative Journalism Network: Mapping the Interests of Russia’s Security Service

• Reuters Institute: Costa Rica used to be a beacon of press freedom in Central America. What changed?

• Latin America Journalism Review: They survived the earthquakes in Venezuela. Then they went back to reporting.

• Latin America Journalism Review: Phone number tied to Colombian lawmaker surfaced in case investigated by slain journalist

• Asia Times: A propagandistic Voice of America hands strategic victory to adversaries

Brian Stelter, chief media analyst for CNN Worldwide and the lead author of the Reliable Sources newsletter will share his perspective on a unique moment in journalism history, in conversation with journalist, media analyst and ethics professor Eric Deggans.

The International Community is hosting a session on Press Freedom as a Beat. The list of programs and panel discussions at the conference keep growing. You can see the current list HERE.