Josh Stearns

Journalism and Public Media Campaign Director

Josh develops online and offline strategy, outreach and organizing efforts. He has published numerous reports on press freedom, journalism, media consolidation and public media, and speaks regularly about community engagement, activism and the future of journalism. He also directs the Free Press internship and fellowship program. Before joining Free Press, Josh coordinated policy and communications efforts for service-learning and higher education organizations. He holds a B.A. in English from St. Lawrence University and an M.A. in American studies from UMass Amherst.

Blog Posts

Securing Press Freedom for All
Josh Stearns
May 16, 2013

Just days after news broke that the Justice Department had secretly obtained AP journalists’ phone records as part of its ongoing crackdown on leaks, the New Yorker released a new tool — Strongbox — to enable people to safely and securely leak electronic files.
Everything You Wanted to Know About the DoJ/AP Controversy
Josh Stearns
May 15, 2013
The story of how the Justice Department secretly obtained journalists’ phone records is developing quickly. Here is an overview of the issues.
Stop the Justice Department's Attack on Press Freedom
Josh Stearns
May 14, 2013

It was just revealed that the Justice Department secretly obtained a huge cache of phone records from reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The AP has called this a “massive and unprecedented” violation of journalists’ constitutional right to gather and report the news.

But this is not just a journalists’ issue. It’s a democratic issue that has implications for all Americans.

In the News

One Year of Occupy. One Year of Journalist Arrests.
BoingBoing
September 18, 2012
Josh Stearns has been tracking "press suppression and journalist arrests," which became a regular occurrence since the start of Occupy Wall Street on September 17, 2011. "As press, protesters and police converge in New York City for the one year anniversary, we'll be tracking press suppression here." Sadly, the list has been updated today on the one-year #OWS anniversary with quite a few familiar names: bloggers, artists, journalists.
Journalists Arrested at Occupy Anniversary Protests
Poynter
September 18, 2012
Josh Stearns rounded up reports of journalists getting arrested at the anniversary protests for Occupy Wall Street. Photographer Julia Reinhart and artist Molly Crabapple were among the people who got to check out the inside of police vans.
Photojournalist Group Urges NYPD to 'Do the Right Thing'
Capital New York
August 7, 2012
Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, has written a letter to New York City Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne about the arrest last night of New York Times photographer Robert Stolarik, who says he had his camera confiscated and was roughed up by police while documenting the arrest of a teenager in the Bronx.