On January 16, 2026, NASW joined the Society of Professional Journalists and 17+ organizations in calling on the Department of Justice and "all public officials to remember a fundamental truth: When journalists are silenced, all Americans pay the price."
The letter, addressed to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, condemns the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at the home of Hannah Natanson, a reporter for the Washington Post. "Searching a journalist’s home and electronic devices, especially one who is not the subject of a criminal investigation, raises grave concerns under federal law and represents a dangerous escalation in the federal government’s recent treatment of journalists."
The letter goes on to note that "Federal law provides broad protection from the government’s search and seizure of materials and information used by journalists, such as Natanson, in connection with their work. The Privacy Protection Act of 1980, passed by Congress after law enforcement raided the newsroom of the Stanford Daily for information about a contentious protest, was designed to sharply limit law enforcement searches of journalists’ homes and seizures of their work product."
