Washington, D.C., June 11, 2024—A county judge’s order to Mississippi Today newspaper to turn over privileged documents in relation to a defamation lawsuit by the state’s former governor, Phil Bryant, against the nonprofit and three of its employees is a threat to press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
Mississippi Today appealed on June 6 to Mississippi Supreme Court to overturn the May 20 order in a precedent-setting case for the First Amendment protection reporters’ privilege in the southern state.
“We are outraged by former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant’s attempt to discredit Mississippi Today’s Pulitzer-prize winning reporting that revealed his corrupt practices,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “It is dangerous and deeply disturbing that Bryant’s team is seeking to compel Mississippi Today to turn over troves of its privileged documents, including reporting materials.”
The defamation lawsuit relates to the outlet’s 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Backchannel” investigation into a $77 million welfare scandal that revealed how Bryant used his office to benefit his family and friends.
Bryant sued Mississippi Today and its CEO Mary Margaret White in July 2023, arguing that the series defamed him, and added editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau and reporter Anna Wolfe as defendants in May 2024, according to an editor’s note on the outlet’s website.
In last month’s ruling, the judge gave Mississippi Today a deadline of June 6 to turn over its internal documents, which could include source material, the news platform Semafor reported.
In his editor’s note, Ganucheau wrote that Bryant had “attempted to use this lawsuit to as a vehicle to go back in time and obtain unconditional access to all of our internal documents, including notes and interviews with sources regarding ‘The Backchannel’ — despite never raising questions about the original investigation and long missing deadlines to challenge it in court.”
Defamation, whose purpose is to protect an individual’s reputation from false statements, is being weaponized globally to shield powerful individuals from criticism. Legal attacks on journalists — often dubbed lawfare — are often effective in compromising their safety, silencing public interest reporting, and eroding trust in the press.