NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER JULIE MENIN PROPOSES CENSORING JOURNALISTS, BANNING BLOGGERS FROM PRESS CREDENTIALS
SPEAKER PROPOSES MAKING IT EASIER TO TAKE CITY-ISSUED PRESS CREDENTIALS AWAY FROM JOURNALISTS IN VIOLATION OF 2021 SETTLEMENT OF A FEDERAL LAWSUIT, AND HARDER TO GET IN VIOLATION OF A 2010 SETTLEMENT
Protest against the murder of journalist Brad Will in Mexico, outside the Mexican Consultate in New York City, Oct. 31, 2006. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
MALONE, NEW YORK Sept. 10, 2026 Last update: 10:46PM
The "Liberal" speaker of the New York City Council is proposing new rules to allow the City to censor journalists and make it harder for bloggers to get city-issued press credentials.
“For this system to work as intended, there must be a thoughtful process for issuing credentials and, when necessary, revoking them,” Julie Menin said in a statement.
Speaker Menin's statement is disinformation. There are "thoughtful" rules already in place for issuing and, if necessary, suspending or revoking press credentials. The current rules fully protect freedom of speech and press. Speaker Menin’s proposal does not.
The current rules comply with a 2019 federal court ruling in Nicholas v Bratton that guarantees due process of law to journalists facing suspension or revocation of their city-issued press credentials. They are the result, as The Free Lance News has previously reported, of that lawsuit as well as an earlier lawsuit brought by bloggers in 2009 and settled in 2010.
The earlier lawsuit, Martinez-Alequin v City of New York, established the criteria journalists must satisfy to qualify for a city-issued press credential.
The bloggers in Martinez-Alequin v City of New York alleged the criteria previously-used by the City to judge applications for press credentials was too restrictive because it required letters from editors of mainstream news organizations—thus excluding independent journalists like the bloggers who filed the lawsuit. The City agreed to expand the criteria by eliminating the requirement for a mainstream media endorsement.
Protest against the murder of journalist Brad Will in Mexico, outside the Mexican Consultate in New York City, Oct. 31, 2006. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
The journalists who brought those lawsuits (full disclosure: I was one of them) negotiated with both the NYPD and the City. Both the NYPD and the City signed off on the current rules to settle those lawsuits. Michael Bloomberg was mayor when he signed off on the first settlement; Bill de Blasio was mayor when the City signed off on my lawsuit.
The City remains legally bound to follow the rules the settlements established, unless and until such time as the City asks both federal judges who OK'd the settlements to allow the City to dissolve them. As of Thursday morning, Federal court records show both cases remain closed.
The City has not filed the formal paperwork needed to escape their legal responsibility to apply the rules the settlements establish. If the City went ahead anyway without approval from the Federal courts, city officials could be held in contempt of court, fined and even potentially jailed.
Speaker Menin’s press office did not respond to an invitation to comment.
The news blog City & State first reported the proposal early Thursday morning.
It's not apparent the City will ask the Federal courts to clear the way for censorship of the press.
Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani controls the City's lawyer, the Corporation Counsel, not Speaker Menin. His press shop did not immediately respond to a request for comment but Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec told City & State the mayor will review the bill before he decides whether to support it.
However, Pekec told the New York Times later on Thursday that the mayor supports what she claimed where “reforms to the credentialing process.”
Back in January, Mayor Mamdani quashed a proposal dropped by former Mayor Eric Adams on his way out the door to weaken the free speech and free press protections the current rules afford. At the time, Mayor Mamdani called them "an attack on the press, the free press."
So, too, are Speaker Menin’s proposed new rules. They appear designed to censor news and opinion reporting by journalists.
If adapted, they would loosen the evidence required to suspend or revoke a journalist's city-issued press credential. They would also direct the mayor's office to review its rules for even more changes in a way that “promotes a free and independent press”—Orwellian code for restricting access to city-issued press credentials to mainstream “approved” journalists.
The proposed restrictions are motivated by May's Mangionista Affair, when city-credentialed bloggers supportive of Luigi Mangione spoke out against America's for-profit health care system and against the health insurance executive Mangione assassinated in 2024.
Steven Banks, Deputy City Council Leader, is co-sponsoring this new attempt to muzzle the free and independent press. Banks said as much in a statement to the New York Post.
"Recent experiences have highlighted the importance of maintaining clear standards and accountability within the credentialing process," Banks said. The new rules, he claimed, are aimed at “preserving the integrity of the credentialing system for legitimate members of the press.”
Also on Thursday, Speaker Menin admitted to FOX5 that the proposed new rules were designed “to solve the problem of the Luigi Mangione fan girl.”
“Where these fan girls who are not journalists are showing up at the trial with press credentials that the City of New York gives to them.,” Menin went on. Only “legitimate journalists” should “be getting the press credentials.”
But if the First Amendment means anything it means Government does not have the lawful authority to define who is or who is not a “legitimate” journalist.
Even if if tightening the criteria for getting a press credential is a good idea, reducing the evidence needed to suspend or revoke a previously-issued press credential does not serve that goal. It only makes it easier to censor journalists by punishing them for their reporting or for their expression of politically charged opinions—a legitimate function of journalism. That’s why newspapers have opinion pages.
Since the Mangionista Affair, mainstream media members and groups have been pressuring the mayor’s office and city council members behind the scenes to start restricting the grant of city-issued press credentials to social media “influencers” and other non-traditional “press,” sources tell The Free Lance News.
These mainstream media groups are expected to get behind—or at least not actively oppose—the new restrictions because they have an institutional interest in making it harder for bloggers and other independent journalists to report.
Representatives of the mainstream media are scheduled to participate in a secret sit-down with the Mayor's office to discuss the new rules at the end of the month, sources say.
The news comes a week after The Free Lance News reported the Mamdani administration is running background checks on journalists.
THIS WAS A BREAKING NEWS REPORT. IT WAS UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
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