Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Alarm bells: Trump’s first 100 days ramp up fear for the press, democracy
- 2024 is deadliest year for journalists in CPJ history; almost 70% killed by Israel
- In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists
- Haiti, Israel most likely to let journalists’ murders go unpunished, CPJ 2024 impunity index shows
- No justice for journalists targeted by Israel despite strong evidence of war crime
- On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom
- Forced to flee: Exiled journalists face unsafe passage and transnational repression
- Israel-Gaza war brings 2023 journalist killings to devastating high
- 2023 prison census: Jailed journalist numbers near record high; Israel imprisonments spike
Reporter Without Borders
OPC Opposes Homeland Security Proposals to Restrict Journalist Visas
NEW YORK, September 17, 2025 — The Overseas Press Club of America calls for the withdrawal of proposals to restrict the visas of foreign correspondents based in the U.S.
Under current policy, journalist visas (known as iVisas) are issued for the duration of an assignment and typically last for up to five years, with an option for extension. The new proposals would require most foreign nationals to reapply for an iVisa within 240 days and within 90 days for Chinese nationals.
The OPC opposes this change, warning that visa restrictions for foreign journalists can impede theirability to report freely in the U.S. and can have a chilling effect on press freedom.
Additionally, being required to reapply for permission to work in the U.S. within an eight-month period creates significant uncertainty for foreign journalists.
The OPC strongly supports the right of overseas media to report unhindered in the U.S., especially given the right to press freedom embedded in the U.S. Constitution. OPC members stand with other press organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, in urging the U.S. government to immediately withdraw these proposals.