A news organization sent UC Irvine a records request under the California Public Records Act for documents about a professor’s postpublication communications about her articles which UCI had withdrawn from publication due to concerns about plagarism and accuracy of citations. The professor filed this lawsuit to prevent UCI from producing documents in response to the request. Held, the suit arose from protected activity, satisfying the first step of the Anti;-SLAPP analysis. In requesting the records, the news organization was engaging in newsgathering so it could report on matters of public interest, such as how a public university funded largely by taxpayer dollars resolves quality or integrity problems in its professors’ publications. By targeting and seeking to impede CSI’s newsgathering activity, Iloh’s petition threatens to chill CSI’s speech-related processes like newsgathering; if successful, this could inhibit CSI’s exercise of free speech. This is the type of lawsuit the anti-SLAPP statute is designed to address.