U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

25/07/2024

🔴 At least 11 journalists were targeted with violence while documenting protests outside an L.A. synagogue on June 23, with the date marking the highest number of attacks on the press in the U.S. since the 2021 Capitol riots. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-were-targeted-repeatedly-attacked-for-documenting-la-protests/

25/07/2024

GOP congresswoman Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
blames Times Radio’s Jo Crawford and the rest of the media for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Politics and the press: Tracking how the media is treated on the road to Election 2024

25/07/2024

he Tracker's partner James W. Foley Legacy Foundation just released its updated guide for covering the upcoming U.S. elections.

The resource identifies some risks, threats that journalists might face when covering political rallies, other election events in the U.S.

The Foley Foundation has developed journalist safety curricula for both undergraduate and graduate schools in order to better prepare our future journalists for their profession.

22/07/2024

U.S. Senate candidate KariLake used her July 16 address at the GOP Convention to attack journalists there, calling them “fake news.”

Reporter Heidi Schlumpf and pollster Frank Luntz said Lake’s remarks elicited harassment from the Milwaukee crowd.

Politics and the press: Tracking how the media is treated on the road to Election 2024

22/07/2024

A magistrate judge ordered legal journalist and co-founder of Volokh Consipracy not to publish the name of a plaintiff that had mistakenly appeared on court documents in a revenge p**n case.

The ruling was overturned a month later.

A magistrate judge ordered a legal journalist on June 20, 2024, not to publish the name of a plaintiff that …

18/07/2024

A TN Todo Noticias news crew was nearly ejected from the Argentina-Colombia match in the Copa América finals on July 14.

Reporter Leo Paradizo was repeatedly pushed by a Miami-Dade police officer attempting to remove him from the stadium.

Leo Paradizo, a reporter for the Argentinian TV news channel Todo Noticias, was pushed by police attempting to force him …

18/07/2024

Trump VP pick J.D. Vance blamed the media for his disparaging comments about Trump in 2016.

In a July 15 Fox News interview, the Ohio senator said “I bought into the media’s lies and distortions” about Trump, who he had compared to Hi**er and he**in.

Politics and the press: Tracking how the media is treated on the road to Election 2024

15/07/2024

Freelance photojournalist Ben Hendren filed a lawsuit on July 1 alleging the Georgia State University Police Department arrested him in July 2022 for photographing the detention of people protesting a construction site and encouraged false statements about him.

Freelance photojournalist Ben Hendren was arrested while photographing the detention of protesters who allegedly damaged a construction site in Atlanta, …

15/07/2024

The cynicism of blaming the media for the Trump assassination attempt — By Jon Allsop

[Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review's newsletter, The Media Today]

Some of the critics in the aftermath of the Trump assassination seemed to be accusing journalists of being both overly reckless and, at least in their coverage of the shooting’s immediate aftermath, overly cautious.

10/07/2024

Photojournalist David Swanson was on assignment for AFP Photo documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in LA on June 23, when he was shoved multiple times.

He told us that visual journalists were being deliberately targeted.

Freelance photojournalist David Swanson was pushed multiple times while documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in Los Angeles, California, …

28/06/2024

Six years ago today, a man armed with a shotgun entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, MD, and shot multiple journalists, media workers.

Five people were killed in the attack, and two others were injured.

It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in U.S. history.

These are the names of the journalists, media worker murdered in the Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 28, 2018:

Gerald Fischman
Rob Hiaasen
John McNamara
Wendi Winters
Rebecca Smith

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-upset-newspaper-coverage-shoots-and-kills-multiple-journalists-capital-gazette-newsroom/

27/06/2024

A charge for blocking traffic was dropped against
The Indypendent photojournalist Neil Constantine a day before he was set to appear in court; he was arrested while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City in April.

Neil Constantine, a photojournalist for the monthly newspaper The Indypendent, was arrested by New York Police Department officers while documenting …

27/06/2024

🗳️ As the 2024 U.S. election nears, we are tracking how candidates treat the press while on the campaign trail: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/politics-and-the-press/

Got a tip?! Drop us a line!

You can submit tips in EN or ES, DM, email [email protected], or visit: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/submit-incident

18/06/2024

Tracking how the media is treated on the road to the Election Day 2024

Politics and the press: Tracking how the media is treated on the road to Election 2024

17/06/2024

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner lifted a news conference ban on journalist Ralph Cipriano on May 29, allowing him to attend further pressers two weeks after barring him for "violating basic decorum."

Independent journalist Ralph Cipriano was barred on May 17, 2024, from attending any of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s news …

20/12/2023

A “criminalization of routine journalism” marked the year in arrests for U.S. journalists.

Read our 2023 report.

Members of the press charged with committing ‘acts of journalism’ in 2023

06/09/2023

Five photojournalists sued the NYPD for violating their First Amendment rights during 2020 protests.

On Tuesday, a "historic" settlement agreement with the NYPD was announced.

Among other terms, the agreement “formally acknowledges that the press has a clearly established First Amendment right to record police activity in public places” for the first time.

Read about the settlement at NPPA - National Press Photographers Association website: https://nppa.org/news/64f721ac4325e6544cb7f6db

And read more about the incidents on the Tracker's website: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?case_number=1:21-cv-06610

Sept. 5, 2023 - The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has agreed to historic settlement terms with five photojournalists who were attacked and arrested in 2020.

02/01/2023

In 2022, at least 14 journalists were arrested or detained in the course of their reporting. Ten of those incidents happened during protests:

While detained, journalists lose their ability to freely cover the story; criminal charges mean journalists face the threat of fines, prison time — or both.

01/01/2023

ICYMI: In 2022, SCOTUS handed down a ruling that has alarmed press freedom advocates as it gutted the legal mechanism used to hold federal officers liable for violating individuals’ constitutional rights:

In a Supreme Court term packed with controversial cases, one of the more-overlooked rulings has alarmed press freedom advocates as …

31/12/2022

It’s the ✨last day✨of 2022! There’s more hard work ahead in 2023 as we protect, defend and empower journalists. We can't do it without your support.

The Tracker is a project by Freedom of the Press Foundation and CPJ.

30/12/2022

In 2022, at least 38 journalists were physically attacked in the course of their reporting. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?categories=10&date_lower=2022-01-01&date_upper=2022-12-31

29/12/2022

In her final newsletter of the year, Managing Editor Kirstin McCudden breaks down even more of the one-of-a-kind analysis by the team for those discerning readers on your list:

Curated suggestions for the avid reader and press freedom advocates on your list

28/12/2022

We celebrated the 5-year anniversary of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in 2022, having documented 1600+ incidents across nearly a dozen categories.

Today marks five years since we launched the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

27/12/2022

In 2022, we documented three times where politicians or other public figures made public threats against journalists or media organizations: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2022-01-01&date_upper=2022-12-31&categories=Chilling+Statement

26/12/2022

While covering the J6 riots, at least 18 journalists were assaulted and hundreds of thousands of dollars of news equipment was damaged. We documented those press freedom aggressions and continue to track all those charged with crimes against the media:

Updated: Dec. 12, 2022 While documenting the large mob in front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, photographer …

25/12/2022

Help sustain the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker into the future:

The Tracker is a project by Freedom of the Press Foundation and CPJ.

24/12/2022

In 2020, more than 140 journalists were arrested or detained while covering social justice protests across the country. Two years later, we’re following as journalists sue for violations against their First and Fourth amendment rights:

At least 50 journalists have filed First Amendment lawsuits against law enforcement following their arrests or assaults while covering the …

23/12/2022

We documented 10 times in 2022 where journalistic access was limited, barring reporters from covering press conferences, executions, state legislatures and more: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2022-01-01&date_upper=2022-12-31&categories=52

20/12/2022

NEW: A dozen journalists arrested in the US in 2022; charges persist for more

While detained, journalists lose their ability to freely cover the story; criminal charges mean journalists face the threat of fines, prison time — or both.

16/12/2022

UPDATE: A judge upheld the DOJ’s subpoena for testimony from Boston Globe editor Joshua Miller, whose 2019 reporting on an alleged admissions scandal at Harvard triggered a federal bribery investigation. Miller testified on Dec. 13:

Boston Globe journalist Joshua Miller was subpoenaed for testimony as part of a Harvard University admissions scandal criminal case in …