Media freedom, civil rights groups to hold press conference about prolonged ICE detention of journalist Mario Guevara

 Via Committee to Protect Journalists 

July 18, 2025

New York, July 18, 2025—Lawyers representing Mario Guevara, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Free Press, and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation will hold a press conference on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, at 10 a.m. to reaffirm calls for the release of the Atlanta-based journalist from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

The press conference will highlight the troubling implications Guevera’s case has for First Amendment rights in Georgia and across the nation.

Guevara, an Emmy-winning, Spanish-language journalist, who frequently filmed ICE and law enforcement raids, was originally arrested on First Amendment-related charges while livestreaming a “No Kings” protest in an Atlanta suburb on June 14. He is currently the only journalist in custody in the U.S. whose arrest was in relation to the work of newsgathering.

The journalist, who has lawfully resided in the U.S. for over 20 years, was placed in ICE custody on June 18 where he remains, despite being in the country legally.

Guevara arrived legally in the United States from El Salvador in April 2004. He has remained in the country lawfully since, applying for asylum in 2005 due to the dangers he faced as a journalist in El Salvador. Over the next twenty years, Guevara developed a large following in the Atlanta area, as well as national recognition, for his reporting on immigration issues.

WHAT: Press conference on journalist Mario Guevara’s continued ICE detention

WHEN: Tuesday, July 22, 2025, 10 a.m. EDT. Please arrive ahead of time. ID required.

WHERE: Georgia State Capitol, South Wing, (security entrance on Capitol Square SW)

RSVP: Please register here to attend.

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Federal Judge Tells LAPD to Stop Shooting at Journalists

 Via The New Republic

July 11, 2025

U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera blocked Los Angeles police from using less lethal munitions and other crowd control weapons against reporters—and told them to stop arresting journalists.

 A federal judge just had to remind police that they shouldn’t shoot at journalists after several violent encounters during the protests opposing the Trump administration’s disastrous ICE raids in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera blocked the Los Angeles Police Department from wrongfully preventing journalists from accessing closed off areas, detaining or arresting journalists while they’re reporting, and using less lethal munitions (LLMs) and other crowd control weapons against them.

In a 14 page-filing, Vera said that the First Amendment claims made by the Los Angeles Press Club were likely to succeed, and granted them a temporary restraining order. “Indeed, given the fundamental nature of the speech interests involved and the almost daily protests throughout Southern California drawing media coverage, the identified harm is undoubtedly imminent and concrete,” he wrote in a filing.

Vera recounted multiple instances of journalists being cordoned away from the protests or detained and arrested by officers. Documentarian and activist Anthony Orendoff was detained for four days despite telling officers he was a member of the press.

Vera also recounted many instances of violence against members of the press. In one instance, an officer appeared to aim his gun at 9News Australia’s Lauren Tomasi while she was reporting live, and fired a rubber bullet which hit her in the leg on air. Photojournalist Michael Nigro, who stood high above the protests in a press vest and helmet, heard the sound of LLMs hitting a pole by his head, and later that day was struck in the helmet by a rubber bullet. Another unidentified photojournalist with a press pass was pushed over by a police officer, and trampled by a police horse.

Vera barred officers from “prohibiting a journalist from entering or remaining in the closed areas.” The judge also prohibited officers from “intentionally assaulting, interfering with, or obstructing any journalist” who is “gathering, “receiving, or processing information for communication to the public.”

He also barred officers from “citing, detaining, or arresting a journalist who is in a closed area for failure to disperse, curfew violation, or obstruction of a law enforcement officer for gathering, receiving, or processing information,” or using LLMs, like rubber bullets, and other crowd control measures like flash-bangs and chemical irritants like tear gas.

A hearing for a preliminary injunction was set for July 24.

Related: Via Poynter As police face lawsuits over attacks on journalists during LA protests, experts warn press safety is disappearing across the US

"Yet these cases expose a deeper national crisis: Even in states with explicit legal protections for journalists, law enforcement often disregards those safeguards with impunity during high-tension protests, revealing the fragility of press freedoms in the face of unchecked police power."

Reporting under fire: Protests and press freedom in Los Angeles, a virtual webinar event with Freedom of the Press Foundation

 Via Freedom Of The Press Foundation

Wednesday, July 9, 3 p.m. EDT/12 p.m. PDT

Webinar Registration - Zoom

Journalists covering recent demonstrations in California have been assaulted, detained, shot with crowd-control munitions, and had their equipment searched — simply for doing their jobs.

Freelance and independent reporters are especially vulnerable, yet they continue to document how immigration raids impact communities and how law enforcement responds to civil unrest. Some of the journalists joining us are also plaintiffs in lawsuits pushing back against police actions that threaten press freedom and violate the First Amendment. 

Join us to hear their firsthand accounts and learn what it means to uphold the public’s right to know in the streets and on the front lines. 

If you cannot attend, help protect the rights of these journalists and defend press freedom everywhere by making a donation to support our work at this link.

On July 9th, we’ll be joined by:

- Adam Rose, Press rights chair and secretary at LA Press Club

- Ben Camacho, Journalist and co-founder of The Southlander

- Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Independent videographer

- Tina-Desiree Berg, Journalist for Status Coup and other outlets

- Caitlin Vogus, Freedom of the Press Foundation senior adviser

Journalists are injured while covering the LA protests

 

June 9, 2025

Law enforcement injure at least 4 journalists covering protests in California amid federal crackdown

Several journalists have been injured while covering the protests in Los Angeles, including a television reporter who was struck when a law enforcement officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air

British photographer injured by 'plastic bullet' in LA protests

Australian journalist hit by 'rubber bullet' while reporting from LA

Chinese journalist hit by rubber bullet amid the Los Angeles conflict: report

A Statement from Columbia Journalism School Faculty Defending Press Freedom

 Via Columbia Journalism School

March 14, 2025

Freedom of the press – a bedrock principle of American democracy — is under threat in the United States. Here at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism we are witnessing and experiencing an alarming chill. We write to affirm our commitment to supporting and exercising First Amendment rights for students, faculty, and staff on our campus — and, indeed, for all.          (more)

After Homeland Security seized and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia's School of Public and International Affairs, without charging him with any crime, many of our international students have felt afraid to come to classes and to events on campus. 

They are right to be worried. Some of our faculty members and students who have covered the protests over the Gaza war have been the object of smear campaigns and targeted on the same sites that were used to bring Khalil to the attention of Homeland Security. President Trump has warned that the effort to deport Khalil is just the first of many.

These actions represent threats against political speech and the ability of the American press to do its essential job and are part of a larger design to silence voices that are out of favor with the current administration. We have also seen reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to deport the Palestinian poet and journalist Mosab Abu Toha, who has written extensively in the New Yorker about the condition of the residents of Gaza and warned of the mortal danger to Palestinian journalists. 

There are thirteen million legal foreign residents (green card holders) in the United States. If the administration can deport Khalil, it means those 13 million people must live in fear if they dare speak up or publish something that runs afoul of government views. There are more than one million international students in the United States. They, too, may worry that they are no longer free to speak their mind. Punishing even one person for their speech is meant to intimidate others into self-censorship.

One does not have to agree with the political opinions of any particular individual to understand that these threats cut to the core of what it means to live in a pluralistic democracy. The use of deportation to suppress foreign critics runs parallel to an aggressive campaign to use libel laws in novel — even outlandish ways — to silence or intimidate the independent press. The president has sued CBS for an interview with Kamala Harris which Trump found too favorable. He has sued the Pulitzer Prize committee for awarding prizes to stories critical of him. He has even sued the Des Moines Register for publishing the results of a pre-election poll that showed Kamala Harris ahead at that point in the state. Large corporations like Disney and Meta settled lawsuits most lawyers thought they could win because they did not want to risk the wrath of the Trump administration and jeopardize business they have with the federal government. Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos decided that the paper’s editorial pages would limit themselves to pieces celebrating “free markets and individual liberties.” 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration insists on hand-picking the journalists who will be permitted to cover the White House and Pentagon, and it has banned the Associated Press from press briefings because the AP is following its own style book and refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. 

The Columbia Journalism School stands in defense of First Amendment principles of free speech and free press across the political spectrum. The actions we’ve outlined above jeopardize these principles and therefore the viability of our democracy. All who believe in these freedoms should steadfastly oppose the intimidation, harassment, and detention of individuals on the basis of their speech or their journalism. 

Signed,

The Faculty of Columbia Journalism School

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government”

 Via Associated Press

February 21, 2025

The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.

The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“This targeted attack on the AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment,” the news agency said. “This court should remedy it immediately.”

In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agency’s customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP’s decision not to fully follow the president’s renaming.

“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said Tuesday.

This week, about 40 news organizations signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.

AP reporter and photographer barred from Air Force One over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ terminology dispute

 Via Associated Press

February 14, 2025

The White House barred a credentialed Associated Press reporter and photographer from boarding the presidential airplane Friday for a weekend trip with Donald Trump, saying the news agency’s stance on how to refer to the Gulf of Mexico was to blame for the exclusion. It represented a significant escalation by the White House in a four-day dispute with the AP over access to the presidency.

The administration has blocked the AP from covering a handful of events at the White House this week, including a news conference with India’s leader and several times in the Oval Office. It’s all because the news outlet has not followed Trump’s lead in renaming the body of water, which lies partially outside U.S. territory, to the “Gulf of America.”

AP reporters and photographers travel with the president virtually everywhere as part of a press “pool” and have for decades. AP journalism serves millions of readers and thousands of news outlets around the world.

Journalists consider the administration’s move a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment — a governmental attempt to dictate what a news company publishes under threat of retribution. The Trump administration says the AP has no special right of access to events where space is limited, particularly given the news service’s “commitment to misinformation.”

AP calls that assertion entirely untrue.

“Freedom of speech is a pillar of American democracy and a core value of the American people. The White House has said it supports these principles,” AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said Friday night. “The actions taken to restrict AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a geographic location chip away at this important right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for all Americans.”

The body of water in question has been called the Gulf of Mexico for hundreds of years. AP, whose influential stylebook is used by news outlets as an arbiter of language and usage, advised that because of its broad set of global customers, it would both refer to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico and also reference Trump’s order changing the name to the Gulf of America within the United States.

At the same time, the AP switched style last month from Denali to Mount McKinley for the mountain in Alaska that Trump ordered renamed. That location lies entirely within U.S. jurisdiction.

Taylor Budowich, White House deputy chief of staff, said in a post to X Friday — one that was later released as a White House statement — that the AP “continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America. This decision is not just divisive, but it also exposes The Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation.”

While the First Amendment protects the AP’s “right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting,” it doesn’t ensure unfettered access to limited spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, Budowich said. He said AP would retain its credentials to the White House complex overall.

On Friday, an AP reporter and photographer had traveled to Joint Base Andrews for their participation in the traveling press pool to Trump’s Florida residence. But, after clearing security, neither was allowed to board Air Force One, a decision they were told was “outlet-specific.” Meanwhile, reporters in the press pool who were permitted on the plane sent the AP journalists pictures of cards with their names saying “welcome aboard” on their empty seats.

Other news organizations, like The New York Times and Washington Post, have also said they would primarily use Gulf of Mexico. Fox News said that it was switching to Gulf of America.

The White House Correspondents Association has issued statements condemning the action against AP. Although there are talks going on behind the scenes, individual news outlets have been relatively quiet.

The Times, through spokesman Charles Stadtlander, said on Friday that “we stand by The Associated Press in condemning repeated acts of retribution by this administration for editorial decisions it disagrees with. Any move to limit access or impede reporters doing their jobs is at odds with the press freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”

In a statement, the Washington Post said that the AP’s “access to the administration is central for all journalistic organizations, including The Washington Post, in serving millions of Americans with fact-based, independent journalism each day.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who on Wednesday used the word “lies” in describing AP content, posted on X Friday afternoon about executive orders Trump had signed before his departure. She ended her post: “The @AP was not invited.”

Update February 15, 2025

As watchdogs, journalists deserve protection

 The Santa Fe New Mexican

February 11, 2025

A bill designed to offer greater protection to journalists — however they do their reporting — will get its first hearing Tuesday in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.

Sponsored by Rep. Sarah Silva, D-Las Cruces, House Bill 153, or the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act, proposes an update to New Mexico’s current shield law to cover the many ways reporters operate today. House Speaker Javier Martínez and Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth are co-sponsoring the legislation.

A shield law is designed to protect journalists’ sources and communications, important in a world where powerful forces seek to intimidate reporters and stop them from doing their jobs.

The role of journalism — which has been part of The Santa Fe New Mexican’s 175-year legacy — is to be the public’s watchdog, to pay attention to accountability stories on behalf of the public. Shield laws effectively are in the public’s behalf.

Importantly, the legislation expands the definition of what a journalist is, taking into account how reporting takes place today.

A journalist might be a reporter for an established newspaper, a TV or radio station, a podcaster, an online news site, or an independent citizen covering the local school board in small-town New Mexico. These journalists deserve protection, a sentiment approved by the New Mexico Press Association, which voted to support this legislation Monday.

The communications of journalists also deserve to be kept confidential, so Silva’s bill would shield emails, for example, from state snooping. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation, put together after much research and consultation with experts.

Silva’s bill is similar to federal legislation that died in Congress in 2024, the federal PRESS Act. That law was modeled after regulations put in place by the U.S. Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden. Then-President-elect Donald Trump, however, told congressional Republicans to stop the federal PRESS Act. That leaves it to states to offer protections to reporters.

According to attorney Charles K. Purcell, New Mexico has had a law concerning a reporter’s privilege on the books, with an updated statute adopted in 1973. Purcell is an expert on the shield law in New Mexico and worked with Silva on drafting this legislation.

The New Mexico Supreme Court held the current law unconstitutional to the extent it regulated procedures in state court with its own rule of evidence. The current shield law and Silva’s legislation only will apply to proceedings in the legislative and executive branches.

Should there be an impeachment hearing in the House of Representatives, for example, a reporter’s notes naming a source could not become fodder in the proceedings. Similarly, attempts by agencies under the governor’s purview would be stymied if they targeted whistleblowers.

Despite ruling that the shield law does not apply to court proceedings, the New Mexico Supreme Court does have its own press shield rule, adopted in 1982. Journalists’ sources are protected in local and state courts — and Silva is in conversations with the Supreme Court to update that rule.

In a national atmosphere where journalists remain under attack by everyone from the president on down, ensuring reporters can work without fear of reprisal is important.

As Silva pointed out when she announced her legislation: “We see examples at the federal level of government chipping away at journalists’ ability to do their jobs by pursuing the identities of unnamed sources and deterring whistleblowing.

The integrity of unnamed sources is critical to journalists fulfilling their role as watchdogs in our society. I want to ensure New Mexico safeguards the integrity of journalism.”

The line between activism and journalism breaks

 Via Neiman Labs

By Hafsa Maqsood

December 10, 2025

“When journalists around the world are being killed for practicing their freedom of press, journalists have no choice but to become activists.”

There is a growing frustration in the pit of the global journalism industry’s stomach. A frustration that comes from witnessing an entire year of devastating war in the Middle East, massive bloodshed, and ongoing conflicts across the globe where nothing seems to be working. A sickening frustration fed by the reeking hypocrisy of trying to “holding truth to power” in a post-truth world simultaneously bowing to power.

This frustration was born long ago in the stomachs of marginalized members of various diasporas, like myself, coming from histories of ancestral displacement and ravaging colonialism, and it is in part what has motivated them to join media and journalism industries only to be met with walls of supposed objectivity. An “impartiality” that leads to donning a hollow mask of white neutrality discordant with their lived realities.

That frustration will come to a breaking point in 2025 and translate into tearing down the line between activism and journalism that has already been breached, particularly since the 2020 rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

When democracies are in peril, when international laws meant to hold humanity accountable are being disregarded, when people charged with criminal offenses are leading governments, when journalists around the world are being killed for practicing their freedom of press, journalists have no choice but to become activists.

In 2025, journalists will no longer be told that coming in to work with a “Free Palestine” sticker on their laptops or water bottles is controversial and against guidelines while a “Stand With Ukraine” sticker is praised. Massive refugee and humanitarian displacements that occurred in 2024 will also impact news audiences. As journalists respond to audience demands, this shift will encourage a journalistic focus on human interest and global perspective stories that amplify refugee and diaspora narratives. Diaspora communities will play a crucial role in shaping these narratives through activism and storytelling that will bloom in the 2025 media and journalism industry.

When giving a lecture on media framing at the University of British Columbia in 2022, I held a roundtable attended by many members of Palestinian diaspora in Canada. Every one of them expressed turning away from legacy media in favor of citizen journalism and treating activists as sources for news. What if journalists with training and established platforms could tap into these audiences who are rejecting them in favor of unofficial news sources? What does this rejection mean for the decline of legacy media and journalistic ethics of “truth-telling?”

The answers to these questions, I predict, will come to fruition in 2025. We, as an industry, will have to reevaluate the meaning of “journalistic independence” if we want that sickening pit of frustration to heal. And the demands of a growing diaspora born out of conflict, war, and displacement will be one exceedingly difficult to ignore.

Hafsa Maqsood is a journalist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Calgary.

Not in Kansas anymore: Alabama press violations echo earlier attack

 Via Freedom Of The Press Foundation

December 5, 2024

“Where are all the good people who are supposed to stop this from happening?”

Marion County Record co-owner Joan Meyer asked that question repeatedly before her death — a day after local police illegally and unconstitutionally raided her community newspaper and home in response to the Record’s reporting about a local restaurant owner’s drunk driving convictions.

Alabama reporter Don Fletcher and newspaper publisher Sherry Digmon might have asked themselves that same question.

Last year, the two were arrested on sham charges for allegedly revealing grand jury secrets. Digmon, who also served on the local school board, was charged with violating an Alabama ethics law as well. It’s yet another unfortunate effort to make journalism a crime and silence reporters.

The bogus criminal investigation came after Atmore News, the local newspaper co-owned by Digmon, published Fletcher’s article about a school board meeting and a subpoena seeking school board financial records from the previous year. The subpoena was issued by Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy.

Four months after the arrests, Billy admitted to personal and professional conflicts of interest in the cases, and removed himself as prosecutor. The state attorney general’s office dropped the charges soon after.

Now, Digmon and Fletcher, joined by a school board member and a district employee also caught up in the investigation, have filed a federal lawsuit against Billy, Sheriff Heath Jackson, and “allies” for conspiring to violate their First and Fourth amendment rights.

On the surface, the attack on Atmore News — like that on the Marion County Record — may appear limited to a few law enforcement officials abusing their power. But in both cases, a little digging reveals politically motivated multiparty schemes.

The similarities between officials’ arrest of Fletcher and Digmon and the raid on the Record are startling and informative. After the Marion raid, the response and backlash seemed to make a repeat unlikely soon. But just months later, the Atmore News found itself at the center of a similar attack on press freedom.

Full article here.

Publisher of raided Kansas newspaper delivers advice to journalists: ‘Make democracy great again’

 Via Kansas Reflector

November 18, 2024

TOPEKA — The editor of the Kansas newspaper raided by police last year has a message for journalists struggling with their sense of purpose.

Go on the offensive.

Eric Meyer, editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, delivered remarks Friday as he was inducted alongside his mother, Joan, into the Kansas Press Association Newspaper Hall of Fame.

“I think this is a time when we have to establish for the people of this country the fact that we are important, that we have things that we can tell them that they will want to know, that they will want to change their positions about,” Meyer said.

He added, in a nod to the results of the presidential election: “Let’s not make America great again. Let’s make democracy great again.”

Police raided the Marion County Record newsroom and the home where Meyer lived with his mother in August 2023 under the false pretense that journalists had committed a crime by looking up a public record. Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner whose profane clash with police officers was captured on camera, died a day after the raid from stress-induced cardiac arrest. The raid spawned five civil lawsuits and a criminal charge against the police chief who led the attack on a free press.

Meyer said he is “an odd duck” because he retired to run a newspaper, rather than retire from it. He returned to Kansas during the COVID-19 pandemic to take over the publication his parents had operated for decades. After teaching journalism for 20 years at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Meyer wanted to practice what he had been preaching — that journalism is still vital.

“We’re not talking about the future of journalists. We’re talking about the future of democracy,” Meyer said. “Because without journalism, there is no democracy. We can’t have an informed public making informed decisions that will lead our country if they don’t have information, solid information that’s reliable. Getting their attention, though, is a very serious problem.”

Before the raid on his newspaper, Meyer said, circulation was already up, “because we were trying to do the best news stories we could.” After the raid, thousands of people from across the country purchased subscriptions in a show of support. Many of them, he said, are actually reading the stories. Some of the out-of-state readers have become so invested in the news out of Marion that they are even writing letters to the editor.

His advice to other journalists: “Forget all the gimmicks.”

“Don’t worry about what you put on social media,” Meyer said. “Don’t worry about the video you’re shooting. Don’t worry about the blogs you’re writing. Don’t worry about the marketing techniques. Do good journalism, period. Good journalism. That means finding stories that affect people and giving them an opportunity to do something about it.”

Joan Meyer edited the newspaper for 50 years and continued writing until she died. Her last column ran in the same issue as her obituary.

Her death intensified national interest in a story about the abuse of power in trying to silence a free press.

“Although I’m sure she didn’t want to go out the way she did, worrying about the Hitler tactics and so on, it is kind of rare, at age 98, that your death means something to someone, that you go out and you’re you’re sort of a martyr to your cause,” her son said.






Other hall of fame inductees were Ann Brill, dean of the University of Kansas journalism school; Sally Buzbee, a former executive editor of the Washington Post and Associated Press; small-town publishers Cynthia Desilet Haynes and Ben Marshall; retired Wichita Eagle and Kansas City Star reporter Roy Wenzl; and photojournalists Barbara Kinney, David Peterson, George Olson, Joel Sartore and W. Eugene Smith.

"The press is once again not at war, but at work"

 Via Columbia Journalism Review

November 6, 2024

"For now, a few important things seem clear for the press—things we’ve known conceptually for some time, but now hit with a shocking new clarity. The most important is that Trump’s impending second term poses a credible and unprecedented threat to press freedom as America has known it."

At protests, police are increasingly arresting members of the press—especially those with cameras.

 

Via Columbia Journalism Review

October 7, 2024

Since the violence of last October 7—as the conflict between Israel and Palestine has grown deadlier, and spread more widely in the Middle East—it has also been, according to the US Press Freedom Tracker, a nonpartisan database of press freedom violations, a “protest year.” The visual journalists who cover demonstrations across America—photographers, videographers—are at the center of the action. “We have to get creative, go on the floor, shoot through cops’ legs, just to get that visual,” Madison Swart—a photojournalist in New York whose work has been published in Out and Cosmopolitan, among other places—told me. In May, while covering a pro-Palestinian protest, Swart was briefly detained by police officers—one of forty-three journalists who have been arrested in the past year, triple the previous number. According to Stephanie Sugars, a reporter for the US Press Freedom Tracker, “it has felt that the predominant number of incidents, at least since the protests started, are against people who are documenting visually in some capacity.”

--full article here.

For journalists, NYPD protest changes can’t come too soon

 Via Columbia Journalism Review

September 20, 2024

"For the sake of democracy and the protection of First Amendment rights, that day can’t come soon enough. In New York and across the nation, police departments should immediately ban kettling, which threatens the First Amendment rights of all protesters and specifically undermines the work of the press. As the Justice Department has noted, police departments should ensure that provisions are in place to allow journalists to continue to work, documenting events including police activity, when a lawful dispersal order is given or a curfew put in place." --click for full article

Des Moines city manager says free press is important as part of protest lawsuit settlement

 Via The Des Moines Register

August 27, 2024

The Des Moines city manager acknowledged the importance of the free press in a statement Tuesday on the heels of the city's settlement in a lawsuit brought by a news photographer whom police tackled and arrested during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Des Moines leaders agreed to a mid-trial settlement last week with Mark "Ted" Nieters, a photojournalist who has covered conflict zones around the world. As part of the settlement, Nieters is set to receive $100,000, and City Manager Scott Sanders and Des Moines police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek are required to issue statements about the importance of the free press.

Nieters' case stemmed from his arrest on June 1, 2020, when he was working as a freelance news photographer covering a large protest outside the Iowa Capitol. Police eventually ordered members of the crowd to leave and dispersed those who didn't, using tear gas.

Shortly afterward, as Nieters was walking away from the Capitol on Locust Street, Des Moines police officer Brandon Holtan tackled and detained him, despite Nieters telling him he was a journalist and showing him his press card, according to the lawsuit Nieters later filed against Holtan and the city.

Sanders fulfilled his requirement in a statement Tuesday, which reads:

"The City is grateful to the jury and the federal court for their time in a recent case they helped bring to a resolution. While the City Council will vote to approve the proposed settlement at its September 16 meeting, we are happy to put this case behind us and continue our important work moving the Des Moines Police Department forward in our continuing pursuit of excellence. The City acknowledges the importance of free press for our community, and the value and appreciation that the City has for the work the press does."

Link to article with video and photographs.

$235,000 Settlement Is Reached in Police Raid of a Kansas Newspaper

 Via The New York Times

July 6, 2024

A former reporter of The Marion County Record has settled a lawsuit following a raid on the weekly newspaper last year that garnered widespread attention.

--"Ms. Gruver, who left the newspaper last fall, said in a letter to the editor that she “no longer wanted to work in a town where the majority of ‘leaders’ clearly don’t respect the Fourth Estate or the U.S. Constitution,” The Record reported."

More:

    ACCOUNTABILITY IS PAST DUE FOR KANSAS NEWSROOM RAID

   IN MARION COUNTY NEWSPAPER RAID, A GRIM THREAT TO KANSANS’ FIRST       AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Foot-dragging in Marion raid investigation should fill public with dread

 Via The Kansas Reflector

June 3, 3024

"I’ve had it.

Nearly 10 months after law enforcement officials raided the Marion County Record and two private residences, officials have yet to tell us the results of their investigations. That’s nearly a full year since a flagrant assault on free speech in Kansas, one signed off on by a list of city, county and state officials. True, a handful of individuals implicated in the scandal have left their roles in the intervening time. Lawsuits have been filed.

But we have not heard from those in charge. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, perhaps realizing it had been compromised by involvement in the raid, passed the entire affair over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. They originally said results would come in April. We’re at the beginning of June, and those results still haven’t come.

Our First Amendment rights, those shared by both journalists and the entire American public, deserve better."

Read the full article here.

And background here, and here.

Arrests of journalists already doubled over last year

 Via US Press Freedom Tracker Via US Press Freedom Tracker

May 31, 2024

"Friends of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Welcome back to your newsletter around press freedom violations in the United States. Find archived editions here, and get this newsletter directly in your inbox by signing up here.One month later — arrests have doubled

In my last newsletter, I wrote about journalists covering local reaction to the Israel-Gaza war, noting that as April came to an end, we had documented 13 arrests or detainments of members of the press, and were actively reporting on more. Active, indeed: As of today, we’ve documented 36.

Importantly, the number of journalists arrested or detained so far this year — which is not even half over — is more than the last two years combined.

In addition to arrests, we’ve captured more than 30 assaults of journalists under our “Israel-Gaza war” tag since Oct. 7, 2023 — seven of those on student journalists — and nine reports of damaged equipment."

Full report here.

"The fact journalists were arrested for documenting events should concern all who believe in the free flow of information. "

 Via The Santa Fe New Mexican "Our View"

May 21, 2024

Journalists must be able to do their jobs

Journalists have no right to break the law in covering stories of public interest — that goes without saying even though the Constitution’s First Amendment clearly protects freedom of press. That freedom includes gathering the news, not just its publication.

Because of that protection, news reporters and photographers must be left alone to do their jobs. That’s especially true in a breaking-news situation in which impartial witness is essential. That’s one — but only one — reason police officers’ decision to arrest a reporter and photographer on the University of New Mexico campus while they documented the clearing of an encampment of student protesters is so distressing.

Independent journalist Bryant Furlow and photographer Tara Armijo-Prewitt — a married couple — were at the campus Wednesday morning to observe what likely would be the last days of the encampments. Furlow said he accompanied Armijo-Prewitt, who had been documenting the weeks-long protests, early Wednesday because UNM President Garnett Stokes had said the day before that police would be tearing the camps down.

Like reporters everywhere, Furlow wanted to be on the ground as news was happening. As with any potential clash between police and protestors, the public interest is clear. Journalists must be allowed to do their work. That did not happen last week.

According to a statement released through New Mexico In Depth — an online organization to which Furlow often contributes — the reporter gave his account of events, citing his request for information from officers on where to stand and his willingness to follow police instructions. He said he also informed officers he was a member of the media.

Nevertheless, both Furlow and Armijo-Prewitt were arrested.

The fact journalists were arrested for documenting events should concern all who believe in the free flow of information. Both state police and UNM campus police were involved in removing the encampments. Their bosses — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Stokes — should be investigating to find out why journalists doing their jobs and complying with officers were arrested.

The arrest after a reporter asked for a badge number and while photographing police actions is particularly troubling. It shows an apparent unwillingness on the part of police to have their actions documented for the public to see.

As Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Melanie Majors said, “If the media is arrested for doing their job, where does that leave the rest of us?”

The two, according to Furlow’s statement, were charged with criminal trespass and wrongful use of public property. They spent about 12 hours in custody after their arrests. Campus police made the arrests, and the correct action now is to drop the charges and apologize.

Further, given the tenor of the times — these protests are not going away — police at every level must be better educated about the rights of the media. Officers must understand they have no right to stop journalists from doing their jobs. In fact, when they do so, those officers are violating the Constitution.

There can be no freedom of the press without freedom to gather the news. Period.

 Statement from New Mexico reporter about his arrest at UNM encampment protest 

“Upon arriving on the scene, I asked officers where news media were permitted to stand to document the operation and did not receive an answer. I asked officers several times if there was a public information officer on scene with whom I could speak and was told there was not. I also inquired about who was in charge but got no response. We at all times followed instructions we received from police and stayed behind the yellow police tape. We were arrested while photographing the operation and shortly after asking an NMSP officer for his badge number and name. As I was being arrested, I said I was a member of the press repeatedly and loudly. 

“We spent approximately 12 hours in custody following our arrests. 

“We want to secure legal representation to fight the criminal charges before we speak further about our arrests.

“Thank you.” 

"The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone."

Via The Toronto Star

February 1, 2024

 What charges against journalist Brandi Morin mean for Canadian democracy

Trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges.

By Kiran Nazish, Contributor

The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin was interviewing indigenous elders and people inside an encampment in Edmonton for Ricochet media, when the police raid on indigenous encampments began.

Despite showing her credentials Morin was arrested, detained and kept in a cell at the police station for hours and charged with obstruction. Later Morin told me, an officer told her he had heard of her and knew her work.

The events Morin experienced that day was not only an escalation of police encounter for a journalist doing her job, but also what seems to be a carefully thought through intervention to the press’s ability to have access when the police is using force on citizens. Is it reasonable that after the police saw Morin's press credentials and the condemnations of her arrest — which were all over social media while she had been in the police station — that the police had a reason to believe that she was "obstructing?"

Charging a journalist covering a public issue that impacts hundreds of thousands of Canadians lacks foresight and sincerity on many levels, but most importantly smells of maleficence. This is a deliberate charge to intimidate journalists covering important stories that bring vital insight into some of the most concerning and sensitive issues impacting Canadians lives today.

This is not the first time law enforcement in Canada has gotten in the way of journalistic work.

At Women Press Freedom, a New York-based advocacy group focused on press freedom and gender globally, we observe authorities impeding journalists to be an ongoing issue and unfortunately a growing trend in Canada.

Since 2019, according to Women Press Freedom, almost 70 Canadian women journalists have been intimated or harassed for doing their work: 39 of these incidents include smear campaigns and online harassment, 16 press freedom violations including assaults while on the job, and 17 of these have been violations and impediments conducted by law enforcement including police and RCMP. These numbers only reflect attacks on the press for women journalists and do not cover the overall picture, which is much more bleak.

In 2016, journalist Justin Brake was criminally charged for his coverage of an occupation by Innu and Inuit land protectors of a construction site for Muskrat Falls, a controversial $12-billion hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2021, Ian Wilms was arrested while covering a similar raid of homeless encampment. The same year journalist Amber Bracken and Micheal Toledano were arrested by RCMP while reporting on the escalating situation at Gidimt’en camp in Wet’suwet’en territory. During Fairy Creek several journalists were intimidated, harassed and impeded from reporting on the protests.

The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin was interviewing indigenous elders and people inside an encampment in Edmonton for Ricochet media, when the police raid on indigenous encampments began. 

Despite showing her credentials Morin was arrested, detained and kept in a cell at the police station for hours and charged with obstruction. Later Morin told me, an officer told her he had heard of her and knew her work.

The events Morin experienced that day was not only an escalation of police encounter for a journalist doing her job, but also what seems to be a carefully thought through intervention to the press’s ability to have access when the police is using force on citizens. Is it reasonable that after the police saw Morin's press credentials and the condemnations of her arrest — which were all over social media while she had been in the police station — that the police had a reason to believe that she was "obstructing?" 

Charging a journalist covering a public issue that impacts hundreds of thousands of Canadians lacks foresight and sincerity on many levels, but most importantly smells of maleficence. This is a deliberate charge to intimidate journalists covering important stories that bring vital insight into some of the most concerning and sensitive issues impacting Canadians lives today. 

This is not the first time law enforcement in Canada has gotten in the way of journalistic work. 

At Women Press Freedom, a New York-based advocacy group focused on press freedom and gender globally, we observe authorities impeding journalists to be an ongoing issue and unfortunately a growing trend in Canada. 

Since 2019, according to Women Press Freedom, almost 70 Canadian women journalists have been intimated or harassed for doing their work: 39 of these incidents include smear campaigns and online harassment, 16 press freedom violations including assaults while on the job, and 17 of these have been violations and impediments conducted by law enforcement including police and RCMP. These numbers only reflect attacks on the press for women journalists and do not cover the overall picture, which is much more bleak. 

In 2016, journalist Justin Brake was criminally charged for his coverage of an occupation by Innu and Inuit land protectors of a construction site for Muskrat Falls, a controversial $12-billion hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2021, Ian Wilms was arrested while covering a similar raid of homeless encampment. The same year journalist Amber Bracken and Micheal Toledano were arrested by RCMP while reporting on the escalating situation at Gidimt’en camp in Wet’suwet’en territory. During Fairy Creek several journalists were intimidated, harassed and impeded from reporting on the protests. 

When it comes to police intimidation, impediment or arrests, we notice a consistent thread: number of journalists covering Indigenous stories and climate change-related stories dominate the chart. Brandi Morin has been targeted by RCMP and police on multiple occasions in the past few years, and in all these cases she was covering issues that impact lives of Indigenous Peoples.

These trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges. These are clear intimidations, and if a reformation of these police actions are not called for now, it would harm other institutions in the country widely.

This calls for attention for all Canadian leadership, particularly those who care about this country’s democratic values. There is an urgent need for steps that ensure the police and law enforcement comply with the laws of democracy, in which journalists are not obstructed but respected and supported. 

Morin was just doing her job. It is time that the Edmonton Police takes inspiration from that and do their job by respecting freedom of the press and dropping charges against her. 

Kiran Nazish is the founding director of the New York-based Women Press Freedom and the Coalition For Women In Journalism.