Protect Journalists Covering Protests

Journalist Reed Dunlea is arrested at a protest in Brooklyn

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Keith

Journalists have the right to cover protests and demonstrations.

Protests are one of the most dangerous places for journalists in America. Journalists are routinely prevented from gathering the news, illegally arrested, and attacked by law enforcement and demonstrators.

Journalists have a First Amendment right to cover public protests. Protecting and expanding that right ensures that the public can learn what’s happening at protests and how they are policed.

Drop criminal charges against journalists in Newark

Prosecutors are holding criminal charges over the heads of journalists who were wrongfully arrested while covering immigration protests at Delaney Hall in New Jersey.

  1. Tell New Jersey officials to drop charges against journalists

  1. Photojournalist John Harrington at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021

    Another record year for press-freedom violations in the US

    Arrests/ProsecutionsArticle

    While we did not see the scope of national social-justice protests of 2020—a year in which journalists were arrested or assaulted on average more than once a day—2021 still outpaced the years before it for press-freedom violations. We systematically capture this data in the US Press Freedom Tracker, where Freedom of the Press Foundation, in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press freedom groups, has documented aggressions against journalists in the United States since 2017.