New guide helps journalists know their rights when police come knocking
Marion County Record
Searches of newsrooms and seizures of journalists’ materials chill reporting.
Police searches of newsrooms and seizures of journalists' communications, electronic devices, notes, and other reporting materials intimidates journalists and sources and chill reporting. Searches and seizures can reveal confidential sources and transform reporters into tools of law enforcement.
Numerous laws protect reporters from searches and seizures, but police routinely violate them. Too often, courts rubber-stamp requests for searches and seizures involving journalists. In some instances, officials even appear to have obtained illegal search warrants to intimidate and silence journalists and news outlets who criticize them.
Featured Items
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Intimidation tactic: Police photograph faces, press passes of journalists covering protests
Law enforcement officers have photographed the faces or IDs of nearly three dozen journalists in Oregon and Minnesota in recent months, according to new data published by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. These measures don’t appear to serve any law enforcement purpose beyond intimidating reporters who are doing their job.
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DHS agents have reportedly injured at least 30 journalists in Portland
A disturbing federal assault on journalists is unfolding in Portland.
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Reported press freedom violations in Black Lives Matter protests near 500
An unprecedented assault on press freedom has been carried out by police since the George Floyd protests started in May.
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Minnesota police shockingly arrest CNN reporter on live TV, hit other journalists with tear gas and rubber bullets
This morning, viewers watching CNN for coverage of the ongoing protests in Minneapolis instead witnessed an unbelievable curtailment of press freedom, as an entire film crew was arrested — on air — apparently without even being notified of the cause of their arrest.
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Outrageous raids on journalists in Australia and elsewhere threaten press freedom
Recent raids on journalists and newsrooms in Australia are the latest in a string of instances — in no way limited to Australia — of government targeting of journalists for their reporting.
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Unanswered questions on the San Francisco police raid of a journalist’s home
The SF police chief finally apologized, but many questions remain unanswered.
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The US government is increasingly targeting journalists at the US-Mexico border
Numerous journalists covering the migrant caravan have been subjected to secondary screenings at the US-Mexico border, questioned, and searched. It’s not the first time CBP has targeted the press.
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Expanding the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker two years after launch
We're expanding our US Press Freedom Tracker project, which systematically tracks press freedom violations in the United States.
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Canadian police block journalists from covering pipeline protest in British Columbia
The Royal Mounted Canadian Police are preventing journalists from covering members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s opposition to the construction of a natural gas pipeline that would run through British Columbia.Members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation—including the hereditary leaders—began running checkpoints that block access to the planned construction site …
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Important new report sheds light on the US government’s border stops of journalists
A new report by the Committee to Protect to Journalists details officials’ unacceptable targeting of reporters at the border, including interrogating them about their work and pressuring them to hand over devices and passwords.
