Courtesy Joseph Rushmore
Too often, police arrest journalists for doing their jobs. These arrests and prosecutions chill important reporting.
Arrests and prosecutions of journalists often violate the First Amendment, and they undermine the public’s right to learn about newsworthy events.
Data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker shows that journalists are at heightened risk of arrest while covering protests. But police have also arrested reporters just for gathering news or asking questions. Journalists should never be arrested for doing their jobs.
Featured Items
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Report: More than 50 journalists arrested or detained while on the job in the US in 2021
The 56 journalists arrested or detained in the United States in 2021 approaches the combined totals of 2017, 2018, and 2019 — an alarming indicator of the state of press freedom, according to a new report released by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
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Lawmakers can support journalists, but only by actually listening to them first
In the past two months, lawmakers in Florida and New Jersey have advanced misguided proposals that would effectively classify assaults on journalists as hate crimes. These proposals would do little to fix the underlying issues and would likely create a host of new problems.
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LAPD's flagrant disregard for freedom of the press
After a tumultuous 2020 saw unprecedented numbers of journalists arrested and detained, some held hope that police departments would learn from public backlash and change their behavior. In a coordinated crackdown on protests that included the arrest or detention of more than a dozen journalists, the Los Angeles Police Department showed last week that it has done no such thing.
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Iowa reporter Andrea Sahouri acquitted on charges that never should have been brought in the first place
A jury in Polk County, Iowa voted to acquit reporter Andrea Sahouri after she was arrested last summer while covering a protest. The case has been widely criticized by press freedom and human rights advocates around the world.
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Arrested for covering protests, four journalists are due in court this month
At least four journalists around the country will face trial this month following their arrests while covering Black Lives Matter protests, part of the unprecedented number of legal detentions of reporters in 2020.
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New report: A record breaking number of journalists arrested in the U.S. this year
New report, "U.S. Press Freedom in Crisis: Journalists Under Arrest in 2020," details how more than 117 journalists were arrested across the country in 2020.
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An NYPD lie about journalist arrests shows why it must not control press credentials
A photojournalist and a documentary filmmaker were among 10 people violently arrested by NYPD officers on Sunday, undermining the department's denial that journalists were arrested.
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Police accountability depends on transparency. Across the state, New York cops are resisting.
The unfolding story of the Daniel Prude case has been a testament to the importance of transparency laws in police accountability. Across New York State, police departments and unions have resisted those efforts.
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Draconian ‘national security’ law already muzzling Hong Kong’s journalists
Hong Kong police have arrested Jimmy Lai, publisher of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, and his two sons under collusion charges associated with the country’s controversial new national security law. Under the notoriously vague law, China has claimed the jurisdiction to silence essentially anyone that criticizes the Chinese Communist Party or publicly supports the pro-democracy movement.
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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.