Charges dropped against Oregon journalist
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.
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Another record year for press-freedom violations in the US
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.
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More than 60 journalists have sued police after protest arrests or assaults
More than 60 journalists have sued police after arrests or assaults at protests, according to new analysis from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. That total amounts to 82% of the lawsuits filed by journalist or media outlet plaintiffs against public officials.
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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.
