Local news fights press threats
Getty Images/Alex Kent
The data gathered by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker informs journalism.
The Tracker, a project of Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), forms the backbone of reporting, legal action, and advocacy efforts around press freedom violations in the United States.
Its data gives context to local and national threats to journalists and journalism, and helps shed light on individual incidents.
Featured Items
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Texas authorities extort journalist with his own equipment
Court states the obvious: Citizen journalists have the same First Amendment rights as any other journalists
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Indie journalists speak out about Chicago police
Reporters describe chaos, confusion, and rampant unconstitutionality at protests outside the DNC
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Press freedom at the DNC: Inside the convention and out on the streets
Listen to leading press freedom advocates discuss what they saw during last week’s Democratic National Convention
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Harris is just the latest internet-era politician to stonewall the press
Political candidates think the pros of avoiding journalists outweigh the cons. The only people who can change that are journalists themselves
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‘A national embarrassment’
The flood of press freedom violations against journalists covering protests opposing the Israel-Gaza war is a national embarrassment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented dozens of abuses connected to protests and counterprotests, and the numbers will likely grow. These recent incidents confirm what past data in the Tracker has demonstrated: protests are an especially dangerous place for journalists.
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Stop arresting journalists
Just a few months into 2024, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented four arrests or detentions of journalists covering protests in New York, Tennessee, and California. These arrests violate journalists’ rights, and they undermine the right of the public to learn about newsworthy events happening in their communities. They also show the disturbing and stubborn persistence of a system of policing that either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about First Amendment rights.
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Sunshine Week brings focus to public record lawsuits
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker highlights costs of government secrecy to taxpayers
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The case for ignoring censorship orders
When judges ignore the law to silence journalists, contempt of court is deserved
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Journalist arrests down but reporters covering protests still at risk
Report shows 14 journalists arrested for doing their jobs in 2022.
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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.
