Help us stop attacks on journalists and transparency
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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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‘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.
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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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For student journalists, the beats are the same but the protections are different
Student journalists, plagued by questions of editorial independence and with varying degrees of First Amendment protections, nonetheless face the same press freedom challenges as their professional counterparts.The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which documents First Amendment aggressions in the United States, has collected student journalism-based incidents at both the university …
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The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in 2018: Year two of documenting attacks on the press in the Trump era
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented numerous attacks on journalists and press freedom rights across the country in 2018, from arrests to physical attacks and prosecutions of sources.
