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{
"title": "New Mexico settles lawsuit alleging violations of state’s public records law",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-mexico-settles-lawsuit-alleging-violations-of-states-public-records-law/",
"first_published_at": "2020-02-12T17:38:06.134148Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-13T22:35:37.671386Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-13T22:35:37.590545Z",
"date": "2019-06-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Santa Fe",
"longitude": -105.9378,
"latitude": 35.68698,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a6qa7\">The state of New Mexico agreed to a settlement with the weekly Santa Fe Reporter on June 27, 2019, following a lengthy lawsuit that accused a former governor of violating the state’s public records law and discriminating against the outlet in retaliation for its critical coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"694h5\">The Reporter had filed a lawsuit against then-Gov. Susana Martinez in 2013 over five requests for records related to pardons, emails and the governor’s calendar under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.</p><p data-block-key=\"r2dfh\">The complaint, which was reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, alleged that the governor failed to release documents within the mandated time frame and either did not conduct a comprehensive search for or did not provide all responsive documents. The Reporter asked the court for injunctive relief in the form of new policies and procedures for handling IPRA requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"xs4vw\">The Reporter suit included a separate claim alleging that the administration denied the newspaper access to information provided to other outlets, violating the state constitution’s Free Press Provision.</p><p data-block-key=\"yf091\">“The press must be free to report on public affairs and officials’ conduct without reprisal,” the complaint reads. “A free press and public access to information are undermined if the access of members of the press to facts relating to public business is limited because they present a certain viewpoint or perspective that the Governor does not like.”</p><p data-block-key=\"spcgq\">In December 2017, state District Judge Sarah Singleton ruled that, in regards to the denial of access, the governor had not violated the state constitution. Julie Ann Grimm, the Reporter’s editor and publisher, told the Tracker that Singleton’s ruling legitimized politicians giving outlets preferential treatment.</p><p data-block-key=\"g37ic\">“The judge in her ruling and in some things that she said in court really made it clear that she felt like it was OK for public officials to pick and choose and to only talk to friendly press,” Grimm said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnrw8\">Singleton did find that Martinez violated the state’s open records act three times in its tardy or non-existent responses to public records requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"1bavq\">"It is the Court's opinion that if people create public documents on private email accounts, then when an IPRA request is made, the governmental body for whom those people are employed has an obligation to search or at least attempt to search those private accounts,” Singleton said, <a href=\"https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2017/12/14/judge-gov-martinez-violated-public-records-law-not-constitution/\">according to the Reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjry1\">“To hold otherwise would make it too easy to hide from inspection the very types of public records which are most in need of disclosure," Singleton said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d28p0\">The Reporter was awarded attorneys fees totaling nearly $400,000 but no damages on the three counts. Grimm told the Tracker that no new IPRA policies or procedures were developed or implemented in response to the outlet’s request for an injunction.</p><p data-block-key=\"36t13\">Martinez’s attorney Paul Kennedy appealed the decision in 2018 on the grounds that the verdict was a split decision, <a href=\"https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/state-pays-sf-reporter-legal-fees/article_9198b3b4-3989-11ea-a1ba-438b5bd24f28.html\">according to the Santa Fe New Mexican</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9l0u4\">In a compromise to avoid further litigation after Martinez left office, her successor, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, agreed to drop the appeal and pay a $360,000 settlement in June 2019. The agreement became public in January 2020 after the expiration of the legally-mandated confidentiality period.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzji1\">Grimm told the Tracker that she was grateful the Reporter was able to fully litigate the case, in large part because its lawyers represented the newspaper on contingency, or accepting payment only in the case of a favorable result.</p><p data-block-key=\"icml4\">“It requires a great deal of energy to litigate, especially when you’re up against the highest office in the state,” Grimm said. Grimm added that the Reporter is still waiting on records from Martinez’s administration, and access to public records continues to be “an ongoing battle in New Mexico at every level of government.”</p><p data-block-key=\"z1n75\">The director of communications for Gov. Lujan Grisham, Tripp Stelnicki, told the Tracker that the governor’s administration has endeavored to communicate with the press without bias and to improve access to public information.</p><p data-block-key=\"p8kj4\">“We would not have been interested in continuing to defend the previous administration’s obstruction of information to that particular outlet,” Stelnicki said. “That’s not how the governor does things.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cg9t2\">Stelnicki added that the current administration’s approach is to disclose or provide everything that can be released.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Santa_Fe_Reporter_1.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"fvood\">A portion of the 2013 lawsuit filed on behalf of the Santa Fe Reporter against then-Gov. Susana Martinez</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "New Mexico",
"abbreviation": "NM"
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"targeted_institutions": [
"Santa Fe Reporter"
],
"tags": [
"public records"
],
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"categories": [
"Other Incident"
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{
"title": "Newsday reporter threatened and ordered out of the locker room following Mets loss in Chicago",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newsday-reporter-threatened-and-ordered-out-locker-room-following-mets-loss-chicago/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-25T17:47:00.463235Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:52:18.009959Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:52:17.926610Z",
"date": "2019-06-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"b2nnv\">A New York Mets beat reporter was physically threatened by one of the team’s pitchers and ordered out of the briefing room by the team’s manager following a loss to the Chicago Cubs on June 23, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"fe8rr\">Newsday reporter Tim Healey was in the locker room in Chicago’s Wrigley Field for the after-game press conference alongside other journalists covering the game. Healey <a href=\"https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/newsday-mets-tim-healey-mickey-callaway-jason-vargas-1.32837155\">told Newsday</a> that when Manager Mickey Callaway came out of his office, “I thought he was leaving for the day, so I said, ‘See you tomorrow, Mickey.’” Callaway reportedly responded, “Don’t be a smart-ass.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h1vmv\">The New York Daily News <a href=\"https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-mets-mickey-callaway-jason-vargas-mother-clubhouse-20190623-nxvey55oavfdrgwg4lzls2s63i-story.html\">reported</a> that Callaway called Healey a “motherfucker” under his breath before walking into another room. When Callaway returned after a few minutes, he continued to confront the reporter about the comment, which Healey assured him wasn’t made maliciously.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ab6k\">“Shut the fuck up, get out of my face. Get out of here,” Callaway said in response, according to The Daily News. Callaway then told a team public relations official, “Get this motherfucker out of here, he’ll be here tomorrow.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rf4jt\">Newsday reported that this exchange caught the attention of pitcher Jason Vargas. When Healey noticed that Vargas had been staring at him, he asked if everything was OK or if there was something he wanted to say. In response, Vargas threatened him.</p><p data-block-key=\"15h5x\">“He said, ‘I’ll knock you out right here’ and then took a couple of steps toward me,” Healey told Newsday. “Some people said charged—charged is super-strong.”</p><p data-block-key=\"96tkl\">Mets media relations manager and several teammates got between Healey and Vargas and ensured that the pitcher remained at a distance. No punches were thrown, and Healey said at that moment he removed himself from the locker room.</p><p data-block-key=\"7teii\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimBritton/status/1142949594453729280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1142949594453729280&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthespun.com%2Fmore%2Ftop-stories%2Fnew-york-mets-release-statement-on-clubhouse-incident\">In a statement</a> released that evening, the Mets wrote that they “sincerely regret the incident that took place with one of our beat writers following today’s game in the clubhouse. We do not condone this type of behavior from any employee. The organization has reached out and apologized to this reporter and will have further discussions internally with all involved parties.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xz8j1\">Deadspin <a href=\"https://deadspin.com/mickey-callaway-and-jason-vargas-are-sorry-that-their-a-1835819995\">reported</a> that Callaway and Vargas were each fined $10,000 and had to give statements addressing the incident. In one of his statements, Callaway said that he had spoken privately with Healey and apologized.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1ynix\">New York Mets Manager Mickey Callaway, here at Wrigley Field, and pitcher Jason Vargas were each fined $10,000 after a heated interaction with Newsday reporter Tim Healey following a loss to the Chicago Cubs.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"Other Incident"
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"Tim Healey (Newsday)"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist arrested while covering climate demonstration, equipment seized",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-climate-demonstration-equipment-seized/",
"first_published_at": "2019-07-09T21:22:06.278720Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-02-21T18:27:14.380103Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-02-21T18:27:14.243204Z",
"date": "2019-06-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lc8w3\">On June 22, 2019, independent photojournalist Michael Nigro was arrested in New York City while covering a demonstration calling for aggressive action on climate change outside the headquarters of The New York Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"0jt7r\">Protesters from the group Extinction Rebellion had staged a direct action on 41st Street and Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, Nigro said, with some protesters blocking traffic on Eighth Avenue and others scaling the Times building to unfurl banners.</p><p data-block-key=\"6rqw9\">“I, as a journalist, was covering the action and was looking for a good vantage point,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"qq5zc\">Nigro went to the third floor of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a busy transit station located across the street from the Times building, to document the protest. Port Authority police officers responding to the protest then arrived and asked him to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"d72ps\">Nigro said that he was wearing two press badges around his neck — one from the National Press Photographers Association and one given to accredited journalists by the NYPD. He showed the badges to the officers and asserted his right to film the protest. After some back-and-forth discussion with the officers, he agreed to leave the area. Unexpectedly, the officers then arrested him for trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8saa\">“While we were leaving, their radio went off and they were told to arrest me,” he said. “They apologized.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kzehh\">Nigro was then taken to the Port Authority police station and handcuffed to a wall, and both his phone and camera were seized as evidence. He estimates that he was handcuffed to the wall for about two hours before Port Authority police officers escorted him to an interrogation room, where he was chained to a bench, read his Miranda rights, and questioned by detectives. Nigro said that he refused to answer any questions without his lawyer present. He was then fingerprinted and brought to a holding cell.</p><p data-block-key=\"ghi7d\">Nigro said that while he was detained in the holding cell, an officer from the NYPD’s media relations office — known as the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, or DCPI — visited him in his cell to inform him that the NYPD was revoking his official press badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"46dcs\">Nigro was eventually issued a desk appearance ticket and released, but his arresting officer refused to return his camera and phone. The police returned his equipment and press badge to him a week later.</p><p data-block-key=\"db4um\">The desk appearance ticket lists a single charge against Nigro — <a href=\"https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/penal-law/pen-sect-140-10.html\">criminal trespass in the third degree, a Class B misdemeanor</a> — and requires him to appear in New York City criminal court on Aug. 22.</p><p data-block-key=\"i310m\">CNN reported that more than <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/22/us/extinction-rebellion-new-york-times-arrests/index.html\">60 protesters were also arrested</a> during the demonstration and charged with disorderly conduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"p6t4o\">This is not the first time that Nigro has been arrested while working as a journalist. In 2018, he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-michael-nigro-arrested-while-covering-protest-missouri/\">arrested and charged with “failure to obey”</a> while covering a civil disobedience action in Jefferson City, Missouri. The charges were later dropped. Before that, in 2016, he was arrested while documenting an anti-Trump march in New York City.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5mndz\">Demonstrators calling for aggressive action on the climate gather in front of The New York Times building in Manhattan.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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{
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},
{
"quantity": 1,
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{
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}
],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-07-15 11:11:00+00:00) NYPD drops charges against journalist arrested while covering protest"
],
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"tags": [
"environmentalism",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
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"Michael Nigro (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "New York Knicks fined $50,000 for barring NY Daily News from press event",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-knicks-fined-50000-barring-ny-daily-news-press-event/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-26T17:29:11.757798Z",
"last_published_at": "2019-06-26T17:29:11.757798Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2019-06-26T17:29:11.670181Z",
"date": "2019-06-21",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>The National Basketball Association <a href=\"https://www.nba.com/article/2019/06/24/nba-fines-new-york-knicks-media-policy\">announced</a> that the New York Knicks have been fined $50,000 for denying the New York Daily News reporters access to a press conference on June 21, 2019.</p><p>By not allowing the Daily News access to the team’s post-draft press conference when all other credentialed media covering the team were permitted to attend, the NBA determined that the Knicks had violated the league’s rules regarding equal access for media.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">FWIW, The Daily News was not invited to this presser for <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RjBarrett6?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RjBarrett6</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/_iggy_braz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@_iggy_braz</a> but every other NYC outlet covering the team was. <br><br>Jim Dolan doesn't like the coverage and has effectively banned them from covering the team.</p>— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AdamZagoria/status/1142117912746086402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>“The actions of willful discrimination taken by the New York Knicks against reporters from the New York Daily News are an abridgment of the First Amendment and not befitting a team in the National Basketball Association,” Todd Adams, president of the Associated Press Sports Editors, said in a statement released on June 24.The NBA fined the team later that day.</p><p>The New York Post <a href=\"https://nypost.com/2019/02/01/knicks-need-to-quit-the-hide-from-the-press-game/\">reported</a> in February that the Knicks and the Daily News “have been feuding for more than a decade,” stemming from Knicks owner James Dolan’s <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/sports/james-dolan-knicks.html\">perception</a> of bias and “ill will” in the newspaper’s coverage of the team.</p><p>The team released a statement responding to the fine, acknowledging they failed to comply with the media policy, citing “an error in interpreting Friday’s announcement as an invite only event.” They pledged to adhere to the rules moving forward.</p><p>This incident is the only one to be acknowledged by the NBA with a fine for the organization. However, Daily News beat writer Stefan Bondy was banned from covering Knicks press conferences in December and January, according to <a href=\"https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-sports-raissman-knicks-barring-media-20181221-story.html\">the Daily News</a> and the <a href=\"https://nypost.com/2019/02/01/knicks-need-to-quit-the-hide-from-the-press-game/\">Post</a>, respectively.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p>R.J. Barrett, the No. 3 draft pick for the New York Knicks, was part of a press conference that pointedly excluded the New York Daily News, an outlet with a combative history with the team. The Knicks were fined $50,000 for the exclusion.</p>",
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"name": "New York",
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"[New York] Daily News"
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{
"title": "New Yorker staff writer subpoenaed for testimony in civil rights lawsuit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-yorker-staff-writer-subpoenaed-testimony-civil-rights-lawsuit/",
"first_published_at": "2019-11-08T18:22:34.962239Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T22:56:58.579288Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T22:56:58.471650Z",
"date": "2019-06-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1271g\">In June, attorneys representing the city of Chicago subpoenaed New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Schmidle to testify about his sources for an article published in 2014. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., then quashed the subpoenas in October.</p><p data-block-key=\"i3z56\">A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-yorker-staff-writer-subpoenaed-all-documents-around-2014-article/\">separate subpoena for documents</a> was served to Schmidle in February.</p><p data-block-key=\"rfig4\">In 2014, Schmidle wrote a <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/crime-fiction\">feature story for the New Yorker about Tyrone Hood</a>, who had been convicted of murder in 1996 and sentenced to 75 years in prison. Schmidle’s article included evidence strongly suggesting that Hood was innocent.</p><p data-block-key=\"y6swx\">In January 2015, outgoing Illinois governor Pat Quinn <a href=\"https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/01/13/quinn-commutes-sentence-of-man-convicted-of-lying-in-murder-case/\">commuted the prison sentences</a> of a number of prisoners, including Hood, on his last day in office. Because Hood received a commutation, not a pardon, he was let out of jail early but the murder conviction stayed on his record.</p><p data-block-key=\"hyp25\">At the time, a spokeswoman for Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez told CBS 2 Chicago that Alvarez was “deeply disappointed” with the governor’s decision to commute Hood’s sentence.</p><p data-block-key=\"os2ys\">Just a month later, though, Alvarez’s office announced that its Conviction Integrity Unit had completed a two-year investigation into Hood’s case, which concluded that Hood’s conviction should be vacated. Alvarez then <a href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-tyrone-hood-conviction-dismissed-met-0210-20150209-story.html\">asked a court to vacate Hood’s conviction</a>, which the court did. Hood was now out of prison and cleared of the murder conviction.</p><p data-block-key=\"egvyx\">In 2016, Hood filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago and a number of Chicago police officers, accusing them of pressuring witnesses into falsely accusing him of murder.</p><p data-block-key=\"vbvq7\">On June 18, 2019, the reporter Schmidle was served with <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15957074/1/6/hood-v-city-of-chicago/\">a subpoena to testify in the case</a>. The subpoena ordered him to submit to a deposition at a “TBD” location on July 12. About a week later, a process server tried to drop off <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15957074/1/7/hood-v-city-of-chicago/\">a new copy of the subpoena</a> (which included the location of the deposition) but Schmidle refused to open his door.</p><p data-block-key=\"owzzq\">Attorneys for both Hood and Schmidle have opposed the subpoenas for the reporter, arguing that a journalist’s documents and testimony are not relevant to a case that concerns the alleged behavior of Chicago police officers in the early 1990s.</p><p data-block-key=\"5uogk\">Attorneys for the city of Chicago’s attorneys and the other defendants in Hood’s civil rights have argued that Schmidle’s testimony is essential, using a theory that puts Schmidle at the center of the action.</p><p data-block-key=\"24dyc\">The defendants’ attorneys have argued that Hood’s civil rights were not violated because he actually is guilty of murder and his murder conviction should not have been vacated. They argue that journalists like Schmidle were tricked into writing a false narrative, which in turn prompted Governor Quinn to commute Hood’s sentence and pressure the state attorney’s office to get Hood’s conviction thrown out.</p><p data-block-key=\"0arpa\">On July 23, Schmidle’s attorneys <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15957074/1/1/hood-v-city-of-chicago/\">asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to quash</a> the two deposition subpoenas, on the grounds that the subpoenas were improperly served, Schmidle’s testimony was unnecessary and Schmidle could not be forced to testify because he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lhbt\">The defendants’ attorneys defended their decision to subpoena Schmidle’s testimony, <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15957074/7/hood-v-city-of-chicago/\">filing a response to Schmidle’s motion to quash</a> that detailed their quasi-conspiratorial theory about Schmidle’s central role in getting Hood’s conviction tossed out.</p><p data-block-key=\"ty5b6\">“Defendants seek to take Schmidle’s deposition to explore his role in Hood’s coordinated media campaign, because that campaign was critical to Hood convincing Gov. Quinn to grant clemency,” the defendants’ attorneys wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"wsz01\">On Oct. 18, Judge Amit Mehta of the District of Columbia District Court <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15957074/12/hood-v-city-of-chicago/\">ordered the two deposition subpoenas quashed</a>. Mehta found that, while the subpoenas had been properly served, the defendants had not shown that they had “exhausted every reasonable alternative source of information,” which they must do before forcing a journalist to testify. If the defendants wanted to learn about Schmidle’s communications with his sources, Mehta said, then they should subpoena those sources, rather than Schmidle.</p><p data-block-key=\"zmme9\">Through a New Yorker spokeswoman, Schmidle declined to comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dce9d\">A portion of the subpoena seeking testimony from reporter Nicholas Schmidle about a 2014 article published in The New Yorker</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"quashed"
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{
"title": "Man arrested for assaulting reporter outside of Trump’s reelection announcement rally",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-arrested-for-assaulting-reporter-outside-of-trumps-reelection-announcement-rally/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-20T17:20:13.343856Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T00:12:53.450142Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T00:12:53.347128Z",
"date": "2019-06-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Orlando",
"longitude": -81.37924,
"latitude": 28.53834,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5l0po\">A Florida man was charged with battery after assaulting an Orlando Sentinel reporter on June 18, 2019, at the Amway Center in Orlando, where President Donald Trump was hosting a rally to launch his bid for re-election in 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"0x4jg\">Sentinel reporter Michael Williams <a href=\"https://twitter.com/michaeldamianw/status/1141139374467366912\">was filming</a> at least three individuals with his cellphone as they were removed from the building. One of the men, later identified as Daniel Kestner, appeared to be engaged in a dispute with a second man, but his ire turned to Williams when he noticed that the journalist was filming the altercation.</p><p data-block-key=\"jy381\">Kestner then began to approach Williams, hurling curses and demanding that he stop filming them. When Williams didn’t comply with his demands, Kestner can be heard saying, “I promise you I’ll kick you in the nuts.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aqevc\">The Sentinel <a href=\"https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-trump-orlando-aftermath-20190619-aearswhyxfa6tcehgi3uphicbm-story.html\">reported</a> that Williams retreated backward, but Kestner caught up to him and smacked his hand, attempting to knock the cellphone to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"nj0ko\">In the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/michaeldamianw/status/1141139374467366912\">video</a>, security officers can be seen immediately coming between Kestner and Williams, ordering Kestner to immediately leave the property.</p><p data-block-key=\"6xxwq\">Orange County Clerk <a href=\"https://myeclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetails?caseId=11021325&caseIdEnc=ULkln37Dii1jaLxB%2BRwyJpKoEODBfYyAtJU8jmm%2BgXD%2BuaU5McRZ9xk49P%2FZyF6ZTyfJe25xMizZ%2FxhEyzgNzAKIMWDCJ6a7HqFaP0wUTAg%3D\">records</a> obtained by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker show that Kestner was later arrested and charged with battery for “willingly striking” Williams. A first-degree misdemeanor, Kestner could face up to one year in jail if convicted.</p><p data-block-key=\"lzy3j\">According to a police report obtained by the Sentinel, Kestner was intoxicated during the altercation.</p><p data-block-key=\"2n0xp\">Julie Anderson, editor in chief of the Sentinel, <a href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporter-arrested-assault-journalist-rally-1444834\">told Newsweek</a> that ahead of the rally the newsroom spoke with the reporters and photographers covering the event, “telling them to be careful and vigilant about their own personal safety.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mcvev\">Anderson told the Tracker that her staff has faced intimidation, threats and name-calling at Trump rallies since 2016.</p></div>",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"v3qfg\">People chant “Fake News” as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign kickoff rally in Orlando, Florida.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-09-16 12:09:00+00:00) Man arrested on battery charge of journalist agrees to probationary deal"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"election",
"Election 2020",
"political rally"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Michael Williams (Orlando Sentinel)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "BuzzFeed receives first subpoena in ongoing Unsworth-Musk defamation lawsuit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-receives-first-subpoena-ongoing-unsworth-musk-defamation-lawsuit/",
"first_published_at": "2019-10-01T17:59:22.831625Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-22T13:59:23.966789Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-22T13:59:23.806580Z",
"date": "2019-06-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vklj3\">BuzzFeed News was issued its first subpoena in the unfolding case between caver Vernon Unsworth and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on June 14, 2019. The outlet and one of its reporters <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?state=California&targeted_institutions=BuzzFeed+News&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">subsequently received four additional subpoenas</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"segca\">Unsworth is suing Musk for defamation, alleging that the tech executive repeatedly labeled him a pedophile without evidence on Twitter and in communications with BuzzFeed senior tech journalist Ryan Mac, the latter of which were published by the outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"hwoiq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker reviewed the subpoena, which was filed by counsel for Musk. The subpoena ordered BuzzFeed to produce copies of two articles published by the outlet in August and September 2018, BuzzFeed’s communications with Unsworth and Musk, and documentation of BuzzFeed’s policies concerning “off the record” or “on background” conversations.</p><p data-block-key=\"79457\">The subpoena also requested all documents concerning any payments, income, stipends, or gifts BuzzFeed received in exchange for the two articles containing Musk’s statements about Unsworth.</p><p data-block-key=\"knjg1\">Lawyers representing BuzzFeed filed objections to the demand for the outlet’s communications with Musk and Unsworth on July 1, citing both parties’ access to these documents and the public availability of BuzzFeed’s News Standards and Ethics Guide. They also wrote that, consistent with the ethics guidelines, the outlet does not accept any form of payment or gifts to publish articles and therefore no documents are responsive to that request.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/MacBuzzFeed1.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5c02b\">A portion of the first subpoena BuzzFeed received as part of a defamation case between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the caver Vernon Unsworth.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": "journalist communications or work product",
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-10-28 00:00:00+00:00) Court quashes Elon Musk’s subpoena for BuzzFeed documents"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"BuzzFeed News"
],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": [
"ignored"
],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist assaulted, pushed to the ground while covering protest in Memphis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-pushed-to-the-ground-while-covering-protest-in-memphis/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-21T17:18:11.960314Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-17T19:25:41.967060Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-17T19:25:41.835702Z",
"date": "2019-06-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Memphis",
"longitude": -90.04898,
"latitude": 35.14953,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r93r7\">WREG-TV reporter Luke Jones was hurt while covering protests over a fatal officer shooting in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 12, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"lnf7k\">U.S. marshals shot and killed Brandon Webber, a 20-year-old Black man, in the Memphis community of Frayser, sparking violent protests. In a Facebook post in response to the protests, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/mayormemphis/posts/2319727971632353\">Memphis Mayor John Strickland wrote</a> that “At least 24 officers and deputies were injured---6 were taken to the hospital. At least two journalists were injured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hczhw\">Jones wrote on Twitter that a man ran up and hit him in the head, and then knocked him to the ground. Eight hours later, Jones tweeted again, and said that he was leaving the hospital and received a contusion.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Had to change locations. Guy just ran up, hit me on the side of my head and knocked me to the ground. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/3onyourside?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@3onyourside</a></p>— Luke Jones (@LukeJonesTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LukeJonesTV/status/1139001194007977984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 2019</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just left the hospital and all is well. Only a contusion. Thanks for the well wishes.</p>— Luke Jones (@LukeJonesTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LukeJonesTV/status/1139114829090906112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 2019</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0hfgi\">Jones told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he did not have any equipment with him at the time he was attacked, and that he had been walking to meet a photographer when it felt like someone punched him in the side of his head.</p><p data-block-key=\"pheki\">Jones said he filed a police report over the incident on the evening of June 12.</p><p data-block-key=\"gqix1\">Mayor Strickland’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Tracker.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Tennessee",
"abbreviation": "TN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Luke Jones (WREG-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Freelance photographer attacked after Stanley Cup by man yelling support of Trump",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-attacked-after-stanley-cup-man-yelling-support-trump/",
"first_published_at": "2019-10-25T20:18:10.852280Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T19:52:31.074653Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T19:52:30.975602Z",
"date": "2019-06-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"trlo3\">Scott Eisen, a freelance photographer on assignment for Getty Images, said he was punched in the face on the street in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 12, 2019, by an unidentified man who seemed to support President Donald Trump and his anti-press rhetoric.</p><p data-block-key=\"ds6hs\">Eisen had just completed an assignment covering fan reaction to the final game of the Stanley Cup, in which the Boston Bruins lost to the St. Louis Blues, when he was attacked at around 11:30 p.m. on the edge of downtown Boston, Eisen recounted in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He had taken the subway back to where his car was parked, and while he was busy putting his photo equipment into the back of his car, a man approached him and punched him in the face.</p><p data-block-key=\"mn6rh\">That evening, he shared his story on Twitter, noting he was “minding his own business” when the attack occurred.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Got punched in the face loading my photo equipment into my car after the Stanley Cup game tonight in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Boston?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Boston</a>. Absolutely ridiculous, minding my own business. <a href=\"https://t.co/RJAI782GFc\">pic.twitter.com/RJAI782GFc</a></p>— Scott Eisen (@scotteisenphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/scotteisenphoto/status/1139025126362624002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 2019</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s6agk\"></p><p data-block-key=\"zdw1t\">The next day, he added further details:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Adding on to my post from last night about getting punched in the face while loading my equipment into my car after the Stanley Cup game in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Boston?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Boston</a>. The person who hit me yelled “fake news, trump 2020” before punching me. I included it in my Facebook post but not here originally.</p>— Scott Eisen (@scotteisenphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/scotteisenphoto/status/1139246684213534720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 2019</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yxwi5\">Eisen — who also freelances for the Boston Globe, Bloomberg and The Associated Press — provided further details about the incident on his Instagram account. "A man came behind me, put me in a choke hold and yelled 'fake news! Trump 2020' and punched me right in the face," Eisen <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bysn1hSgI9y/\">wrote</a> in a Instagram caption accompanying a photo of his face, which was left swollen and scratched by the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e2f0\">"It goes to show it doesn’t matter where you are as a journalist these days...the climate is such that you need to always watch your back. Sad times. I’m fine. the funniest part is calling a wire photog 'fake news' is so ridiculous because all we do is make REAL photographs," Eisen continued.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mfnz\">In an email to the Tracker, Eisen explained how the attack has changed how he goes about his job. “I’m more cautious in places that I am used to being around as you never know who may be following you or in the area. We tend to let our guard down in familiar areas,” he wrote. “We are in a climate where media gets a lot of flack for doing our jobs and part of me hopes this man was just heavily intoxicated and not making the right decisions that evening.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX6Z4WC.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i81ul\">A St. Louis Blues hockey player celebrates with a fan after winning the Stanley Cup Final in June. Photographer Scott Eisen, who was covering the game for Getty Images, says he was attacked after the game while putting his equipment away.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Scott Eisen (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist assaulted while covering protest in Memphis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-while-covering-protest-in-memphis/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-19T17:00:37.191021Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-05T18:53:15.281748Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-05T18:53:15.198357Z",
"date": "2019-06-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Memphis",
"longitude": -90.04898,
"latitude": 35.14953,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ynj9r\">WATN-TV photographer Patrick Niedzwiedz was struck while covering protests over a fatal officer shooting in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 12, 2019.<br/><br/> U.S. marshals shot and killed Brandon Webber, a 20-year-old Black man, in the Memphis community of Frayser, sparking violent protests. In a Facebook post in response to the protests, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/mayormemphis/posts/2319727971632353\">Memphis Mayor John Strickland wrote</a> that “At least 24 officers and deputies were injured---6 were taken to the hospital. At least two journalists were injured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lxe8h\">Rebecca Butcher, a WATN-TV reporter tweeted that Niedzwiedz had been struck while filming the protest.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The crowd at Overton Crossing was too volatile. My photographer sadly was hit by someone in the crowd. Thankfully he is okay! We have now moved to Durham Street—where tonight’s officer-involved shooting took place. We’re live at 10. @LocalMemphis</p>— Rebecca Butcher 🦋 (@RebeccaB_TV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RebeccaB_TV/status/1139002210610798593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 2019</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gjj7o\">Butcher told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that after their third live broadcast for the 9 p.m. show, Niedzwiedz was still filming when he was struck in the side of his face by someone in the crowd. The <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/FOX10Phoenix/videos/2906233769602619?s=658885324&v=e&sfns=mo\">video</a> he was filming during the altercation shows a group of protesters pushing into the frame, and one attempting to grab the microphone from Butcher’s hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"9q4zx\">Butcher said that since Niedzwiedz’s eye was still to the camera he did not see who struck him. The blow did not break the skin and his camera equipment was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"8wcnt\">Mayor Strickland’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_17.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"myy7p\">A person attempts to wrestle the microphone from WATN-TV reporter Rebecca Butcher during protests on June 12, 2019, following a fatal officer shooting in Memphis, Tennessee. At least two journalists were injured.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Tennessee",
"abbreviation": "TN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Patrick Niedzwiedz (WATN-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Marine Corps denies veteran and Newsweek reporter interview in apparent retaliation for prior reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/marine-corps-denies-veteran-and-newsweek-reporter-interview-apparent-retaliation-prior-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2019-08-16T17:50:36.578185Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-04-06T17:37:13.592483Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-04-06T17:37:13.529849Z",
"date": "2019-06-07",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e7e65\">James LaPorta, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and reporter for Newsweek, was denied an interview with the Marine Corps’ top general and told on June 7, 2019, that it was because of his previous reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"6m6sw\">LaPorta told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he has been attempting to get an interview with Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, since 2016 or 2017, but his requests have been repeatedly denied. When it was announced that Neller would be retiring in July 2019, LaPorta said he again filed interview requests pushing to have an exit interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"41rsr\">“I keep asking, ‘Hey, can I get this exit interview?’” LaPorta told the Tracker, “And they’ve told me, ‘He doesn’t have availability right now’ or ‘He’s traveling’ or ‘Your request right now isn’t supportable.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"gwqgn\">LaPorta placed a final request to interview Neller on April 1, and followed up by email on April 3. LaPorta told the Tracker that he received no response from the Marine Corps.</p><p data-block-key=\"ibamr\">When he sent another email on April 22, LaPorta said that he received a response three days later telling him that the general was “flooded with interview requests” and was unavailable, but they would keep his as a standing interview request.</p><p data-block-key=\"t7djr\">However, LaPorta saw that <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/729300525/the-marines-top-general-talks-about-a-changing-corps\">NPR published an exclusive interview</a> with Neller on June 4. LaPorta told the Tracker he reached out to the NPR reporter to ask what he had written in his interview request and when he had filed it: the reporter told him April 24, nearly a month after LaPorta filed his request and one day before he was told Neller had no availability.</p><p data-block-key=\"09pne\">In an email shared with the Tracker, LaPorta asked Col. Riccoh Player, a public relations officer for Neller, why NPR’s request was granted while Newsweek’s was found “unsupportable.” In an emailed response, Player wrote, “Your request has been staffed, discussed, re-looked, risk-assessed and denied.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h5ir2\">Player’s response specifically mentioned <a href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/border-funding-general-trump-defense-1382113\">an article</a> published shortly after LaPorta’s interview request was filed, which cited two anonymous Pentagon sources. Player wrote to LaPorta that “this ‘un-named [sic] sources’ technique you incorporated was not helpful in making a case on your behalf.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n63fi\">The email additionally cited his “Military ID Card Stunt” at Camp Lejeune, a major Marine Corps base in North Carolina. The “stunt” involved LaPorta using his military ID to access the base in February 2017 in order to speak with a source who said he did not trust the base’s public affairs office. Because LaPorta did not alert the office or receive its approval to conduct an interview, he was indefinitely barred from the base. This denial of access was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/marine-corps-bans-journalist-camp-lejeune-base/\">documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"04gym\">Following Neller’s retirement in July, LaPorta told the Tracker he filed multiple interview requests to speak with the new commandant, but those requests have also been denied or ignored. LaPorta told the Tracker that on July 26 he received an email from Player denying his most recent request because “[The Marine Corps] leaders have a long memory.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX30Z79_v6Yy0ML.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cdih3\">Newsweek reporter James LaPorta was denied an interview request with Gen. Robert Neller, shown here testifying during a 2017 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"military"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"James LaPorta (Newsweek)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Broadcast journalist threatened at gunpoint in Texas",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-journalist-threatened-gunpoint-texas/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-10T18:25:54.421287Z",
"last_published_at": "2019-06-10T18:25:54.421287Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2019-06-10T18:25:54.360591Z",
"date": "2019-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Killeen",
"longitude": -97.7278,
"latitude": 31.11712,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>KCEN-TV reporter Emani Payne wrote on Facebook that she was threatened at gunpoint while reporting outside an apartment complex in Killeen, Texas, on May 30, 2019.<br/><br/> “Yesterday was the most frightening experience of my reporting career thus far,” <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/EmaniPayneTV/posts/2802671023138998\">wrote Payne in a Facebook post</a>. “I went to a bad area of Killeen to an apartment complex to follow up on a story.”</p><p>Payne wrote that since she was alone, she recognized that it was time to leave once she saw violent activity erupting at the complex.</p><p>“As I tried to head back to my news car I was approached by a man who pulled a gun out on me in an attempt to harm me and prevent me from leaving with the car. I left the car behind and ran and didn’t stop until I found a store to hide out in and call for help.”<br/><br/> Payne did not respond to request for comment by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, but she wrote that she had filed a police report and that a detective has been assigned to the case.<br/><br/> “We are not invincible,” Payne wrote. “I’m thankful that I was able to run for help and that this didn’t end much worse and that I did not become the story yesterday.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "<p></p>",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": null,
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Emani Payne (KCEN-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Pennsylvania journalist barred from publishing document mistakenly made public, order vacated",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pennsylvania-journalist-barred-publishing-document-mistakenly-made-public-order-vacated/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-05T20:17:02.183606Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-11T16:44:19.945131Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-11T16:44:19.853917Z",
"date": "2019-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Pittsburgh",
"longitude": -79.99589,
"latitude": 40.44062,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z806k\">A Pittsburgh-based reporter was ordered on May 30, 2019, not to publish details of a sealed settlement that he was mistakenly able to access. At a hearing on June 4, the order was vacated by Washington County Common Pleas President Judge Katherine Emery.</p><p data-block-key=\"27gd9\">Range Resources Appalachia LLC had reached a settlement in August 2018 with families who alleged they had experienced serious health problems due to exposure to leaks, spills and air pollution emanating from a nearby Range well.</p><p data-block-key=\"cfpwu\">The settlement was sealed, only coming to the attention of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in January while reporting on a related story. Upon learning of the confidential settlement, the Post-Gazette filed a court action seeking to unseal it.</p><p data-block-key=\"gz8nt\">A hearing on the newspaper’s petition to intervene was scheduled for May 28, Post-Gazette reporter Don Hopey told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “[Judge Emery] deferred ruling,” he said, “instead taking the case under advisement.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4ct6g\">Reid Frazier, a reporter for The Allegheny Front, StateImpact Pennsylvania and WESA 90.5, was in Washington, Pennsylvania, that day to cover the hearing. Hopey told the Tracker that in the course of conducting background research on the case, Frazier discovered the sealed settlement in the Washington County Prothonotary’s Public Case File Database.</p><p data-block-key=\"5wsn2\">County prothonotary Joy Ranko later <a href=\"https://observer-reporter.com/news/impoundments/radio-reporter-obtains-copy-of-confidential-natural-gas-settlement-but/article_efc76320-83d3-11e9-9193-0f9471336e69.html\">told the Washington Observer-Reporter</a> that the document was available due to a software glitch.</p><p data-block-key=\"fmegy\">When Range lawyers became aware that Frazier had obtained the settlement and planned to air a story about it on May 30, they sent him a cease and desist letter and alerted the judge, the StateImpact <a href=\"https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/05/31/judge-bars-release-of-document-in-gas-drilling-suit/\">reported</a>. Emery issued an injunction barring Frazier, The Allegheny Front or StateImpact from “directly or indirectly publishing, circulating, disseminating, disclosing, describing, duplicating, or otherwise sharing in any way contents of the Sealed Documents.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3pq2y\">Frazier <a href=\"https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/06/04/court-document-reveals-range-resources-other-defendants-agreed-to-3-million-settlement-in-washington-county-contamination-suit/\">reported</a> that at the June 4 hearing for the injunction, Range did not ask for a continuation of the order and told Emery it would publicly release the settlement terms. Emery vacated the injunction order.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Range Resources attorneys announced in court today that they will release terms of the Haney-Range settlement. Said they were seeking "peace".</p>— Reid Frazier (@reidfrazier) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/reidfrazier/status/1135932398594605056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pqs5p\">In the course of the Post-Gazette petitioning to unseal the settlement, Range lawyers also <a href=\"/all-incidents/pennsylvania-judge-denies-energy-companys-subpoena-of-pittsburgh-post-gazette-staff/\">attempted to subpoena and depose two reporters and an editor at the newspaper</a>. In early May, Emery denied Range’s attempt to uncover sources and view confidential notes and documents, citing the state’s shield law.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/ShaleSettlement.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4541b\">Reporter Reid Frazier was ordered to not publish the contents of this settlement agreement, which had been sealed but mistakenly made public.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": "struck down",
"mistakenly_released_materials": true,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"StateImpact Pennsylvania"
],
"tags": [
"environmentalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Prior Restraint"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Reid Frazier (The Allegheny Front)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Reporters removed from Kansas Senate floor, threatened with loss of press passes",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-removed-kansas-senate-floor-threatened-loss-press-passes/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-04T20:51:14.017740Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T19:52:46.934392Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T19:52:46.782118Z",
"date": "2019-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Topeka",
"longitude": -95.67804,
"latitude": 39.04833,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1qjaw\">Journalists were expelled from the Kansas Senate in Topeka after protesters disrupted a Medicaid expansion hearing on May 29, 2019. News reporters and photojournalists from multiple outlets were ordered to leave under threat of losing access to future Senate proceedings before the protesters were detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"xdoy8\">Senate President Susan Wagle attempted to return order to the Senate floor after nine Medicaid supporters began singing and chanting in the gallery above. After approximately 20 minutes, at which point many senators had left the chambers, Wagle chief of staff Harrison Hems and a Capitol police officer approached the assembled reporters and ordered them to leave the floor.</p><p data-block-key=\"l290i\">At least four journalists posted publicly about being asked to leave or had been recording in the Senate chambers until media were removed, including Alec Gartner of KSNT News, John Hanna of The Associated Press, Jonathan Shorman of The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle and Sherman Smith of The Topeka Capital-Journal. When reporters refused, Hems threatened them and said that they were giving an audience to the protesters, the Topeka Capital-Journal <a href=\"https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190529/medicaid-expansion-supporters-drown-out-kansas-senate-proceedings\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lh2ff\">“I’m just telling you it’s a privilege to have a press pass, to be on the floor, to document,” Hems said. “When I’m trying to get people out to restore order to the chamber so we can conduct our business and you guys just sit there with a camera in their face and give them an audience, that makes my job incredibly difficult. I’m not trying to silence the press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"okgfa\">Hems was reportedly acting at the direction of Wagle, and the journalists acquiesced to leaving the floor.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So we have been removed from the Senate. We don’t know what they’re doing in the chamber <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ksleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ksleg</a></p>— Jonathan Shorman (@jonshorman) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jonshorman/status/1133765331942555648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 29, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"p6pbq\">Once they were outside, the chamber doors were locked and police escorted protesters out of the gallery. At least one demonstrator received a summons to appear in court on a possible misdemeanor charge of illegally interfering with public business, Patrol Lt. Stephen Larow <a href=\"https://www.wral.com/kansas-lawmakers-settle-fiscal-issues-amid-medicaid-protest/18418734/\">told WRAL News</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"af6ra\">Journalists were allowed to reenter the chambers after approximately 45 minutes, and the gallery was reopened once Wagle received notice that the protesters had left the Capitol building.</p><p data-block-key=\"9jeuj\">The Kansas Association of Broadcasters, the Kansas Sunshine Coalition and the Kansas Press Association <a href=\"https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/sunshine-coalition-kab-file-complaint-against-kansas-senate-president-in-protest-debacle/2039174096\">filed a formal complaint</a> with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, arguing that the unprecedented removals of the journalists violated the Senate Chamber’s rules and the Kansas Open Meetings Act, which establishes that all committee and subcommittee meetings must be open, with few exceptions.</p><p data-block-key=\"l30b1\">The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle <a href=\"https://media.kansascity.com/livegraphics/2019/pdf/WagleLtr052919.pdf\">sent a letter</a> to Wagle on May 29, calling the implied threats unconstitutional.</p><p data-block-key=\"rmrk4\">In an <a href=\"https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article230993963.html\">email to The Kansas City Star</a> editorial board, communications director Shannon Golden said that the press was never denied access to government proceedings as the hearing was halted when the protesters began their demonstration. “Removal was purely due to safety reasons, and any other account is an embellished story,” Golden wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9icu\">Golden also repeated the threat made by Hems, writing that a press pass is a privilege, not a right.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/KS_capitol.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zmvyg\">The Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Kansas",
"abbreviation": "KS"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"State government: Legislature"
],
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"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Alec Gartner (KSNT)",
"John Hanna (The Associated Press)",
"Jonathan Shorman (The Kansas City Star)",
"Sherman Smith (The Topeka Capital-Journal)"
],
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"Government event"
]
},
{
"title": "Miami freelancer has phone and camera seized by police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/miami-freelancer-has-phone-and-camera-seized-police/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-11T19:20:49.681875Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-08-15T18:05:27.946966Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-08-15T18:05:27.788680Z",
"date": "2019-05-25",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Miami",
"longitude": -80.19366,
"latitude": 25.77427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"018jj\">Miami freelance photographer Jacob Katel had his phone and camera seized by police after he attempted to take pictures of a motorcycle crash on May 25, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"2gte5\"><a href=\"https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/photographer-says-miami-police-seized-his-property-after-he-tried-to-photograph-officers-11184883\">According to Miami New Times</a>, Katel stopped while en route to Miami Beach to take photographs of the crash, which was causing a traffic standstill. Katel took out his camera, but before he even snapped a photograph, a Miami police officer handcuffed him and seized his camera and phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"9lols\">Katel explained that he was a reporter, and even offered to leave the scene, but he was detained and questioned by police. He was released without charge, but police retained his equipment, claiming that they were “evidence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"44agh\"><a href=\"https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/photographer-says-miami-police-seized-his-property-after-he-tried-to-photograph-officers-11184883\">Miami New Times reported</a> that Katel was able to retrieve the cellphone and camera on May 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"es7ji\">"I feel if they did this to me, it happens to a lot of people," Katel told Miami New Times. "I feel if I was anybody except me, I might have gotten kicked in the head or shot."</p><p data-block-key=\"egg20\">Katel filed complaints with the Miami Police Department internal affairs office, and with the city’s independent police oversight board.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in full",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jacob Katel (Freelance)"
],
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"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Freelance reporter stopped while crossing border; passport card photographed",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-reporter-stopped-while-crossing-border-passport-card-photographed/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-07T14:38:35.439470Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-06T19:42:16.381088Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-06T19:42:16.283991Z",
"date": "2019-05-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6e83t\">Nate Abaurrea, a freelance reporter and radio journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while crossing into Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing on May 24, 2019. During the screening, Abaurrea was questioned about his work and an officer photographed his passport card.</p><p data-block-key=\"13di3\">Abaurrea, an American citizen, primarily covers sports, immigration and life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that crossing the border has been a regular part of his life for years, and has been crossing at the same time and day—Friday morning at 9:15—for the past 10 weeks.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8iqd\">While he’s seen one or two officers, maybe with a dog, standing on the pedestrian crossing on the east side of the port of entry, he was surprised to see five CBP officials standing behind a blind corner.</p><p data-block-key=\"vaguz\">“I’ve seen officers there before but never in that formation, never like that,” Abaurrea said.</p><p data-block-key=\"c029p\">As he rounded the corner and walked past the officers, they stopped and ordered him into “a little side cage area,” Abaurrea <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NateAbaurrea/status/1132113040151760896\">tweeted that day</a>. He said that they directed him to be quiet, turn around and place his hands down on a metal table. Two of the officers emptied his pockets of all of his belongings, including his phone, but did not attempt to search his electronic devices.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8hh7\">Abaurrea asked the officers why he was being stopped. “What’s the probable cause here?” he quoted himself as saying <a href=\"https://medium.com/@nateabaurrea/the-fourth-amendment-is-dying-8b7a9b76dc76\">in an account of the incident</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ch7rh\">“We don’t need probable cause, sir,” an officer responded. “We can stop and search whoever we want.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vpodo\">Officers asked how much money Abaurrea was carrying, where he was going and why. When he told them he was on his way to a work meeting, they asked him what he did and, when he said he was a writer, who he worked for. An officer Abaurrea identified as “CBP Officer West” then aggressively patted him down, snapping the waistline of his underwear. He was then ordered to show them his passport card.</p><p data-block-key=\"ss8n3\">As West checked the legitimacy of his card and entered numbers into a machine, Abaurrea wrote, a young female officer told him, “If you just cooperate, this will be over. You need to familiarize yourself with the rules, sir.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jjqmi\">When Abaurrea again asked to be told why he was stopped, he wrote that West smiled and asked him to take off his shoes, which were also thoroughly searched. He was then told he was free to go, and began gathering up his belongings. Abaurrea reported that at the moment he noticed West still had his passport card, the officer pulled out a cellphone and took a picture of the card. Abaurrea asked why he did that, to which West responded it was “for [his] records.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hl559\">CBP was not immediately available for comment on whether the officer used a government or personal phone, why the photo was taken or where the image is now.</p><p data-block-key=\"ccnov\">Abaurrea told the Tracker that he has been in contact with multiple nonprofits and organizations that are providing him advice and legal aid as he pursues next steps, including filing for a redress number, a FOIA on his name in CBP and Department of Homeland Security records and a possible lawsuit.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Abaurrea_border2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"boc57\">Freelance journalist Nate Abaurrea, who often crosses the U.S.-Mexico border for work, was pulled out for secondary screening, during which a border official photographed his passport card with a cellphone.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": "San Ysidro Port of Entry",
"target_us_citizenship_status": "U.S. citizen",
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": "no",
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": "yes",
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nate Abaurrea (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student journalist subpoenaed for documents and reporting materials as part of dispute between university, foundation",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-subpoenaed-documents-and-reporting-materials-part-dispute-between-university-foundation/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-11T17:31:41.144615Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-06T14:10:37.908048Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-06T14:10:37.691577Z",
"date": "2019-05-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5ho1\">Student journalist Euirim Choi was served a subpoena on May 22, 2019, in connection with a lawsuit between The Thomas L. Pearson and The Pearson Family Members Foundation and the University of Chicago. Choi is the former editor of the university’s student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, and has been asked for documents and communications pertaining to an article he wrote as editor.</p><p data-block-key=\"71a6m\">On March 5, 2018, The Maroon <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/3/5/pearsons-want-100-million-back-from-univeristy-of-chicago/\">published Choi’s article</a> on the unravelling of relations between the university and the foundation over the course of a year. The foundation and university had filed a lawsuit and countersuit, respectively, contesting a $100 million donation pledged by the foundation.</p><p data-block-key=\"9rljh\">The article was based on documents included in a 66-page stack found in a subway trash can in northern Chicago and brought to the newspaper’s office in the summer of 2017, The Maroon <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/8/13/recovered-internal-documents-offer-glimpse-inside/\">reported</a>. While The Maroon published a summary of some of the documents that August, it did not include documents connected to the Pearsons or the Institute they were funding.</p><p data-block-key=\"9yd1s\">“The Maroon decided not to publish or mention the Pearson Institute documents, which were marked ‘privileged and confidential attorney-client communication,’ in order to avoid escalating a still-nascent dispute,” Choi <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/3/5/pearsons-want-100-million-back-from-univeristy-of-chicago/\">wrote in his report</a> the following March. But, as the lawsuit moved forward, the paper decided to publish the documents to provide context on the dispute.</p><p data-block-key=\"gb5gq\">Some handwritten notes were redacted from the documents shared with the piece, Choi wrote, in order to obscure the identity of the source. Even though the newspaper was unaware of the original owner’s identity, they did not know whether the documents had been intentionally leaked.</p><p data-block-key=\"ht3py\">The foundation <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-newspaper-subpoenaed-documents-and-reporting-materials-part-100-million-dispute/\">filed a subpoena against The Maroon</a> on May 17, asking not only for the unredacted document, but “all other documents and communications related thereto or obtained in connection therewith, including without limitation the ‘66 pages of internal university documents’ referenced” in Choi’s article.</p><p data-block-key=\"fquhv\">Choi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the current editors at The Maroon reached out to him once they received the subpoena, as he was the only remaining person with access to the documents. Though they had made six copies, Choi said, the original documents were lost and all but his digital copy were deliberately destroyed.</p><p data-block-key=\"4rowl\">When the foundation was informed that it would have to pursue the documents through Choi, it issued him a subpoena on May 22. In addition to the unredacted documents, the subpoena requested information on Choi’s reporting process, including any documents or evidence on how The Maroon obtained the documents and the identity of the author, if known. The deadline for response was June 3.</p><p data-block-key=\"yxc1i\">Peter Scheer, board president of the First Amendment Coalition, told CNN Business that the fact Choi is a student journalist “could complicate matters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jd0g2\">“It could be up for debate whether a student journalist is granted the same protections as a journalist reporting as their full-time job,” Scheer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"it0tz\">Matt Topic, a government transparency and media lawyer who is representing Choi pro-bono, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he is confident that the qualified privilege granted by Illinois’ Shield Law applies to Choi.</p><p data-block-key=\"3wimp\">The statute <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/privilege-compendium/illinois/#a-shield-law-statute\">defines a reporter</a> as “any person regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full-time or part-time basis.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lxt2w\">Choi told the Tracker that he and Topic had filed a response to the subpoena and are continuing to fight it.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Choi.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"n894l\">Euirim Choi was served with a subpoena for documents and work product from his time as editor of the student newspaper at the University of Chicago.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": "journalist communications or work product",
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-04-23 00:00:00+00:00) Foundation drops subpoena of Chicago student journalist"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Euirim Choi (The [University of] Chicago Maroon)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [
"pending"
],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Alaska radio reporter attacked while covering abortion demonstration",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alaska-radio-reporter-attacked-while-covering-abortion-demonstration/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-28T20:09:35.741103Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-13T20:22:44.593038Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-13T20:22:44.505097Z",
"date": "2019-05-21",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Soldotna",
"longitude": -151.05833,
"latitude": 60.48778,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"anigo\">KSRM Radio Groups News Director <a href=\"https://www.radiokenai.net/ksrm-news-director-assaulted-at-rally-in-soldotna/\">Jennifer Williams was assaulted</a> while covering a Planned Parenthood rally on May 21, 2019, in Soldotna, Alaska.</p><p data-block-key=\"j5lgr\">Williams was covering the rally and speaking to both pro-choice advocates and anti-abortion counterprotesters. <a href=\"https://craigmedred.news/2019/05/23/otj-assault/\">According to Craig Medred</a>, an independent journalist in Alaska, Williams had finished interviewing an anti-abortion protester, and walked across the street to speak to a pro-choice advocate when she felt an object hit her face.</p><p data-block-key=\"qj5rs\">She told Craig Medred News that she saw a car speed past and someone tell her she was “going to hell.” Williams did not initially realize that she had seriously been hit, and she and the person she was interviewing moved closer to the large group of protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"rj1sb\">When Williams got into her truck to leave later, she realized that she was bleeding and the hit was more serious than she thought initially.</p><p data-block-key=\"c12ae\">Later that evening, Williams tweeted that she had been attacked.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">While covering the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopTheBan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StopTheBan</a> rally in Soldotna I was struck by unknown items out of a moving vehicle while being told I was going to hell. Battle wounds of a journalist. @Ksrm <a href=\"https://t.co/jqixlwkFxs\">pic.twitter.com/jqixlwkFxs</a></p>— Jennifer Williams (@JenniferKSRM) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JenniferKSRM/status/1131024469810487296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 22, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"41xtm\">Williams told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she does not know who attacked her, but she has filed “a police report with the Soldotna Police Department in hopes of getting some information on who made the attack and hopefully prevent it from happening again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nbbwb\"><a href=\"https://craigmedred.news/2019/05/23/otj-assault/\">Craig Medred News reported</a> that Williams had received an outpouring of support from anti-abortion and pro-choice advocates since the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjdzt\">“Both rallies, the pro- and the anti- have been great,” Williams said. “We live in a small community where people are generally pretty tolerant.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hf3h0\">On May 23, Williams tweeted a video thanking her supporters and emphasizing that she hopes the attack will not deter journalists from covering the news, or activists from voicing their opinions.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just an update and a huge thank you for all of the kind words and support ❤️ <a href=\"https://t.co/sVCpWrUBHB\">pic.twitter.com/sVCpWrUBHB</a></p>— Jennifer Williams (@JenniferKSRM) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JenniferKSRM/status/1131553192473288705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"j0gwy\">“I was out there just trying to do my job, and they were out there just trying to stand up for what they believe in,” she said. “We all have one common goal in this life.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"62d08\">Jennifer Williams, News Director for Alaska-based KSRM Radio Groups, shows the lacerations and bruising she received when an object was thrown at her while she was reporting.</p>",
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"assailant": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Alaska",
"abbreviation": "AK"
},
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"tags": [
"protest",
"reproductive rights"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jennifer Williams (KSRM)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Student newspaper subpoenaed for documents and reporting materials as part of $100 million dispute",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-newspaper-subpoenaed-documents-and-reporting-materials-part-100-million-dispute/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-11T17:17:39.665354Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-06T14:09:55.237717Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-06T14:09:55.033204Z",
"date": "2019-05-17",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w6gw1\">The Chicago Maroon, the University of Chicago’s student newspaper, was served a subpoena on May 17, 2019, in connection with a lawsuit between The Thomas L. Pearson and The Pearson Family Members Foundation and the university.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt18t\">On March 5, 2018, The Maroon <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/3/5/pearsons-want-100-million-back-from-univeristy-of-chicago/\">published an article</a> written by then-editor Euirim Choi on the unravelling of relations between the university and the foundation over the course of a year. The foundation and university had filed a lawsuit and countersuit, respectively, contesting a $100 million donation pledged by the foundation.</p><p data-block-key=\"y9kur\">The article was based on documents included in a 66-page stack found in a subway trash can in northern Chicago and brought to the newspaper’s office in the summer of 2017, The Maroon <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/8/13/recovered-internal-documents-offer-glimpse-inside/\">reported</a>. While The Maroon published a summary of some of the documents that August, it did not include documents connected to the Pearsons or the Institute they were funding.</p><p data-block-key=\"wgx66\">“The Maroon decided not to publish or mention the Pearson Institute documents, which were marked ‘privileged and confidential attorney-client communication,’ in order to avoid escalating a still-nascent dispute,” Choi <a href=\"https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/3/5/pearsons-want-100-million-back-from-univeristy-of-chicago/\">wrote in his report</a> the following March. But, as the lawsuit was moving forward, the paper decided to publish the documents to provide context on the dispute.</p><p data-block-key=\"4iwqa\">Some handwritten notes were redacted from the documents shared with the piece, Choi wrote, in order to obscure the identity of the source. Even though the newspaper was unaware of the original owner’s identity, they did not know whether the documents had been intentionally leaked.</p><p data-block-key=\"9a2m7\">The foundation filed a subpoena against The Maroon on May 17 asking not only for the unredacted document, but “all other documents and communications related thereto or obtained in connection therewith, including without limitation the ‘66 pages of internal university documents’ referenced” in Choi’s article.</p><p data-block-key=\"kg52j\">When the foundation discovered that only Choi, and not the student newspaper, has access to the documents, <a href=\"/all-incidents/student-journalist-subpoenaed-documents-and-reporting-materials-part-dispute-between-university-foundation/\">it filed a subpoena against him on May 22</a>. Choi said the foundation’s subpoena against The Maroon has been left active, however, to satisfy that the foundation is using all avenues of discovery.</p><p data-block-key=\"ryfxn\">As is the case with Choi, some First Amendment scholars are concerned that Illinois’s shield law may not be applicable to The Maroon as it is a student newspaper.</p><p data-block-key=\"2hwsp\">The statute <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/privilege-compendium/illinois/#a-shield-law-statute\">defines a news medium</a> in part as, “any newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format and having a general circulation.” The Maroon appears to meet this definition.</p><p data-block-key=\"gycg6\">Choi told the Tracker that the current editors at The Maroon informed the Pearson Foundation that they cannot provide the requested documents because they are no longer in possession of any copies. The University of Chicago <a href=\"https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/family-suing-uchicago-over-100-million-donation-subpoenas-student-journalists/08d706a5-9249-49ae-9838-2508ffb7ef6b/amp?__twitter_impression=true\">told WBEZ News</a> in a statement that it has reached out to staff at The Maroon to help find capable legal counsel and that they recognize the editorial independence of the paper and its staff.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX1WJNT.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qgoys\">The independent student newspaper of the University of Chicago, The Chicago Maroon, has been subpoenaed by a private foundation for documents used in reporting.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-04-23 00:00:00+00:00) Foundation drops subpoena of Chicago student newspaper"
],
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"targeted_institutions": [
"The [University of] Chicago Maroon"
],
"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
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"subpoena_statuses": [
"pending"
],
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},
{
"title": "Hawaii reporter denied access to cover Army meeting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/hawaii-reporter-denied-access-cover-army-meeting/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-23T17:56:08.310173Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:55:34.527257Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:55:34.438651Z",
"date": "2019-05-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Hilo",
"longitude": -155.09073,
"latitude": 19.72991,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hyodu\">West Hawaii Today county and government reporter Nancy Cook Lauer was barred from attending a U.S. Army meeting that the newspaper contends was opened to the general public in Hilo, Hawaii, on May 16, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfjud\">Lauer was attempting to cover a meeting that outlined the Army’s resource management plants at Pohakuloa Training Area and the Kawaihae Military Reservation outside an Aupuni Center meeting room.</p><p data-block-key=\"c1vvp\">Lauer <a href=\"https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/05/18/hawaii-news/army-boots-wht-from-public-meeting/\">wrote in a West Hawaii Today article</a> that she was told “the participating parties might not feel comfortable expressing their opinions in the presence of the media,” and that the meeting was not a media event, despite the public being allowed to attend. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she pushed back, and asked for a citation of the legal authority that would allow the public to attend a meeting, but not the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qovj\">“[The event] was originally set for those who had signed up as consulting parties to the process, but then members of the public insisted they be allowed in and I went in as well,” Lauer told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bc43\">Pohakuloa Training Area Public Affairs Officer Mike Donnelly said that the event was not open to the public, and that some consulting parties and signatories to a training programmatic agreement that were present did not want the meeting recorded. However, he said that “to avoid conflict and to show good faith,” the meeting was opened to non-consulting attendees to fill open seats.</p><p data-block-key=\"mjso6\">“Notably, only one journalist showed for the meeting in Hilo,” wrote Donnelly. “As a result, we did state that it was not open to the public, however, as a concession and out of respect for the journalist and 20+ years of working with media, I requested the reporter and our subject matter expert to move into a separate room where they could talk and have a Q & A session so the reporter gathered content and context for her story.”</p><p data-block-key=\"apgja\">Lauer said that any time she spent with an official focused on gaining access to the meeting rather than on gathering information for reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lmm5\">“If it were an interview for a story, I would have asked them about the details of the project, not about the meeting,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"05avz\">Lauer said that she left after being told by both Donnelly and a cultural resource manager for U.S. Army Garrison Pohakuloa that she could not remain.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9jin\"><a href=\"https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/05/18/hawaii-news/army-boots-wht-from-public-meeting/\">West Hawaii Today reported that</a> an activist who attended the meeting said that attendance was initially to be limited to a list of consulting parties, but was later opened to the public altogether — before Lauer was told to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"13ev9\">Lauer told the Tracker that on the Monday following the incident the Army commander called her to apologize and claimed he was not aware that his staff had taken the action to ban her from the event. She said that the commander was present at the meeting, near the front of the room.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaqqu\">“In retrospect, the PTA Team could have certainly done things differently, however, we were following the established process and respecting those who are consulting parties and signatories,” wrote Donnelly, the public affairs officer. “We will continue to engage the media in an open and transparent manner.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dfinm\">Although Lauer was not able to attend the meeting, she said she was later given video footage by one of the attendees, which she said could aid future reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tu16\">On May 19, <a href=\"https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/05/19/opinion/our-view-military-wrong-to-boot-wht/\">West Hawaii Today published an opinion piece</a> arguing that the Army was wrong to boot its reporter from the event. It expressed concern about how extreme press freedom violations — such as those by President Trump — can seep into the conscious of everyday people.</p><p data-block-key=\"cu0ef\">“Some of it, like booting the media from a public gathering, we cannot write off as simply silly,” the piece reads. “Kicking a reporter out of a public meeting is a serious issue. It cannot become the norm. The United States military is a first-rate operation. If it says it wanted to err on the side of privacy and caution, we can take that at face value this time around, but still disagree with its decision. The information inside that meeting is meant for the public and WHT will get it and share it, regardless.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1s6kj\">Lauer said this was the first time she had been denied access to an event open to the public.</p><p data-block-key=\"uc758\">“As a reporter with more than 25 years of experience, I am accustomed to various barriers being thrown up as I go about my job informing the public,” she told the Tracker. “This is the first time, however, I have been ousted from a meeting otherwise open to the public. It's sad that I, who have worked diligently to portray all sides and prevent bias in my coverage, now have to rely on a video from a source with a known point of view in order to write about government actions that our readers deserve to know about. The media is not the enemy.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "Hawaii",
"abbreviation": "HI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"military"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Law enforcement: Military"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nancy Cook Lauer (West Hawaii Today)"
],
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"type_of_denial": [
"Government event"
]
},
{
"title": "Rolling Stone journalist stopped for secondary screening, has electronics searched while asked invasive questions about reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rolling-stone-journalist-stopped-secondary-screening-has-electronics-searched-while-asked-invasive-questions-about-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-26T17:35:24.232965Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-02T14:43:38.986426Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-02T14:43:38.861863Z",
"date": "2019-05-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Austin",
"longitude": -97.74306,
"latitude": 30.26715,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9cx73\">After arriving on a flight from Mexico City on May 13, 2019, Rolling Stone journalist Seth Harp was stopped for secondary screening by border authorities in Austin, Texas. Over the course of four hours, the officers aggressively questioned him about his reporting and searched his electronic devices.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcf7z\">Harp, an Austin-based reporter, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he has traveled extensively for work, reporting from Mexico and as a war correspondent in the Middle East.</p><p data-block-key=\"uc99p\">In an account of the incident <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/06/22/cbp-border-searches-journalists/\">he published in The Intercept</a>, Harp wrote that he is usually waved through immigration after a few questions. This time, the questions were more aggressive than usual, and after Harp told the officer that he had spent a week in Mexico on a reporting trip, the officer asked what the piece was about.</p><p data-block-key=\"c5fs9\">“[That] didn’t sit right with me,” Harp wrote. “I tried to skirt the question, but he came back to it, pointedly.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kniut\">Harp recalled saying something to the effect of not having a legal obligation to disclose the content of his reporting. Shortly after, a supervisor told him that if he refused to answer the question he would not be allowed into the United States. Customs and Border Protection officials also repeatedly denied Harp’s requests to contact a lawyer, stating that he wasn’t under arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"dxbd5\">When CBP officers returned to ask again about the content of his reporting, Harp wrote that he gave a glib, joking response.</p><p data-block-key=\"oxqc8\">“From then on out, the officers made it clear that I was in for a long delay,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ufnz\">Though Harp ultimately told the officers that he was finishing a piece for Rolling Stone about men gunrunning from Texas and Arizona to the Mexican cartel, the officers searched his suitcase and carefully read his journal containing personal and professional notes.</p><p data-block-key=\"yyil8\">The officers then asked Harp to unlock his electronic devices so they could be searched as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"4w40j\">“When the officers told me they only wanted to check my devices for child pornography, links to terrorism, and so forth, I believed them,” Harp wrote in his account. “I was completely unprepared for the digital ransacking that came next.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2aceu\">Harp told the Tracker that while wary of compromising his cellphone and laptop, he decided to unlock them after being denied access to a lawyer in order to prevent officers from confiscating his devices. Over the next three hours, the officers combed through his photos, videos, emails, business correspondence and internet history. They also examined his text messages, including encrypted messages on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ocap\">The officers frequently took his devices out of the room for long periods of time, and Harp told the Tracker that he suspects they may have made copies. They also wrote down his laptop’s serial number and three or four numbers and alphanumeric sequences found deep in his phone’s settings, including the phone’s IMEI number, a 15 digit identity code that can be used to track a phone’s physical location.</p><p data-block-key=\"3rcl5\">Over the subsequent hours, Harp wrote, the officers questioned him about all aspects of his work, his conversations with editors and colleagues and his political views.</p><p data-block-key=\"k5x51\">“Interestingly,” Harp wrote, “they didn’t ask me anything about CBP itself. I had told them my current story was about gunrunning, but they didn’t think to ask if I’d done any reporting on their employer, which I had. In fact, my laptop contained hardwon documents on CBP.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zz11u\">Harp told the Tracker that while he can’t be certain the officers didn’t review those documents, he didn’t see them reading the files and they didn’t ask him questions about them.</p><p data-block-key=\"zlkrd\">On three occasions during the course of his secondary screening, Harp wrote, an officer he identifies as Pomeroy “pronounced words to the effect that he was subjectively forming a reasonable belief that I might grab his service weapon.” Harp wrote that the “rhetorical move” and Pomeroy’s clapping his hand to his sidearm was an “implicit death threat.”</p><p data-block-key=\"91w46\">Four hours after he was pulled into secondary, an officer told him he was free to pack up his luggage and go.</p><p data-block-key=\"8f8k6\">Harp told the Tracker that the point of writing The Intercept article about his ordeal was to demonstrate the unchecked power that CBP has been accumulating. “CBP has gotten less reigned in and more aggressive, and with few checks on them they can do this to anybody for any reason.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7qsnb\">Harp wrote that when asked for comment on his article, CBP sent him a statement which read, in part, “CBP has adapted and adjusted our actions to align with current threat information, which is based on intelligence… As the threat landscape changes, so does CBP.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX6Y53I.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"m4vpx\">While returning from a reporting trip in Mexico to Austin, Texas, Rolling Stone journalist Seth Harp was aggressively questioned by Customs and Border Protection agents for multiple hours.</p>",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in full",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": "Austin-Bergstrom International Airport",
"target_us_citizenship_status": "U.S. citizen",
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": true,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": "yes",
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": "yes",
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "computer"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "work product"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Seth Harp (Rolling Stone)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Military prosecutor embeds secret tracking code in email to journalist, defense attorneys",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/military-prosecutor-embeds-secret-tracking-code-email-journalist-defense-attorneys/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-14T16:05:50.605105Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-03T18:47:15.110118Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-03T18:47:15.022774Z",
"date": "2019-05-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"51f4r\">A journalist covering the court martial of a Navy SEAL platoon leader accused of war crimes received an email from the prosecutor embedded with a hidden tracking code.</p><p data-block-key=\"hsenk\">On May 12, 2019, Navy Times Editor Carl Prine received the email containing the code, which was embedded in an image of a bald eagle atop the scales of justice. The code was designed to collect IP addresses and other information from his computer and network.</p><p data-block-key=\"0aeqb\">Prine has written extensively about the case of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who is accused of stabbing and killing a wounded 17-year-old ISIS militant and shooting two unarmed civilians during a 2017 deployment to Iraq.</p><p data-block-key=\"vg7vk\">The prosecutor, Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak, also sent emails containing the code to 13 members of Gallagher’s defense team.</p><p data-block-key=\"sb3mu\">Gallagher’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the prosecutor for his actions on May 27. “This case has been hopelessly plagued by misconduct by prosecutors,” the filing stated, <a href=\"https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/28/motion-filed-to-dismiss-lead-prosecutor-and-judge-in-seal-war-crime-trial/\">according</a> to the Navy Times. “This misconduct has taken many forms but has culminated in the inexcusable and unethical use of an email tracking beacon to monitor the emails of opposing counsel in direct contravention of multiple states’ ethics opinions, including CDR Czaplak’s licensing state of New York.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2a7bu\">In this filing, Gallagher’s defense counsel also argued that the judge in the case, Capt. Aaron Rugh, had met with Czaplak and an NCIS agent to discuss their desire to determine from where leaks in the case were originating.</p><p data-block-key=\"bvvo4\">At a hearing on that motion, “Navy law enforcement staff detailed how they created a plan to monitor emails sent to Chief Gallagher’s lawyers, while giving the judge in the case the false impression that the Navy had permission to do so from the Justice Department. No warrant or any other sort of permission was issued,” the New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/seal-war-crime-court-martial.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"dsykn\">On June 3, Rugh issued an order removing Czaplak as prosecutor in the case, according to the New York Times. That order is sealed.</p><p data-block-key=\"wg8kt\">Prine declined to comment further on the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"fwerf\">Gabe Rottman, director of the Technology and Press Freedom Project at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that this was “one of several incidents in recent weeks that raise great concerns about press freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"27kn7\">“It is certainly very concerning,” Rottman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “There have been reports that the tool that was used here could have accessed the contents of emails.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dvm7v\">If the Justice Department were handling the case, Rottman said, approval from the attorney general would have to be procured before any such tracking code were deployed, and there would also have been a notice requirement to the reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"5dkt6\">An NCIS spokesman, when asked about the email to Prine, <a href=\"https://www.militarytimes.com/2019/05/17/secret-tracking-device-found-in-navy-email-to-navy-times-amid-leak-investigation-raises-legal-ethical-questions/\">told</a> the Military Times, “during the course of the leak investigation, NCIS used an audit capability that ensures the integrity of protected documents. It is not malware, not a virus, and does not reside on computer systems. There is no risk that systems are corrupted or compromised.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX6W4DB.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"yw0f2\">The defense attorney representing a Navy SEAL platoon leader speaks with reporters in May. A prosecutor for the case was removed after embedding a tracking device in emails sent to defense team members and a journalist.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "work product"
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"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"cyberattack",
"military"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carl Prine (Navy Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "San Francisco police use search warrant to raid home, office of independent journalist",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-francisco-police-use-search-warrant-raid-home-office-independent-journalist-source-material/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-14T16:31:23.663401Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-12T16:38:06.390891Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-12T16:38:06.212620Z",
"date": "2019-05-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tg2b5\">On May 10, 2019, San Francisco police officers raided the home and office of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody as part of an investigation into one of Carmody’s confidential sources.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjkdu\">Carmody <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sf-reporter-police-raid-adachi-20190511-story.html\">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that he awoke to 10 or so officers from the San Francisco Police Department banging on his front gate with a sledgehammer. He said he allowed them in after being shown a search warrant signed by a state court judge. The SFPD officers then handcuffed him and searched his house with guns drawn.</p><p data-block-key=\"n7aaz\">Carmody was not formally arrested or charged with any crime, but he was detained for more than five hours. When he was finally released, the SFPD gave him a receipt showing that he had been in police custody from 8:22 a.m. to 1:55 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"hwp95\">While Carmody was in SFPD custody, two FBI agents asked to interview him, but he refused and requested an attorney. An FBI spokeswoman later told the Times that the FBI agents were not involved in the search of Carmody’s house. Technically speaking, Carmody was only raided by the SFPD, not by federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"vfqys\">During the raid on Carmody’s house, the SFPD learned that Carmody also used a separate office space for his independent media company, North Bay News, and quickly obtained a search warrant for the office space, <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-police-raid-journalist-s-home-in-probe-over-13837363.php\">according to the San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"qn4xm\">In the end, the officers who searched Carmody’s house ended up seizing multiple notebooks, computers, phones, and cameras, while those who searched his office seized a USB thumb drive, multiple CDs, and a copy of a confidential police report into the death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gfqn\">A source had leaked that police report to Carmody shortly after Adachi died unexpectedly on Feb. 22. The police report included salacious details about Adachi’s drug use and possible extramarital affair, and Carmody used the leaked report as the centerpiece of a story about Adachi’s death. Carmody sold his story on Adachi’s death to local TV news stations, who ran <a href=\"https://abc7news.com/abc7-obtains-sfpd-report-on-jeff-adachi-death/5153863/\">segments about it</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lrc4w\">Progressive politicians roundly condemned the sensationalist coverage of Adachi’s death and accused the SFPD of deliberately leaking the police report to the media in order to smear Adachi, who had been a frequent critic of the police department. The SFPD also condemned the leak and pledged to track down the source of the police report.</p><p data-block-key=\"ou6d7\">According to the Chronicle, SFPD Captain William Braconi <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-police-get-an-earful-about-leaked-Adachi-from-13779379.php\">testified during a special hearing</a> in April that the police department had launched both an internal administrative probe and a criminal investigation into the leak.</p><p data-block-key=\"7rz5e\">A few weeks before the May 10 raid, two San Francisco police officers visited Carmody and asked him to identify the source who had leaked him a copy of the police report. Carmody refused. Carmody <a href=\"https://californiaglobe.com/fr/journalist-says-police-feds-raid-home-in-pursuit-of-adachi-leak-information/\">told the California Globe</a> that when he refused, the officers warned him that if he did not identify his source, then he could be subject to a federal grand jury subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lwu9\">But Carmody never received a subpoena, either from a federal grand jury or a state prosecutor, which he could have contested in court. Instead, a state court judge secretly authorized the SFPD to raid his house and seize his devices.</p><p data-block-key=\"h4how\">David Stevenson, a spokesman for the SFPD, said that the raid on Carmody was part of the SFPD’s criminal investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"yt79v\">“The citizens and leaders of the City of San Francisco have demanded a complete and thorough investigation into this leak, and this action represents a step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of confidential police material,” he told the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"4xrdt\">According to the Times, two judges of the San Francisco Superior Court — Gail Dekreon and Victor Hwang — approved the warrants to search Carmody’s house and office, respectively.</p><p data-block-key=\"hhjmw\">It is not clear who requested the warrants. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office told the Times that the office was not involved in preparing the warrants.</p><p data-block-key=\"jjo6q\">Nor is it clear whether Dekreon and Hwang knew that Carmody was a journalist when they authorized the searches of his house and office space</p><p data-block-key=\"qe803\">Thomas Burke, an attorney at Davis Wright & Tremaine who is representing Carmody, said that the raid violated Carmody’s First Amendment rights. He told the Times that the investigators should have issued a subpoena for the records they wanted from Carmody, rather than raiding his newsroom and seizing documents unrelated to the investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"6st9x\">“So much information has nothing to do with the purpose of their investigation,” he said. “If you are looking for one piece of information, that’s why you issue a subpoena.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX1JGYC.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"co9u8\">San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who died in February, speaks with reporters. Police raided the home and office of journalist Bryan Carmody, seeking the source of a confidential police report about Adachi’s death.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "San Francisco Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in full",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": true,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"was_journalist_targeted": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 2,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 12,
"equipment": "cellphone"
},
{
"quantity": 11,
"equipment": "computer"
},
{
"quantity": 11,
"equipment": "storage device"
},
{
"quantity": 3,
"equipment": "work product"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-03-03 10:29:00+00:00) San Francisco to pay $369,000 following raids of journalist Bryan Carmody",
"(2020-05-26 14:52:00+00:00) San Francisco police agree to inform officers of press protections following raid",
"(2019-05-21 14:02:00+00:00) Equipment seized in raid returned to Carmody",
"(2019-08-02 16:15:00+00:00) San Francisco judges quash three more warrants used in raid of independent journalist Bryan Carmody's home, office and phone records"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Search or Seizure",
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bryan Carmody (North Bay News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Connecticut reporter arrested and briefly detained while covering demonstration",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/connecticut-reporter-arrested-and-briefly-detained-while-covering-demonstration/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-13T18:59:02.466968Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-12T15:17:12.927080Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-12T15:17:12.807403Z",
"date": "2019-05-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Bridgeport",
"longitude": -73.18945,
"latitude": 41.17923,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"04f0f\">Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Tara O’Neill was arrested while covering a demonstration in Bridgeport and briefly held in police custody on May 9, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"g6yrw\">According to <a href=\"https://www.ctpost.com/local/ctpost/article/For-Bridgeport-reporter-handcuffs-weren-t-13836844.php\">her first-person account for the Connecticut Post</a>, O’Neill was handcuffed by Bridgeport police while she was reporting on a protest commemorating the two-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of teenager Jayson Negron. O’Neill was held for about 30 minutes, and then released without charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"2bqyz\">O’Neill shared video footage of her arrest on Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Footage of me getting arrested in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bridgeport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Bridgeport</a> while covering a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeforJayson?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JusticeforJayson</a> protest on the two-year anniversary of his death. <a href=\"https://t.co/4zEFIHSKj9\">pic.twitter.com/4zEFIHSKj9</a></p>— Tara O'Neill (@Tara_ONeill_) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Tara_ONeill_/status/1126672343437336576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 10, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l3pbz\">“I was standing on the sidewalk when they were asking people to get off the street and as I was being handcuffed I said, ‘I’m on a public sidewalk. I’m the press,’” O’Neill told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “All I heard the arresting officer respond was ‘Ok,’ before he told me to sit down on the ground and not move.”</p><p data-block-key=\"velyu\">She said she was wearing her press badge on a lanyard around her neck, and that after being handcuffed, she attempted to explain to the officers that she was a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"c95bv\">“It didn’t seem to make any difference to them at that point,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4lebs\">O’Neill was put in the back of a police car and taken to the police station, but never placed in a holding cell. The arresting officer, according to O’Neill, later apologized and said he did not know she was a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"yuikl\">The New England First Amendment Coalition quickly <a href=\"https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NEFAC-Denounces-Arrest-of-Hearst-Reporter--Calls-for-Public-Explanation-and-Apology.html?soid=1102771140783&aid=G0O31w7gz4M\">condemned her arrest and detention</a>. The Coalition called on Bridgeport police to issue a formal apology, release the name of the arresting officer, and review the department’s internal policies to prevent the future infringement on journalistic rights.</p><p data-block-key=\"jnuan\">“Looking back at what happened, I’m frustrated to know that there might not have been anything I could have done to prevent it — other than not showing up and doing my job,” O’Neill <a href=\"https://www.ctpost.com/local/ctpost/article/For-Bridgeport-reporter-handcuffs-weren-t-13836844.php\">wrote in the Connecticut Post</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/image_1.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"f0l9p\">Bridgeport, Connecticut, police line up in response to a protest around the second anniversary of the shooting death of Jayson Negron. Reporter Tara O’Neill was detained and 11 others were arrested during the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Bridgeport Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": "2019-05-09",
"detention_date": "2019-05-09",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Connecticut",
"abbreviation": "CT"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-10-22 12:53:00+00:00) Connecticut police chief issues written apology for arrest of Hearst reporter"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tara O'Neill (Hearst Connecticut Media Group)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Former intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified documents to reporter",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-intelligence-analyst-charged-leaking-classified-documents-reporter/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-10T13:48:24.826627Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T19:53:16.490768Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T19:53:16.395135Z",
"date": "2019-05-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Alexandria",
"longitude": -77.04692,
"latitude": 38.80484,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3igl8\">Former intelligence analyst Daniel Everette Hale was arrested on May 9, 2019, and <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-intelligence-analyst-charged-disclosing-classified-information\">charged with leaking classified information</a> about drone warfare and other counterterrorism measures to a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"e81nv\">Hale has been charged with five crimes related to the disclosure of military-related information, and could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted.</p><p data-block-key=\"x12ac\">The Justice Department indictment details alleged contact with a reporter dating back to April 2013, at which time Hale is accused of meeting with the reporter at a bookstore in Washington, D.C. The indictment lists 36 total documents Hale is alleged to have printed, 11 of which are classified.</p><p data-block-key=\"rrvn2\">While the reporter to whom Hale is accused of leaking is not named in the indictment, the description and timing of the reporting described in the document suggest it is Jeremy Scahill, who co-founded The Intercept and has reported extensively on U.S. military activities. The Intercept said it does not comment on anonymous sources in its <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/05/09/statement-on-the-indictment-of-alleged-drone-strike-whistleblower/\">statement on the indictment</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsvcz\">James Risen, director of First Look Media’s Press Freedom Defense Fund and The Intercept’s senior national security correspondent, also <a href=\"https://www.pressfreedomdefensefund.org/news/2019/5/9/statement-on-the-indictment-of-alleged-drone-strike-whistleblower\">released a statement</a>:</p><p data-block-key=\"9yajd\">“Like previous prosecutions of alleged journalistic sources, the prosecution of Daniel Everette Hale amounts to an abuse of the Espionage Act to criminalize the process of reporting. Everyone who cares about press freedom should reject the government’s outrageous crackdown on whistleblowers, which accelerated dramatically under President Barack Obama and has escalated further under Donald Trump, targeting the very people who are working the hardest to hold the government accountable for abuses and to protect our democracy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jhhcu\">Hale is the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/leak-case/?categories=7\">seventh person to be investigated</a> by the Trump Justice Department for allegedly sharing confidential information with the press. The Trump administration is on pace to surpass the Obama administration’s record of the most prosecutions of alleged journalistic sources. During President Obama’s eight years in office, the Department of Justice brought <a href=\"https://freedom.press/news/obama-used-espionage-act-put-record-number-reporters-sources-jail-and-trump-could-be-even-worse/\">charges against eight people</a> accused of leaking to the media.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2019-05-10_at_7.55.31.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5yco9\">Included in the indictment against Daniel Everette Hale is a chart of secret and top secret documents that he is accused of acquiring and printing.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": true,
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"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
"abbreviation": "VA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-03-31 10:15:00+00:00) Former intelligence analyst pleads guilty to leaking classified documents to reporter",
"(2021-07-27 11:33:00+00:00) Former intelligence analyst sentenced to 45 months in prison under the Espionage Act"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Department of Justice",
"Espionage Act"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Leak Case"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
