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[
{
"title": "Photojournalist questioned at U.S.-Mexico border for second time",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-us-mexico-border-second-time/",
"first_published_at": "2019-02-21T18:50:06.678337Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-07T17:56:19.028425Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-07T17:56:18.936676Z",
"date": "2019-01-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lkk54\">Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped for a secondary screening and questioned while entering the United States from Mexico on Jan. 2, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"f98mf\">Drehsler arrived around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry from Mexico, where she had been documenting the <a href=\"https://www.apnews.com/553a27f836ca4fa0a800ad676c09759a\">caravan of Central American immigrants</a> seeking asylum in the U.S. for wire service United Press International.</p><p data-block-key=\"lvv6\">Similar to a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border/\">border stop at the same port of entry just days before,</a> she was stopped and questioned by three officials wearing civilian clothes.</p><p data-block-key=\"3scbf\">“They were the same two people from the first time, as well as another,” Drehsler said. “They said, ‘Oh, we brought a new person,’ and they were like, ‘We mentioned you to this other guy.’” She said the officials made a point to say she would not have to wait as long as last time.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ne77\">“Before they started asking me questions, I said I was not in Tijuana on New Year’s Day, because I had a feeling this would happen,” she said, referring to an <a href=\"https://www.apnews.com/553a27f836ca4fa0a800ad676c09759a\">incident the day before</a>, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had fired at migrants attempting to climb a wall to enter into the U.S.</p><p data-block-key=\"asun7\">Drehsler said that one of the officials replied, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”</p><p data-block-key=\"65sme\">In an attempt to shift the conversation away from the journalists covering the migrant caravan, Drehsler said she brought up the presence of activists, such as those present in Tijuana from Seattle.</p><p data-block-key=\"c3g70\">“[Border officials] mentioned the new caravan, and asked if the people in the new one understand how hard it is for people to seek asylum at the border. I said I had no idea. They asked about the organizers and activists and said their presence has dropped off. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t know.” </p><p data-block-key=\"65dfe\">Just before leaving the secondary screening and entering the U.S., Drehsler said the border agents asked her whether she rented or owned her home.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8cl9\">Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was confused about the relevance of the question. “[The agent] said she just wanted to know for yourself,” she said. “I said I rented.”</p><p data-block-key=\"161si\">Like her previous border stop on Dec. 30, 2018, none of her belongings, notes, or devices were searched. A few days after this incident, Drehsler would be <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border-separated-camera/\">stopped a third time.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"9cp8p\">“I didn’t have anything to hide, but I still felt weird answering their questions,” she said. “I felt like an informant.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f6oqd\">CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Drehsler_borderstop_2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bkxz2\">In early December 2018, El Barretal shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, housed more than 3,000 migrants from Central America.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:19-cv-06570",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"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": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ariana Drehsler (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "U.S.-based news outlets funded by Russia ordered to register as foreign agents",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/us-based-news-outlets-funded-russia-ordered-register-foreign-agents/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-03T17:36:44.972314Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-01T17:38:27.812225Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-01T17:38:27.709267Z",
"date": "2019-01-01",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"804fa\">RM Broadcasting and RIA Global LLC — U.S.-based news organizations funded by the Russian government — were ordered to register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.</p><p data-block-key=\"kwibp\">RIA Global, which produces content for the Russian state-owned news outlet Sputnik, was ordered to register under FARA in January 2018. RM Broadcasting was also ordered to register around the same time, but the outlet’s owner Arnold Ferolito <a href=\"https://sputniknews.com/us/201810291069324511-radio-sputnik-partner-lawsuit-justice-department-fara/\">filed a lawsuit</a> over the order.</p><p data-block-key=\"s8pej\">On May 7, 2019, a federal judge <a href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/justice-department-wins-lawsuit-demanding-radio-station-register-as-russian-agent-1208400\">rejected RM Broadcasting’s lawsuit</a>, finding with the Justice Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"2d2x0\">"This Court acknowledges, as have others, that the language of FARA is broad," wrote the judge in that case. "Nevertheless, the Court must apply the statutory language as written; it is not for the Court to rewrite the statute."</p><p data-block-key=\"0nhr4\">Under the FARA legislation, the entities in question must include disclaimers about their connections with the Russian government in their reporting, and provide details about their operations and funding to the Justice Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"bpg6r\">Several other news organizations are registered under FARA — including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rt-america-compelled-register-foreign-agent-department-justice/\">RT America</a>, Japanese TV news channel NHK, the Korean Broadcasting Service, and the Chinese newspapers China Daily, People’s Daily, and Xinmin Evening News. After the Justice Department ordered RT America to register in September 2017, the Russian government retaliated by expanding its own foreign agent law to include foreign media organizations and labeled nine U.S. news outlets as foreign agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"1u8vu\">Beverly Hunt, Director of Communications for Sputnik News, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that registration under FARA limits the possibilities of what their journalism can do.</p><p data-block-key=\"o7lah\">“First of all, under this pretext we were denied Senate media credentials, which automatically makes it impossible to get credentialed with the White House,” Hunt said in an email. “Also, our radio programming is accompanied by a disclaimer at the top of each hour stating that this show was produced at the request of Rossiya Segodnya and that additional information is with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Obviously, this scares off potential listeners as well as guests and experts we reach out to. In addition to this, it allows corporate media to refer to us as ‘foreign agents’ without clarifying what that means, which again creates a notion that we are spies of sort and not journalists.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uxx1p\">In a <a href=\"https://www.cjr.org/analysis/fara-press.php\">2018 article for Columbia Journalism Review</a>, staff at the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote that “in invoking FARA, Congress is relying on a notoriously opaque unit within the Department of Justice to draw an impossible line between propaganda and journalism. Source protection, media access, and the US promotion of press freedom abroad may all be compromised.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"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,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
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"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": [
"RIA Novosti [Russia]",
"RM Broadcasting"
],
"tags": [
"Department of Justice"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist stopped and questioned at US-Mexico border",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-and-questioned-us-mexican-border/",
"first_published_at": "2019-02-15T18:01:00.013345Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-01-29T17:02:25.002121Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-01-29T17:02:24.916718Z",
"date": "2019-01-01",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tmj8q\">Spanish freelance photojournalist Emilio Fraile was questioned in secondary screening by U.S. authorities while traveling from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California in January 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"4scq2\">Fraile told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he had been working in Mexico for several months, three weeks of which was spent reporting from Tijuana on <a href=\"https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2019/02/11/what-happened-last-years-migrant-caravan-tijuana/2831764002/\">the migrant caravan</a>. While attempting to enter the United States, Fraile was stopped and questioned about his work for approximately a half hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"vgy4c\">The questions, Fraile told CPJ, included whether or not Americans were “collaborating” with the migrant caravan. “They were always trying to get information from us,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4nrem\">When border officials asked to see his photographs, Fraile said that he had already deleted them.</p><p data-block-key=\"x3z03\">Fraile told CPJ about an additional interaction with U.S. border authorities during his time working in Mexico, in which an agent asked him how many migrants were hidden in a certain area.</p><p data-block-key=\"zm8w0\">In another case, a group of border agents and several others, wearing what Fraile said appeared to be military outfits, approached a group of photojournalists around New Years. Shining a light at them, the agents repeatedly asked, “Where is Emilio?”</p><p data-block-key=\"456qp\">Fraile told CPJ he was not sure how they knew his name, and that he felt it was an attempt to intimidate him.</p><p data-block-key=\"ybqdx\"><a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/us-mexico-border-journalists-harassment/\">The Intercept reported</a> that Fraile and other Spanish photojournalists had their passports photographed on Jan. 3 by Mexican authorities, who informed the journalists that they <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2019/02/mexico-denies-entry-to-at-least-2-journalists-cove.php\">share information</a> with the U.S. police.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX6M6UP.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"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. non-resident",
"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,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"Spain"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Emilio Fraile (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Rash of cyberattacks in 2019, multiple news organizations hit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rash-of-cyberattacks-in-2019-multiple-news-organizations-hit/",
"first_published_at": "2022-10-06T22:13:27.736640Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-12T15:30:37.533815Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-12T15:30:37.457304Z",
"date": "2019-01-01",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xq173\">At least six radio and broadcast companies were targeted by cyberattacks that disrupted their daily operations in 2019. Some reported losses of more than $1 million in revenue; others said their archives and files were destroyed. There is no indication the attacks were related.</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"7jhrs\"><b>Urban One</b>, a media conglomerate in Silver Spring, Maryland, reported during a first-quarter earnings call in 2019 that it lost $1 million in revenue after a February 2019 ransomware attack impacted its IT systems and databases. According to <a href=\"https://www.insideradio.com/free/cyber-attack-cost-urban-one-million-in-lost-revenue-and/article_88b4f7b6-76da-11e9-b81e-3f9a60d6664e.html\">Radio Insider</a>, the attack destroyed the company's internal computing system and prevented local stations from running commercials<b>.</b></li><li data-block-key=\"99kf7\"><b>Townsquare Media</b>, a radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York, was targeted by a cryptolocker encryption malware attack in April 2019. According to <a href=\"https://radioinsight.com/headlines/175822/townsquare-media-stations-taken-down-by-ransomware-attack/\">Radio Insight</a>, the incident forced stations in Boise, Cedar Rapids, Portsmouth and Shreveport to “scramble for programming” on April 1. Shreveport’s 101.7 / 710 KEEL <a href=\"https://710keel.com/no-april-fools-joke-6-radio-stations-crash-monday-morning/\">reported</a> that its imaging and commercial triggers were inoperable. Morning news anchors and talk shows were able to continue broadcasting, but commercials and bumper music could not be played.</li><li data-block-key=\"f44p\">On April 19, <b>the Weather Channel’s Atlanta headquarters</b> were targeted by a cyberattack, forcing the station's live morning broadcast off-air for 90 minutes. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/weatherchannel/status/1118849699388248064/photo/1\">tweeted statement</a>, the channel confirmed it was the victim of a “malicious software attack on the network” and that federal law enforcement was investigating.</li><li data-block-key=\"a0t4t\">Tampa-based radio station <b>WMNF 88.5-FM</b> said it stepped up cybersecurity after a June 2019 ransomware attack destroyed media files and forced the station off-air. According to the<a href=\"https://www.tampabay.com/breaking-news/radio-station-wmnf-victim-of-ransomware-cyberattack-20190717/\"> Tampa Bay Times</a>, the radio station did not pay the ransom. Instead, it reported the attack to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who worked to restore as many files as possible. Hackers failed to access any sensitive financial information, the Times reported, but the station permanently lost several archived and AudioVault items.</li><li data-block-key=\"249gp\">A 6-station cluster of AM and FM radio stations owned by <b>Max Media</b> in Illinois was targeted by a ransomware attack that rendered nearly all of the stations’ files useless in July 2019. According to the <a href=\"https://www.rbr.com/max-il-ill/\">Radio Business and Television Report</a>, Max Media station leadership refused to pay the ransom. Instead, they opted to “replace almost everything from the ground up.”</li><li data-block-key=\"ah2q9\"><b>Entercom</b> was targeted by <a href=\"https://radioinsight.com/headlines/185117/entercom-reveals-another-cyberattack-that-exposed-radio-com-user-data/\">three</a> separate cyberattacks in 2019, costing the radio network millions in financial losses, according to Radio Insight. A September 2019 incident impacted the radio network’s Radio.com stations, forcing them offline for two hours. Just three months later, in December 2019, another cyberattack forced the news organization to disable all back office systems, including email. In a 2020 notice to the California Attorney General’s office, Entercom said it became aware of an August 24 cyberattack while investigating the September incident. In its notice of data breach to the attorney general, <a href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/Entercom%20-%20CA%20Notice%20of%20Data%20Event.pdf\">Entercom</a> stated it was upgrading security protections by implementing staff training, rotation of password and other best practices.</li></ul></div>",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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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,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"Entercom",
"Max Media",
"The Weather Channel",
"Townsquare Media",
"Urban One",
"WMNF-FM"
],
"tags": [
"cyberattack"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist questioned at San Ysidro border",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border/",
"first_published_at": "2019-02-21T18:42:33.285879Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-07T17:53:34.918836Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-07T17:53:34.731944Z",
"date": "2018-12-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0t50p\">While covering the migrant caravan in Mexico, freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler has been stopped for secondary screenings each time she has re-entered the United States since December 2018.</p><p data-block-key=\"c8154\">At around 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2018, Drehsler arrived at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego to cross back into the United States. She had been covering the <a href=\"https://www.apnews.com/553a27f836ca4fa0a800ad676c09759a\">migrant caravan</a> for wire service United Press International. She would be <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-us-mexico-border-second-time/\">stopped again on Jan. 2</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border-separated-camera/\">Jan. 4</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fphdg\">Drehsler said that the U.S. border agent who had her passport asked her a couple of questions before informing her that she would need to go to secondary screening.</p><p data-block-key=\"dvtsv\">“A man and a woman in civilian clothes came up to me and took me into another room. They asked me what I was doing in Tijuana, who I work for, what other outlets I’ve worked for, my editor’s phone number,” Drehsler said. “They also asked about my background as a photographer.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7spm\">She said that she was asked about what she knew about the caravan, people crossing the border illegally, and details about the shelters for migrants in Mexico.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ra8m\">“I didn’t hide anything, but I also didn’t give them information like the names of fellow journalists. And they also didn’t ask me for specific names.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9og12\">Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the border officials informed her that her passport had been “flagged,” but they did not know why, and they indicated that she might want to budget more time for border crossings since she could be stopped again.</p><p data-block-key=\"4tm7r\">The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not search Drehsler’s notes, electronic devices, or baggage, and she was permitted to bring her phone into questioning. She left the port of entry and entered the United States around 1:25 a.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1k46\">CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"scpkb\">Unlike the U.S. side, where onlookers are supposed to keep a distance, those at Las Playas de Tijuana in Mexico are allowed to get close to the border wall that separates the two countries.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:19-cv-06570",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"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": [
"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ariana Drehsler (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-at-us-mexico-border-for-secondary-screening/",
"first_published_at": "2022-01-14T15:59:14.344475Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-03T19:36:32.809053Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-03T19:36:32.722609Z",
"date": "2018-12-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ope2p\">Go Nakamura and Bing Guan, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.</p><p data-block-key=\"wjkhl\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2019/02/several-journalists-say-us-border-agents-questione.php\">told the Committee to Protect Journalists</a> that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"4fbp4\">Guan told <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/us-mexico-border-journalists-harassment/\">The Intercept</a> that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"08cgv\">Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxik8\">Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.</p><p data-block-key=\"25w5j\">Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.</p><p data-block-key=\"yjiao\">A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS2A5AT.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"9862m\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents participate in a readiness exercise in January at the San Ysidro port of entry with Mexico in San Diego, California.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:19-cv-06570",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": "searched without seizure",
"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": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Go Nakamura (Freelance)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-photography-students-stopped-us-mexico-border-secondary-screening/",
"first_published_at": "2019-02-15T18:10:00.072279Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-03T19:36:07.011860Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-03T19:36:06.906887Z",
"date": "2018-12-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qy7xo\">Bing Guan and Go Nakamura, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.</p><p data-block-key=\"qenw2\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2019/02/several-journalists-say-us-border-agents-questione.php\">told the Committee to Protect Journalists</a> that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"ulj99\">Guan told <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/us-mexico-border-journalists-harassment/\">The Intercept</a> that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"40jma\">Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.</p><p data-block-key=\"7heag\">Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.</p><p data-block-key=\"rlsyf\">Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.</p><p data-block-key=\"2aomd\">A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS285Y2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gn6w3\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents look toward the Mexican border at the San Ysidro border in San Diego, California in November 2018.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:19-cv-06570",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": "searched without seizure",
"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,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bing Guan (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Cyberattack disrupts Tribune newspaper computer systems and delivery across the U.S.",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cyberattack-disrupts-tribune-newspaper-computer-systems-and-delivery-across-us/",
"first_published_at": "2019-01-03T22:39:40.110435Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-05T20:16:55.087158Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-05T20:16:55.017005Z",
"date": "2018-12-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jgivj\">Tribune Publishing, the parent company of Los Angeles Times and many other regional newspapers in the United States, was targeted with a cyberattack on Dec. 29, 2018, that disrupted its computer systems and delayed delivery of newspapers for several news outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"248di\">The Los Angeles Times, one of the outlets impacted by the attack, <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-times-delivery-disruption-20181229-story.html\">reported</a> that what originally arose as a server outage was ultimately identified as a malware attack. According to the Times, a virus “spread through Tribune Publishing’s network and reinfected systems crucial to the news production and printing process.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jxx7l\">Citing sources with knowledge of the Tribune situation, the Times reported that the attack came in the form of ransomware called “Ryuk.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bt9rh\">The <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-times-delivery-disruption-20181229-story.html\">Times further reported</a>:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" >\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"l734o\">“We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. The source would not detail what evidence led the company to believe the breach came from overseas.</p></div>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1bibu\">Several news outlets share a production platform under Tribune Publishing, which owns papers including Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Capital Gazette, Hartford Courant, New York Daily News, South Florida Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel.</p><p data-block-key=\"kzkbw\">The Times and San Diego Tribune are no longer owned by Tribune, but were also impacted because they continue to <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-times-delivery-disruption-20181229-story.html\">share its production software</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9o1i0\">It’s unclear precisely how many news readers were impacted by the delayed deliveries, but the Times reported that a majority of its subscribers received their papers, albeit hours late.</p><p data-block-key=\"14jtq\">The motive for the cyberattack remains unclear. <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-times-delivery-disruption-20181229-story.html\">The Times reported</a> that the Tribune “suspected the cyberattack originated from outside the United States,” but did not elaborate further on whether a foreign government was involved, or why Tribune may have been targeted.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/latimes.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"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": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": null,
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"Capital Gazette",
"Chicago Tribune",
"Hartford Courant",
"Los Angeles Times",
"[New York] Daily News",
"Orlando Sentinel",
"South Florida Sun Sentinel",
"The Baltimore Sun",
"The San Diego Union-Tribune"
],
"tags": [
"cyberattack"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Independent filmmaker stopped while crossing U.S.-Mexico border",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-stopped-while-crossing-us-mexico-border/",
"first_published_at": "2019-09-06T13:37:36.207400Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-01-29T17:01:39.842769Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-01-29T17:01:39.732048Z",
"date": "2018-12-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5pemj\">An independent documentary filmmaker was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border twice by U.S. officials while following the migrant caravan for a film project.</p><p data-block-key=\"r5r01\">The foreign-born citizen is based in the U.S. and asked to not have his name used for fear of reprisal.</p><p data-block-key=\"r4cci\">The filmmaker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on Dec. 28, 2018, he was crossing the San Ysidro border near San Diego, California, by car when Mexican authorities pointed out that his temporary work visa had been mis-stamped. The authorities let him cross, however, into the United States.</p><p data-block-key=\"bt0jr\">On the U.S. side, the filmmaker went into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office to show an officer the error, and asked him to correct it. The officer started to until another agent said of him, “I know that guy—he’s in the video at the border.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pgwd3\">The officer was referring to a video taken of the journalist filming at the border. The video seemed to have been taken from a car, and in it, the filmmaker was clearly recognizable.</p><p data-block-key=\"iflwe\">“I was following a family of migrants,” the filmmaker said, “And border patrol was trying to trip me up, trying to get me away from the family I was following.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yu5ua\">When CBP took away the family and pushed the filmmaker back, he said he gave them no resistance.</p><p data-block-key=\"8srjh\">While inside the Customs office, a CBP officer told the filmmaker to sit down, that he’d “be there for hours,” and “a special team was going to come in.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wtk7a\">The officers continued re-watching the video, and the filmmaker waited for nearly 2 hours. Finally, he said, there was a shift change in the office and the next officer on duty cleared him to go.</p><p data-block-key=\"bod0v\">A week later, while returning to Mexico through the same San Ysidro border, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-stopped-second-time-while-crossing-us-mexico-border-car-and-phone-searched/\">the filmmaker was stopped again</a>, and the car he was in and his phone were searched.</p><p data-block-key=\"qnrzq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has detailed <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=migrant+caravan&categories=Border+Stop\">nearly a dozen border stops</a> of journalists following the migrant caravan. In March, San Diego’s NBC 7 investigative news team received leaked documents <a href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/investigations/Source-Leaked-Documents-Show-the-US-Government-Tracking-Journalists-and-Advocates-Through-a-Secret-Database-506783231.html\">showing the U.S. government had been tracking</a> and keeping dossiers on American journalists, lawyers and activists involved with the caravan. The news station also received an internal email showing <a href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/investigations/Blumenthal-Grave-Concerns-Over-Border-Surveillance-Documents-506892591.html\">the order to increase surveillance</a> came from the head of the city’s Department of Homeland Security.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"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": "no",
"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": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Anonymous documentary journalist 2 (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Subject of reporting attempts to force journalist to reveal a source",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/subject-reporting-attempts-force-journalist-reveal-source/",
"first_published_at": "2019-03-25T18:31:09.577385Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-05-22T17:35:24.009345Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-05-22T17:35:23.928733Z",
"date": "2018-12-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9ehf0\">A New York State Supreme Court judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed under seal for more than three months under which investigative journalist Teri Buhl was asked to disclose a confidential source. The judge ultimately ruled that she could not be forced to reveal the source’s identity.</p><p data-block-key=\"82gvq\">Bruce Bernstein, an employee at Rockmore Capital and the <a href=\"http://www.teribuhl.com/2018/09/19/rockmore-capitals-bruce-bernstein-ex-wife-outs-him-for-possible-sec-violations-in-xspa-deal/\">subject of a story by Buhl on securities fraud</a>, filed a lawsuit alleging that Buhl had use a document in her reporting from his divorce filings that was under seal.</p><p data-block-key=\"aybu8\">“Bernstein is entitled to pre-action discovery that will allow him to determine who - the Binn Parties, their counsel, Aufrichtig or a party currently unknown to Bernstein - sent the Document and email to Buhl,” reads the pre-discovery petition filed December 2018.</p><p data-block-key=\"37n15\">Manhattan Judge W. Franc Perry sealed the lawsuit, preventing the public from ascertaining the details of the lawsuit for months after it was filed. </p><p data-block-key=\"5qijj\">“I was still reporting on securities fraud, but I couldn’t report that they were suing me and bullying me,” Buhl told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"og8j\">On Jan. 18, Buhl wrote on her news website, Smashmouth Investigative Journalism, that a subject of her reporting was <a href=\"http://www.teribuhl.com/2019/01/18/ny-court-case-putting-journalist-source-protection-at-risk/\">attempting to force her to disclose a source</a>, and that she was fighting back.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mgl9\">Buhl’s attorneys filed an opposition to the application to seal the records, and filed in support of the motion to dismiss the pre-action disclosure petition on Jan. 28.</p><p data-block-key=\"5oad2\">“In a desperate bid to keep potentially damaging information from public view, Petitioner seeks to upend bedrock constitutional principles protecting both the public’s right to access the courts and the free exchange of ideas,” the opposition reads. “Petitioner has brought this special proceeding under CPLR 3102(c), in part, to compel Ms. Buhl, a seasoned investigative journalist, to reveal confidential source information relating to her reporting on Petitioner’s possible SEC violations.”</p><p data-block-key=\"swq7e\">On March 5, the judge ruled that Buhl could not be forced to disclose her confidential source. Buhl said that on the Friday before, March 1, the judge had ruled in favor of a motion by Buhl’s attorneys to unseal the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mkv6\">The dismissal of Bernstein’s petition for pre-discovery cites reporters’ ability to protect their sources: “...[G]iven New York’s long tradition of protecting freedom of the press and recognizing the critical role that the press plays in our democratic society, Ms. Buhl, as a professional journalist, is protected by the Shield Law, which was enacted to provide the highest level of protection in the nation for those which gather and report the news and to promote the free flow of dissemination.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tw3v2\">On March 4, Buhl updated the post on her website to note that numerous news organizations and press freedom groups, including the New York Times and Reporters without Borders, had joined an amicus brief in support.</p><p data-block-key=\"avra4\">“This is an important win because it confirms that the New York shield law applies to freelance journalists like Teri Buhl, who self-publish on their own news sites,” said Sarah Matthews, staff attorney for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which submitted <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2019-01-28-Anonymous-v-Anoymous-Teri-Buhl.pdf\">its own friend-of-the-court brief</a> in January. “Unsealing this case was particularly important because it involved an attempt to force a journalist to reveal her source.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ao1yi\">The Press Freedom Defense Fund provided the legal funding for Buhl’s case. (<i>Full disclosure: Matthews provides intake for the Fund and sits on the steering committee for the Tracker.</i>)</p><p data-block-key=\"nq8l8\">Buhl agreed that the judge’s ruling helps all freelancers in New York.</p><p data-block-key=\"afm03\">“It’s alarming that a state court judge even agreed to seal this case before any hearing took place, based on what one Wall Street lawyer said in his motion,” said Buhl said. “Pre-action discovery cannot be used as a fishing expedition to get reporters’ sources.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ku2u2\">Buhl also told the Tracker that she could think of no circumstance under which she would comply with such a legal order and reveal the identity of a source.</p><p data-block-key=\"hksr0\">“I would rather be held in contempt,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dy8ys\">Bernstein did not respond to request for comment by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"3qf4q\"><i>Editor's Note: This article was updated to reflect that</i> <i>Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press submitted its own amicus brief in the case.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"by76h\">Attorneys Mark Bailen, left, and Peter Shapiro celebrate a favorable decision for their client, journalist Teri Buhl, who had been sued to reveal a confidential source.</p>",
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{
"title": "Filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky has device taken and searched upon arrival in U.S.",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-saeed-taji-farouky-has-device-taken-and-searched-dhs-upon-arrival-us/",
"first_published_at": "2019-01-30T16:52:54.770816Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-10T14:34:07.753766Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-10T14:34:07.660732Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l5rjn\">While flying from the United Kingdom into the United States on Dec. 23, 2018, filmmaker and director Saeed Taji Farouky was stopped by border authorities, who questioned him about his work and family and asked him to unlock his cellphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"nbdcz\">Farouky, who is based in the UK, had obtained a visa for this trip, and was checking in at the airport. At the check-in counter, Farouky heard the employee who had his paperwork tell another employee, “I’ve got someone here relating to those two words that I can’t say.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kqpp4\">“I was like, what are those two words?” Farouky said. “Why would you say that in front of me?”</p><p data-block-key=\"ffblg\">Whatever those two words were, Farouky was pulled aside for an interview by the Department of Homeland Security. He said the interview didn’t surprise him. While securing his visa for the trip, an embassy representative told him he might be interviewed again while traveling. Plus, he said, he is used to it.</p><p data-block-key=\"bk3gn\">“This time,” Farouky said, “This DHS guy showed up and questioned me for 10 minutes. There were some questions about my work, and also strange questions about whether I had family in the United States—he wanted to know if they were ‘OK,’ or if they had medical issues. When I mentioned living in Morocco in the past, he kept bringing up this story in which two Scandinavian hikers were killed by an ISIS affiliate. The story is horrifying, but he kept bringing it up over and over. It felt like maybe he was phishing to see my reaction.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r4yhj\">After he was told by DHS that he was good to go, Farouky said his luggage was given an additional swab to test for explosives, and then he boarded his flight to Florida. But upon landing, he said he was quickly pulled aside again.</p><p data-block-key=\"2cyyr\">“I sat there for a long time while someone asked me questions, and it focused on my travel history. He brought up Syria a lot, which I visited in 2009 before the United States’ cutoff date to visit the country.”</p><p data-block-key=\"up6oe\">Farouky said a border agent then asked for his phone, and requested him to unlock it. The border officials did not ask him for his passcode.</p><p data-block-key=\"39ogp\">“I didn’t know what my rights were,” Farouky said. “I asked, ‘What if I am not comfortable with that?’ And they said the only other option was sending my phone to a private company, which meant I wouldn’t get it back for weeks.”</p><p data-block-key=\"82asc\">Border agents <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/business/border-enforcement-airport-phones.html\">cannot force travelers to unlock their phones or laptops</a>, but they can ask them to do so and escalate the situation. If travelers refuse, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/business/border-enforcement-airport-phones.html\">officials can seize the devices and copy the data</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fctu8\">Farouky said he was worried about his contacts, both personal and professional. “If they harvested all of the names and numbers, that’s everyone I have ever interviewed, so my sources could be put in some sort of database. But I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5cby0\">He said he felt intensely uncomfortable, but unlocked his phone and gave it to the officials. Farouky said they told him they were just looking for evidence of illegal activity. The border agents then took his phone into another room, returning it after about five minutes, Farouky said. When it was returned, it was on airplane mode.</p><p data-block-key=\"85he0\"><a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/PIA-CBP%20-%20Border-Searches-of-Electronic-Devices%20-January-2018%20-%20Compliant.pdf\">A 2018 Customs and Border Protection directive</a> requires officials to ensure that prior to a search, devices are not connected to the internet, so that searches only involve content that is stored locally on the device.</p><p data-block-key=\"w0urk\">Farouky also noted that at no point was he offered a piece of paper detailing his rights in the situation. He also said that he was concerned that pushing back would only spike the authorities’ interest in his devices and work.</p><p data-block-key=\"rcpp2\">“I certainly didn’t want them looking at my laptop. I’m not even doing hardcore investigative work,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9yk5\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6tzgq\">Farouky emphasized that this kind of incident is not uncommon for him, and that he has been questioned by authorities while traveling and asked to unlock his devices at other times. He said in a Tel Aviv airport around 2009, Israeli authorities asked him to unlock his phone and he refused. And a few years ago in New York, he was interrogated in what he called a much ruder and longer fashion. There, his phone was taken but not unlocked.</p><p data-block-key=\"4oviv\">“I don’t have any doubt that this is because I am a Muslim, a Palestinian, and a journalist. It really pissed me off intellectually,” Farouky said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in full",
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"actor": null,
"border_point": "United Kingdom",
"target_us_citizenship_status": "U.S. non-resident",
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"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [
"United Kingdom"
],
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Independent journalist cited for trespassing in Florida city hall",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-cited-trespassing-florida-city-hall/",
"first_published_at": "2019-02-05T21:37:49.202277Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:35:56.929178Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:35:56.814339Z",
"date": "2018-12-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Punta Gorda",
"longitude": -82.04537,
"latitude": 26.92978,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"odb2q\">On Dec. 20, 2018, reporter and activist Andrew Sheets was cited for trespassing after filming inside the city hall building in Punta Gorda, Florida, in violation of a local ordinance.</p><p data-block-key=\"soigf\">Sheets, a member of the National Press Photographers Association, is a self-described “copwatch reporter” who runs a YouTube channel focused on police misconduct and corruption.</p><p data-block-key=\"aitog\">The local law that Sheets was accused of violating, Ordinance 1872-17, prohibits filming people without permission in certain areas of city-controlled buildings, including Punta Gorda City Hall and City Hall Annex.</p><p data-block-key=\"nvgu1\">Ordinance 1872-17 <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5727919-Punta-Gorda-Ordinance-1872-17.html\">states</a>:</p><p data-block-key=\"1fpbc\">“Except within the City Council Chambers, conference rooms, and other locations in which a public meeting is being conducted pursuant to a public notice, it shall be unlawful and a violation of this Ordinance to record video and/or sound within City-owned, controlled, and leased property, without the consent of all persons whose voice or image is being recorded. … Any person who refuses to cease the unconsented to video and/or sound recording, and refuses to immediately leave the premises following the request of the City Manager or his designee, shall be considered as a trespasser.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7hm8s\">On Dec. 20, Sheets used a body camera to record himself going to the Punta Gorda City Clerk’s Office and making a records request for a copy of Ordinance 1872-17. Sheets later <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3UwzBgMRs\">posted the video</a> recorded by his body camera on YouTube.</p><p data-block-key=\"8yo6r\">The video shows Sheets entering the City Hall Annex building and going to the city clerk’s office, where he makes a request for a copy of the ordinance. Two city hall staffers who appear on the video tell Sheets that they do not have their permission and film them and ask him to stop recording.</p><p data-block-key=\"xmkpr\">“You don’t have our permission to record us,” one of the staffers tells Sheets.</p><p data-block-key=\"2inam\">“You’re a public official in a public building,” Sheets replies.</p><p data-block-key=\"zfabz\">“This is a staff area,” the staffer says. “It’s not a public meeting area.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1fgd5\">Later in the video, Sheets goes to the Punta Gorda police station and asks to speak with the police chief. An officer, later identified as Lt. Justin Davoult, then approaches him in the lobby to inform them that the police chief will not speak with him. Davoult also issues two trespass warnings to Sheets, which ban Sheets from returning to Punta Gorda City Hall and City Hall Annex for one year.</p><p data-block-key=\"6su3d\">“Before we go any further, this is what we’re going to do,” Davoult tells Sheets in the video. “The chief’s not available to speak to you. OK, so this is what you’ve got. This is a trespass warning for City Hall and City Annex, OK, for both addresses over at City Hall. You are no longer to be at or on that property for a period of one year or you will face arrest.”<br/></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-image\">\n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Sheets_trespass_warning.width-828.jpg\" width=\"348\" height=\"255\" alt=\"A portion of the trespass notice received by Andrew Sheets.\">\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"o3rib\">Sheets later filed a personnel complaint against Davoult, accusing him of “unlawful trespass issued.” The police department conducted an internal investigation, which cleared Davoult of any wrongdoing.</p><p data-block-key=\"qlxp8\">“The circumstances detailed on Dec. 20, 2018 confirmed that Andrew Sheets was in violation of the city ordinance,” the investigation report states. “This investigation has determined Lieutenant Justin Davoult’s actions were lawful, proper, and consistent with department policy and therefore is Exonerated from the allegation of unlawful trespass issued.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ogk1v\">Sheets believes that the prohibition on filming in Punta Gorda City Hall may be unconstitutional.</p><p data-block-key=\"29qgh\">In April 2017, the Punta Gorda Police Department asked the Florida State Attorney’s Office to bring wiretapping charges against someone who had been caught filming inside the city hall building. The State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, explaining in <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5727926-Florida-State-Attorney-s-Office-disposition-notice.html\">a felony warrant request disposition notice</a> that “a citizen’s right to film government officials, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8lnad\">The constitutionality of the city ordinance has never been tested in court.</p><p data-block-key=\"j8euv\">Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told Freedom of the Press Foundation that the city of Punta Gorda may have violated Sheets’ First Amendment rights when it issued the trespass warning.</p><p data-block-key=\"x4azv\">“Aside from being based upon a constitutionally suspect ordinance, the trespass notice issued to Mr. Sheets is a blatant violation of his First Amendment rights and chills his ability to gather and disseminate information on important matter of public concern,” Osterreicher said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gs49j\">Melissa Reichert, a spokeswoman for the city, <a href=\"https://www.yoursun.com/charlotte/news/illegally-barred-from-punta-gorda-city-hall/article_95b6df26-151c-11e9-a574-e7cecdfe4833.html\">told The Port Charlotte Sun</a>, a local newspaper, that the city believes the ordinance is valid and will continue to enforce it.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1wdx\">“The city has enforced Ordinance 1872-17 as provided therein since its adoption in May 2017,” Reichert told the paper. “Unless and until a court of competent jurisdiction determines otherwise, the city staff believes the ordinance is valid."</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Punta Gorda Police Department",
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "2:19-cv-00484",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-12-02 00:00:00+00:00) Videographer drops lawsuit against city over trespassing citation",
"(2019-07-12 15:04:00+00:00) Videographer sues to erase previous trespassing citation"
],
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"withdrawn"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "More than two dozen newsrooms receive hoax bomb threats",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/more-two-dozen-newsrooms-receive-hoax-bomb-threats/",
"first_published_at": "2019-01-24T16:11:01.981235Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-12T15:32:38.001399Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-12T15:32:37.916936Z",
"date": "2018-12-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"aef2t\">Becky Maxwell, publisher at the Journal Express in Knoxville, Iowa, received an email on Dec. 13, 2018, claiming that a bomb had been placed in newspaper’s building that would detonate if she failed to send a ransom in bitcoin by the end of business. The Express was one of 12 newspapers owned by the media company CNHI to receive such a threat that day.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"xepjz\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented that at least 27 U.S. media outlets were targeted with the hoax bomb threats, alongside hundreds of schools, businesses and public buildings across the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the CNHI (formerly Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) papers, eight stations owned by Gray TV and two newspapers owned by McClatchy received the email threats. More may have received the email hoax and not publicized it.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"2ef5s\">“When I first received [the email],” Maxwell told the Tracker, “I read it a couple of times and I thought, ‘Oh, this is just a scam.’” But, because of previous incidents over the past 15 years, she said, they now take any kind of threat seriously.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"luvhx\">After consulting with the chief of police, the Express did not evacuate. Neither did the staff at the Joplin Globe in Joplin, Missouri. When reporters Debby Woodin and Emily Younker each received the threatening email, they brought it to Globe Editor Carol Stark and the publisher, who immediately called the police. While the Globe has policies in place for tornadoes and fires, Stark told the Tracker, on the day they received the threat they lacked a clear procedure to follow.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"cfz8g\">“We did not evacuate because the police really thought it was a bogus call, but in hindsight now we should have,” she said.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"cxpge\">Events over the past year have spurred many newsrooms across the country to reevaluate their security infrastructure and procedures, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/panic-buttons-cameras-and-gun-under-desk-local-newsrooms-update-security-wake-capital-gazette-attack/\">editors and publishers told the Tracker</a>, and none more so than the June shooting at a newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. On June 28, Jarrod Ramos entered the Capital Gazette offices and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-upset-newspaper-coverage-shoots-and-kills-multiple-journalists-capital-gazette-newsroom/\">shot to death five people</a>, including four journalists and a sales associate.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"z6dkr\">Andy Bernhard, publisher for The Park Record in Park City, Utah, said that when his newsroom received the bomb threat they were already in the process of following through with recommendations from the county sheriff for improvements to the office’s physical security.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"88zyp\">“It was actually the Annapolis Capital incident that got us moving on evolving our security procedures,” he said. “We’re actively receiving quotes for specifically that: shatterproof glass, keycard entry and new security cameras.”<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"3t4q1\">Media companies, including CNHI and Swift Communications, have also initiated security reviews and updates in the wake of the Annapolis shooting, including conducting active shooter training with the full staff at each of their outlets.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"vyxg6\">On July 10, McClatchy sent an internal email, shared with the Tracker, informing its newsrooms that all locations would have hostile intruder trainings and that it was evaluating and updating the emergency plans and physical security of all locations. The email stated: “These upgrades may include installing panic buttons, remote entry maglocks, video cameras in entryways, shatter-resistant film coating to windows and additional on-site security guards.”<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"6t394\">Jeanne Segal, McClatchy communications director, told the Tracker that all trainings and physical upgrades have been completed.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"ysieg\">Al Lancaster, VP general manager at WSAW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin, was glad that the threat came in in the middle of the day, when four department heads were in the newsroom and able to clear the building in fewer than 10 minutes. Lancaster told the Tracker, “It was pretty clear that we should evacuate whether we thought the threat was legitimate or not.”<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"vwuel\">Lancaster said that the bomb hoax checked their preparedness for such an event.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"lgv7r\">“We did just pull our disaster plan which had not been updated for a while,” Lancaster said, “And because of that bomb scare actually we’re looking at it with our department heads and revising and tweaking some things.”<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"wyzwx\">In a year that saw an increase of violence and threats against journalists, this single-day email bomb hoax tested security procedures and trainings that newsrooms across the country have undertaken.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xk9mv\">The Tracker has been able to verify the following media outlets were recipients of the hoax bomb threat:</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"buxa3\">The Chicago Tribune, Tribune, Chicago, IL</li><li data-block-key=\"h6d5w\">Clinton Herald, CNHI, Clinton, IA</li><li data-block-key=\"edntv\">Enid News & Eagle, CNHI, Enid, OK</li><li data-block-key=\"4hrnu\">Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, CNHI, Johnstown, PA</li><li data-block-key=\"67rk8\">Joplin Globe, CNHI, Joplin, MO</li><li data-block-key=\"r6b2c\">Journal Express, CNHI, Knoxville, IA</li><li data-block-key=\"umz8j\">Kansas City Star, McClatchy, Kansas City, MO</li><li data-block-key=\"ha80c\">KCRG-TV, GrayTV, Cedar Rapids, IA</li><li data-block-key=\"depn3\">KMVT-TV, GrayTV, Twin Falls, ID</li><li data-block-key=\"e1kbu\">KTUU-TV, GrayTV, Anchorage, AK</li><li data-block-key=\"blt6x\">Muskogee Phoenix, CNHI, Muskogee, OK</li><li data-block-key=\"z5jm9\">The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC</li><li data-block-key=\"c6m6a\">News & Tribune, CNHI, Jeffersonville, IN</li><li data-block-key=\"hcql8\">Ottumwa Daily Courier, CNHI, Ottumwa, IA</li><li data-block-key=\"c0b4y\">The Park Record, Swift Communications, Park City, UT</li><li data-block-key=\"r0ybb\">Parkersburg News & Sentinel, Ogden, Parkersburg, WV</li><li data-block-key=\"sxvc0\">Pauls Valley Democrat, CNHI, Pauls Valley, OK</li><li data-block-key=\"g630q\">Suwanee Democrat, CNHI, Live Oak, FL</li><li data-block-key=\"pr9u3\">Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI, Valdosta, GA</li><li data-block-key=\"s9i72\">Washington Examiner, Clarity Media Group, Washington, DC</li><li data-block-key=\"n5v3k\">WBKO-TV, GrayTV, Bowling Green, KY</li><li data-block-key=\"xmtkm\">WBOC-TV, Draper Holdings, Salisbury, MD</li><li data-block-key=\"k4vw6\">WCAX-TV, GrayTV, Burlington, VT</li><li data-block-key=\"itqnn\">Weatherford Daily Times, CNHI, Weatherford, TX</li><li data-block-key=\"ssp0j\">WNDU-TV, GrayTV, South Bend, IN</li><li data-block-key=\"t678g\">WSAW-TV, GrayTV, Wausau, WI</li><li data-block-key=\"3vcc0\">WTVY-TV, GrayTV, Dothan, AL</li></ul></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3vb8o\">Newsrooms across the U.S., plus schools and businesses here and abroad, received bomb threats via email on the same December day.<br/></p>",
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{
"title": "NC news publisher charged with criminal contempt of court",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nc-news-publisher-charged-with-criminal-contempt-of-court/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-03T14:39:53.420386Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-11T14:28:24.991952Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-11T14:28:24.878840Z",
"date": "2018-12-03",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Franklin",
"longitude": -83.38154,
"latitude": 35.18232,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ekfej\">Davin Eldridge, publisher of the local news site and Facebook page <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/trappreport/\">Trappalachia</a>, was charged with contempt of court on Dec. 3, 2018, for recording and livestreaming a criminal proceeding in November 2018 at the Macon County Courthouse in Franklin, North Carolina.</p><p data-block-key=\"cje1q\">The News & Observer <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/article249893653.html\">reported</a> that despite posted signs stating that recording was not permitted in the courtroom and a warning from a bailiff, Eldridge allegedly continued to film court proceedings. The presiding judge, William Coward, reiterated his rule against recording and, after viewing Eldridge’s Facebook <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=740930952934357&id=592652141095573&__cft__[0]=AZWsuXV6HS2Isov2F_cU_Hjtw59d0QZHJE6tsY3BSFy9no9qawpYueZ9yUbbhAEgHXoq-IdVPrbk_rFzO5OIe6XPHwj8C-EqUqUnyZv9_BqOcnPnHpquiiZYUvii8tF7p7GzdgP_AL2gT3hpKOnBK8QI&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\">posts</a>, which included the livestreamed footage, ordered the journalist to return to the courtroom later that day. Eldridge did not comply with that order, according to a <a href=\"https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&pdf=38602\">subsequent ruling</a> by the North Carolina Court of Appeals.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qy9z\">Eldridge did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"uvowc\">On Dec. 3, Coward issued an order for Eldridge to appear in court on Jan. 11, 2019, to argue why he should not be held in criminal contempt of court. The judge also signed a search warrant granting the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation access to Eldridge’s Facebook account records and several messaging threads.</p><p data-block-key=\"hnvnn\">On the date of the hearing, Eldridge motioned for Coward to recuse himself, arguing that since the inciting incident had taken place in his courtroom, the judge could not be impartial; Eldridge’s motion was denied. Coward subsequently found Eldridge guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced him to 30 days in jail, which was suspended; the journalist was then placed on probation for one year. A condition of Eldridge’s probation, the Free Speech Center <a href=\"https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/post/422/judge-s-order-for-essay-on-respect-for-court-system-upheld-with-dissent-arguing-first-amendment\">reported</a>, was that he write and publish a 2,000-to-3,000-word essay online about respect for the court system and delete any negative comments people may write.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ex85\">Eldridge immediately appealed the ruling, challenging Coward’s decision not to recuse himself, the charge and the legality of the probation conditions, including the essay writing.</p><p data-block-key=\"jpwqg\">In December 2019, the Court of Appeals <a href=\"https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&pdf=38602\">upheld Coward’s ruling</a>, stating, “Given defendant’s questionable and intentional conduct, his frequent visits to the courtroom, and his direct willingness to disobey courtroom policies, we discern no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision to impose conditions on defendant’s probationary sentence. Such conditions are reasonably related to the necessity of preventing further disruptions of the court by defendant’s conduct, and the need to provide accountability without unduly infringing on his rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uws6x\">A dissenting opinion was entered by Judge Christopher Brook, who agreed that Coward had the right to restrict recording in the courtroom and find Eldridge guilty of contempt but found that the conditions of his probation had “deeply troubling constitutional problems.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v14h9\">The Tracker has captured Coward’s required pre-approval of the essay and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/court-orders-journalist-to-write-blog-censor-replies-as-part-of-sentencing/\">removal of all negative comments</a> in its prior restraint category.</p><p data-block-key=\"8kla3\">Eldridge again appealed the ruling. On March 12, 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court <a href=\"https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=1&pdf=40135\">affirmed</a> the Appeals Court’s decision without any explanation.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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"name": "North Carolina",
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},
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Arkansas high school suspends student newspaper",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-high-school-suspends-student-newspaper/",
"first_published_at": "2018-12-05T00:32:19.552582Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-20T19:07:29.131741Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-20T19:07:29.048480Z",
"date": "2018-11-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Springdale",
"longitude": -94.12881,
"latitude": 36.18674,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uxy8y\">A high school student newspaper in Arkansas was suspended, and its adviser threatened with termination, after student journalists published an article about a story questioning the legitimacy of the transfer of football players to another school.</p><p data-block-key=\"l5yeo\"><a href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/harber-high-arkansas-student-newspaper-suspended-football\">According to BuzzFeed News</a>, Har-Ber High School in Springdale suspended its student paper on Nov. 27, 2018, after it published <a href=\"https://splc.org/2018/12/censored-story-athletes-transfers-in-question/\">an investigative story</a> in October.</p><p data-block-key=\"kb3nl\">In a statement, Springdale district superintendent Jim Rollins called The Herald’s story "intentionally negative, demeaning, hurtful and potentially harmful to the students" as well as "divisive and disruptive" to the community, but did not dispute the accuracy of the reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"dysnr\">Springdale school district reportedly requested that the paper’s adviser, Karla Sprague, remove the article from the paper’s website. The article was removed, and the school principal suspended the Herald from publishing at all until new guidelines are implemented. The article has been re-published on the Student Press Law Center's website.</p><p data-block-key=\"r612l\">BuzzFeed noted that the principal also threatened Sprague with potential termination if the Herald continued to publish.</p><p data-block-key=\"yl5g9\">Buzzfeed described the investigation conducted by the students:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" >\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"0ogw5\">District policy states that students can’t transfer schools because they’re recruited or want to play on a different team. An academic transfer is one of the few valid exceptions to allow a transfer student to play sports.</p><p data-block-key=\"wktnj\">So the student journalists — the newspaper class has 10 students and is held in second period every day — got to digging.</p><p data-block-key=\"ewux1\">An anonymous source gave them a pile of FOIA documents from the Arkansas Activities Association showing that five of the players’ parents wrote letters requesting their sons be allowed to play football because they transferred schools for academic reasons.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sv8u\">However, the Herald had also conducted on-the-record interviews with the transfer students themselves, months earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"zq2kr\">In those interviews, two of the teens said they were transferring to play football.</p></div>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y3kvy\">The 1995 <a href=\"https://splc.org/1995/04/arkansas-student-publications-act/\">Arkansas Student Publications Act</a> protects the rights of student publications from censorship from school administrators, except under specific circumstances.</p><p data-block-key=\"skf2j\">“School officials at this point seem to me to have completely thrown up their hands and said, ‘We’re not going to listen to what the law says in our state, and we’re going to do what we want,’” Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, told BuzzFeed.</p><p data-block-key=\"xsgp4\">Student journalists at the Herald did not immediately respond to requests to comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"yrton\">On Dec. 3, 40/29 News <a href=\"https://www.4029tv.com/article/har-ber-newspaper-students-plan-to-appeal-districts-decision-to-remove-article/25387724\">reported</a> that students said that the administration announced that the Herald could be reinstated.</p><p data-block-key=\"t00h9\">“After continued consideration of the legal landscape, the Springdale School District has concluded that the Har-Ber Herald articles may be reposted,” Rick Schaeffer, the communications director for the Springdale School District, wrote on Dec. 4. “This matter is complex, challenging and has merited thorough review. The social and emotional well-being of all students has been and continues to be a priority of the district.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8t2k0\">Schaeffer declined to comment on whether new guidelines will be implemented that govern publishing in Springdale schools.</p></div>",
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"name": "Arkansas",
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"The [Har-Ber High School] Herald"
],
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"student journalism"
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{
"title": "Journalist stopped at border for the fourth time, questioned about immigration reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-fourth-time-questioned-about-immigration-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2019-08-02T18:40:17.874585Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-01-29T17:01:30.440913Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-01-29T17:01:30.349595Z",
"date": "2018-11-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t9udv\">Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while she was re-entering the United States on Nov. 24, 2018, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?categories=5&targets=382\">the fourth time in six months</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"qis01\">Binkowski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was returning from a reporting trip to visit the migrant caravan moving that month, and was crossing later in the day than she normally would, which worried her.</p><p data-block-key=\"hy9xm\">“I knew heading back there was going to be a problem,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"js2rl\">The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/border-stop/\">documented</a> other cases where CBP officers targeted journalists covering migrant caravans for questioning about their reporting and sources. Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-us-mexico-border-second-time/\">told the Tracker</a> that when officers asked about her reporting on the caravan and about organizers and activists, “I felt like an informant.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s5fi6\">Binkowski told the Tracker that while the officers did not ask to search her phone and were less aggressive than during her previous stops, it felt like an “escalation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qwoyl\">“They kept me: no threats, no yelling. But that was almost worse because if felt like they were just keeping me because they could,” Binkowski said.</p><p data-block-key=\"btcec\">CBP officers held her for about an hour, Binkowski said, questioning her about where she had been in Tijuana and about her work as a journalist before letting her cross into the U.S. It was their “mindless exercise of power,” she told the Tracker, that pushed her to stop crossing the border. She hasn’t been back since this trip.</p><p data-block-key=\"solzz\">“In the end I stopped crossing not because of myself, though now I think it was prudent,” Binkowski said, “But because I was worried about potentially getting other people’s names on a list, and that kind of responsibility in this time is just too much.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xq12r\">While covering the migrant caravan, freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection multiple times.</p>",
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"actor": null,
"border_point": "San Ysidro Port of Entry",
"target_us_citizenship_status": "U.S. citizen",
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": true,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": "no",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"migrant caravan"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brooke Binkowski (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Portland mayor’s office requests reporters sign non-disclosure agreement",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-mayors-office-requests-reporters-sign-non-disclosure-agreement/",
"first_published_at": "2019-01-07T18:16:36.968244Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-04-06T20:29:57.910138Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-04-06T20:29:57.853138Z",
"date": "2018-11-17",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"er85d\">A representative for Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler invited reporters from three news organizations to sign a non-disclosure agreement as a condition for access to the Portland Police Bureau's Incident Command Post during a protest by the right-wing group Patriot Prayer on Nov. 17, 2018, <a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2018/12/02/the-mayors-office-asked-select-reporters-to-sign-non-disclosure-agreements-and-let-a-police-officer-determine-what-they-publish/\">according to Willamette Week</a></p><p data-block-key=\"r9ilo\"><a href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/wweek/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/06102138/Protest_Observation_Application_and_NDA_.pdf\">The agreement</a> prohibits the publication of “confidential” information which it broadly defines to include direct quotes.</p><p data-block-key=\"26s89\">“Direct quotes of the assigned employee or any other member interviewed or conversed with are Confidential unless the assigned employee otherwise consents to and authorizes publication of their direct quote,” the agreement states.</p><p data-block-key=\"u93fl\">“The Receiving Party acknowledges that access to PPB facilities and Confidential Information during an observation and tour is a privilege and not a right. Thus, the Receiving Party agrees to waive any claims and hold City and PPB harmless for any perceived failure of the Disclosing Party to grant the Receiving Party access to Confidential Information, or for any restriction on the Receiving Party’s ability to use, reproduce, or publish Confidential Information.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lf2uu\">Willamette Week, <a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2018/12/11/portland-mayors-draft-non-disclosure-agreement-would-have-barred-reporters-from-repeating-a-laundry-list-of-information/\">which published a copy of the non-disclosure agreement</a>, reported that journalists from KGW-TV, The Oregonian and the Portland Tribune were offered the deal by the mayor’s communications director Eileen Park.</p><p data-block-key=\"5r318\">"It's an effort to provide more access, transparency, and to show the public what goes into the decision making and planning process prior to and during these protests," Park stated in an email to a KGW reporter <a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2018/12/02/the-mayors-office-asked-select-reporters-to-sign-non-disclosure-agreements-and-let-a-police-officer-determine-what-they-publish/\">obtained by Willamette Week</a>. "Lt Craig Dobson will be your liason [sic], and can guide when and what you will be able to tweet and share.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1g4o3\"><a href=\"https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2018/11/15/24590776/mayor-invites-fair-and-balanced-reporters-to-cover-protest-from-police-hq\">The Portland Mercury wrote that</a> Park worked with the Portland Police Bureau to select journalists based on their history of “fair and balanced” reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"fzngq\">"In hindsight, I can see how this does not look good," Park said. “Ideally, we should open this option up to every media outlet."</p><p data-block-key=\"v1923\">“We hear the concerns and hope media sees from our office it was about increasing access,” a spokesperson for the mayor told Willamette Week. "We'll continue to do that no matter what."</p><p data-block-key=\"m6vnh\"><a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2018/12/12/portlands-mayor-and-police-asked-reporters-to-agree-to-strict-rules-in-exchange-for-behind-the-scenes-access/\">According to the Willamette Week</a>, no news organization accepted the offer which was ultimately rescinded. <a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2018/11/17/despite-a-few-small-skirmishes-saturdays-protests-show-portland-police-can-keep-warring-protesters-apart/\">Six people</a> were arrested during the protest.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KGW",
"Portland Tribune",
"The Oregonian"
],
"tags": [],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist Jamie Kalven subpoenaed to testify in police officer trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-jamie-kalven-subpoenaed-testify-police-officer-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-26T18:38:42.229046Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-05T19:10:17.724800Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-05T19:10:17.621240Z",
"date": "2018-11-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cne6q\">Jamie Kalven was subpoenaed on Nov. 16, 2018 to testify in the trial of three Chicago police officers accused of lying to protect a fellow police officer who murdered a teenager in 2014.</p><p data-block-key=\"uo37u\">Kalven is an independent journalist based in Chicago and the founder of the Invisible Institute, a journalistic outlet focused on government accountability.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sasx\">Three Chicago police officers — David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney — stand accused of falsifying reports about the fatal shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014. The <a href=\"https://www.apnews.com/0c9f69160de1498787d8d72a0d8706bc\">trial</a> is set to begin Nov. 27, 2018.</p><p data-block-key=\"2kwaq\">The subpoena orders him to appear in court and testify on Nov. 29. Craig Futterman — an attorney and University of Chicago Law School professor who was instrumental in getting video footage related to the shooting released — was also subpoenaed in the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"74jwp\">In a Nov. 20 <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5280518-Motion-to-quash-subpoena-of-Jamie-Kalven-11-20-18.html\">motion to quash</a>, his attorneys argue that reporter’s privilege protects Kalven from testifying about his reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"ihk2v\">“Journalist Jamie Kalven and attorney Craig Futterman have no firsthand knowledge of any events that are possibly relevant to this case; their only connection to the Laquan McDonald shooting or the Defendant’s accused conduct is in reporting on the veracity of the official narrative,” the motion reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"9xj9m\">James McKay — attorney for Chicago police officer on trial David March — did not immediately respond to request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"zf943\">Kalven was also subpoenaed to testify and reveal details about his sources in October 2017, at a pre-trial hearing in the murder case of former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.</p><p data-block-key=\"j1r7y\">Attorneys for Kalven quickly filed a motion to quash it, arguing that as a journalist, he could not be forced to reveal information about his sources except under exceptional circumstances. The judge in that case agreed and found that Van Dyke’s attorneys had not shown the necessity of Kalven’s testimony.</p><p data-block-key=\"5k1vy\">That subpoena was quashed in December 2017, and Van Dyke was ultimately found guilty of murdering teenager Laquan McDonald.</p></div>",
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"subpoena_type": "other testimony",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2018-11-28 11:17:00+00:00) Subpoena withdrawn"
],
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"tags": [],
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jamie Kalven (Independent)"
],
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"dropped"
],
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},
{
"title": "Man threatens to blow up Dallas magazine for publishing controversial columnist",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-threatens-blow-dallas-magazine-publishing-controversial-columnist/",
"first_published_at": "2019-03-07T21:21:41.702593Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:31:14.976219Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:31:14.885053Z",
"date": "2018-11-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Dallas",
"longitude": -96.80667,
"latitude": 32.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"g0fkf\">On Nov. 13, 2018, the Facebook account “Wesley Taylor Jr.” posted a bomb threat on the Facebook page of D Magazine, a magazine based in Dallas, Texas. The Facebook post warned that the magazine’s offices could be blown up if the magazine continued to publish columns written by controversial freelance writer Barrett Brown.</p><p data-block-key=\"zb4t5\">Brown told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Tim Rogers, his editor at D Magazine, first reached out to him the day the bomb threat was posted to tell him about it and ask him whether he knew Taylor. According to Brown, Rogers also said that the Dallas police and the FBI had advised him not to report on the existence of the threat and asked Brown not to publicize it.</p><p data-block-key=\"kensc\">Brown was concerned that the police had not contacted him about the threat and suspected that they were trying to cover it up. He <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1062498395644944384\">tweeted about the threat</a> — without specifying which publication had been targeted — and then asked Philip Kingston, a Dallas city councilman, to try to get more information from the Dallas police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"8yfvp\">On Nov. 18, Dallas Assistant Police Chief Lonzo Anderson emailed Kingston an update on the investigation:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" >\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"9a7h8\">On November 13, 2018, a subject made a veil threat [sic] on social media Facebook to the Dallas Public Library located at 1515 Young Street. The Facebook post reads as follows: “If you Democrats don’t stop this conspiracy shit I’m gonna blow your fucking library up”. Intelligence detectives were immediately notified and also the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Dallas Police Fusion monitored the subject’s social media accounts for intelligence. Dallas Police Explosive Ordinance [sic] and Dallas Security conducted a search on the library and no bomb was located.</p><p data-block-key=\"kp81\">In addition to the library, the subject made a similar threat to an employee at the D Magazine office. The D Magazine Office received a bomb threat via Facebook. The message stated that if they continued to publish Barrett Brown that he was going to blow up their office. A Terroristic Threat F/3 Charge will be filed for the Dallas City Library and a Misdemeanor class A charge will be filed for the threat made against an employee of D Magazine. A DPD CAD Bolo was entered on the suspect for situational awareness. An information bulletin was also disseminated by Fusion to all DPD officers. On November 15, 2018, DPD took the subject in custody for a DPD alias warrant. The subject was interviewed at headquarters. The investigation is on-going. I will contact Intelligence for any further updates.</p></div>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0knne\">Although Anderson’s email, which the councilman forwarded to Brown, stated that charges would be filed against Taylor, no charges were ever filed.</p><p data-block-key=\"h7nwt\">On Nov. 26, shortly after Brown <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1067138293895229440\">tweeted out excerpts</a> of Anderson’s email, D Magazine <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20181127024137/https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2018/11/bomb-threat-made-against-d-magazine-and-j-erik-jonsson-library/\">published a post</a> about the bomb threat. A few days later, the post was abruptly deleted without any explanation. Rogers told the Tracker that he could not comment on what had happened.</p><p data-block-key=\"3txtp\">For months, Brown continued to try to get more information about the police investigation. On Dec. 5, he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1070352725651660803\">spoke at a city council meeting</a> and asked the mayor to explain why he had never been notified about the bomb threat. On Feb. 24, 2019, he sent assistant police chief Anderson copies of more evidence he had dug up on Taylor — screenshots of Facebook messages that Taylor had sent to Brown’s girlfriend asking about him, and photos from Taylor’s Instagram page that shows him posing with a gun. He also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1099472077994844163\">posted the photos and screenshots</a> on Facebook and Twitter. In response, a former DPD officer <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1099622048094134273\">left a comment</a> saying that Brown “has a smug, punchable face.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2smd1\">On Feb. 26, Brown spoke with Sheldon Smith, a DPD sergeant overseeing the investigation, about the current status of the case. In the conversation, which Brown recorded, Smith told Brown that the DPD investigated the bomb threats against the Dallas library and D Magazine, but ultimately determined that there was not enough evidence to charge Taylor.</p><p data-block-key=\"m0a8h\">“Initially, we believed that we would have enough information to file those charges on the individual that we’re talking about, just based on the preliminary information,” Smith told Brown, according to a recording of the conversation. “But after we conducted a thorough investigation, we didn't have the elements needed in order to actually file the offense for that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cm4lx\">Smith offered two explanations for why charges could not be brought against Taylor. First, he said, Taylor had never said that he would personally blow up D Magazine’s building, just that “someone” could.</p><p data-block-key=\"y1m60\">“He didn’t say that he would,” Smith said, according to the recording. “And the element we needed was if he had said, ‘I’m going to blow the building up.’ But when he said ‘someone,’ that’s why we couldn’t physically charge him.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vsl1t\">Brown pointed out that this explanation couldn’t account for the decision not to charge him for the bomb threat against the Dallas library, which contains the explicit statement, “I’m gonna blow your fucking library up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"evqmy\">To that, Smith offered a second explanation for not charging Taylor. The problem, he said, was that the police could not be sure that Taylor was actually responsible for the threat posted from his Facebook account.</p><p data-block-key=\"0bmml\">“We did extensive research on his Facebook account and we could not confirm that it was actually him that said that,” Smith said, according to the recording. “It may have been him, but we weren’t 100 percent sure that it was him. It would be as if you left your phone sitting on the counter and someone’s gonna send messages from your number.”</p><p data-block-key=\"z5qgz\">Brown is an independent journalist, essayist, and media critic who is best known for his close association with the online movement Anonymous. Although Brown is not a computer hacker, he embedded himself as a journalist with a hacker collective tied to Anonymous. In 2012, as federal authorities stepped up operations against the hacking group, the FBI raided Brown’s house and his mother’s house.</p><p data-block-key=\"lkli1\">Later that year, <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2012/09/barret-brown-raid/\">Brown was arrested</a> for allegedly threatening one of the FBI agents who had raided his mother’s house. In 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Brown on a number of charges related to trafficking in stolen information, for allegedly linking to information that hackers had already stolen. Most of the federal charges <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2014/03/barrett-brown-motion-to-dismiss/\">were later dropped</a>, and Brown ultimately <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2014/04/barrett-brown-plea-agreement/\">accepted a plea deal</a> and was <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-trial-warns-dangerous-precedent-hacking-sentencing\">sentenced to five years in prison</a>. While incarcerated, he wrote a <a href=\"https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2016/02/barrett-brown-wins-a-national-magazine-award-from-behind-bars/\">National Magazine Award-winning column</a> on prison life. After being released from prison in late 2016, he briefly <a href=\"https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/01/how-to-leave-your-halfway-house-and-get-to-work-riding-dart/\">covered Dallas city council meetings</a> for D Magazine while living in a halfway house, and he has continued to freelance for the magazine.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2019-03-07_at_4.05.19.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3pp5w\">Barrett Brown, left, is interviewed for the news site Vice at D Magazine offices in Dallas, Texas. A bomb threat was directed at the magazine for running Brown's work late last year.<br/></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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"actor": null,
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"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": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"D"
],
"tags": [
"bomb / bomb threat"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Protesters threaten Fox News host Tucker Carlson during demonstration outside his house",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/protesters-threaten-fox-news-host-tucker-carlson-during-demonstration-outside-his-house/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-09T01:15:18.985131Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-20T20:09:51.554443Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-20T20:09:51.395703Z",
"date": "2018-11-07",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xw0rf\">On the evening of Nov. 7, 2018, a group of anti-fascist protesters staged a demonstration outside the Washington, D.C., home of Tucker Carlson, a controversial Fox News host whose talk show has been accused of normalizing white nationalist ideas.</p><p data-block-key=\"if0kj\">Carlson was not home at the time of the demonstration, which began around 8 p.m., but his wife was. The Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/08/they-were-threatening-me-my-family-tucker-carlsons-home-targeted-by-protesters/?utm_term=.4b24fed3846b\">reports</a> that the protesters repeatedly banged on the Carlsons' door, prompting Carlson's wife to fear for her safety. After locking herself in a pantry, she <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/media/tucker-carlson-protestors/index.html\">called the police</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mqisn\">An anti-fascist group called "Smash Racism D.C." took credit for the protest and shared videos of the demonstration on Facebook and Twitter. The social media sites later took down the videos, and Twitter suspended the group's Twitter account.</p><p data-block-key=\"smgag\">Protesters affiliated with the group have previously confronted politicians and public figures — including Carlson — in public spaces, but this is the first time that the group has staged a demonstration outside Carlson's private home.</p><p data-block-key=\"5s1wx\">In one of the now-deleted videos posted by Smash Racism DC, a protester can be heard over a bullhorn saying, "Tucker Carlson, we are outside your home." The protester goes on to accuse Carlson of "promoting an ideology that has led to thousands of people dying at the hands of the police [and] trans women being murdered in the streets."</p><p data-block-key=\"8fge5\">The protesters then break out into a chant: "Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!"</p><p data-block-key=\"iodx4\">The Post reports that during the demonstration, one of the protesters mentioned that she wanted to bring a "pipe bomb" to Carlson — a reference to Cesar Sayoc, the Trump supporter who sent pipe bombs to prominent critics of the president.</p><p data-block-key=\"y0nz1\">The Post also reports that Smash Racism DC tweeted out Carlson's home address and published a Facebook post encouraging people to go to his home and confront him.</p><p data-block-key=\"blv3m\">"It wasn’t a protest," Carlson told the Post. "It was a threat. They weren’t protesting anything specific that I had said. They weren’t asking me to change anything. They weren’t protesting a policy or advocating for legislation. ... They were threatening me and my family and telling me to leave my own neighborhood in the city that I grew up in."</p><p data-block-key=\"5926h\">Carlson said that he was especially concerned about the protester's reference to pipe bombs.</p><p data-block-key=\"38i8o\">"If they’re talking about pipe bombs ... how do you live like that?" he said. "I probably won’t open another package sent to our house from now on."</p><p data-block-key=\"tavgl\">Carlson also told the Post that one protester threw himself into the door, breaking it — an accusation that the protesters deny.</p><p data-block-key=\"lr10z\">Alex Rubinstein, an independent journalist who contributes to RT and Sputnik, tweeted a photo of the door, which one of the protesters sent to him. He also tweeted a statement from the protesters defending the action against Carlson.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=none data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tucker Carlson has said that activists put a crack in his front door. Organizers sent me this photo as evidence they did not damage his door. <br><br>The black box covers Tucker Carlson's home address. <a href=\"https://t.co/YE3QJkm3Lb\">pic.twitter.com/YE3QJkm3Lb</a></p>— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1060608279259369472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here is a statement sent to me from one of the Smash Racism DC organizers involved in the protest at Tucker Carlson's home last night <a href=\"https://t.co/SDkWCiSQjF\">pic.twitter.com/SDkWCiSQjF</a></p>— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1060610527385280512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</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=\"n5bkj\">The Associated Press <a href=\"https://www.apnews.com/5aa41068747f4e41b39947f761462f96\">reports</a> that D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department is treating the incident as a "suspected hate crime" motivated by "anti-political" bias. The District of Columbia <a href=\"https://mpdc.dc.gov/hatecrimes\">defines</a> a hate crime as a crime "that demonstrates an accused’s prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibility, homelessness, physical disability, matriculation, or political affiliation of a victim.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pgr0h\">According to the AP, the officers who responded the incident did not arrest any protesters but did confiscate a number of signs. An MPD police report on the incident does not mention any damage to Carlson's door but does note that protesters vandalized his property by spray-painting an anarchist symbol on his driveway.</p><p data-block-key=\"u0nh3\">In a statement sent to multiple media organizations, MPD said that it had <a href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/police-open-criminal-investigation-tucker-carlson-house-protest-1159672\">opened a criminal investigation</a> into the incident:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" >\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"4f3wt\">We welcome those who come here to exercise their First Amendment rights in a safe and peaceful manner. However, we prohibit them from breaking the law. Last night, a group of protestors broke the law by defacing private property at a Northwest DC residence. MPD takes these violations seriously, and we will work to hold those accountable for their unlawful actions. There is currently an open criminal investigation regarding this matter.</p></div>\n\t\n\t\t<cite class=\"blockquote__citation\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"86f6e\">MPD statement</p>\n\t\t</cite>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"exs6m\">In a joint statement, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace condemned the protesters' "violent threats and intimidation tactics."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" cite=\"https://twitter.com/JasonSchwartz/status/1060608710559629312\">\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"9y0e5\">The incident that took place at Tucker's home last night was reprehensible. The violent threats and intimidation tactics toward him and his family are completely unacceptable. We as a nation have become far too intolerant of different points of view. Recent events across our country clearly highlight the need for a more civil, respectful, and inclusive national conversation. Those of us in the media and in politics bear a special obligation to all Americans, to find common ground.</p></div>\n\t\n\t\t<cite class=\"blockquote__citation\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"blockquote__link text-link\" href=\"https://twitter.com/JasonSchwartz/status/1060608710559629312\">\n\t\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"7nz7r\">Statement from Fox News</p>\n\t\t\t</a>\n\t\t</cite>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>",
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{
"title": "White House suspends CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials and falsely accuses him of manhandling intern",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/white-house-suspends-cnn-reporter-jim-acostas-press-credentials-and-falsely-accuses-him-manhandling-intern/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-08T17:31:51.317799Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-26T18:16:17.854658Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-26T18:16:17.691407Z",
"date": "2018-11-07",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ihrcu\">On Nov. 7, 2018, the White House <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/media/trump-cnn-press-conference/index.html\">suspended</a> CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass, banning him from setting foot on the White House grounds indefinitely. </p><p data-block-key=\"1zqlp\">The unprecedented move came a few hours after a <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/07/donald-trump-media-press-conference-shoot-the-messenger\">tense presidential press conference</a>, during which Trump repeatedly insulted Acosta (and other members of the White House press corps) and a White House intern tried to <a href=\"https://apnews.com/acb35d90ddd740d49cf639d9d48080e4\">physically remove Acosta's microphone</a> out of his hand. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later tried to justify the decision to suspend Acosta's press pass by false claiming that Acosta had inappropriately "placed his hands" on the White House intern. The press secretary also tweeted a video of the altercation that had been <a href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/jim-acosta-video-white-house-appears-from-infowars-2018-11\">doctored</a> to make it appear that Acosta had <a href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/acosta-video-trump-cnn-aide-sarah-sanders\">hit</a> the White House intern.</p><p data-block-key=\"s62un\">On the morning of Nov. 7, the day after the 2018 midterm elections, Trump held a contentious press conference in the East Room of the White House. CNN's Jim Acosta, a member of the White House press corps who often verbally spars the president during press conferences, asked Trump about why he had stoked fears of a migrant "invasion" of the United States. After a bit of back-and-forth, Acosta tried to ask Trump a second question, about the Russia investigation.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-video\">\n\n<figure class=\"inline-media full-width\">\n <div style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" class=\"responsive-object\">\n <iframe width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/zdFe-LmFRV8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>\n</div>\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n \n <p data-block-key=\"e7nfp\">President Donald Trump defended his characterization of the migrant caravan as an "invasion" before attacking CNN's Jim Acosta, calling him a "rude, terrible person," during a White House press conference on Nov. 7, 2018.</p>\n \n \n <p>CNN</p>\n \n </figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4nxu8\">As Trump tried to cut Acosta off and call on NBC News' Peter Alexander, a young woman — later identified as a White House intern — approached Acosta and tried to take the microphone out of his hands.</p><p data-block-key=\"4oguz\">"Pardon me, ma'am," he told her. "I'm trying..."</p><p data-block-key=\"b982y\">"That's enough!" Trump said, cutting him off.</p><p data-block-key=\"404fg\">The intern grabbed the microphone that Acosta was holding, but Acosta would not let go of it, so the intern eventually gave up and sat back down.</p><p data-block-key=\"3p6ew\">Acosta continued to ask Trump about the Russia investigation, and Trump finally gave a cursory answer — "I'm not worried about the Russia investigation because it's a hoax" — and told Acosta to sit down.</p><p data-block-key=\"rv9ny\">"That's enough," Trump said, as Acosta tried to ask yet another follow-up question. "Put down the mic."</p><p data-block-key=\"zj7tq\">Trump started to walk away from the lectern, suggesting that he might end the press conference if Acosta did not stop asking questions. Acosta reluctantly let the White House intern take the microphone and then sat down. Trump returned to the lectern and the intern brought the microphone to Peter Alexander of NBC News. But before Alexander could ask a question, Trump went off on a rant about Acosta.</p><p data-block-key=\"zgyuc\">"I'll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them," the president said, pointing at Acosta. "You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. ... You're a very rude person. The way you treat [press secretary] Sarah Huckabee is horrible, and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn't treat other people that way."</p><p data-block-key=\"uz4eb\">Alexander stood up for Acosta.</p><p data-block-key=\"zk15k\">"In Jim's defense, I've traveled with him and watched him," he said. "He's a diligent reporter."</p><p data-block-key=\"39dox\">"Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either, to be honest," Trump deadpanned, prompting scattered laughter.</p><p data-block-key=\"wxxgn\">Acosta stood back up and called out the president for continuing to demonize journalists as the "enemy of the American people," even after a Trump supporter had sent pipe bombs to the network.</p><p data-block-key=\"03i5n\">"When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people," Trump response.</p><p data-block-key=\"w0oyz\">CNN condemned the president's response.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7dvq\">"This President’s ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far," the network said in a statement. "They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American. While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere."</p><p data-block-key=\"tkpgm\">Even as mainstream journalists came to Acosta's defense, far-right media and political figures began to adopt a different narrative — that Acosta had been violent toward the intern who tried to grab his microphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"jjk1o\">Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at far-right conspiracy news site Infowars, tweeted an altered video of the altercation between Acosta and the White House intern that appeared to show Acosta striking the intern, which did not actually happen. (In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Watson claimed that he did not deliberately alter the video.)</p><p data-block-key=\"bbshd\">Although this narrative began on the far-right conspiratorial fringe, it soon moved into the mainstream.</p><p data-block-key=\"1larh\">At 7:46 p.m., Acosta tweeted that he had been denied access to the White House grounds and ordered to give up his permanent White House press pass, known as a "hard pass."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit</p>— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1060332691143491584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The US Secret Service just asked for my credential to enter the WH. As I told the officer, I don’t blame him. I know he’s just doing his job. (Sorry this video is not rightside up) <a href=\"https://t.co/juQeuj3B9R\">pic.twitter.com/juQeuj3B9R</a></p>— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1060334166083059712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</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=\"h1v5t\">Minutes later, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Twitter that the White House had decided to indefinitely suspend Acosta's White House press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"kovy5\">To justify the suspension of Acosta's press credentials, Sanders falsely accused him of "placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" cite=\"https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1060333176252448768\">\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"pub8y\">President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.</p><p data-block-key=\"1kwu9\">Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"rhatp\">As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.</p></div>\n\t\n\t\t<cite class=\"blockquote__citation\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"blockquote__link text-link\" href=\"https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1060333176252448768\">\n\t\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"vgtdr\">Sarah Huckabee Sanders statement on Jim Acosta</p>\n\t\t\t</a>\n\t\t</cite>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8yq6g\">"This is a lie," Acosta tweeted in response.</p><p data-block-key=\"guhmi\">In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Acosta described what happened at the press conference.</p><p data-block-key=\"43zsf\">"This intern came up to me — they're describing her as an intern, I don't really know who she is — and attempted to take the microphone away from me," he said. "All I can say at that point is I was trying to hang on to the microphone, so I could continue to ask the president questions. Obviously, you know, I didn't put my hands on her or touch her as they're alleging, and it's just unfortunate that the White House is saying this. You know, we all try to be professionals over there, and I think I handled myself professionally."</p><p data-block-key=\"ygelw\">CNN released a statement reiterating its support for Acosta.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" cite=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1060350746703597568\">\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"yi5nl\">The White House announced tonight that it has revoked the press pass of CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. It was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today's press conference. In an explanation, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied. She provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a thread to our democracy and the country deserves better. Jim Acosta has our full support.</p></div>\n\t\n\t\t<cite class=\"blockquote__citation\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"blockquote__link text-link\" href=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1060350746703597568\">\n\t\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"vxvno\">CNN statement</p>\n\t\t\t</a>\n\t\t</cite>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jec2u\">Oliver Knox, the president of the White House Correspondents' Association, also released a statement criticizing the White House's decision.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" cite=\"https://twitter.com/whca/status/1060357341487480832\">\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"trkp2\">The White House Correspondents' Association strongly objects to the Trump Administration's decision to use US Secret Service security credentials as a tool to punish a reporter with whom it has a difficult relationship. Revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offense and is unacceptable.</p><p data-block-key=\"as3nh\">Journalists may use a range of approaches to carry out their jobs and the WHCA does not police the tone or frequency of the questions its members ask of powerful senior government officials, including the President. Such interactions, however uncomfortable they may appear to be, help define the strength of our national institutions.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ajzr\">We urge the White House to immediately reverse this weak and misguided action.</p><p data-block-key=\"zqjvb\">We encourage anyone with doubts that this reaction was disproportionate to the perceived offense to view the video of the events from earlier today.</p></div>\n\t\n\t\t<cite class=\"blockquote__citation\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"blockquote__link text-link\" href=\"https://twitter.com/whca/status/1060357341487480832\">\n\t\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"zrjmd\">White House Correspondents' Association statement</p>\n\t\t\t</a>\n\t\t</cite>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8fcuk\">Later that night, Sanders <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/media/sarah-sanders-jim-acosta-infowars-video/index.html\">tweeted out</a> a copy of the doctored video that had previously been shared by Infowars. Journalists immediately pointed out that the video had been doctored, and CNN spokesman Matt Dornic Sanders of sharing "actual fake news."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. <a href=\"https://t.co/T8X1Ng912y\">pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y</a></p>— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1060374680991883265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">this is literally edited and came from Infowars; here’s a quick clip from CSPAN’s own video: <a href=\"https://t.co/rGgywCbfqy\">https://t.co/rGgywCbfqy</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/8JqUHCAV82\">https://t.co/8JqUHCAV82</a></p>— Claudia Koerner (@ClaudiaKoerner) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ClaudiaKoerner/status/1060382831812108290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is a video that Infowars made. They sped it up so that it seems more violent than it is. <a href=\"https://t.co/FH1tsGSSaU\">https://t.co/FH1tsGSSaU</a></p>— Nicole Goodkind (@NicoleGoodkind) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NicoleGoodkind/status/1060392145562017792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Absolutely shameful, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PressSec</a>. You released a doctored video - actual fake news. History will not be kind to you. <a href=\"https://t.co/v1w9Lj9TlK\">https://t.co/v1w9Lj9TlK</a></p>— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mdornic/status/1060500212307910661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2018</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS251OQ.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"rqnuz\">A White House intern reaches for the microphone held by CNN's Jim Acosta as he questions U.S. President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House on November 7, 2018.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [
"(2018-11-19 17:44:00+00:00) CNN ends lawsuit as White House restores Acosta's credentials",
"(2018-11-13 18:00:00+00:00) CNN sues Trump administration",
"(2018-11-16 10:00:00+00:00) Judge orders Acosta's press pass reinstated"
],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: White House"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jim Acosta (CNN)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": [
"Change in policy or practice",
"Press credential or media list"
]
},
{
"title": "Arkansas man arrested after threatening to kill CNN anchor Don Lemon",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-man-arrested-after-threatening-kill-cnn-anchor-don-lemon/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-27T21:13:07.863476Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-20T20:52:17.775513Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-20T20:52:17.671730Z",
"date": "2018-11-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Mountain Home",
"longitude": -92.38516,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"55nwe\">On Nov. 6, 2018, the Baxter County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas <a href=\"https://www.baxtercountysheriff.com/press_view.php?id=1967\">arrested</a> 39-year-old Benjamin Craig Matthews for allegedly making "terroristic threats" toward CNN employees. According to a police report, Matthews is suspected of making more than 40 threatening phone calls to CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 2018.</p><p data-block-key=\"2hgpk\">In an affidavit, Sgt. Brad Hurst of the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office wrote that many of Matthews threats targeted CNN anchor Don Lemon, who is referred to as "DL" in the affidavit. In one phone call, Matthews allegedly said, "could I be directed to DL's dead body hanging from a tree?" In another call, he allegedly asked, "is DL dead yet, can you help me kill that [redacted]?"</p><p data-block-key=\"0zcu8\">According to Hurst, CNN was not Matthews’ only target.</p><p data-block-key=\"sidey\">"He has made calls to MSNBC, US Representative Maxine Waters, US Senator Chuck Schumer, Attorney Michael Avenatti, Washington Speakers Bureau, and Planned Parenthood, suggesting a pattern of harassment towards certain political affiliations," Hurst wrote in the affidavit.</p><p data-block-key=\"sq9v8\">On Nov. 10, 2018, Matthews was released on $15,000 bail. He faces 18 counts of terroristic threatening and harassing communications, including five Class D felonies, each of which are punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7oj4\">On Nov. 15, Matthews <a href=\"https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/nov/16/man-suspected-in-cnn-threats-released-o/\">pleaded not guilty</a> to the charges.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Iowa congressman Steve King denies at least four journalists access to election party",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/iowa-congressman-steve-king-denies-des-moines-register-access-election-party/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-06T20:19:01.228563Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-07T14:25:30.014908Z",
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"date": "2018-11-06",
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"city": "Sioux City",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jkhck\">Iowa congressman Steve King banned <a href=\"https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/steve-king-bans-several-outlets-from-election-night-party\">several media outlets</a> from covering his election night party on Nov. 6, 2018, refusing to allow at least four reporters to attend—Adam Rubenstein from The Weekly Standard, Tom Cullen from the Storm Lake Times, Christopher Mathias from HuffPost, and Tony Leys from The Des Moines Register.</p><p data-block-key=\"5sk4a\">On Nov. 5, the Register — the largest newspaper in Iowa — <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/06/iowa-congressman-steve-king-bars-des-moines-register-election-event-results-2018-4th-district-vote/1903588002/\">emailed</a> the King campaign to request press credentials. The campaign refused.</p><p data-block-key=\"p2m10\">“We are not granting credentials to the Des Moines Register or any other leftist propaganda media outlet with no concern for reporting the truth,” the congressman’s son Jeff wrote in an email to the Register.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8hxo\">In a statement, Register executive editor Carol Hunter condemned the denial of access.</p><p data-block-key=\"krwrz\">“The Des Moines Register will continue doing everything in its power to cover Rep. King fairly,” she said. “This decision is unfortunate because it not only shuts out the Des Moines Register reporter, but also the people of Iowa.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yblp8\">Other reporters, like Chris Mathias of HuffPost, did not receive a response to an email request for press credentials. On the night of the election, Mathias went to King’s party to cover it.</p><p data-block-key=\"n76xo\">“When Jeff King spotted me, he told me to leave," he told Freedom of the Press Foundation. "When I asked why, he told me to check my email, and just minutes before I had just received an email saying that I wasn’t allowed in and that I should refer to the statement given to The Des Moines Register about not letting leftist propaganda outlets in."</p><p data-block-key=\"zhywx\">The reporters banned from covering the election night party had a history of reporting critically on King’s campaign. Mathias has written numerous pieces about King’s nationalist and racist messaging during his campaign, and has argued that King is a white supremacist.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jfef\">The Weekly Standard's Rubenstein has written about instances in which King has made apparently derogatory comments about Mexicans and Mexican Americans.</p><p data-block-key=\"ah4xz\">Rubenstein later reported that Jeff King had called the editor in chief at The Weekly Standard and demanded the piece be pulled. After the Standard went ahead and published it, Jeff King — who had previously told Rubenstein that he could cover the election-night event — pulled Rubenstein's press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"zgbmc\">Rubenstein wrote in a <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/steve-king-gop-junk-yard-dog.html\">Nov. 13 editorial</a> for the New York Times that it was his critical reporting that got him banned from the party.</p><p data-block-key=\"vodvj\">“Mr. King will insist that his opposition to the press is political — as in, the press is all left-wing propaganda,” he wrote. “In fact, it’s part of his calculated assault on truth and the ability to determine it. His idea of how the press is supposed to function would be right at home in the Gaza Strip, Iran or Turkey. Favorable coverage gets you open access. Dare to criticize and you are denied.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rwnpc\">HuffPost's Mathias is concerned about the precedent of retaliatory denial of access that King is setting for other representatives. </p><p data-block-key=\"4su67\">“People like Steve King are picking up on Trump’s messaging about the press being the enemy of the people, and King has decided to part in it," he said. "It’s a worrying trend if more representatives start to embrace the fake news smear."</p></div>",
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"name": "Iowa",
"abbreviation": "IA"
},
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"election"
],
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"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Adam Rubenstein (The Weekly Standard)",
"Christopher Mathias (HuffPost)",
"Tom Cullen (Storm Lake Times Pilot)",
"Tony Leys (The Des Moines Register)"
],
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},
{
"title": "BuzzFeed News journalist arrested in Seattle while asking for comment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-journalist-arrested-seattle-while-asking-comment/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-15T22:40:51.655220Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-20T20:59:45.271687Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-20T20:59:45.145033Z",
"date": "2018-11-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
"latitude": 47.60621,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"q2py0\">On Nov. 4, 2018, BuzzFeed News reporter Blake Montgomery was arrested in Seattle on suspicion of trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"3g0q8\">The Stranger, a Seattle alt-weekly, <a href=\"https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/11/15/35582039/buzzfeed-slapped-with-outrageous-restraining-order-and-a-night-in-jail-for-reporting-on-noodles-and-beef\">reports</a> that Montgomery was arrested while in the process of reporting out a story about Tank Hapertefen, a man who died after injecting silicone into his genitals. When Montgomery went to the Seattle home of Tank's former partner, Dylan Hapertefen, to ask him for comment, the occupants of the home called the police. The police arrested Montgomery and took him to jail. After spending almost 24 hours in jail, he was released on $1,000 bail on the evening of Nov. 5.</p><p data-block-key=\"eytbv\">Dylan and another man living with him, Daniel Balderas Hapertefen, also filed for temporary restraining orders. On Nov. 6, a judge granted both Dylan and Daniel temporary restraining orders against Montgomery.</p><p data-block-key=\"1v74r\">On Nov. 15, BuzzFeed News published <a href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/silicone-genital-injection-death-tank-hafertepen\">an article about Tank's death</a>. The article — co-written by Montgomery and his BuzzFeed News colleague Katie Notopoulos — mentions Montgomery's arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"xnff2\">"Dylan and the four pups who lived with Tank in Seattle until his death initially did not answer multiple requests for comment via emails, calls, and texts," Montgomery wrote in an article about Tank, published on Nov. 15. "When a BuzzFeed News reporter attempted to reach them in person, they called the police. That reporter was arrested and jailed. The following week, Dylan and a pup, Daniel Balderas Hapertefen, filed restraining orders against the same reporter. A week later, Dylan responded to an email from BuzzFeed News, answering a series of questions."</p><p data-block-key=\"1vanp\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedPR/status/1063179402559848448\">statement</a>, BuzzFeed News criticized the Seattle police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"h3rh4\">"This was an outrageous and disproportionate response to a reporter doing his job," the statement reads. "We strongly dispute the Seattle Police Department's account of what transpired, and look forward to reviewing all the available evidence — including camera footage — to understand what warranted the jailing of a reporter for nearly 24 hours."</p><p data-block-key=\"ejzas\">The Seattle district attorney's office ultimately declined to bring trespassing charges against Montgomery.</p></div>",
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"arresting_authority": "Seattle Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2018-11-05",
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"state": {
"name": "Washington",
"abbreviation": "WA"
},
"updates": [
"(2018-11-19 17:51:00+00:00) Restraining orders dismissed"
],
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"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"Blake Montgomery (BuzzFeed News)"
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},
{
"title": "Trump blames reporters for ‘creating violence by not writing the truth’",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-blames-reporters-creating-violence-not-writing-truth/",
"first_published_at": "2018-11-03T01:13:33.059595Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-25T19:42:05.821617Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-25T19:42:05.745490Z",
"date": "2018-11-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6tgmm\">On Nov. 2, 2018, President Trump blamed ABC News’ Karen Travers, and other journalists, for “creating violence” by asking him tough questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"mg1yh\">As Trump walked to a helicopter on the White House lawn, Travers <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/02/trump-points-media-youre-blame-encouraging-violence/\">asked</a> him about a recent <a href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/half-trump-encourages-political-violence-media-poll/story?id=58924536\">ABC News/Washington Post poll</a>, which found that 49% of respondents believed that Trump had encouraged politically-motivated violence.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Asked about new <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ABC</a> News/WaPo poll finding 49% believe he encourages politically motivated violence with the way he speaks, Pres. Trump tells <a href=\"https://twitter.com/karentravers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@karentravers</a>, "You're creating violence by your question...A lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth." <a href=\"https://t.co/pm4YI4VTao\">pic.twitter.com/pm4YI4VTao</a></p>— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1058437134682488832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 2, 2018</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=\"abi99\">“Half of Americans think you’re encouraging politically-motivated violence through the way you speak,” Travers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nyz5\">“No, no, you’re creating violence by your question!” Trump replied, pointing at Travers. “You are creating — you — and also, a lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth. The fake news is creating violence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yi8ex\">“And you know what, the people that support Trump, and the people that support us, which is a lot of people, most people, many people, those people know when a story is true and they know when a story is false,” he added. “And I’ll tell you what, if the media would write correctly, and write accurately, and write fairly, you’d have a lot less violence in the country.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "Trump blamed the \"fake news\" for \"creating violence\"",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
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"Karen Travers (ABC News)"
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]
