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{
"title": "Student journalist injured in targeted attack at UCLA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-injured-in-targeted-attack-at-ucla-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T19:17:45.582306Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:22:48.141945Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T17:22:48.034937Z",
"date": "2024-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k82sh\">Student journalist Catherine Hamilton and three colleagues were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the early hours of May 1, 2024. Hamilton was briefly hospitalized following the attack, in which she was repeatedly punched and another student journalist beaten and kicked.</p><p data-block-key=\"8rbj\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"e3c1j\">As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"45b6j\">Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-01/four-student-journalists-attacked-by-counterprotesters-at-ucla\">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Counter-protesters just started chanting my name repeatedly while shining a bright light on me. Person who started the chant was the same one who harassed me the other night.</p>— Catherine Hamilton (@cat__hamilton5) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cat__hamilton5/status/1785613466587529280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k82sh\">The individual directed the others to encircle Hamilton and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2024-05-01&date_upper=2024-05-01&targeted_institutions=Daily+Bruin&tags=protest%2CIsrael-Gaza+war\">three other Bruin journalists</a>, Hamilton told the Times. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name. As she tried to break free, Hamilton said the assailants punched her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen, and another student journalist was beaten and kicked on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"b68la\">Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qg29\">“We expected to be harassed by counterprotesters,” Hamilton said. “I truly did not expect to be directly assaulted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6n6uh\">The Times reported that the attack lasted approximately five minutes, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton went to the hospital when she experienced difficulty breathing and standing, but reported in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cat__hamilton5/status/1785679743335203187\">post on social media</a> that she was released several hours later.</p><p data-block-key=\"2474a\">“Wasn’t expecting the night to end like this, but please continue following the Daily Bruin’s coverage on the pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA and the violence toward it,” she wrote. “Amid the assaults on reporters, student journalism will remain so important.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"m23ow\">Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024. Early that morning, counterprotesters attacked student journalist Catherine Hamilton and three other journalists for UCLA’s Daily Bruin.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Catherine Hamilton (Daily Bruin)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Texas TV reporter injured at campus protest when sheriff’s deputy struck camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-tv-reporter-injured-at-campus-protest-when-sheriffs-deputy-struck-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-09T20:02:50.074822Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-09T20:02:50.074822Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-09T20:02:49.898704Z",
"date": "2024-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Richardson",
"longitude": -96.72972,
"latitude": 32.94818,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sjqd5\">TV reporter Blake Hanson injured a finger while covering a protest at the University of Texas at Dallas on May 1, 2024, when his camera was hit with bolt cutters by a Collin County Sheriff’s Office deputy.</p><p data-block-key=\"cdp25\">Hanson, a reporter and weekend evening news anchor at KDFW in Richardson, said <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BlakeFox4News/status/1785837560649887996\">in a post</a> on the social network X that he was reporting on law enforcement’s dismantling of a pro-Palestinian encampment and the arrests of protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"fb802\">The posted video of the incident shows a man wearing a uniform with a “Sheriff” label on his chest, who smacks Hanson’s camera with bolt cutters. Hanson shouts, “Fox 4 media! Media!” The man responds, “Get back!” Hanson repeats, “Media! You’ve got to warn me first!” The man orders him a second time to get back.</p><p data-block-key=\"9o3b3\">The station <a href=\"https://www.fox4news.com/news/ut-dallas-protests-palestine\">reported</a> that law enforcement had shown up in riot gear to dismantle the encampment, and that some were using bolt cutters to remove objects chained to trees.</p><p data-block-key=\"frlcq\">Hanson wrote <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BlakeFox4News/status/1785838019456446773\">on X</a> that he was filming the arrest of a protester at the time of the attack. “I realized I was standing in the man’s walking path, so I started backing up. That’s when he struck me and then told me to back up after,” adding, “I had a microphone in my hand, phone recording, clearly media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aqs19\">Hanson suffered a swollen finger but said he was otherwise fine. “But all law enforcement needs to respect the media’s right to operate in that highly-charged environment — obviously while respecting their area to work and do their duties.”</p><p data-block-key=\"spt8\">Neither Hanson nor KDFW responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"8eha8\">A spokesperson for the Collin County Sheriff’s Office told the Tracker via email that the incident had been referred to their Internal Affairs Section for investigation. “As of now, we have no comment, nor do we have any further information to share,” she wrote.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"8lzkx\">Law enforcement dismantles a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Texas at Dallas on May 1, 2024. A sheriff’s deputy, pictured in blue jeans, hit reporter Blake Hanson’s camera with bolt cutters, injuring Hanson’s finger.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "Student journalist kicked, beaten at UCLA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-kicked-beaten-at-ucla-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T20:08:53.652585Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:09.131738Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:09.025289Z",
"date": "2024-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ts2m7\">Student journalist Christopher Buchanan and three colleagues from his college paper were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the early hours of May 1, 2024. Buchanan was beaten and kicked, another journalist was repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized, and all were sprayed with chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6bfu\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"32kn\">As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"cffmj\">Buchanan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was mainly covering the protest for CalMatters, a nonprofit newsroom where he is a student fellow, but was also capturing footage for the Bruin. As he and three fellow Bruin journalists were returning to the newsroom at approximately 3 a.m., they were set upon by a group of men whom Buchanan said didn’t appear to be students.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sac6\">Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-01/four-student-journalists-attacked-by-counterprotesters-at-ucla\">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that the counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.</p><p data-block-key=\"v6d5\">Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-injured-in-targeted-attack-at-ucla-protest/\">encircle her</a>, senior staff reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-ucla-protest/\">Shaanth Kodialam</a> and the two <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ucla-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-protest/\">other</a> Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name.</p><p data-block-key=\"8o7ok\">Buchanan told the Tracker that he was shoved and someone attempted to tackle him from behind, but missed, falling onto the sidewalk in front of him.</p><p data-block-key=\"bbbbc\">“As I approached him, the group of men came around and grabbed me, shoved me to the ground, and they were beating and kicking me for about a minute,” Buchanan said. “I wasn’t seriously injured at all: I just had bruised ribs and a couple of bruises on my face.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6qdt0\">He noted that they sprayed him with a chemical irritant again while he was being beaten, and that his phone fell from his pocket in the course of the attack. When he attempted to retrieve it after the men had left, he found it in a nearby trash can, shattered. Buchanan said all of his protest footage from that night was lost.</p><p data-block-key=\"a07g7\">Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe, but that she didn’t expect they’d be directly assaulted.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lpqq\">The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"fs9mi\">“It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam told the Times. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”</p><p data-block-key=\"87b6l\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated, first to identify the student journalist as Christopher Buchanan and then to include the damage to his phone and comment he gave to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7l8nm\">Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024. Four student journalists for UCLA’s Daily Bruin newspaper were attacked by counterprotesters early that morning.</p>",
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"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
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{
"title": "UCLA journalist sprayed with chemical irritant at protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ucla-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T20:27:21.499723Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:21.171814Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:21.085542Z",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xhxmr\">Four student journalists were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the early hours of May 1, 2024. One was beaten and kicked, another repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized, and all were sprayed with chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"eeof4\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"a3ujn\">As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"3autg\">Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-01/four-student-journalists-attacked-by-counterprotesters-at-ucla\">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.</p><p data-block-key=\"c4k6b\">Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-injured-in-targeted-attack-at-ucla-protest/\">encircle her</a>, senior staff reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-ucla-protest/\">Shaanth Kodialam</a> and two <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-kicked-beaten-at-ucla-protest/\">other</a> Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name.</p><p data-block-key=\"27lhd\">As she tried to break free, Hamilton said, the assailants punched her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen. Another student journalist was pushed to the ground and then beaten and kicked for nearly a minute, the Times reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gk2a\">Kodialam told the Times they watched as their friend was pummeled and begged the counterprotesters to stop.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0aag\">Hamilton said that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe.</p><p data-block-key=\"2t707\">“We expected to be harassed by counterprotesters,” Hamilton said. “I truly did not expect to be directly assaulted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9sj1c\">The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"dp2nj\">“It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam said. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"s8ine\">The sun sets at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024. Early that morning, counterprotesters attacked a group of four student journalists for UCLA’s Daily Bruin newspaper.</p>",
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{
"title": "Student journalist sprayed with chemical irritant at UCLA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-ucla-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T19:58:15.058868Z",
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"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6x53h\">Student journalist Shaanth Kodialam and three colleagues were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the early hours of May 1, 2024. Kodialam was sprayed with a chemical irritant — as were the others — while another was repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized and a fourth beaten and kicked.</p><p data-block-key=\"baf32\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rr96\">As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"557d0\">Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-01/four-student-journalists-attacked-by-counterprotesters-at-ucla\">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.</p><p data-block-key=\"fpjib\">Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to encircle her, Kodialam and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-kicked-beaten-at-ucla-protest/\">two</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ucla-journalist-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-protest/\">other</a> Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them. As Hamilton tried to break free, she said the assailants <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-injured-in-targeted-attack-at-ucla-protest/\">punched her repeatedly</a> in the chest and abdomen, and another student journalist was beaten and kicked on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"75dru\">Kodialam, a senior staff reporter for the Bruin, told the Times they begged the counterprotesters to stop as they watched their friend get pummeled.</p><p data-block-key=\"3h5gd\">“It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam said. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2j5nb\">Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe, but that she didn’t expect they’d be directly assaulted.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fsqk\">The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"9dd71\">Kodialam told the Times that they resumed their coverage of the encampment that same day.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fntk\">“I can’t sit back while I watch my friends, my peers, the people who have trained me, the people who I have trained, be hurt that way and allow myself to not continue to do my job,” Kodialam said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"69lbn\">Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024. Early that morning, counterprotesters attacked student journalist Shaanth Kodialam and three other journalists for UCLA’s Daily Bruin.</p>",
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Shaanth Kodialam (Daily Bruin)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Editor struck, sprayed with chemical irritant at UCLA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/editor-struck-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-at-ucla-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-06T15:43:32.396097Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-06T15:43:32.396097Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-06T15:39:53.301120Z",
"date": "2024-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qsjmu\">Dolores Quintana, co-editor of the weekly newspaper the Santa Monica Mirror, was sprayed with a chemical irritant, struck in the back and harassed while reporting on pro-Palestinian protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"6tsgg\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ee1m\">As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"52gjg\">Quintana told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived shortly before 1 a.m. on May 1 while the clash was well underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ph2k\">“My job as a journalist is to get the story, to take photos and capture video,” Quintana said. “So I walked right into it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"egl2o\">Over the 15 minutes that followed, the journalist told the Tracker, she was assaulted multiple times. First, she said she felt pain on her back and believes she was struck with one of the sticks she had seen counterprotesters carrying. Then, as someone stepped backward and she raised an arm to prevent them from toppling into her, another individual shouted “Fuck you!” at her and grabbed her.</p><p data-block-key=\"ev0or\">Quintana told the individual to let go of her and they listened, after which she moved to another area of the protest encampment. While there, she said an individual deliberately knocked her phone from her hands. Though it took her a couple of minutes to find her phone in the darkness, Quintana was able to retrieve it undamaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"cq76a\">As she then moved back toward the main protest area, Quintana told the Tracker someone came from behind her and sprayed a chemical irritant on the left side of her face from inches away.</p><p data-block-key=\"97gqk\">“I saw the spray go into my eye, that’s how close they were,” she said. “I was lucky that they didn’t choose to continue attacking me in that moment, because what could I have done?”</p><p data-block-key=\"8chpj\">Quintana said a medical student came to her aid and helped flush her eyes with water and saline.</p><p data-block-key=\"cohgn\">She told the Tracker that later that night, after she had regained her bearings, a group of individuals she identified as counterprotesters surrounded and began harassing her, filming her and shining lights in her eyes while calling her derogatory names.</p><p data-block-key=\"cv04l\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/doloresquintana/status/1785703729054056839\">post on social media</a>, Quintana shared images of her face after she was sprayed and of the residue left on her mask, and a video clip of individuals surrounding and harassing her.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The protesters and students are suffering the worst injuries, but they're also coming after the journalists too. I was maced with bear spray, hit, they tried to take my phone, and circled and harassed. I heard the screams of The Daily Bruin reporter that they attacked. <a href=\"https://t.co/siMdnAVlR0\">pic.twitter.com/siMdnAVlR0</a></p>— doloresquintana (@doloresquintana) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/doloresquintana/status/1785703729054056839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qsjmu\">“They are deliberately targeting us so that there’s no one there to take pictures and get video of the crimes that they are committing,” Quintana <a href=\"https://twitter.com/doloresquintana/status/1785704219183566956\">wrote</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"dbjs4\">Quintana told the Tracker she intends to file a police report about the attacks she suffered that night.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Quintana_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"eckbk\">Dolores Quintana, co-editor of the Santa Monica Mirror, was assaulted multiple times, sprayed with a chemical irritant and had her phone knocked from her hands while covering clashing protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Dolores Quintana (Santa Monica Mirror)"
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},
{
"title": "Student journalist arrested while covering protest at Dartmouth College",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-arrested-while-covering-protest-at-dartmouth-college/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-06T15:53:05.402066Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T19:08:00.005276Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T19:07:59.795030Z",
"date": "2024-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Hanover",
"longitude": -72.28954,
"latitude": 43.70229,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e2ma0\">Student journalist Alesandra Gonzales and a colleague at their college newspaper were arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on May 1, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g296\">The student newspaper, The Dartmouth, <a href=\"https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/05/campus-encampments-live-updates-police-start-taking-students-away\">reported</a> that a group of students planned to erect an encampment at 6:30 p.m. that day in solidarity with protests at universities across the country calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"c4fsu\">Gonzales, a reporter and photographer for The Dartmouth, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was on assignment to photograph the demonstration as protesters erected tents, and student and community members formed a barrier around them.</p><p data-block-key=\"858j0\">The Dartmouth reported that officers with multiple departments, including the New Hampshire State Police and Hanover Police Department, arrived on campus shortly after 8 p.m. They gave protesters a final warning to leave the area under threat of arrest, noting that physical force may be used, then began making arrests approximately 30 minutes later.</p><p data-block-key=\"9p24i\">“At least in my perspective, we were relatively clearly separated from the protesters themselves,” Gonzales said. “We were with a group of other journalists, both for The Dartmouth and other local organizations, as well as being with a representative from the college’s Office of Communications.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2oemt\">Gonzales said she had just finished filming the aggressive arrest of a history professor when two officers grabbed her.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ort5\">“I told them many times while I was being arrested that I was press, and even my arresting officer took a picture of my press credential,” Gonzales said. “So I think they were very aware that I was press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"39mel\">Her colleague, managing editor and reporter Charlotte Hampton, was standing next to her. “I called out to her,” Gonzales said, “both as another journalist and as a mentor, because I wasn’t sure entirely of what was going on.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f3jl6\">It wasn’t until they were loaded into the same van that Gonzales realized that <a href=\"/all-incidents/dartmouth-journalist-arrested-while-reporting-on-campus-protest/\">Hampton had been arrested</a> as well. According to The Dartmouth, they were detained at around 9:45 p.m. Gonzales told the Tracker that both were wearing press credentials issued by the newspaper, and that she was holding her professional camera while Hampton had her reporter’s notebook.</p><p data-block-key=\"3nr9t\">They were transported to the Lebanon Police Department seven miles away, Gonzales said, where they were booked on charges of criminal trespassing. The journalists were released on bail at 11:30 p.m., The Dartmouth reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"8de9n\">Gonzales told the Tracker that in addition to their $40 bonds, both student journalists are barred from multiple locations on campus as a condition of their bail.</p><p data-block-key=\"727qp\">“Because of that, we cannot walk across or on the green. We cannot enter the administrative building or Parkhurst Hall, which is where the president’s office is located as well as various other departments,” Gonzales said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dcgj\">Both student journalists have initial appearance hearings scheduled for Aug. 5.</p><p data-block-key=\"6prjl\">In an <a href=\"https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/05/verbum-ultimum-drop-the-charges-against-charlotte-hampton-26-and-alesandra-gonzales-27\">editorial</a> published by The Dartmouth the following day, the newspaper condemned the arrests and said the college should be embarrassed.</p><p data-block-key=\"9629s\">“We are glad Hampton and Gonzales are back in the newsroom safely, but having to retrieve them from the station at all was a slap in the face,” the editorial board wrote. “If Dartmouth has any commitment to the freedom of the press, it must do everything in its power to get the relevant authorities to drop the charges against our reporters.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/20240501-vn-protest-jmp-1402_copy.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"k6a6x\">Alesandra Gonzales, a journalist with The Dartmouth student newspaper, center, was arrested while covering a pro-Palestinian protest on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, on May 1, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Lebanon Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-05-01",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"state": {
"name": "New Hampshire",
"abbreviation": "NH"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-05-07 00:00:00+00:00) Trespassing charge dropped against Dartmouth student reporter"
],
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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"Alesandra Gonzales (The Dartmouth)"
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{
"title": "NYPD confines student reporter to building, threatens arrest as Columbia protests cleared",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-confines-student-reporter-to-building-threatens-arrest-as-columbia-protests-cleared/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-07T14:42:01.613863Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-12-02T21:00:08.480136Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-12-02T21:00:08.391113Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"j8y47\">Francesca Maria Lorenzini, a student reporter at the Columbia Journalism School, was among a group of student journalists forced into a campus building by New York City police and threatened with arrest on April 30, 2024, as officers retook another building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ircq\">Lorenzini had been <a href=\"https://citynewsroomcjs.com/author/florenzini/\">covering</a> the protests on Columbia University’s campus for City Newsroom, a news outlet staffed by journalism school students. Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Lorenzini and other student reporters were the <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-campus-student-protests-war-beb2c274c0960eee48c82485ca9b3f96\">only media allowed</a> there that day, when New York Police Department officers in riot gear <a href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/columbia-university-protests-nypd-video-hamilton-hall/5371376/\">cleared</a> the occupied Hamilton Hall.</p><p data-block-key=\"5l8cu\">Lorenzini told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and other student journalists were reporting outside Hamilton Hall around 9 p.m. when NYPD officers arrived at the campus. She said she was wearing a Columbia Journalism School press pass around her neck and a sign on her back that said “press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ga74\">She said that for a brief time, the reporters were able to remain in front of Hamilton, but then police began to progressively push them away from the building. That prevented the journalists from reporting on what was happening inside or taking videos of the operation, in which more than 100 protesters were <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/05/03/officer-fired-gun-during-hamilton-hall-sweep-nypd-confirms/\">arrested</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6fg62\">After about an hour, Lorenzini said, police began to clear a protest encampment on campus, and officers then told the reporters to go into the journalism school building.</p><p data-block-key=\"6g6f9\">“Shortly before they started clearing the encampment, they pushed us into Pulitzer Hall, which is the main building of the Columbia Journalism School, telling us not to go out, otherwise we would have been arrested,” she said, adding that there was no physical contact from the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"3f7bq\">She said one of the journalism school deans went out to talk to the NYPD, “telling them that we were press, we’re not just students.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1ljc2\">Lorenzini said she remained in Pulitzer Hall for about an hour and a half before she was allowed to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"9kbbh\">“Nobody was there to document what was happening” during the police operation, Lorenzini noted, “So I feel like that night, freedom of the press was really severely limited.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8b7gm\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/17.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hcz14\">New York City Police Department officers stand guard at Columbia University, where a student reporter was forced into a campus building and threatened with arrest on April 30, 2024, during an NYPD operation to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-04-30",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "TV reporter arrested at Northern California university protest; charges dropped",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-reporter-arrested-at-northern-california-university-protest-charges-dropped/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-01T21:06:37.867810Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-01T21:06:37.867810Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-01T21:04:53.592238Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Arcata",
"longitude": -124.08284,
"latitude": 40.86652,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"609na\">TV journalist Adelmi Ruiz was arrested in the early hours of April 30, 2024, while covering student protests at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, her outlet KRCR-TV reported. The charges have since been dropped against Ruiz, who is a reporter for the Redding station and its Arcata-Eureka bureau, KAEF-TV.</p><p data-block-key=\"40ttb\">In an <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Alh9T0dzVE\">interview</a> with KRCR-TV, Ruiz said she arrived shortly after 10 p.m. on April 29 to begin documenting the pro-Palestinian student encampment and protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"b3iu\">“I got b-roll, I was recording sound and I was trying to get interviews, but a lot of protesters were denying to be on camera,” Ruiz said. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was reporting from behind the students’ barricades when police moved in.</p><p data-block-key=\"dde3k\">At approximately 2:30 a.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and Cal Poly Humboldt Police Department led an operation to clear and secure multiple campus buildings, utilizing law enforcement officers from across the state, KRCR-TV reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"1viaj\">In Ruiz’s <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/100063468133544/videos/941762844619848\">live recording</a> from the scene, lines of officers can be seen advancing onto campus. While what appears to be a final line of university police officers assembles near where Ruiz is reporting, one of the officers calls out to tell her to come behind the police line and out of the way. Ruiz complies and seconds later is placed in flex cuffs and told she’s being detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"1b1ki\">“Wait, I’m press,” Ruiz tells the officer, adding that she was there doing her job. The officer, who was from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, replies, “OK, well, find a different job if it causes you to break the law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lfs9\">Ruiz told the Tracker that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist and showed the officers her press badge and jacket, but it didn’t make a difference.</p><p data-block-key=\"9hvl0\">Ruiz said a work-issued cellphone fell from her pocket and was lost when officers removed her backpack, and that the bag and her personal cellphone remained in the deputies’ custody on campus while she was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"74al6\">At the county jail, Ruiz said she received a thorough pat-down and had mug shots taken, but was not fingerprinted. According to the <a href=\"https://humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/127969/20240430_BookingSheet\">daily booking sheet</a>, Ruiz was charged with trespassing, unlawful assembly, obstructing an officer and obstructing a business.</p><p data-block-key=\"aumtg\">Shortly after 5 a.m., Ruiz told the Tracker, Sheriff William Honsal pulled her aside to talk about how she had been caught up in the arrests. He apologized for what happened and said that he would finish processing her paperwork and that she’d be free to go.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebf2q\">Ruiz was released at 5:25 a.m., according to <a href=\"https://humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/128007/20240501_Released\">law enforcement records</a>, under a California statute that allows officers to release an arrestee when they believe there are insufficient grounds for pursuing the charges. When reached by phone, the Humboldt County Superior Court confirmed that there are no pending charges against Ruiz.</p><p data-block-key=\"2p5ha\">Honsal drove her back to campus himself, Ruiz told the Tracker, and she was able to resume her reporting once her belongings were returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dk4n\">“I am extremely thankful to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department for William Honsal, who was able to get everything resolved as quickly as possible,” Ruiz said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0fltq\">Adelmi Ruiz, a reporter for KRCR-TV and KAEF-TV, filmed the police response to pro-Palestinian protests at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in the early hours of April 30, 2024. Moments later, she was arrested.</p>",
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Damage"
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"Adelmi Ruiz (KAEF-TV & KRCR-TV)"
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},
{
"title": "NYPD orders student reporter into building, threatens arrest as Columbia protest cleared",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-orders-student-reporter-into-building-threatens-arrest-as-columbia-protest-cleared/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-13T20:12:28.300749Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-13T20:12:28.300749Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-13T20:12:19.136101Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tyxk6\">Student reporter Chris Mendell was confined to a building entryway and threatened with arrest while covering a New York City police operation to clear pro-Palestinian protesters from Columbia University’s campus on April 30, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"3f5pm\">Mendell, a <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/chris-mendell/\">staff writer</a> with the Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had been covering the <a href=\"https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/04/30/columbia-hamilton-hall-blockade/\">takeover</a> of the university’s Hamilton Hall by protesters in the early morning of April 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"5s90j\">After going home to get some sleep, Mendell tried to return to campus. But the university had restricted access at that point, and Columbia Public Safety officers would not allow him onto campus even though he showed them his Columbia ID and his Spectator press ID.</p><p data-block-key=\"d4nre\">To try to get a better view of the activity on campus, Mendell walked to a nearby block where student dorms and other university buildings were located. He said the New York City Police Department was setting up barriers, behind which members of the press, students and bystanders had gathered.</p><p data-block-key=\"bhcaf\">Mendell took photos and videos until around 8 p.m., when the NYPD ordered everyone off the sidewalk and into any of the nearby residence halls.</p><p data-block-key=\"2598e\">“Within seconds of the cop making that announcement, some officers started chasing people with batons, hitting them and shoving them into dorms,” he said, adding that he was not physically assaulted. “This is press and students, these are bystanders, these are people not involved. And it was really, really chaotic.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3rekv\">Mendell said he retreated into the entryway of Ruggles Hall dorm with about 15 other people. Two police officers were stationed at the door and did not allow people to leave. Because they were not residents of the building, they were stuck in the entryway.</p><p data-block-key=\"bv813\">Mendell said he opened the door at one point and asked officers if he could leave. “They said, ‘No. If I let you leave, we’re going to arrest you.’ I was wearing my press badge, so I was identified as press the whole time.”</p><p data-block-key=\"44kkg\">Later, he said he saw other Spectator reporters walking by. He reiterated that he was a member of the press and asked if he could go with them. An officer again denied his request and threatened to arrest him if he stepped out of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6gm7\">Around 9 p.m., police in riot gear <a href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/columbia-locks-down-all-but-one-entry-point-as-protesters-take-over-hamilton-hall/5367323/\">entered</a> the campus and Hamilton Hall at the request of Columbia’s administration, arresting protesters and clearing those who occupied the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"5p67s\">Mendell said that from his vantage point, he was able to see some protesters from Hamilton being led out of a campus exit, police entering the campus and police buses driving past. However, he was not able to view any of the police operations on campus.</p><p data-block-key=\"76dca\">At one point, Mendell was put in touch with NBC News and <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/columbia-student-says-police-threatened-arrest-if-they-leave-dorm-building-210015813936\">conducted a live interview</a> with the network from the entryway of Ruggles, describing his situation. In a video, a woman can be seen telling an officer guarding the door that people are stuck without their medications; the officer replies that she does not know when they will be able to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4lor\">Mendell told the Tracker that about 20 minutes after the NBC interview aired, the officers guarding the door were replaced and one of the new officers escorted all who did not live in Ruggles out into the street. Mendell said he was in Ruggles for about three hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"77dqu\">In a May 4 <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024/05/04/letter-from-the-editors-columbia-enabled-the-nypd-to-suppress-free-press-as-it-brutalized-our-peers/\">letter from the editors</a>, Spectator Editor-in-Chief Isabella Ramírez and Managing Editor Esha Karam described numerous violations faced by the paper’s journalists as the NYPD entered the campus, including journalists being confined to buildings and threatened with arrest, threatened with arrest if they did not leave campus, mocked for being student press and pushed and grabbed by officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"3le32\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2024-05-13_at_11.27.39.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"r4qxv\">Columbia Daily Spectator’s Chris Mendell, right, speaks live with Gadi Schwartz of NBC News from a campus building in New York City on April 30, 2024, after police ordered Mendell inside and threatened him with arrest while officers cleared protesters.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-04-30",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Chris Mendell (Columbia Daily Spectator)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Student journalist forced into building by NYPD during Columbia protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-forced-into-building-by-nypd-during-columbia-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-08T16:42:41.530501Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-08T16:42:41.530501Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-08T16:34:45.430220Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9lix5\">Columbia Journalism School student Iryna Humenyuk was among a group of student reporters that New York City police forced into a campus building and prevented from leaving for several hours on April 30, 2024, as officers retook another building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"doolq\">Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Humenyuk and other student reporters were the only <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-campus-student-protests-war-beb2c274c0960eee48c82485ca9b3f96\">media allowed</a> there that day, when New York Police Department officers <a href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/columbia-university-protests-nypd-video-hamilton-hall/5371376/\">cleared</a> Hamilton Hall, a building being occupied by protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"apdju\">Humenyuk and other student reporters were told by police to move away from Hamilton toward John Jay Hall, a nearby residence hall, at around 9 p.m., according to an account <a href=\"https://www.curbed.com/article/locked-out-columbia-campus-nypd-raid-student-press.html\">published</a> in Curbed by <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-reporter-driven-off-columbia-campus-kettled-by-nypd/\">Samaa Khullar</a>, a reporting fellow at the journalism school.</p><p data-block-key=\"4v74c\">“They used their batons to push us inside,” Humenyuk was quoted as saying in the article, whose details she confirmed in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1opvv\">Humenyuk was crowded with about 50 others into a small entryway behind the doors of John Jay, Khullar wrote. NYPD officers locked the doors after the vestibule filled and then stood outside, guarding the entrance and blocking the view of Hamilton. Because the student journalists did not live in the building, they remained confined in the vestibule area.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sjpm\">“People were yelling at the police and they just wouldn’t acknowledge anyone or answer any questions,” Humenyuk was quoted as saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"djp81\">At midnight, Humenyuk was told that those inside could leave in groups of two, with escorts, Khullar wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"fos5e\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZXLIJ_-_Reuters_-_David_Dee_De.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ya8u4\">New York police detain a pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia University on April 30, 2024. A Columbia Journalism School student was among a group of reporters that police forced into a campus building and confined for several hours during mass arrests.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-04-30",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Iryna Humenyuk (Columbia Journalism School)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Police shove journalist covering pro-Palestinian protest outside NYC campus",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-shove-journalist-covering-pro-palestinian-protest-outside-nyc-campus/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T15:36:20.046816Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-02T15:36:20.046816Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-02T15:36:19.863850Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mgsuv\">Independent journalist Katie Smith was shoved by police officers while covering a pro-Palestinian protest outside a New York City college campus on April 30, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"2tl24\">Smith, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit\">covers</a> protests and social movements in New York, was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785394440745423065\">documenting</a> a group of protesters visiting student encampments at five campuses around New York that day. When the protesters reached City College of New York in upper Manhattan, they were met by police at metal barricades and gates blocking access to the encampment, according to local news <a href=\"https://abc7ny.com/city-college-protests-nypd-officers-arrest-demonstrators-in-hamilton-heights-campus-operations-move-online-until-further-notice/14748471/\">reports</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785452583588393235\">Smith’s</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785458110166896696\">posts</a> on the social media platform X.</p><p data-block-key=\"67lik\">At one point, Smith <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785458110166896696\">posted</a> that “the situation at CCNY has rapidly spiraled out of control,” adding, “Protesters tried to break through the barricades which led to absolute chaos breaking out. People thrown to the ground and journalists (including me) were hit and shoved by officers in the melee.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NOW: The situation at CCNY has rapidly spiraled out of control<br><br>Protesters tried to break through the barricades which led to absolute chaos breaking out<br><br>People thrown to the ground and journalists (including me) were hit and shoved by officers in the melee <a href=\"https://t.co/6CDVknzM8C\">pic.twitter.com/6CDVknzM8C</a></p>— katie smith (@probablyreadit) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785458110166896696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 30, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mgsuv\">Smith detailed her encounter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, explaining that she was standing on the sidewalk outside the CCNY campus and filming with her phone when protesters started moving barricades that the police had set up.</p><p data-block-key=\"ddnkh\">“Officers began grabbing and pushing protesters near the barricades when a group of Community Affairs officers moved in behind me and grabbed a protester. At that point, I intentionally backed up so I was not directly in front,” she told the Tracker. “Then, a group of Community Affairs officers moved in from behind and grabbed and surrounded a protester, which is when one of the Community Affairs officers shoved me hard directly in the center of my chest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dirv7\">Smith said she was “wearing my NYC-issued press credential around my neck, clearly displayed.” She added, “I believe I was just caught up in the protest for the most part.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6aekn\">There were additional confrontations between police and campus protesters in New York that night, leading to several hundred arrests at CCNY and Columbia University, <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-protests-nypd-arrests/\">according</a> to news reports.</p><p data-block-key=\"ducin\">In response to a request for comment about the incident and any measures the department was taking to protect the safety of journalists covering the protests, the NYPD sent the Tracker a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1785661500767752670\">video</a> of a news conference held May 1 by Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Edward Caban and other police officials.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kirf\">While the officials did not directly address Smith’s case, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said press access needed to go through the department so that the media didn’t interfere with police operations or get mistaken for students or protesters.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2024-05-02_at_9.13.08A.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"va4vc\">A screenshot from video of New York Police Department officers pushing back pro-Palestinian protesters outside City College of New York on April 30, 2024. Independent journalist Katie Smith was shoved by an officer while filming the protest.</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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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Katie Smith (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student reporter driven off Columbia campus, kettled by NYPD",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-reporter-driven-off-columbia-campus-kettled-by-nypd/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-03T19:01:49.182043Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-06T19:52:03.151784Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-06T19:52:03.048904Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hyoll\">Samaa Khullar, a reporting fellow with the Columbia Journalism School, was among a group of student reporters that New York City police drove off campus and detained in a kettle for more than an hour as officers rounded up protesters on April 30, 2024. </p><p data-block-key=\"7ic4l\">Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Khullar and other student reporters were the only <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-campus-student-protests-war-beb2c274c0960eee48c82485ca9b3f96\">media allowed</a> there on April 30, when New York Police Department officers <a href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/columbia-university-protests-nypd-video-hamilton-hall/5371376/\">cleared</a> Hamilton Hall, a building that had been occupied by protesters. </p><p data-block-key=\"cpfn3\">“It’s probably going to be the day I remember most out of my experience here. I was like, there’s no one here except us,” Khullar, who has been covering pro-Palestian demonstrations on the campus, <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/us/video/journalism-students-columbia-university-protests-digvid\">told CNN in an interview.</a> “Campus was on lockdown and no outside press was allowed in.” </p><p data-block-key=\"eq0s2\">In an <a href=\"https://www.curbed.com/article/locked-out-columbia-campus-nypd-raid-student-press.html\">article about her experience</a> published by Curbed, Khullar wrote that she was with other reporters from the graduate school and reporters with both the Columbia Spectator and campus radio station WKCR outside Hamilton Hall at around 9 p.m. when NYPD officers arrived.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fj43\">The officers “immediately told us to move away from the stairs” at the front entrance to Hamilton Hall and “began to kettle us,” Khullar recounts. </p><p data-block-key=\"9f8c8\">The officers then drove some of the reporters toward John Jay Hall, a residential building across from Hamilton, she said. </p><p data-block-key=\"e4mqq\">Other student reporters who were taking photographs of the encampment on Columbia’s main quad were ordered to disperse, Khullar wrote. Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer for the New Yorker, and journalism professor Sheila Coronel let those reporters into Pulitzer Hall, the home of the journalism school. Police told them to keep the reporters inside the building, Khullar wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"dceq5\">Khullar said that she avoided being driven into John Jay or Pulitzer, but “I found myself in the biggest group of student reporters and professors herded by police outside of campus” to 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where they were surrounded by “dozens” of officers and confined to that location for more than an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"d8451\">She told CNN, “They made us leave campus. We kept yelling, ‘we’re the press, we’re the press.’ It was not going through their heads.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8tp5g\">“We began to realize that there was no press left at Hamilton to document what was going on,” Khullar wrote. </p><p data-block-key=\"9ujkp\">Police said they arrested 109 people during the sweep on Hamilton, <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024/05/01/nypd-confirms-arrest-of-109-individuals-following-sweep-of-occupied-hamilton-hall-and-gaza-solidarity-encampment/\">the Columbia Spectator reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"am13u\">“For many of the student reporters, it was our first time being completely shut out from reporting on an event that happened on campus,” Khullar wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"71fpa\">Khullar wrote that the reporters forced off campus weren’t allowed back in until after midnight after professors in the journalism building assisted in getting them escorted by police into Pulitzer Hall. </p><p data-block-key=\"6cn5j\">Khullar and the NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZXIEK.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ceupx\">New York Police Department officers stand guard while others enter a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30, 2024. A Columbia student reporter was detained in an off-campus kettle by the NYPD during the operation.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Samaa Khullar (Columbia Journalism School)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Police block journalist from leaving Columbia building during arrest of protesters",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-block-journalist-from-leaving-columbia-building-during-arrest-of-protesters/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-08T14:49:48.277310Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-08T14:49:48.277310Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-08T14:49:48.088616Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"g78hk\">New York City police officers blocked a reporter for independent newsroom THE CITY, along with other journalists, from leaving a building on Columbia University’s campus during mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"be42q\">Journalist Gwynne Hogan, who said she was displaying her press credentials, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GwynneFitz/status/1785481107523223759\">posted</a> on social media platform X shortly before 9:30 p.m. that she and a group of fellow reporters and students were “pushed” into a building adjoining Hamilton Hall — which protesters had occupied and dubbed “Hind’s Hall” — as police descended on campus and began a sweep of the occupied building.</p><p data-block-key=\"3hti0\">“NYPD had fully cleared the area where students started camping out last night, rows of demonstrators linked arms around the entryway to ‘Hinds Hall’ are the only ones left outside,” Hogan wrote in the post. “I'm with a crowd of students and reporters pushed back into an adjoining building.”</p><p data-block-key=\"avo29\">Moments later, Hogan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GwynneFitz/status/1785484291280957582\">posted video</a> and reported that she was being blocked in by police, adding, “They won't let me out despite showing many of them my NYPD press pass.” In the video, several officers in riot gear can be seen through the doors, barring the exits as other officers in the background lead away protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"chdgp\">Shortly after midnight, Hogan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GwynneFitz/status/1785522275657130372/photo/1\">posted</a> “Made it out, NYPD and campus safety escorting groups of students out from buildings that were previously locked down.”</p><p data-block-key=\"97see\">In <a href=\"https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/05/01/campus-columbia-city-college-encampments/\">a May 1 article</a> for THE CITY detailing police crackdowns at Columbia and other New York City colleges, Hogan wrote of Columbia that “student journalists and a CITY reporter were forced into adjoining buildings and blocked in for several hours, unable to observe officers entering Hamilton Hall, or the arrests of students who’d linked arms to try and block the entryway to the hall.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dj07g\">Hogan did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4fosc\">A person waves a Palestinian flag from atop Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. When police retook the building from protesters on April 30, 2024, officers prevented reporter Gwynne Hogan from leaving a campus building to cover arrests.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-04-30",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Gwynne Hogan (THE CITY)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student reporter confined to building during Columbia protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-reporter-confined-to-building-during-columbia-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-07T20:28:31.147600Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-07T21:03:49.842377Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-07T21:03:49.710567Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"otmxy\">Columbia Journalism School student Oishika Neogi was among a group of student reporters herded away from a pro-Palestinian protest, confined to a campus building and threatened with arrest by New York City police, who were retaking another building occupied by protesters on April 30, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"r033\">Neogi, an investigative journalism fellow and master’s student at the school, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been reporting on the campus protests since mid-April, when protesters set up an encampment. Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Neogi and other student reporters were the only <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-campus-student-protests-war-beb2c274c0960eee48c82485ca9b3f96\">media allowed</a> there that day, when New York Police Department officers in riot gear <a href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/columbia-university-protests-nypd-video-hamilton-hall/5371376/\">cleared</a> the occupied Hamilton Hall.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cu4c\">Neogi told the Tracker that when the police entered the campus at around 9 p.m., she was stationed at the side of Hamilton Hall, while other student journalists were in front of the building or at the center of campus. “As soon as they came in, they started pushing us away from Hamilton,” she said. Police had batons and were yelling to “move back,” but did not hit any of the journalists, Neogi added.</p><p data-block-key=\"2gc8b\">She said she was wearing her Overseas Press Club ID around her neck and a student press sign on her back, and had her Columbia student press ID in her bag.</p><p data-block-key=\"eca37\">Neogi and other journalists standing with her were forced by the NYPD to move to an exterior staircase near Hamilton where she could not see the building or what was happening in front of it. She said she was in that location for about 45 minutes. During that time, “We just didn’t know what was happening at Hamilton, which was the biggest problem.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3c8cu\">Neogi then went back to Pulitzer Hall, where the journalism school is located and where she was keeping her equipment, and planned to go back out to report. She learned from a colleague, however, that police were outside, warning that people who tried to leave would be arrested. She then went with faculty members and the school’s dean to the gate of the building to speak with police, who told them, “Stay in, or you can get arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1bddv\">“Basically, Pulitzer was on lockdown after that. All student journalists who were on campus who were covering this had to be inside Pulitzer Hall. And we couldn’t see anything,” Neogi said.</p><p data-block-key=\"36e8g\">She added that there was no official notification from the police about when they were allowed to exit the building. Neogi left around 1:30 a.m., but still could not go near Hamilton or other areas where there was police activity.</p><p data-block-key=\"cl2e9\">“We should have been in front of Hamilton. There was no other press from the outside,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lfpp\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZXH3Q_-_Reuters_-_Caitlin_Ochs.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bqnnc\">New York Police Department officers stand guard at Columbia University on April 30, 2024. During an NYPD operation to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters, a student reporter was confined to a campus building and threatened with arrest if she left.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-04-30",
"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": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Oishika Neogi (Columbia Journalism School)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist pushed, his phone charger stolen at UCLA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-pushed-his-phone-charger-stolen-at-ucla-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-02T20:33:42.796481Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:50.283835Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T17:23:50.173838Z",
"date": "2024-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6fn99\">Independent journalist Anthony Cabassa was pushed against a wall and his phone charger stolen while reporting on pro-Palestinian protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 30, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"15lna\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"f2i3b\">Shortly after 1 p.m. on the 30th, Cabassa <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1785399887309508794\">reported on social media</a> that an individual had stolen his phone charger because he refused to stop filming in a public space. He noted that by the time he was able to speak to university police, the thief was long gone.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just had my phone charger stolen from me from a protestor because we refused to stop filming in a public area. I asked security to help retrieve my property and they said they don’t have authorization, “talk to admin”, I talked to admin they said tell school police, school police… <a href=\"https://t.co/oZxqXmt85H\">pic.twitter.com/oZxqXmt85H</a></p>— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1785399887309508794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 30, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6fn99\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1785437645616853225\">subsequent</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1785448436030226933\">posts</a>, Cabassa also said that a group of protesters grabbed him and kept him pinned against a wall for approximately a minute in order to prevent him from entering or otherwise reporting on the encampment. In footage of the incident, Cabassa can be heard identifying himself as a credentialed journalist and stating that he has a right to be on public property.</p><p data-block-key=\"3o6t1\">Cabassa did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZV8SK.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b01q6\">Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at an encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles, campus on April 29, 2024. While covering protests there the following day, independent journalist Anthony Cabassa was pushed and had his phone charger stolen.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "miscellaneous equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Anthony Cabassa (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist pepper-sprayed, shoved while covering Oregon campus protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-pepper-sprayed-shoved-while-covering-oregon-campus-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-14T19:55:11.708535Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-16T18:05:46.896504Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-16T18:05:46.809691Z",
"date": "2024-04-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zw4ef\">Independent videographer Brandon Farley was shoved to the ground and sprayed with a chemical irritant by a group of assailants on April 29, 2024, while filming a pro-Palestinian protest on Portland State University’s campus in Oregon.</p><p data-block-key=\"f1soi\">Farley, who told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting this demonstration as a journalist, was recording protesters assembled around the university’s main library — which was <a href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/psu-portland-state-library-months-damage-pro-palestine-protests/283-1588d8e0-7a76-41fe-bf9b-1eeaa1b3fe4b\">occupied</a> by them for days — when the assault began. He <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealFarley/status/1785125262570803437\">posted on the social network X</a> that a group of people came up on him from behind while he was filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"6m4d4\">“One of them grabbed my strap and started pulling as others began swarming me. I was then pushed to the ground and maced in the face while I was retreating,” Farley wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mh55\">Farley is heard in the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealFarley/status/1785125262570803437\">video</a> telling the assailants that he is leaving the scene, while an assailant follows behind and calls him a “Nazi bitch.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Update: Still having blurry vision out of my right eye, but at least much of the burning has gone away.<br><br>I landed pretty hard on my right buttocks, so still feeling some discomfort from that.<br><br>All in all, it could have been a lot worse, given their hatred.<br><br>FUCK ANTIFA EXTREMISTS <a href=\"https://t.co/TKFWVoFvqn\">pic.twitter.com/TKFWVoFvqn</a></p>— Brandon M. Farley (Portland Video Journalist) (@TheRealFarley) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealFarley/status/1785179106172350699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 30, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zw4ef\">In an email exchange with the Tracker, Farley said that in addition to the two assailants, one of whom he described as a “large man,” at least two other individuals approached him during the assault. He noted that he has been attacked in the past while filming protest movements in Portland.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ie40\">“They view me as a target who constantly needs to be dealt with, but often, they treat it as a joke, like yelling out a ‘Nazi’ or a ‘fascist’ in an attempt to get others to come after me with blind rage,” Farley told the Tracker. “I know many of their tactics by now, but sometimes I still get injured, as was the case on April 29th.”</p><p data-block-key=\"627d\">Farley said he did not report the April 29 incident to law enforcement, nor did he seek medical attention following the attack. “I've been accosted and physically attacked by them dozens of times with no recourse from law enforcement,” he added. “I stopped asking for their help in early 2020, after realizing what little they could do to mitigate my situation.”<br/><br/><i>Editor’s Note: This article was updated to reflect Brandon Farley’s self-identification as a journalist at the demonstration. For more on who the Tracker counts as a journalist, see our</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/frequently-asked-questions/\"><i>frequently asked questions</i></a><i> page.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZXHYZ_-_Reuters_-_Jan_Sonnenma.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"vaec4\">Portland State University’s library, above, was taken over by pro-Palestinian protestors in late April 2024. On April 29, assailants there knocked independent journalist Brandon Farley to the ground and pepper-sprayed him.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brandon Farley (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist harassed, phone knocked to ground at UCLA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-harassed-phone-knocked-to-ground-at-ucla-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:31:50.912338Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:31:50.912338Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-10T17:31:25.611860Z",
"date": "2024-04-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3ztw7\">Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was repeatedly harassed and his phone knocked to the ground while reporting on a pro-Israeli counterprotest to the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 29, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"4jbhg\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"34t4b\">A large, pro-Israeli counterprotest was organized next to the encampment, with barricades erected to separate the groups, Reuters <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pro-palestinian-protests-keep-roiling-us-college-campuses-2024-04-28/\">reported</a>. Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-headbutted-shoved-at-ucla-counteprotest/\">headbutted and shoved</a> by a man while reporting on the clash between the two groups on April 28.</p><p data-block-key=\"28hs9\">Throughout his coverage the following evening, Beckner-Carmitchel said, multiple individuals targeted him for harassment and assault.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sb9o\">“At one point, one of the pro-Israel protesters stood in front of me and blared an air horn directly in my ear for like five minutes straight,” he said. “They also threw what I’m guessing was a wadded up sign at my head at one point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"72ce3\">In footage Beckner-Carmitchel <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6YiA3Drb7B/\">posted on Instagram</a>, an air horn can be heard resounding as he filmed counterprotesters attempting to break into the encampment. He added that at various points individuals called him slurs, knocked the phone from his hands and came up from behind him and blew a whistle in his ear.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZV7ER.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lb7z1\">Pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters gather at the encampment on UCLA’s campus on April 29, 2024. Multiple individuals harassed and assaulted journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel while he was covering the demonstrations.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist headbutted, shoved at UCLA counterprotest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-headbutted-shoved-at-ucla-counterprotest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-10T17:15:30.350009Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-09-17T13:07:51.113132Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-09-17T13:07:51.022751Z",
"date": "2024-04-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6r33m\">Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was headbutted and pushed by a man while reporting on a pro-Israeli counterprotest to the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 28, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"ddchk\">UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">reported</a> that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.</p><p data-block-key=\"c1mio\">A large, pro-Israeli counterprotest was organized next to the encampment, with barricades erected to separate the groups, Reuters <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pro-palestinian-protests-keep-roiling-us-college-campuses-2024-04-28/\">reported</a>. Some demonstrators broke through the barrier, however, and individuals from both sides began pushing one another and shouting insults and chants.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ip62\">Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was reporting on the clash between the two protests when he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ACatWithNews/status/1784783261635629369\">captured photos</a> of a man who appeared to be a counterprotester. When the man noticed he had been photographed, he demanded that the journalist delete the images.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mfro\">“Generally my policy is, if someone asks me to delete a photo, I’m doing quite the opposite: I’m favoriting that, I’m sending it to a couple of people and it’s probably going to end up being published,” Beckner-Carmitchel said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">At one point earlier during the pro-Palestine/pro-Israel protests at UCLA, a man wearing what appeared to be fascist symbolism on his shirt was attacking pro-Palestinian demonstrators.<br><br>At that point I took photos, he demanded I deleted them. I refused, and he attacked me. <a href=\"https://t.co/JAQ1wSVPKr\">pic.twitter.com/JAQ1wSVPKr</a></p>— acatwithnews (@ACatWithNews) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ACatWithNews/status/1784783261635629369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6r33m\">In footage of the incident, the man headbutts Beckner-Carmitchel before someone wearing a neon vest steps between them. When Beckner-Carmitchel moves to walk away, the man pursues him, asking repeatedly, “What are you doing?”</p><p data-block-key=\"6q70o\">“Just doing my job,” Beckner-Carmitchel responds.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qo87\">Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that the man repeatedly told him to delete the picture, pushed him and attempted to grab the phone from his hands. He said that ultimately it appeared that individuals from both protests helped remove the man.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZTL9U.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"g6fq4\">Pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters scuffle during demonstrations at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 28, 2024. A man headbutted and shoved journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel while he was covering the clash.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter charged following investigation of protest arrest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-charged-following-investigation-of-protest-arrest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-01T21:49:19.430844Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-01T21:49:19.430844Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-01T21:49:19.128986Z",
"date": "2024-04-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Austin",
"longitude": -97.74306,
"latitude": 30.26715,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ath38\">KTBC broadcast photographer Carlos Sanchez was charged on April 26, 2024, with the felony assault of a peace officer, the Austin American-Statesman <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/04/30/ut-austin-pro-palestinian-protest-fox-7-photojournalist-felony-charge-dropped/73515493007/\">reported</a>, two days after he was arrested filming a student protest at the University of Texas at Austin. The charge was downgraded to two misdemeanors on April 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"46ih6\">Sanchez said he was pushed into a state trooper as Texas Department of Public Safety officers drove back a pro-Palestinian protest line on campus, <a href=\"https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-photojournalist-faces-felony-charge-after-arrest-during-ut-protest-affidavit-says/\">NBC affiliate KXAN-TV reported</a>. Another officer immediately pulled him backward and threw him to the ground, arresting him. Sanchez was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-arrested-while-filming-pro-palestinian-protest-at-university-of-texas/\">initially charged</a> with criminal trespassing, but the charge was dismissed the following day.</p><p data-block-key=\"9dcqn\">The American-Statesman reported that the law enforcement agency then launched a criminal investigation into the incident. A warrant for Sanchez’s arrest on the second-degree felony charge was issued on April 26, after additional witnesses — including the trooper who was said to have been hit — were identified and additional footage obtained.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1vr5\">E.G. “Gerry” Morris, an attorney representing Sanchez, told the American-Statesman that they learned the felony charge had been dropped when Sanchez arrived at the jail on April 30 to turn himself in.</p><p data-block-key=\"nrob\">KTBC <a href=\"https://www.fox7austin.com/news/fox-7-photographer-faces-2-misdemeanors-after-felony-charge-was-dropped\">reported</a> that the Texas Department of Public Safety detective investigating the incident acknowledged that the allegations did not rise to a felony offense. A new warrant for Sanchez’s arrest was issued later that day on two misdemeanor counts: assault against a peace officer and impeding a public servant.</p><p data-block-key=\"bt0n1\">Morris told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Sanchez turned himself into custody on May 1 and was released on his own recognizance after being booked.</p><p data-block-key=\"am2ge\">“Mr. Sanchez was performing an important news gathering function during a chaotic event when he inadvertently bumped into a police officer. He did not commit a crime,” Morris wrote the Tracker via email. “We look forward to someone taking a unbiased look at the evidence and exonerating Mr. Sanchez. That may ultimately occur with a jury.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6kh4t\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AshantiBlaize/status/1785487561978495436\">thread posted</a> on the social media platform X, Society of Professional Journalists President Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins called the new misdemeanor charges “blatant retaliation and intimidation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2qer2\">“TX DPS is trying to make an example out this photographer to scare other journalists from covering these highly publicized protests on campuses across TX,” Blaize-Hopkins wrote. “What they are doing is unconstitutional and just plain vindictive.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZLLQY_-_REUTERS_-_Nuri_Vallbon.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mkskn\">Texas state troopers at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024. A photographer with TV station KTBC was charged with a felony, downgraded to two misdemeanors, following his arrest while covering the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Texas Department of Public Safety",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-05-01",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carlos Sanchez (KTBC)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Breitbart reporter pushed out of UCLA encampment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pro-palestinian-protesters-push-breitbart-reporter-out-of-ucla-encampment/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-01T14:34:13.157458Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-03T12:44:44.454008Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-03T12:44:44.331649Z",
"date": "2024-04-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tn9ik\">Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News, was obstructed from filming and pushed out of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment by several unidentified demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 26, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffki7\">In a video <a href=\"https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/26/watch-activists-assault-breitbart-news-journalist-at-ucla-palestine-solidarity-encampment/\">published</a> by Breitbart, a conservative news outlet, Pollak — who is filming with his phone and is heard but not seen — arrives at a “media check-in” point at the edge of the encampment, which was set up the day before by students and was surrounded by plywood barriers erected by the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"afrlr\">The students, part of a larger movement on campuses <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/university-protests-palestine-04-29-24/index.html\">across the U.S.</a>, are calling for the university to divest from companies tied to the Israeli military and to cut ties with Israeli academic institutions, among other demands, the <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/25/ucla-community-organizes-encampment-in-response-to-national-call-for-escalation\">Daily Bruin reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"bfube\">After identifying himself as a member of the media, Pollak is initially told by a protester that they are “not letting any media in today. … We had some chaos yesterday with media and counterprotesters and we’re just trying to keep it chill.” The journalist can be heard on the video responding, “It’s a public university, there’s a First Amendment right to freedom of the press. I’m going to walk through the encampment. You can arrest me if you want. But I’m entitled to be here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3h8s4\">Pollak, whose responses were provided to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via a spokesperson, said that he was wearing his Breitbart press credential around his neck. “I really was just looking to stroll thru and film for 2 minutes,” Pollak told the Tracker via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"fc2aa\">The video then shows Pollak entering the encampment after donning a mask at the request of another protester. A few seconds later, protesters ask him to stop filming, saying, “We need people to consent” and citing the encampment’s “community guidelines.” Protesters then hold up scarves, hands and other materials to block his view of the encampment.</p><p data-block-key=\"nups\">The journalist continues to walk around and attempt to film the encampment, but several protesters impede his progress. “I have the same right to be here that you do,” Pollak tells them.</p><p data-block-key=\"cufoa\">After around four minutes, several protesters say, “Link arms,” and the group appears to surround the reporter. Both Pollak and at least one protester say that they’re being touched and pushed by the other.</p><p data-block-key=\"fakgg\">Soon after, a protester is heard saying, “Push” and “Step forward.” The reporter responds, “You’re pushing me. I’m being assaulted by this group.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2c52k\">The group then appears to form a semicircle around Pollak and gradually push him out of the encampment, chanting, “One, two, three, again.” As they near the entrance, several other members of the media can be seen filming the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"2oa97\">Pollak told the Tracker via email that he was “pushed and shoved a lot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e1aeb\">The Tracker contacted UCLA seeking clarification of the university’s policy toward students limiting press access to the encampment, but its media relations office did not respond directly to the inquiry.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZNMVR_-_Reuters_-_Mike_Blake.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"kbgmv\">Students gather at a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 25, 2024. The next day, protesters pushed Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak out of the encampment as he attempted to film.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joel Pollak (Breitbart News)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Phone knocked from student journalist’s hands while reporting at Northwestern U",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/phone-knocked-from-student-journalists-hands-while-reporting-on-northwestern-u-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-29T15:55:11.189916Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-02T13:13:01.851335Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-02T13:13:01.672109Z",
"date": "2024-04-25",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Evanston",
"longitude": -87.69006,
"latitude": 42.04114,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"npqyv\">Logan Schiciano, the news director for the student-run broadcaster Northwestern News Network, had his phone knocked from his hands while reporting on a student protest on the university’s campus in Evanston, Illinois, on April 25, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"50s9p\">Students had erected tents on a central campus green that morning in support of Palestinians, <a href=\"https://dailynorthwestern.com/2024/04/22/campus/sjp-ejp-and-jvp-resolution-demands-nu-divest-from-companies-with-ties-to-israel-protect-student-speech/\">calling</a> on the university to divest and cut ties with companies and institutions connected to Israel, The Daily Northwestern <a href=\"https://dailynorthwestern.com/2024/04/25/campus/live-pro-palestinian-student-activists-set-up-encampment-on-deering-meadow/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4fr39\">Schiciano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the encampment about an hour and a half after students set up their tents. A few minutes later, he began filming with his phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"5poj8\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/loganschiciano/status/1783569410248020251\">video</a> Schiciano posted on social media, individuals can be seen erecting tents on a lawn when they notice Schiciano filming. Two individuals rush toward the student journalist, and one appears to lunge at Schiciano and knock the phone from his hand.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Unfortunately some protesters at Northwestern’s newly-formed encampment weren’t too thrilled with us reporting. <a href=\"https://t.co/kUXFWt9Kvd\">pic.twitter.com/kUXFWt9Kvd</a></p>— Logan Schiciano (@LoganSchiciano) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LoganSchiciano/status/1783569410248020251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"npqyv\">Schiciano said that his phone fell to the ground, but was undamaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"6vc0v\">“They tried to claim that I wasn’t allowed to film because they didn’t consent to having their faces shown. I tried to level with them and explain that press — or anyone really — can film in a public space on campus,” Schiciano told the Tracker. “It was a bit of an off-putting start to my coverage there, but thankfully since that incident I haven’t had anything like that and for the most part the organizers have been pretty receptive, understanding that there’s media there trying to cover their encampment.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/dji_fly_20240426_115250_630_17141.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dsuti\">Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on April 26, 2024. The day prior, a protester knocked a phone from the hands of student journalist Logan Schiciano while he reported on the encampment.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Logan Schiciano (Northwestern News Network)"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist violently arrested while documenting UT Austin protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-violently-arrested-while-documenting-ut-austin-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-06T19:48:20.765567Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-04T15:18:36.061095Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-04T15:18:35.937182Z",
"date": "2024-04-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Austin",
"longitude": -97.74306,
"latitude": 30.26715,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"570jq\">Freelance photojournalist Joseph Rushmore was violently arrested on April 24, 2024, by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and charged with misdemeanor trespassing while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest on the University of Texas at Austin campus, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2anah\">Rushmore arrived at the university’s South Lawn between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., he told the Tracker, and saw that law enforcement had cordoned off the lawn and formed a ring around it, surrounded by protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"9g1gt\">The protest generally seemed peaceful, Rushmore said, and for about an hour, law enforcement made periodic arrests of single protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"6pffn\">Then, he said, state troopers formed a line and started using their shields to push the crowd on one side of the lawn, where Rushmore was standing. He was pushed into an alcove on the side of a building and fell on top of protesters who had been pushed along with him.</p><p data-block-key=\"a78ba\">“Their shields are on my back,” Rushmore recounted. “I’m crushing three or four people under me. I’m yelling, ‘We’re crushed, we can’t move.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"460v3\">One of the state troopers pulled Rushmore back into the police line. “At first I thought they were trying to relieve the crush that was happening,” he said. Then a trooper put a knee on Rushmore’s back, shoved his face into the ground and zip-tied his hands.</p><p data-block-key=\"c8anh\">“I yell, ‘I’m press, I’m press, I’m press,’” Rushmore said. “No response. So I stop talking. I realize I’m getting arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eab5k\">Rushmore was held for 30 minutes in a law enforcement van and then taken to Travis County Jail, where he was held overnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"86osq\">At 8 a.m. the following day, Rushmore said, “They come and get me and a group of four protesters; they say, ‘OK, your charges are dropped’; they give us our stuff back; and we’re out the doors.” His camera equipment, which the officers had confiscated overnight, did not appear to have been damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"62oie\">At least <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-arrested-while-filming-pro-palestinian-protest-at-university-of-texas/\">one other journalist</a> was arrested that day on campus.</p><p data-block-key=\"154nv\">Rushmore said that he believes that law enforcement cracked down simply to prevent the protest from occurring.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rbb8\">“It felt like they were trying to make a point: if you come and do this, we will arrest you,” he said. “I was targeted not for being press but for being there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9oh3\">Rushmore told the Tracker that he had a large camera around his neck but had not been wearing any visible press identification at the time of his arrest, adding: “I feel like the same constitution that protects me as a journalist is also protecting the right to nonviolently protest — which is exactly what was happening. To see that level of nonantagonistic gathering assaulted in the way it was, was pretty astounding.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/042424_UTProtest_101.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"o2b5d\">Photojournalist Joseph Rushmore, pictured at center here, was violently arrested while covering clashes between law enforcement and pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Texas Department of Public Safety",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2024-04-25",
"detention_date": "2024-04-24",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joseph Rushmore (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Student photojournalist knocked down by police at UT Austin protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-photojournalist-knocked-down-by-police-at-ut-austin-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-07T18:29:05.488529Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-07T18:29:05.488529Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-07T18:29:05.268607Z",
"date": "2024-04-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Austin",
"longitude": -97.74306,
"latitude": 30.26715,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"c3o8x\">Student photojournalist Manoo Sirivelu was pushed and knocked to the ground multiple times by law enforcement while covering a police crackdown on a pro-Palestinian protest April 24, 2024, on the University of Texas at Austin campus, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"863o4\">Sirivelu, the associate photo editor at UT Austin’s student newspaper The Daily Texan, told the Tracker he arrived at the protest at 1:15 p.m. and saw state troopers as well as officers from both the Austin Police Department and the UT Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"dv65e\">Sirivelu’s photo editor, who was also there, told him that she and another photographer had been pushed repeatedly by police on horses, so he said they were on “high alert.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9juv0\">Police deployed riot shields and batons and tackled protesters, pushing them off the school’s Main Mall lawn. Sirivelu was photographing arrests when a Texas Department of Public Safety officer accidentally hit him in the chest with his fists while wrapping his arms around a protester to arrest her.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mtg0\">Sirivelu was also pushed into chains that surround the lawn as the troopers advanced. “My legs were getting crushed against the chains,” he said. “I just fell on my butt. I said, ‘Stop, stop, the chains,’ they paused for a moment and I made my way out,” he recalled. The experience of being pushed into the chains was scary, Sirivelu said, so he took a break in a building near the lawn.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1bmk\">After returning, Sirivelu was standing nearby when UT Austin police officers tackled a protester to the ground. One of them then pushed him down.</p><p data-block-key=\"5rrl8\">“The guy right in front of me shoved my chest,” he said. “I fell. I was lying on the ground, police in front of me. I was pretty shocked when I fell on the floor. The shock came from being on the same level and space as the girl who was being arrested and zip-tied. I was looking her straight in the eyes. I sat up, made some space, found the gap between legs, and took that photo.” The image was <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/02/university-protests-gaza-student-pictures?mc_cid=c1dd4cb9bb&mc_eid=d54a865283\">later published by The Guardian</a>. </p><p data-block-key=\"4vrfm\">Sirivelu told the Tracker that he did not suffer any injuries and his camera was undamaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"angt5\">But he stayed farther away from law enforcement for the rest of the day. “I am definitely more situationally aware now,” he said. And after working that day with no press identification, he and his colleagues at The Daily Texan wore press tags the next time they went out to report.</p><p data-block-key=\"7itr9\">“If I had to do the same thing again, despite them having pushed me down, I would,” Sirivelu told the Tracker. “There’s no other way I would have gotten that picture.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZLLR0_-_Reuters_-_Nuri_Vallbon.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b1er5\">Law enforcement officers confront pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024. Student photojournalist Manoo Sirivelu was knocked down and pushed multiple times by law enforcement while covering the clashes.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Manoo Sirivelu (The Daily Texan)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Photographer arrested while filming pro-Palestinian protest at University of Texas",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-arrested-while-filming-pro-palestinian-protest-at-university-of-texas/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-25T21:05:06.683650Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-01T21:49:56.191988Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-01T21:49:56.048606Z",
"date": "2024-04-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Austin",
"longitude": -97.74306,
"latitude": 30.26715,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"62iqk\">A photographer with television station KTBC in Austin was thrown to the ground and arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety officers on April 24, 2024, while filming a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas. The photographer, who was not named by the station, was charged with criminal trespassing and released the next day.</p><p data-block-key=\"9obt6\">As seen in <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/zDN8GEVSCxs?feature=shared&t=9334\">video footage</a> taken by the photographer, who was livestreaming the student protest, and in a <a href=\"https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ut-texas-protest-palestine-israel-gaza-rally-college-university-campus\">report</a> by KTBC, the journalist was filming members of law enforcement as they moved back the protest line when he was either pushed or fell into an officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"fi9b1\">The photographer was then <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chris_Kuhlman00/status/1783246503907311936\">pulled backward onto the ground</a> by an officer, who can be heard shouting at him to “Get on the ground,” to which the journalist replied, “I was moving.” He was then placed in handcuffs and escorted to a police car outside the protest zone.</p><p data-block-key=\"6in5u\">His video camera continued to film the events, as it was picked up and carried by an unidentified person who walked alongside the photographer and the police until the livestream was cut off.</p><p data-block-key=\"84c1s\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RemadnaKXAN/status/1783245177668141167\">video</a> posted on the social platform X by Nabil Remadna, a reporter with Austin station KXAN-TV, the photographer identifies himself only as “Carlos” and says, “They were pushing me and they said I hit an officer. I didn’t hit an officer. They were pushing.” He added, “I told them I was the press.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This man says he is a member of the press. An officer said his camera hit an officer. The man claims it was not on purpose. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KXAN_News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KXAN_News</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/mZUcTSNJuZ\">pic.twitter.com/mZUcTSNJuZ</a></p>— Nabil Brent Remadna KXAN (@RemadnaKXAN) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RemadnaKXAN/status/1783245177668141167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"62iqk\">KTBC <a href=\"https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ut-texas-protest-palestine-israel-gaza-rally-college-university-campus\">said</a> the photographer was booked at Travis County jail and charged with criminal trespassing. He was released the following morning, it <a href=\"https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ut-austin-palestine-rally-protesters-released-from-jail\">added</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"eh3t3\">Nearly <a href=\"https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ut-texas-protest-palestine-israel-gaza-rally-college-university-campus\">60 people</a> were arrested during the April 24 protest, in which students walked out of classes to demand that the university divest from companies supplying weapons to Israel used in its war in Gaza.</p><p data-block-key=\"43khn\">In a statement on X, the Texas Department of Public Safety <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TxDPS/status/1783259674931769787\">said</a> it responded to the University of Texas campus in Austin “at the request of the University and at the direction of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, in order to prevent any unlawful assembly and to support UT Police in maintaining the peace by arresting anyone engaging in any sort of criminal activity, including criminal trespass."</p><p data-block-key=\"c83ef\">The Texas Department of Public Safety and KTBC didn’t respond to requests for additional information about the incident, including the photographer’s full name and details of the charges.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Remadna_still.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"s9exd\">A screenshot from a video taken during the arrest of KTBC broadcast photographer Carlos Sanchez, who was arrested while filming a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Texas Department of Public Safety",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2024-04-25",
"detention_date": "2024-04-24",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name_of_business": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-04-25 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against photographer arrested while filming University of Texas protest",
"(2024-04-26 15:31:00+00:00) Assault charges filed, quickly dropped against photographer arrested at Texas protest",
"(2024-04-30 11:02:00+00:00) Broadcast photographer faces two new misdemeanor charges following protest arrest"
],
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carlos Sanchez (KTBC)"
],
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}
]
