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{
"title": "Journalist shoved by officer during LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-by-officer-during-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.707939Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.707939Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.489984Z",
"date": "2025-08-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k06ne\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, an investigative reporter with L.A. Taco, was shoved by a police officer and blocked from filming parts of an immigration enforcement protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1bmn\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lglk\">In a video posted to the social platform <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwavv3jwnc2f\">Bluesky</a>, an LA police officer can be seen demanding that Ray move back while he identifies himself as media and holds his badge up.</p><p data-block-key=\"9s83d\">“Get back, get on the sidewalk,” the officer said before pushing him. “Walk faster.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dk8g4\">Ray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off parts of the area in advance of a planned vigil near the Metropolitan Detention Center. When he asked officers at the scene why the streets were closed, he said he was unable to get a clear explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mhak\">After protesters arrived from a march that began several miles away at MacArthur Park, police ordered cars out of the intersection and began clearing the street in front of the detention center. That’s when a motorcycle officer approached him.</p><p data-block-key=\"5bf07\">“I was filming them from what was a pretty safe, reasonable distance,” Ray said. “One officer, he got in my face, initially told me to back up, and then he shoved me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8ts33\">Ray said he and other journalists had difficulty crossing police lines and accessing areas where confrontations between protesters and law enforcement were unfolding. Officers, he said, forced reporters to remain in one area and restricted their movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"9s6re\">“It was pretty clear that if we didn’t, we’d be arrested,” he said. “There’s definitely things that we missed because we were not able to move around freely.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2u9ue\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for comment. In a statement posted earlier to the <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">social platform X</a>, the department’s Central Division said it will continue to support the First Amendment rights of all people. “However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced,” it read.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c7nl\">The LA Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of LA in contempt for violating a temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of journalists, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"dtsg\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"52v7k\">In June, Ray was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-immigration-protest/\">struck by pepper balls fired by federal law enforcement</a> (over which he later sued), and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sheriffs-deputy-searches-journalists-bag-during-la-immigration-protest/\">a sheriff’s deputy searched his backpack</a>. The Tracker has documented other incidents in which Ray was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-repeatedly-shoved-while-covering-la-reproductive-rights-protests/\">shoved,</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-taco-reporter-detained-while-covering-echo-park-protest/\">detained,</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-equipment-damaged-while-covering-dodgers-celebrations/\">tackled</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-covering-protests-los-angeles-assaulted/\">struck with a baton</a> while covering protests and gatherings in LA.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-08-25_at_6.30.10P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cs90o\">A Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray, at center, during an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lexis-Olivier Ray (L.A. Taco)"
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{
"title": "Denver schools subpoena TV station for reporting materials",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-schools-subpoena-tv-station-for-reporting-materials/",
"first_published_at": "2025-12-11T21:36:01.580531Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-12-11T21:36:01.580531Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-12-11T21:36:01.399128Z",
"date": "2025-08-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rs6kl\">TV station KUSA received a subpoena from the Denver, Colorado, school district on Aug. 11, 2025, seeking communications it had for a story with former Principal Kurt Dennis.</p><p data-block-key=\"elar9\">Dennis was fired from a Denver middle school <a href=\"https://www.9news.com/article/news/education/dps-denver-public-schools-fires-principal-after-9news-story-safety-concerns/73-3dfea19d-de73-40ef-9458-437c89b280ea\">after sharing student information</a> with the station and later filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district violated his First Amendment rights.</p><p data-block-key=\"10f3g\">As part of the lawsuit, Denver Public Schools sought KUSA’s unaired footage and communications with Dennis to determine whether he had unlawfully disclosed student information. The district had pointed to a redacted form in the broadcast that differed from the one Dennis submitted in his lawsuit.</p><p data-block-key=\"6rqj9\">During a Dec. 8 court hearing, Dennis’ attorney David Lane admitted that his client had provided the outlet with documents showing a student’s personal identifying information, <a href=\"https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/12/08/federal-judge-rejects-dps-attempt-to-obtain-9news-sourcing-documents-in-first-amendment-case/\">Colorado Politics</a> reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"asoq9\">That admission prompted U.S. District Judge John Kane to quash the subpoena, noting the district could obtain the information directly from Dennis.</p><p data-block-key=\"f0lki\">“Mr. Dennis is one of two parties in possession of the documents — the other being KUSA — and he has produced them,” Kane said, according to Colorado Politics. “I do not hold that overriding the reporter’s privilege in this case is appropriate.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lcf2\">Dennis spoke to KUSA shortly after a high school student shot two administrators in 2023 during a routine pat-down. He told the station that another student with serious criminal allegations was subject to the same protocol at his school, but the district denied his requests to expel or block the student from attending school in person.</p><p data-block-key=\"5m3ir\">Dennis had tried to redact the student’s name, but had failed to maintain the student’s anonymity, KUSA attorney Steven Zansberg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"5fp0i\">Zansberg called the subpoena “legally deficient” and “utterly frivolous” once Dennis provided the documents he had shared with the station.</p><p data-block-key=\"aa3oj\">“Once Dennis confessed that previously contested fact, there was absolutely no legal basis for DPS to continue pursuing its ‘fishing expedition’ subpoena against the station,” Zansberg wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"1vkg5\">Bill Good, a spokesperson for the school system, told the Tracker in a statement that the district filed the motion to prove Dennis violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and state juvenile records laws by giving unredacted documents to the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhq0i\">Good called the process a win, noting the school system received additional documentation from the former principal’s counsel that had not been previously shared.</p><p data-block-key=\"6oitv\">“DPS does not believe it would have received these additional materials absent its attempt to compel 9News to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena,” he wrote.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-12-11_at_12.44.13.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zuoad\">A portion of a subpoena issued to TV station KUSA in Denver, Colorado, on Aug. 11, 2025, seeking its communications with a former school principal over documents he shared with the outlet.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"release_date": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KUSA"
],
"tags": [],
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with baton, detained amid LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-detained-amid-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:07:13.664152Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:07:13.664152Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T15:06:59.500763Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pkclc\">Freelance photojournalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was pushed, struck with a baton and detained by police while documenting anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025. He was ultimately released without being charged.</p><p data-block-key=\"bqp3i\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"84jdc\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fefd\">In a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.6.pdf\">declaration</a> filed in connection with a Los Angeles Press Club lawsuit against the city, Beckner-Carmitchel said he covered the protest and subsequent march, and was carrying a professional camera and had his press credential on a lanyard attached to his pants.</p><p data-block-key=\"ep9qi\">He wrote that approximately 100 demonstrators gathered outside the detention center and protested “in a spirited, non-violent way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cn0vq\">“At some point, I saw the LAPD officers form a line in the street in front of the MDC and start screaming at the protesters to ‘Move back’ as officers marched with their batons drawn,” Beckner-Carmitchel wrote. “As the LAPD line moved toward the protesters, I saw officers shove quite a few people to the ground. I did not hear any instructions for media. I saw LAPD officers strike multiple journalists with batons, and shove and push journalists in the street in a span of a few minutes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"32lui\">During a pause in the officers’ advance, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that he approached the police line and asked to speak to a supervisor or public affairs officer, but was told to move back. He tried again, saying that he wanted to remind them of the <a href=\"https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-409-7/\">penal code</a> that protects journalists covering protests, given that multiple members of the press had already gotten hurt.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nu7f\">“An LAPD officer responded by shoving me and hitting me in my ribs on my left side with his baton. I still have sore ribs a day later and a small bruise,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"5eqm5\">The use of force continued for nearly an hour before officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, around a small group of journalists and demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7vt1\">Beckner-Carmitchel asked for a supervisor or public information office nearly a dozen times and was cuffed while live on YouTube, with an officer telling him he could “bitch” however he wanted. He was held for one to two hours, he wrote, and when asked for his identifying information, he “pointedly told the officer that my ID was in my wallet in my right pocket, beneath my press pass.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rp4q\">He was then given a card that read, “Detained during an illegal assembly. Failed to disperse after multiple dispersal orders.” A lieutenant eventually approached him to ask if he was media and, when he said yes, to show her his press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"8la6f\">“Lt. Stelter lectured me and the other journalists who had been detained that we were at fault because we stayed in the crowd of protesters,” Beckner-Carmitchel wrote, adding that he was released without charges. “When I was in the process of being uncuffed and allowed to leave, I began filming again, and an officer told me I was still under detainment and was not permitted to film.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2vru9\"><a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">Two</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/\">journalists</a> without physical press badges were taken to a police station and later released.</p><p data-block-key=\"6raqc\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"98fbi\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"11emg\">Beckner-Carmitchel disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “From my vantage point, I did not see the protesters act violently or throw anything at officers when the officers arrived,” he wrote in his declaration. “I did not hear any declaration of an unlawful assembly or dispersal order at this point. As the LAPD line moved toward the protesters, I saw officers shove quite a few people to the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2jrjh\">The LA Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order it had obtained as part of its lawsuit, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Beckner-Carmitchel and other members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"75oph\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"7ta0i\">In an Aug. 14 <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwfxpqqyac2q\">post on social media</a>, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that he had been diagnosed with a rib fracture, likely as a result of being struck with a baton on Aug. 8.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rd29\">“It hurts a *lot* and I pride myself on being a pretty tough soldier in the journalism industry. But I’ll likely be out of commission for at least a few days,” he wrote. “Extremely frustrating that there are things I could be writing about, photographing or filming and instead I’ll be sitting on my couch.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"c258y\">Journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, center in red, was detained alongside other members of the press while documenting immigration protests in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025. Officers also pushed and struck him in the ribs with a baton that evening.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2025-08-08",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with baton, press credential damaged at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T16:29:05.478101Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-28T17:45:37.456528Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-28T17:45:37.351185Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ey72h\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern was pushed by police and then, after retrieving his damaged press credentials, struck in the face with a baton in Los Angeles, California, while covering anti-deportation protests on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7qo4\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"2tv46\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"9vohr\">Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that it was the first demonstration he had gone to cover since his leg was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/munition-strikes-photojournalist-at-la-protest-shrapnel-surgically-removed/\">severely injured</a> while documenting a protest in Compton on June 7, and he planned to be very cautious.</p><p data-block-key=\"a60ai\">“It’s been incredibly frustrating for me watching this go down and not being able to get there and document it,” he said. “My plan was to go and, if it looked like things were getting sideways or if an unlawful assembly order was called, to either leave the area or get to an area which I considered very safe.</p><p data-block-key=\"d1rt6\">“I wasn’t given that option,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qb8t\">After the crowd began its march toward downtown, Stern said he instead drove the two miles, as he is still recovering from an emergency surgery and is incapable of walking the distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"3h28e\">Three police vehicles arrived, and LAPD officers exited with batons and crowd-control weapons drawn.</p><p data-block-key=\"4na8q\">“Within a matter of minutes, dozens of police started to form skirmish lines,” he said. “There was no unlawful assembly or dispersal order called. They just started laying into people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ff474\">Stern told the Tracker he attempted to move away from the line and was pushed from behind by police, then fell into a group of people and onto the ground. When he got up, he realized that the cord holding his press credential around his neck had broken and his press pass was on the ground behind the advancing officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gkgs\">“I went back to retrieve it, and said, ‘I’m press, I need to get my badge. It’s down there on the ground.’ The first cop just pushed me aside,” Stern said. After telling another officer the same, a third picked it up and passed it to Stern.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Stern_assault_88_-_1.width-828.jpg\" width=\"633\" height=\"907\" alt=\"COURTESY NICK STERN\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"vqjgv\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern’s Los Angeles Press Club credential, still caked with blood after an LAPD officer struck him in the face with a baton amid immigration protests in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY NICK STERN\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ey72h\">“I then showed the cop who was immediately in front of me my press ID again, at which point one of the cops then brought a baton across my face, causing a laceration to my chin,” he recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"5rtq6\">Multiple journalists covering the protest told the Tracker that Stern appeared dazed from the strike. Soon afterward, he and three colleagues left together to find an open urgent care center, but were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qfha\">Stern said that his wife — a nurse and wound care specialist — later examined his injury and said that while it should have received stitches, it had stopped bleeding and would heal with strong antibiotic cream.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r5vl\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dtdua\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3of9t\">Stern disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “It was peaceful: There were people with drums, people chanting, people with banners. I saw no acts of violence, no acts of criminal damage or vandalism or conflict or anything,” Stern told the Tracker. “We just met this line of brutality.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2ft4\">“In 2020, with the George Floyd, Black Lives Matter protests, LAPD and law enforcement were universally condemned about their brutality, their tactics, their lack of planning, their lack of strategy and the way they were brutalizing people. And since then, they’ve gotten worse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fa14h\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Stern and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gjne\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"ba5ui\"><i>Editor's Note: This article was updated Aug. 14, 2025, to include details of the contempt motion filed by the LA Press Club and Status Coup.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qoprl\">A Los Angeles police officer uses a baton to strike photojournalist Nick Stern, bottom left, as Stern holds up his press credentials amid immigration protests on Aug. 8, 2025. Stern was pushed and struck in the face, and his credentials were damaged.</p>",
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{
"title": "Journalist struck with baton, finger injured amid protests in downtown LA",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-14T18:15:59.589915Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-12T20:23:22.180099Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-12T20:23:21.935929Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tk99l\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was shoved and struck multiple times with a baton by police, injuring her finger, while reporting on immigration protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1137h\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"am1m6\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sbqv\">Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that once the march reached the detention center, protesters gathered largely in the street in front of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cng9\">When police arrived, she said officers spoke to the organizer, who then announced that if everyone got on the sidewalk, they’d be fine. Berg said that, despite moving to comply, the police suddenly “went ham for no reason.”</p><p data-block-key=\"56tso\">“There was no warning. They didn’t call an unlawful assembly at all,” she told the Tracker. Multiple journalists found themselves “sandwiched” between protesters and the advancing police line, Berg said. “It was almost like they were way more aggressive with us than they were to the protesters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7l7h1\">When a fellow journalist was knocked to the ground, Berg said she went to try to help. It was either just before or after that Berg was struck in the arm and back with a baton, bruising her and leaving welts on her arm. The pinkie finger of her left hand was also split open.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Berg_CA_assault_8_8_-_2.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"1104\" alt=\"COURTESY TINA-DESIREE BERG\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"zgpot\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg photographed the laceration to her pinkie finger after she was struck and pushed by police while documenting immigration protests in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY TINA-DESIREE BERG\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tk99l\">“It was wild: At first, I didn’t even realize I was injured. And then I looked down and there was blood dripping everywhere,” she said, noting that she’s not certain how it happened. “Honestly, it was such chaos. It could have been a baton, it could have been something else.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cehev\">Berg told the Tracker she wasn’t carrying most of her usual protective gear — just ballistic goggles and a small respirator — and had left her helmet in her car.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sugr\">She left the protest soon after, alongside multiple other journalists who had been injured — including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">photographer Nick Stern</a> — to find an open urgent care center, but were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"co1nu\">Berg said that, while having covered demonstrations in Southern California for years, this was the first time she had sought medical care.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vtnd\">“I’ve never felt the need before. I’m pretty tough, so if I’m going to the doctor, you know it’s bad,” she said. After flushing the wound and applying antibiotic cream and a stitchless wound closure, she was told to repeat the process as needed to keep it clean.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0id8\">The injury was expected to keep her out of the field and off the job for approximately two weeks, Berg said. “I can’t go out until my fingers heal. I just don’t want an infection.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eekrs\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eff80\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8u6mc\">Berg disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “Nobody was throwing anything. They didn’t give a warning, didn’t call an unlawful, and then they just swept in and started beating people,” she said. “I have the strong belief that until these individual officers are held accountable for their actions, there will be no change.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2aa1i\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Berg and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"fs6o\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"o3nf3\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg, after being struck with a baton by a Los Angeles police officer amid anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025, filmed while cleaning blood from her injured hand.</p>",
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"(2025-09-10 12:46:00+00:00) LA Press Club wins order protecting reporters from LAPD violence"
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],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist’s phone knocked to the ground by police officer at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-phone-knocked-to-the-ground-by-police-officer-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-11-20T22:18:30.526698Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-21T19:04:41.860382Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-21T19:04:41.757427Z",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n4uiq\">Freelance photojournalist Benjamin Hanson had his phone knocked from his hand by a police officer wielding a baton and was then pushed, damaging his camera lens, while covering an immigration enforcement protest in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"6h63n\">It was one of many protests that <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">began</a> June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.</p><p data-block-key=\"dvck2\">After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass. Trump’s deployment of federal troops to LA was <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70496361/176/newsom-v-trump/\">ruled illegal</a> by a federal judge Sept. 2.</p><p data-block-key=\"7hm71\">The demonstration near the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center — where immigrants were being held — unfolded as Los Angeles Police Department officers pushed protesters away from the area, Hanson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He said he was on assignment for Middle East Images as a photographer and for Royol News as a videographer at the time.</p><p data-block-key=\"b928q\">Hanson, who was filming the interaction with his phone and carrying two cameras, said he was wearing three press badges when a police officer deliberately knocked the phone out of his hand. In the video reviewed by the Tracker, officers are yelling at the crowd to move as one with a baton smacks Hanson’s phone to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"95srk\">“You can clearly see I’m a member of the press,” Hanson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1f6tg\">When he bent down to retrieve his phone, he was then pushed — either by an officer or a protester caught in the police effort to push the crowd back. When he fell, he landed on his camera, denting his camera lens.</p><p data-block-key=\"214uf\">Though the lens is still usable, Hanson said he can no longer attach filters to it.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fm3g\">On other days while covering the protests, Hanson was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-by-officer-while-documenting-la-freeway-protest/\">shoved by a California Highway Patrol officer</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pepper-sprayed-by-dhs-struck-with-pepper-balls-at-la-protest/\">pepper-sprayed</a> by a Department of Homeland Security officer.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hds14\">A video still captures the moment before a baton-wielding police officer knocks photographer Benjamin Hanson’s cellphone out of his hand while he was documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
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{
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],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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},
{
"title": "Agency photojournalist pushed to ground, lens damaged at LA-area protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/agency-photojournalist-pushed-to-ground-lens-damaged-at-la-area-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:47:02.308269Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"chf3n\">Shutterstock photojournalist Chelsea Lauren was shoved to the ground with a baton by police, damaging her telephoto lens, while documenting anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"7hka5\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"6kc6r\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"12emu\">Lauren told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she arrived at the Home Depot and followed the march in her car with a couple of other journalists, arriving at the detention center shortly before the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"7enf3\">“There were probably 15 or 20 of them there already, because they basically have a 24-hour camp going across from the MDC,” Lauren said. “The protests met up and, you know, everybody was kind of staying behind the bollards that were the designated ‘do not cross’ point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"326a3\">As demonstrators shouted and flashed lights at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside the building, multiple police cruisers pulled into the middle of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"el9s3\">“They basically asked everyone to get away from the cars and onto the sidewalks, and people actually listened,” she said. “We thought, ‘Oh, OK, cool. That de-escalated, we’re good. And then almost immediately after that, the police made a line and just started pushing.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8d2ek\">The officers used their batons to push back the crowd, including members of the press. As officers repeatedly shouted “Back up!” Lauren said she just kept repeating, “I’m trying, I’m trying.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e7stl\">“One of them decided he didn’t think I was backing up fast enough. And he put his baton into my ribs and knocked me to the ground,” she told the Tracker. “I’m on the ground, seeing all of them with their batons over me and they’re about to hit me, and I’m scooting back on my butt while trying to get up, my cameras are dragging on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"577dq\">A fellow journalist, Tina-Desiree Berg, and a protester helped Lauren get up, but Berg was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">injured in the process</a>. Lauren told the Tracker that, meanwhile, her knee was skinned, her ankle bruised and her telephoto lens damaged when she fell.</p><p data-block-key=\"3co9k\">Lauren left the protest soon after, alongside Berg, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">photographer Nick Stern</a> and filmmaker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-hit-with-police-baton-equipment-damaged-at-la-protest/\">Rocky Romano</a>, who were also injured. They attempted to find an open urgent care center, but they were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7a9b\">She returned to the protest after dropping off the others, having learned that police had corralled and detained <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">multiple members of the press</a>, alongside the remaining protesters, using a technique called kettling.</p><p data-block-key=\"j97g\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7m6st\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eg3cg\">Lauren disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “There was no escalation on the protester side that I noticed,” she told the Tracker. “From the minute police pulled up, to the minute a bunch of us were assaulted was only seven minutes. There’s no way they gave a dispersal order first.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cc4co\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g8p1\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"l232f\">Shutterstock photojournalist Chelsea Lauren, bottom center, being shoved to the ground by Los Angeles police officers, damaging her telephoto lens, while covering anti-deportation protests outside a federal building in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
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{
"title": "Documentarian hit with police baton, equipment damaged at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-hit-with-police-baton-equipment-damaged-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.838279Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.838279Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.741482Z",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oubi\">Documentary writer, director and producer Rocky Romano was pushed by police and hit with a baton while covering an immigration raid protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gv7u\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"bqqkv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9895\">Romano was filming for his production company, Winters Rock Entertainment, when LAPD officers charged a crowd outside the detention center. Officers did not issue a dispersal order before pushing the group of protesters and journalists, Romano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6osfp\">“They just started batoning everybody, including the press, shoving us,” he said. “They were just hammering people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3daec\">Romano said he believes he was shoved and struck in the arm and side with a police baton. Romano was carrying a gimbal and a Sony FX3 camera, both of which were damaged when he was knocked to the ground and other journalists fell on top of him.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vj3n\">“My knees were bloody, my elbows were bloody, my hand was bloody,” he said. “My back and my hip were just killing me.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Image-1.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"545\" alt=\"COURTESY SEAN BECKNER-CARMITCHEL\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"jt86h\">Documentarian Rocky Romano, at left in black helmet, was knocked to the ground as LAPD officers pushed a crowd of protesters and press on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY SEAN BECKNER-CARMITCHEL\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oubi\">Despite wearing visible press credentials, a helmet labeled “Press” and carrying professional gear, Romano said the officers did not discriminate. The police line kept advancing, even as one journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">held up a press badge and shouted</a> he was press.</p><p data-block-key=\"1i2vp\">“It was such a remarkable show of violence towards the press,” Romano said. “It definitely adds another layer of psychological fear.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8kgkb\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"847p\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6v0ki\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Romano and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"8p66n\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sdldq\">Los Angeles Police Department officers push forward during an immigration enforcement protest in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025. Documentarian Rocky Romano was hit with a baton and knocked to the ground during a scuffle at the demonstration.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photographer assaulted, detained while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T19:19:27.610650Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T14:10:04.251730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T14:10:04.126450Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rahlo\">Independent photojournalist Nate Gowdy was assaulted and detained by police while documenting a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sc25\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"8eblc\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qvd\">Gowdy, who was visiting from Seattle, Washington, said he had been photographing the Aug. 8 protest with his partner, fellow journalist <a href=\"/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/\">Carrie Schreck</a>. The two began documenting the demonstration as protesters started to march. The protest remained peaceful, Gowdy said, until the LAPD arrived.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ep0a\">“They basically lined up and without any provocation, in order to move people, started just swinging their batons indiscriminately,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ciah\">Gowdy watched as one journalist, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">Nick Stern</a>, waving his press badge to officers, was struck in the face with a police baton. Gowdy himself was <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNIYacDx5nT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\">thrown to the ground</a> by several officers, scraping his elbow and damaging the metal connectors on the strap holding his spare camera lenses.</p><p data-block-key=\"f69f\">“They were so aggressive and wild-eyed and violent,” he said of the LAPD.</p><p data-block-key=\"4s9bj\">After police declared the protest an unlawful assembly, officers pushed demonstrators farther from the detention center. Gowdy and Schreck had stopped photographing and were leaving the area when they were suddenly kettled, or herded by police, along with a handful of journalists and demonstrators, just three blocks from Schreck’s apartment.</p><p data-block-key=\"epdbv\">Some had press credentials, but Gowdy said officers ignored them.</p><p data-block-key=\"34bnt\">“They said they didn’t care, and that everyone should have to line up against the wall,” Gowdy recalled.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ctdf\">The journalists’ hands were placed in zip-tie restraints. While some were released, Gowdy and Schreck remained detained for not having physical press badges. Despite carrying camera gear and being vouched for by their colleagues, the officers questioned their legitimacy and denied their requests to speak with a public information officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vsvi\">Gowdy offered to show digital credentials and suggested a quick online search to verify his work with major news outlets, but was told he’d be cited for failure to disperse. He and Schreck were taken to a nearby police station and eventually released after more than two hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6hgp\">Gowdy said such traumatic encounters can discourage journalists from covering protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"8dn2m\">“In this case, the law was on our side,” he said. “But they didn’t seem to know the law, or they willfully disregarded it in order to intimidate and harass us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"df147\">Gowdy said he doesn’t wear a press badge when he covers protests in Seattle, after it made him a police target. Covering the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-shoved-off-railing-during-capitol-riot/\">Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection</a>, he saw how press credentials can also attract threats from demonstrators. Still, he said this incident convinced him to carry one just in case.</p><p data-block-key=\"56aoi\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cgjrc\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d9s92\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Gowdy and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"11q76\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"14tnt\"><i>Editor's Note: This article was updated Aug. 14, 2025, to include details of the contempt motion filed by the LA Press Club and Status Coup.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"it3nw\">Photographer Nate Gowdy’s wrists after he was released from his zip-tie restraints. Gowdy and other journalists were detained by Los Angeles Police Department officers while covering a protest in LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist shoved, detained while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-detained-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T21:04:45.901954Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-14T18:54:49.661261Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-14T18:54:49.562272Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5woxq\">Journalist Melanie Buer was shoved multiple times and detained by officers while covering a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"6em4n\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"878hv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sbkl\">Buer, an independent journalist, was documenting protesters marching to the detention center. About a half-hour after demonstrators arrived there, LAPD officers formed a skirmish line. While Buer and other journalists were photographing the line, law enforcement began advancing on them.</p><p data-block-key=\"74efh\">“Almost without warning, police officers began using batons on anyone within the vicinity, of which there were many journalists,” Buer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"badpp\">She described aggressive shoving by police and witnessed journalists being struck with batons, pushed and trampled. Though not seriously hurt, Buer was shoved into pylons multiple times. An officer swung a baton at her back but missed.</p><p data-block-key=\"qfe3\">“They were swinging the batons like baseball bats,” said Buer, who posted a video of the assault to <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/melbuer.bsky.social/post/3lvwxnq4mbc2r\">social media.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"7gpcl\">The use of force continued for nearly an hour before officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, around a small group of journalists and demonstrators. When Buer and others identified themselves as reporters and asked to leave, officers refused.</p><p data-block-key=\"5adjc\">“They disregarded that we were media, told us to walk to the wall and that we would be put under arrest,” said Buer, who was wearing her International Federation of Journalists press badge. “One officer said, ‘The statutes don’t matter.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"66nce\">She and several other journalists were placed in zip-tie handcuffs and held for about 90 minutes. Officers took their information, photographed them and eventually released them without charges. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">Two journalists</a> without physical press badges were taken to a police station and later released.</p><p data-block-key=\"9igol\">Buer was previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/omaha-police-shove-detain-freelance-journalist-during-protest/\">detained by Omaha police</a> while covering a protest in 2020, but said this was the first time it had happened to her in LA.</p><p data-block-key=\"105nj\">“Myself and other reporters were doing nothing that would warrant this,” Buer said. “So I’m just going to keep reporting as I report.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fp5sc\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bgngk\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"j22i8\">Journalist Melanie Buer, in middle wearing her press credential, stands facing police as an officer takes her photo. Buer and other press were detained by Los Angeles Police Department officers while covering a protest in LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist pushed, detained by police at LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:45:49.852472Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:45:49.852472Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T02:45:49.749640Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ffjto\">Freelance photojournalist Carrie Schreck was pushed by police officers and detained while covering a protest against federal immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"38ggm\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"352jv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"7reeb\">Schreck was on assignment for Redux Pictures, an independent syndication photo agency, when LAPD officers began pushing protesters and journalists with batons, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Police then kettled the crowd — a tactic used to trap and control groups — striking both demonstrators and members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6k10j\">Schreck said she was shoved, and then watched as officers threw her partner, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">photographer Nate Gowdy</a>, to the ground. When they and other media tried to leave, they were blocked by advancing police lines. Eventually, officers detained the two of them and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">other journalists</a>, despite some wearing visible press badges.</p><p data-block-key=\"alhpj\">“I give a lot of leeway to people, and I try to be understanding in the moment of why they make decisions they make,” Schreck said. “But it’s unacceptable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9pf08\">Schreck, who had not yet received her physical press credentials, carried professional gear and digital documentation of her work, including a letter from Redux confirming her assignment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2be59\">“I showed it to them and they said, ‘Yeah, but where’s the ID?”</p><p data-block-key=\"etjd4\">While some credentialed journalists were released, officers questioned whether Schreck and Gowdy were legitimate members of the press. California station KABC-TV <a href=\"https://abc7.com/post/16-people-cited-unlawful-assembly-declared-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest-friday/17488273/\">reported</a> that the LAPD claimed two people, identified later as Schreck and Gowdy, were detained at the protest for “pretending to be media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dki6s\">Schreck said she was frisked twice, had her hands zip-tied, and was placed in a police vehicle before being taken to a nearby station, where she and Gowdy were eventually released after more than two hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"fffam\">“The entire experience makes me doubt that police understand or care about their own rules at all,” she said. Schreck said her credential arrived by mail afterward, and she plans to bring copies with her on assignment in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"22vqa\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9cpg4\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2976h\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Schreck and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"4rilk\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bs9ak\">Freelance photographer Carrie Schreck, second from left, is ringed by police while she and other press are detained during an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2025-08-08",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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},
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"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Deposition order issued for student reporting on wrongful imprisonment case",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/deposition-order-issued-for-student-reporting-on-wrongful-imprisonment-case/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-30T15:08:21.582750Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-21T21:44:40.285991Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-21T21:44:40.091393Z",
"date": "2025-08-05",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w0191\">Former student journalist Sam Krevlin was subpoenaed in connection with a civil suit in Detroit, Michigan, on Aug. 5, 2025, ordering him to appear remotely to testify about journalistic work he conducted at Northwestern University seven years earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"35rt8\">Krevlin, who did not respond to requests for comment, was an undergraduate at the university’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois, in 2018 when he was selected to participate in the Medill Justice Project, now known as the Medill Investigative Lab. According to court filings, he was assigned to the team reporting on Kenneth Nixon, who claimed he was innocent of the 2005 homicide for which he had been incarcerated.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqp7r\">The team’s reporting was <a href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/10/27/kenneth-nixon-life-sentence/1739835002/\">published</a> by the Detroit Free Press in October 2018. Nixon was <a href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2021/02/18/detroit-kenneth-nixon-prison-trial-unfair/4488703001/\">exonerated and released</a> from prison two years later, 16 years after his conviction.</p><p data-block-key=\"8t4cv\">In June 2023, Nixon filed a <a href=\"https://loevy-content-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/06/Kenneth-Nixon-v.-Detroit-et-al.pdf\">federal lawsuit</a> with claims against the city of Detroit — which were later dismissed — and members of its police department, alleging that they framed him.</p><p data-block-key=\"cjbou\">As part of pretrial discovery in that suit, in March 2025 the defendants <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/subpoena-issued-for-student-reporting-on-wrongful-imprisonment-case\">sent Krevlin a subpoena</a> for his “entire case file”: email, letter or text communications with sources; interview recordings and transcripts; notes; and any documents received via public records requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6jds\">After initial objections and communications in April, attorneys for the police defendants “went dark,” according to Krevlin’s attorneys. Months later, they issued Krevlin a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691.1.5.pdf\">new subpoena</a>, ordering him to sit for a deposition later that month but without any requests for records.</p><p data-block-key=\"kim\">Attorneys for Krevlin, who now lives in New York, first raised objections to the request Aug. 18 and then filed an official <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691.1.1.pdf\">motion to quash</a> Sept. 3.</p><p data-block-key=\"dm430\">In a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691.12.0.pdf\">response</a> filed two weeks later, attorneys for the defendants argued that Krevlin had waived his privilege by <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691.12.5.pdf\">discussing</a> his reporting with an investigator for the county prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2020. They also asked that the court order Krevlin to comply with both the deposition and production subpoenas.</p><p data-block-key=\"96o5h\">Krevlin’s attorneys <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691/gov.uscourts.nysd.648691.13.0.pdf\">objected</a> to that request, arguing that the information sought could be obtained from nonprivileged sources; that the requested materials are in the possession of the university, not Krevlin; and that Nixon’s exoneration wasn’t solely on the basis of Krevlin’s reporting and interview with police informant Stanley January Jr.</p><p data-block-key=\"dkdno\">“To the extent the Detroit Free Press Article was the catalyst to question the veracity of Mr. January’s testimony this does not make it the crux of the CIU’s recommendation to overturn Mr. Nixon’s conviction,” Krevlin’s attorneys wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck6ab\">In October, attorneys for the defendants asked U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to set a date for oral arguments or to issue a ruling on Krevlin’s motion to quash, citing the ramifications the decision may have for their ongoing discovery efforts. As of publication, no such date or ruling has been entered.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Krevlin_MI_subpoena_85.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q2zfw\">A portion of an Aug. 5, 2025, subpoena issued to Sam Krevlin for a deposition about his reporting as a student journalist working on Northwestern University’s Medill Innocence Project in Evanston, Illinois, in 2018.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"case_number": null,
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"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-11-19 15:44:00+00:00) Deposition order for student reporting in exoneration case partially struck down"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Sam Krevlin ([Northwestern University] Medill Investigative Lab)"
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},
{
"title": "New York Times Building vandalized with pro-Palestinian protest message",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-times-building-vandalized-with-pro-palestinian-protest-message/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-12T21:16:04.104557Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-12T21:16:04.104557Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-12T21:15:56.996147Z",
"date": "2025-07-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nhrsc\">The New York Times Building in New York City was vandalized after unidentified individuals spray-painted the entrance and windows on July 30, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ptnb\">Red paint defaced the front entrance of the news organization’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, while white spray paint on its windows read: “NYT lies Gaza dies.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f378h\">The act followed the publication of an editor’s note correcting <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/gaza-starvation.html\">an article</a>, “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation,” which included a photograph of Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a Palestinian child in Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition.</p><p data-block-key=\"oues\">The note said the Times had since learned from the child’s doctor that he had preexisting health conditions, a detail the newspaper said would have been included in the caption if the information had been known before publication.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-video\">\n\n<figure class=\"inline-media full-width\">\n <div style=\"padding-bottom: 176.99115044247787%;\" class=\"responsive-object\">\n <iframe width=\"113\" height=\"200\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/uDZURV59kwQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"The New York Times building vandalized with red paint and the words 'NYT Lies Gaza Dies'\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n \n <p data-block-key=\"ce78e\">Images of vandalism at The New York Times Building in New York City on July 30, 2025.</p>\n \n \n <p>DAILY MAIL VIA YOUTUBE</p>\n \n </figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nhrsc\">Flyers left at the scene criticized the Times’ coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, accusing it of downplaying both the causes and the scale of the famine as the war with Israel continues, <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/new-york/manhattan/nyc-neighborhoods/midtown-manhattan/probe-new-york-times-midtown-headquarters-graffiti-vandalism/\">amNY reported.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"25uie\">In a statement shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Charlie Stadtlander, managing director of external communications, said the Israel-Gaza war has sparked intense global debate, and the Times often faces pressure from groups seeking to influence its coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"alrqh\">“While we support the right of groups and individuals to express their point of view, we will not let advocacy groups sway us from covering the conflict fully and fairly,” he wrote. “Nor do we condone acts of vandalism.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jmjcp\">Screenshots show images of vandalism at The New York Times Building in New York City on July 30, 2025.</p>",
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"actor": "private individual",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"The New York Times"
],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Kari Lake targets press as senior adviser for U.S. Agency for Global Media",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kari-lake-targets-press-as-senior-adviser-for-us-agency-for-global-media/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-01T21:23:37.153234Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-04T20:18:50.120862Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-04T19:09:52.647761Z",
"date": "2025-07-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uwxu3\">After President Donald Trump began his second term, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting her efforts in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"44h40\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"end4j\"><i>This article was first published on July 1, 2025.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"91i6j\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#July 22\">July 22, 2025 | Lake ends visa program for VOA journalists, criticizes editorial independence</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#June 25\">June 25, 2025 | Kari Lake urges Congress to eliminate Voice of America, gut oversight agency</a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uwxu3\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"ethfe\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"July 22\" name=\"July 22\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"hrh4j\">July 22, 2025 | Lake ends visa program for VOA journalists, criticizes editorial independence</h4><p data-block-key=\"d4aa6\">Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced during an <a href=\"https://americasvoice.news/video/FlcmdsLXRHSZhcc/?related=playlist\">interview</a> with the conservative channel Real America’s Voice on July 22, 2025, that she was ending the visa program used to hire foreign journalists employed by Voice of America.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s9gb\">“Over the past couple of decades, especially the past 15 years, this agency has turned into telling anti-American story,” Lake said. “This agency started hiring non-Americans — people from foreign countries — many people, hundreds upon hundreds, from countries that are hostile to America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f090a\">Lake went on to say that she was ending the J-1 visa program and cutting the workforce of the agency by 85%. “Our goal is to shut the entire agency down, as per the instructions of President Trump.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b6fbn\">She <a href=\"https://x.com/KariLake/status/1948152474856276266\">asserted</a> on the social platform X that “foreign influence has infiltrated the Voice of America,” baselessly claiming that some staffers pose a security risk. But VOA has recruited journalists from all over the world for decades, The Atlantic <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/08/kari-lake-deports-voice-of-america-journalists/683832/\">reported</a>, who may now face persecution, imprisonment or worse in their home nations as a result of their work in the U.S.</p><p data-block-key=\"edm7p\">Lake also <a href=\"https://x.com/KariLake/status/1948385289841316350\">lamented</a> the news outlet’s editorial independence from the administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ru8g\">“With the editorial firewall at Voice of America, they could go completely rogue, and the President couldn’t pick up the phone and stop them. There are no guardrails. There’s no editorial control,” Lake wrote. “This is a rogue, taxpayer funded agency, and we need to ensure that it’s no longer doing damage to America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bu3ab\">During an Aug. 25 hearing over litigation concerning her efforts to dismantle the federally funded broadcaster, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/08/26/nx-s1-5506283/judge-order-kari-lake-sworn-deposition-voice-of-america-oath-usagm\">ordered</a> Lake to submit to questioning under oath by Sept. 15, saying that her repeated failure to provide requested information was “verging on contempt of court.”</p><p data-block-key=\"65tej\">Lake has persisted in her multipronged efforts to dismantle the international broadcaster, most recently by attempting to fire its director, Mike Abramowitz. Lamberth <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278809/gov.uscourts.dcd.278809.76.0.pdf\">ruled</a> Aug. 28 that the action was unlawful, citing statutes that require a majority vote from the bipartisan board tasked with limiting political influence on federally funded newsrooms.</p><p data-block-key=\"67r8\">“This dispute arises from yet another twist in the saga of the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s efforts to dial back the operations of Voice of America contrary to statutory requirements,” Lamberth wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba1di\">He also granted an injunction barring Abramowitz’s removal without approval from the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which has not had a quorum since President Donald Trump removed six of its members in January.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"June 25\" name=\"June 25\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"uwxu3\">June 25, 2025 | Kari Lake urges Congress to eliminate Voice of America, gut oversight agency</h4><p data-block-key=\"bsdgt\">Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 25, 2025, and urged Congress to gut Voice of America and the other federally-funded news organizations that she oversees.</p><p data-block-key=\"32g8o\">During the <a href=\"https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/spies-lies-and-mismanagement-examining-the-u-s-agency-for-global-medias-downfall/\">hearing</a>, which was titled “Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall,” Lake said in her opening statement that USAGM was unsalvageable, later referring to it as “a rotten piece of fish.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5l6bt\">“Within days in my role as senior adviser, it became increasingly clear that reform was nearly impossible,” Lake said. “The agency was incompetent and mismanaged and deeply corrupt, politically biased and, frankly, a serious threat to our national security.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3oclg\">Lake went on to defend proposed cuts to the agency and the global news organizations it funds, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio y Televisión Martí. She also called on members of Congress to amend the laws mandating VOA’s existence.</p><p data-block-key=\"e26rv\">“What is going out on VOA airwaves — it’s outrageous, and it has to stop,” she said, adding that much of the reporting being published by VOA and other USAGM-funded outlets is “biased” and “corrupt.”</p><p data-block-key=\"322dn\">Lake’s statements mirrored <a href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114746687764542304\">those</a> <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/c61b2e99f685/\">made</a> <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/58c3a55600e1/\">by</a> President Donald Trump since at least 2023. In a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#March%2014-2\">late-night executive order</a> on March 14, 2025, Trump eliminated all USAGM functions not required by law. The following day, the White House posted a news release that railed against “the Voice of Radical America” and the director of VOA confirmed that nearly the entire staff of the news organization had been suspended.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uduq\">A federal judge <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-america-trump-a1ed0ad37917055a1565da5325bd4fd8\">ordered</a> the administration to halt efforts to fire or furlough employees at the news agency at the end of March, and another judge <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/judge-trump-voice-of-america.html\">reversed</a> VOA’s closure April 22, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3m0g0\">Lake <a href=\"https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2025/04/25/kari-lakes-agency-appeals-voa-restart-ruling/83257698007/\">appealed</a> the ruling two days later, blocking operations at the outlet from restarting and, days before the June Congressional hearing, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/us/politics/voice-america-layoffs.html\">issued hundreds of termination notices</a> to VOA and USAGM staff.</p><p data-block-key=\"6pf2e\">The layoffs were rescinded June 27 after errors were discovered that could have derailed efforts to dismantle the organization, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/trump-voa-layoffs-errors.html\">according to The New York Times</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"cocac\">No news has been published on <a href=\"https://www.voanews.com/\">VOA’s website</a> since March.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25063688411091.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lf2ic\">Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025.</p>",
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"Alhurra",
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"Radio Free Asia",
"Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty",
"Radio y Televisión Martí",
"Sawa Iraq",
"Sawa Levant",
"Voice of America"
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"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
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"Chilling Statement"
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{
"title": "Illinois community journalist says fee for library meeting space is retaliatory",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/illinois-community-journalist-says-fee-for-library-meeting-space-is-retaliatory/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-12T20:27:43.743088Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-12T20:27:43.743088Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-12T20:18:54.796114Z",
"date": "2025-07-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Elmwood Park",
"longitude": -87.80923,
"latitude": 41.92114,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6sv5g\">In a move a community news editor called retaliation for his reporting, journalist Kevin Gosztola was notified on July 22, 2025, that he must now pay for previously free community meeting space at a public library in Elmwood Park, Illinois.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r9co\">Gosztola runs the <a href=\"https://www.elmwoodparkadvocate.org/\">Elmwood Park Advocate</a>, a Substack newsletter that covers local news in the Chicago suburb. (Full disclosure: Gosztola has also previously worked as a contractor for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project.)</p><p data-block-key=\"fcu7i\">In June and July, Gosztola hosted meetings with community members at the Elmwood Park Public Library to discuss local issues, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"4idbl\">When he first reserved the room to host the meeting, he said he filled out a form that asked him to check whether his organization was a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Gosztola described the Advocate as a nonprofit, but conceded it is not officially registered as such, and so he checked “no” on the form.</p><p data-block-key=\"29p03\">For the first two meetings, Gosztola said he was not asked to pay a fee to reserve the library rooms to host his meetings.</p><p data-block-key=\"8evcr\">But when Gosztola tried to reserve the same room for an August meeting, he said the library director, Michael Consiglio, notified him via email July 22 that he would need to pay $100.</p><p data-block-key=\"5g1ju\">“I would like to inform you that I am waiving any previous charges that may have been incurred during past reservations but were not invoiced. This gesture is being extended as a courtesy,” Consiglio said in the email, which was reviewed by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"atk42\">Gosztola said he believes the change is in retaliation for the newsletter’s perceived alignment with local opposition political candidates and the mistaken belief that it will focus on electing them in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"clpu5\">“They’re infringing upon my access to the meeting room as a journalist, which I’ve been using to further my newsgathering activities,” Gosztola told the Tracker. “They think that this newsletter is some kind of a threat to them politically, that it will be used to help furnish and support opposition candidates when elections come around in the town.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8lnka\">Consiglio disputed Gosztola’s characterization. “I want to state unequivocally that these claims are entirely unfounded and without merit,” he wrote the Tracker. “The decision to enforce the policy had nothing to do with the content of Mr. Gosztola’s reporting or his political views. It was prompted solely by community concerns and my duty to apply Library policies fairly and without exception.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oj5b\">Gosztola said he met on July 28 with Consiglio, who told him that a group of people, including library board President Chris Pesko, had pressured Consiglio to begin charging Gosztola for using the room. Pesko did not reply to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2h7u6\">Consiglio acknowledged to the Tracker that “several concerned residents” contacted him in mid-July, questioning why Gosztola and the Advocate were allowed to use the library’s meeting space without paying a fee.</p><p data-block-key=\"uief\">“After reviewing the Library’s publicly posted Meeting Room Policy, I concluded that the standard fee must be applied consistently to all individuals and organizations that do not meet the definition of a community-based nonprofit,” Consiglio said.</p><p data-block-key=\"93mgi\">Gosztola was asked to pay the fee, Consiglio said, because the Advocate is not a recognized nonprofit.</p><p data-block-key=\"c9qgn\">The library policy, last updated in 2024, <a href=\"https://elmwoodparklibrary.org/sitemedia/documents/about-eppl/library-policies/operating/EPPL_Meeting_Room_Policy_2024.pdf\">says</a> that while Elmwood Park government agencies and nonprofit community groups do not have to pay to reserve rooms, “for-profit organizations” must pay $100 per hour to use the space.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqatf\">Gosztola said that although the Advocate is not an officially registered nonprofit, it also isn’t accurate to call it a for-profit organization. The newsletter is free to subscribers, he said, and it has received less than $100 in donations. “I don’t make a lot as a journalist,” he added.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Gosztola_IL_other.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sr8jt\">The Elmwood Park Advocate, a Substack newsletter for the Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park, Illinois, was notified on July 22, 2025, that it will be charged for use of the local library’s meeting space, a move it believes is retaliatory.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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{
"title": "WSJ reporter pulled from press pool in retaliation for Epstein article",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wsj-reporter-pulled-from-press-pool-in-retaliation-for-epstein-article/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-23T15:48:54.623220Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-23T15:48:54.623220Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-23T15:30:53.528801Z",
"date": "2025-07-21",
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"city": "Washington",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i1434\">The Wall Street Journal was removed from the White House press pool on July 21, 2025, in retaliation for the paper’s exclusive reporting on a letter allegedly written in 2003 by President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier charged with sex trafficking of minors.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ssnp\">A July 17 Journal <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=hp_lead_pos7\">article</a> described entries in a leatherbound book compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, including a letter allegedly from Trump that was typed within the drawn outline of a woman and included the sign-off, “may every day be another wonderful secret.” No copy of the letter was included in the article.</p><p data-block-key=\"fptlm\">Trump immediately took to his social platform, Truth Social, to <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/e47d09a0c23b/\">refute</a> the reporting and condemn the newspaper and the editor behind the article. On July 18, the president followed through on threats to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/media-in-the-courthouse/#July-18-2025-WSJ\">sue the Journal</a> and News Corp — the paper’s parent company — as well as its founder Rupert Murdoch and its CEO Robert Thomson.</p><p data-block-key=\"d34i8\">A spokesperson for the paper’s publisher, Dow Jones, <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/business/media/trump-sues-wall-street-journal-publisher-dow-jones-over-jeffrey-epstein-article-0257afee\">told the Journal</a>, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2aju6\">The Wall Street Journal’s White House correspondent, Tarini Parti, was then booted from the press pool for Trump’s planned trip to Scotland from July 25-29. Politico <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/journal-removed-white-house-pool-epstein-00465548?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR5jfP1b7JBtBEvtH0zaLtR0UiZRzdtR3VySq3zh-lj6QTGGKKtgqrumM4n1yA_aem_jXROFLRL1lzfwtwGlhXZ4w\">reported</a> that Parti was set to serve as the print pooler for the final two days of the trip and was removed even though she was not an author on the Epstein article.</p><p data-block-key=\"efnjr\">The White House had previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/white-house-wrests-control-of-presidential-press-pool-from-correspondents/\">wrested control</a> of the presidential press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association in February, breaking with more than a century of practice.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tvfn\">In a statement to Politico, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that no news outlets are guaranteed special access to the president in his private workspaces.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cu7c\">“Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,” Leavitt said. “Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eriih\">A White House spokesperson declined to comment to Politico concerning whether the Journal would be barred from further press pools as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ro1q\">Dow Jones declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Parti did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"au28p\">The WHCA criticized the move in a statement, saying it is a clear attempt to punish a news outlet for coverage it doesn’t like.</p><p data-block-key=\"25rlj\">“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media,” wrote Weijia Jiang, CBS News correspondent and the association’s president. “We strongly urge the White House to restore the Wall Street Journal to its previous position in the pool and aboard Air Force One for the President’s upcoming trip to Scotland.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45d5j\">Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, also condemned the decision. “It’s highly disturbing that a U.S. president has so little respect for the First Amendment that he’s willing to punish news outlets that don’t toe the line,” Seth Stern, FPF’s advocacy director, said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25202732291699.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djcwu\">White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2025. She announced that day that The Wall Street Journal had been pulled from the press pool for the president’s trip to Scotland.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"case_number": null,
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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},
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"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: White House"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tarini Parti (The Wall Street Journal)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": [
"Government event"
]
},
{
"title": "Celebrity commentator subpoenaed by Blake Lively for communications",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/celebrity-commentator-subpoenaed-by-blake-lively-for-communications/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-08T15:25:44.799231Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-18T15:51:12.073953Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-18T15:51:11.969034Z",
"date": "2025-07-19",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"irb89\">Commentator and gossip columnist Perez Hilton was subpoenaed on July 19, 2025, in a federal district court in New York, New York, by actor Blake Lively for communications with actor Justin Baldoni and his production company.</p><p data-block-key=\"bevb1\">In December 2024, Lively <a href=\"https://lawandcrime.com/analysis/off-screen-legal-drama-continues-for-it-ends-with-us-stars-despite-judge-dismissing-justin-baldonis-case-against-blake-lively/\">sued</a> Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios and various associates for sexual harassment, retaliation and breach of contract. She alleges that the defendants launched a retaliatory publicity campaign during the release of the movie “It Ends With Us,” in which the two actors costarred and which Baldoni directed.</p><p data-block-key=\"h96d\">The campaign’s goal, according to the <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/1/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">complaint</a>, was to prevent Lively from speaking out about harassment and other misconduct by Baldoni and the CEO of Wayfarer on the set of the film.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mkfg\">In January, Baldoni filed his own claims against Lively, <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69550325/1/wayfarer-studios-llc-v-lively/\">accusing her</a> of extortion and defamation. Those claims were <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/296/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">dismissed</a> in June.</p><p data-block-key=\"d16i1\">Hilton has posted extensive coverage, on both his site PerezHilton.com and <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@PerezHilton\">on YouTube</a>, about the legal fight between Lively and Baldoni.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ta1q\">On July 19, Lively <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/565/1/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">subpoenaed</a> Hilton under his legal name Mario Lavandeira, demanding any communications with Baldoni and his associates about Lively and the film and any evidence of an agreement with the defendants about related coverage on his social media channels.</p><p data-block-key=\"flp4g\">Lively <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/521/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">argues</a> that the defendants coordinated with content creators to distribute “negative and derogatory content about Ms. Lively and her family.”</p><p data-block-key=\"af06\">Hilton filed a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70982970/1/in-re-mario-lavandeira-jr/\">motion to quash</a> the subpoena on July 28, arguing that he is protected by both the First Amendment and, as a Nevada resident, the state’s reporter’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"1u5rc\">In his filing, Hilton called the subpoena “a fishing expedition that chills journalistic freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dsgpl\">“I anticipate that the subpoenaing party may attempt to characterize me as merely a ‘content creator’ or social media personality,” Hilton wrote. “That framing is inaccurate and misleading. I am a journalist — a globally recognized one — with a decades-long track record of reporting on matters of public interest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c7ecl\">“For the record, I have not been paid by Justin Baldoni. I have not been paid by any of the Wayfarer defendants. I have not been paid by anyone to cover this litigation,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"ch9jd\">Hilton also <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/510/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">requested</a> that the court enter a protective order requiring Lively to request permission before issuing any more subpoenas to third parties. Lively has also subpoenaed at least one other <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/youtuber-subpoenaed-by-blake-lively-for-communications-with-justin-baldoni/\">online commentator</a> directly, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/blake-lively-subpoenas-google-for-journalists-account-information\">subpoenaed Google</a> for 16 content creators’ account information.</p><p data-block-key=\"8rh9l\">“I will not be deterred from doing my job by her harassment,” Hilton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"ekasb\">Lively’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Hilton_subpoena.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"amg30\">A portion of a July 19, 2025, subpoena to commentator Perez Hilton under his legal name, Mario Lavandeira, from actor Blake Lively for communications with actor Justin Baldoni and his production company.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"updates": [
"(2025-09-12 16:01:00+00:00) Blake Lively drops subpoena of celebrity commentator"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Cincinnati photojournalist arrested as protest spills across bridge to Kentucky",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-photojournalist-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-25T14:24:36.477289Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-07T16:18:12.697730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-07T16:18:12.519502Z",
"date": "2025-07-17",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Covington",
"longitude": -84.50855,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x51dd\">Two journalists for the Cincinnati alternative newsweekly CityBeat were arrested while documenting a protest across the bridge connecting the Ohio city with Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"db2vr\">Demonstrators had gathered at a vigil in Cincinnati in support of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/egyptian-former-journalist-jailed-in-ohio-after-us-revokes-asylum/\">Ayman Soliman</a>, an Egyptian immigrant and imam who was detained by immigration authorities July 9, <a href=\"https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-07-18/covington-police-arrest-at-anti-ice-march-across-roebling-bridge\">according to local NPR affiliate WVXU</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b9eq\">After the rally, dozens of protesters marched to the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, crossing from Ohio to Kentucky. Within minutes, they were confronted by Covington police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"4iumc\">CityBeat photo intern Lucas Griffith and investigative reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-reporter-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky\">Madeline Fening</a> were documenting the protest and were among the first individuals detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"5is84\">In <a href=\"https://x.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303\">footage</a> captured by WVXU reporter Nick Swartsell, multiple Covington Police Department vehicles can be seen driving toward the advancing line of protesters. In <a href=\"https://youtu.be/bmLyJOvYNBQ?t=958\">body-camera footage</a> released by the department, officers are heard ordering protesters to move off the roadway and onto the sidewalk multiple times over approximately 90 seconds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx\">https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx</a></p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 2025</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=\"x51dd\">In Swartsell’s footage, protesters are seen beginning to comply while officers advance toward the crowd. After one individual is seen being led away in handcuffs, an officer moves toward a woman in a white shirt who is filming on her cellphone, confirmed to be Fening. As an officer pulls her hands behind her back, she can be heard identifying herself as a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"efu2r\">“Hey! She’s press! She’s press! She’s a reporter!” Swartsell calls out to the officer as he moves toward them. A second officer tells him to get back while Fening is seen being pulled backward toward the police vehicles with her arms behind her back.</p><p data-block-key=\"eg8nk\">Moments later, a man carrying multiple professional cameras — believed to be Griffith — is seen being led down the bridge with his arms held behind his back by a third officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"40dkn\">Fening and Griffith were each charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse, obstructing a highway, obstructing emergency responders, disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, as well as rioting, a felony. Griffith was additionally charged with resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"b1ep9\">Both journalists were arraigned July 18 and released on a $2,500 bond, the Cincinnati Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/18/reporters-at-roebling-bridge-protest-should-get-no-charges-experts-say/85279815007/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1ka5\">NBC television affiliate WLWT <a href=\"https://www.wlwt.com/article/journalists-facing-charges-after-covering-roebling-protests/65454195\">reported</a> that, when pressed by the station, Kenton County prosecutor Rob Sanders said he views Fening and Griffith’s role as journalists as irrelevant to the charges against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"2i6vu\">“We’ll be evaluating it like we would any other civilian, no matter what their line of work, or what profession they are engaged in, it doesn’t matter to us when we evaluate the evidence,” Sanders said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4o28s\">During a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bmLyJOvYNBQ\">news conference</a> about the Covington Police Department’s response to the protest, Mayor Ron Washington described it as a “high-tension and chaotic environment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"37ull\">“We fully support the right to peacefully assemble. At the same time, we support our police officers who are often placed in incredible, difficult, fast-moving situations,” Washington said. “But any use of force must be lawful and measured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bu2n\">When asked during the conference about the arrests of the CityBeat journalists, Police Chief Brian Valenti alleged that Fening did not have press credentials or an ID on her when she was taken into custody. He added that he didn’t have any additional information on Griffith’s arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8f4u\">CityBeat defended its journalists in a <a href=\"https://x.com/CityBeatCincy/status/1946328445954265330\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X on July 18.</p><p data-block-key=\"7d8aa\">“CityBeat is fully supportive of its two staff members who were arrested in the course of their reporting on the Roebling Bridge protest,” the statement read. “Their commitment to journalistic integrity and professionalism is emblematic of the press freedoms the First Amendment is designed to protect, and we fully anticipate a complete vindication of their rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4vu90\">Editor-in-chief Ashley Moor declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, stating that she — along with Fening and Griffith — was advised not to speak further about the incident while the charges against them are pending.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjjl4\">During a July 23 hearing, the Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/23/prosecutors-drop-felonies-against-journalists-arrested-at-ice-protest/85337197007/\">reported</a>, prosecutors withdrew the felony rioting charges against Fening and Griffith. The journalists, who <a href=\"https://x.com/madeline_fening/status/1947772894517264650/photo/1\">are being represented</a> by attorneys with the ACLU of Kentucky, are next due in court Aug. 14.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ir59j\">Anti-deportation protesters marched across the Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025. Two CityBeat journalists were arrested by Covington police while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Covington Police Department",
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"name": "Kentucky",
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"(2025-10-02 20:34:00+00:00) Cincinnati photojournalist convicted of misdemeanor after arrest at protest"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Cincinnati reporter arrested as protest spills across bridge to Kentucky",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-reporter-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-25T14:19:28.537209Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-13T22:23:52.400995Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-13T22:23:52.272100Z",
"date": "2025-07-17",
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"longitude": -84.50855,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0uzww\">Two journalists for the Cincinnati alternative newsweekly CityBeat were arrested while documenting a protest across the bridge connecting the Ohio city with Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"g57b\">Demonstrators had gathered at a vigil in Cincinnati in support of <a href=\"/all-incidents/egyptian-former-journalist-jailed-in-ohio-after-us-revokes-asylum/\">Ayman Soliman</a>, an Egyptian immigrant and imam who was detained by immigration authorities July 9, <a href=\"https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-07-18/covington-police-arrest-at-anti-ice-march-across-roebling-bridge\">according to local NPR affiliate WVXU</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vlkb\">After the rally, dozens of protesters marched to the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, crossing from Ohio to Kentucky. Within minutes, they were confronted by Covington police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"cpgsr\">CityBeat investigative reporter Madeline Fening and photo intern <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-photojournalist-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky\">Lucas Griffith</a> were documenting the protest and were among the first individuals detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnq5\">In <a href=\"https://x.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303\">footage</a> captured by WVXU reporter Nick Swartsell, multiple Covington Police Department vehicles can be seen driving toward the advancing line of protesters. In <a href=\"https://youtu.be/bmLyJOvYNBQ?t=958\">body-camera footage</a> released by the department, officers are heard ordering protesters to move off the roadway and onto the sidewalk multiple times over approximately 90 seconds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx\">https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx</a></p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 2025</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=\"0uzww\">In Swartsell’s footage, protesters are seen beginning to comply while officers advance toward the crowd. After one individual is seen being led away in handcuffs, an officer moves toward a woman in a white shirt who is filming on her cellphone, confirmed to be Fening. As an officer pulls her hands behind her back, she can be heard identifying herself as a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"p16v\">“Hey! She’s press! She’s press! She’s a reporter!” Swartsell calls out to the officer as he moves toward them. A second officer tells him to get back while Fening is seen being pulled backward toward the police vehicles with her arms behind her back.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tlfn\">Moments later, a man carrying multiple professional cameras — believed to be Griffith — is seen being led down the bridge with his arms held behind his back by a third officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"63g78\">Fening and Griffith were each charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse, obstructing a highway, obstructing emergency responders, disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, as well as rioting, a felony. Griffith was additionally charged with resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"34kmc\">Both journalists were arraigned July 18 and released on a $2,500 bond, the Cincinnati Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/18/reporters-at-roebling-bridge-protest-should-get-no-charges-experts-say/85279815007/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fj89q\">NBC television affiliate WLWT <a href=\"https://www.wlwt.com/article/journalists-facing-charges-after-covering-roebling-protests/65454195\">reported</a> that, when pressed by the station, Kenton County prosecutor Rob Sanders said he views Fening and Griffith’s role as journalists as irrelevant to the charges against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"79df3\">“We’ll be evaluating it like we would any other civilian, no matter what their line of work, or what profession they are engaged in, it doesn’t matter to us when we evaluate the evidence,” Sanders said.</p><p data-block-key=\"80cpc\">During a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bmLyJOvYNBQ\">news conference</a> about the Covington Police Department’s response to the protest, Mayor Ron Washington described it as a “high-tension and chaotic environment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2nsos\">“We fully support the right to peacefully assemble. At the same time, we support our police officers who are often placed in incredible, difficult, fast-moving situations,” Washington said. “But any use of force must be lawful and measured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bv8hu\">When asked during the conference about the arrests of the CityBeat journalists, Police Chief Brian Valenti alleged that Fening did not have press credentials or an ID on her when she was taken into custody. He added that he didn’t have any additional information on Griffith’s arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rc1c\">CityBeat defended its journalists in a <a href=\"https://x.com/CityBeatCincy/status/1946328445954265330\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X on July 18.</p><p data-block-key=\"beun0\">“CityBeat is fully supportive of its two staff members who were arrested in the course of their reporting on the Roebling Bridge protest,” the statement read. “Their commitment to journalistic integrity and professionalism is emblematic of the press freedoms the First Amendment is designed to protect, and we fully anticipate a complete vindication of their rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3gqlo\">Editor-in-chief Ashley Moor declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, stating that she — along with Fening and Griffith — was advised not to speak further about the incident while the charges against them are pending.</p><p data-block-key=\"1q61l\">During a July 23 hearing, the Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/23/prosecutors-drop-felonies-against-journalists-arrested-at-ice-protest/85337197007/\">reported</a>, prosecutors withdrew the felony rioting charges against Fening and Griffith. The journalists, who <a href=\"https://x.com/madeline_fening/status/1947772894517264650/photo/1\">are being represented</a> by attorneys with the ACLU of Kentucky, are next due in court Aug. 14.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"feh01\">Anti-deportation protesters marched across the Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025. Two CityBeat journalists were arrested by Covington police while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Covington Police Department",
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"(2025-09-24 21:22:00+00:00) Charge dropped against Cincinnati journalist, but four remain from protest arrest",
"(2025-11-13 22:22:00+00:00) Remaining charges against Cincinnati journalist dismissed"
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},
{
"title": "Reporter attacked, microphone damaged by restaurant employee",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-attacked-microphone-damaged-by-restaurant-employee/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-22T20:47:32.177415Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-22T20:47:32.177415Z",
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"longitude": -80.27811,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dih4t\">A news crew with television station WPLG was confronted by an employee at a restaurant in Hialeah, Florida, on July 17, 2025, while attempting to ask questions about its latest shutdown by state health inspectors.</p><p data-block-key=\"duoml\">Jeff Weinsier — WPLG investigative reporter behind the segment “Dirty Dining” — recounted in an <a href=\"https://www.local10.com/news/local/2025/07/17/restaurant-employee-attacks-local-10s-jeff-weinsier-photographer-amid-inspection-questions/\">article</a> for the station that he and photojournalist Frank Debesa went to the South Florida restaurant China Buffet after it was shut down by inspectors for the seventh time since 2014.</p><p data-block-key=\"a0e8t\">In footage captured by Debesa, Weinsier is heard asking through an open door to the kitchen whether someone would be able to speak with them about the inspection. Seconds later, a man storms out, first <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-broadcast-photographer-attacked-by-restaurant-employee\">shoving Debesa’s camera</a> and then grabbing at Weinsier’s microphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"31a2d\">After a brief scuffle in which Weinsier defends himself, the man darts back into the restaurant, grabs a metal tray and starts to go back outside, but another individual appears to pull him back inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ol2h\">Weinsier is then seen retrieving the microphone and its sponge cover, which was ripped off.</p><p data-block-key=\"b80aj\">The same man also aggressively approached Weinsier during an investigation at the same restaurant in 2017, he reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"frlqt\">Weinsier, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote that neither he nor Debesa filed charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4j31\">“We were attacked for simply trying to hold them accountable,” he said. “Instead of answers, we were met with aggression from a restaurant that should be answering to the public.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lt2zl\">WPLG investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier retrieves parts of the microphone ripped from his hands by a restaurant employee in Hialeah, Florida, while reporting on health violations there on July 17, 2025.</p>",
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{
"title": "Congressman accuses Fox of deceptively editing Trump’s Epstein remarks",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/congressman-accuses-fox-of-deceptively-editing-trumps-epstein-remarks/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-12T16:56:42.764611Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-12T16:56:42.764611Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eiuav\">The leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee accused Fox News on July 17, 2025, of deceptively editing a June 2024 interview with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to make him appear more supportive of releasing Jeffrey Epstein-related documents than he actually was, according to CNN.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vnq9\">In <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/trump-epstein-fox-news-edits-house-democrats-oversight\">a letter</a> obtained by CNN, Rep. Robert Garcia accused Fox News of omitting key qualifiers in Trump’s response about releasing Epstein-related records and demanded answers from Fox Corp. Chairman Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott about the <a href=\"https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20240602_130000_FOX_and_Friends_Sunday/start/409/end/469?q=epstein+files+declassify\">edited version</a> aired on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2r6v3\">The interview has attracted more attention recently as the Trump administration faces pressure to release more information related to the investigation into the politically connected financier and convicted sex offender, who was accused before his death of trafficking underage girls.</p><p data-block-key=\"74dk\">“Considering President Trump’s well-documented past social ties with Jeffrey Epstein, Fox News’s selective omission raises serious concerns that the network may have deliberately sought to shield then-candidate Trump from any further association with Epstein,” Garcia wrote in the letter.</p><p data-block-key=\"581c6\">The version of the interview that first aired showed Trump, when asked if he’d declassify Epstein files, answering “Yeah, yeah, I would.” In the full, <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/trump-epstein-fox-news-edits-house-democrats-oversight\">unedited version</a> that aired later, Trump followed with concerns about “phony stuff” and the risk of harming lives and reputations.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s1nq\">Garcia’s letter, which questioned whether political motives influenced the network to present Trump’s stance in a more definitive light, requested internal records and communications with the Trump campaign.</p><p data-block-key=\"77hrs\">In a statement to CNN, Fox News rejected the allegation. “There was no selective or deceptive editing whatsoever,” a spokesperson said, adding that the aired TV segment “had standard editorial cuts for time and the full answer to the question aired on the following day’s show.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2yvpg\">A screenshot from a Fox & Friends Weekend interview with Donald Trump in 2024. A top Democrat in the House Oversight Committee accused the network in July 2025 of deceptively editing the interview.</p>",
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"Fox News"
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{
"title": "Florida broadcast photographer attacked by restaurant employee",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-broadcast-photographer-attacked-by-restaurant-employee/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-22T20:48:46.841595Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-22T20:48:46.841595Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gznny\">A news crew with television station WPLG was confronted by an employee at a restaurant in Hialeah, Florida, on July 17, 2025, while attempting to ask questions about its latest shutdown by state health inspectors.</p><p data-block-key=\"ekr44\">Photojournalist Frank Debesa and investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier were reporting a “Dirty Dining” segment at the South Florida restaurant China Buffet after it was shut down by inspectors for the seventh time since 2014, Weinsier recounted in an <a href=\"https://www.local10.com/news/local/2025/07/17/restaurant-employee-attacks-local-10s-jeff-weinsier-photographer-amid-inspection-questions/\">article</a> for the station.</p><p data-block-key=\"d09bf\">In footage captured by Debesa, Weinsier is heard asking through an open door to the kitchen whether someone would be able to speak with them about the inspection. Seconds later, a man storms out.</p><p data-block-key=\"b3dfc\">The restaurant employee repeatedly shoves Debesa’s camera as the photojournalist says, “You can’t touch the camera. That’s assault. That’s assault!”</p><p data-block-key=\"838n1\">The man then <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-attacked-microphone-damaged-by-restaurant-employee\">grabs at Weinsier’s microphone</a>, resulting in a brief scuffle in which Weinsier defends himself. The man darts back into the restaurant, grabs a metal tray and starts to go back outside, but another individual appears to pull him back inside.</p><p data-block-key=\"em10l\">Weinsier is then seen retrieving the microphone and its sponge cover, which was ripped off.</p><p data-block-key=\"b5q19\">The same man also aggressively approached Weinsier during an investigation at the same restaurant in 2017, he reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"5pvis\">Neither Debesa nor Weinsier responded to requests for comment. Weinsier reported that neither filed charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"stgd\">“We were attacked for simply trying to hold them accountable,” he said. “Instead of answers, we were met with aggression from a restaurant that should be answering to the public.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ljend\">A restaurant employee in Hialeah, Florida, repeatedly grabbed and pushed WPLG photographer Frank Debesa on July 17, 2025, while he and reporter Jeff Weinsier reported on health violations there.</p>",
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{
"title": "Boston Globe reporter threatened while covering public drug use in Boston",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/boston-globe-reporter-threatened-while-covering-public-drug-use-in-boston/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-05T19:27:48.164245Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-05T19:27:48.164245Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-05T19:27:48.083219Z",
"date": "2025-07-16",
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"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9og72\">Boston Globe reporter Niki Griswold was confronted by at least three men on July 16, 2025, while reporting on public drug use in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, according to local media <a href=\"https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/07/27/pols-politics-2-boston-globe-reporters-attacked-in-mass-and-cass-spillover-hot-spot/\">reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1cdjl\">Griswold was reporting near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard — an area known as Mass. and Cass where drug use is common — alongside her colleague, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-threatened-while-covering-public-drug-use-in-boston\">photojournalist Barry Chin</a>. The journalists were also accompanied by two South End residents.</p><p data-block-key=\"3cen2\">In an <a href=\"https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/metro/mass-and-cass-south-end-resident-frustration-drug-use/\">article for the Globe</a>, Griswold reported that at least three men approached and began threatening the group after seeing Chin take pictures of the area. Two of the men were holding hammer-like tools and pursued the journalists and residents until they were able to find shelter in a nearby building, Griswold wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"1b8k4\">The Boston Guardian, citing the two residents who were accompanying the journalists, also <a href=\"https://read.thebostonguardian.com/the-boston-guardian/2025/07/25/#?article=4326802\">reported</a> that the situation had escalated when Chin began to take photos. One man approached the group while swinging a metal rod with nails sticking out of it.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecv7j\">While they were able to deter the first man, the group was then approached by two others who demanded that the photojournalist delete the photos and turn over the camera, according to the Guardian.</p><p data-block-key=\"ft4bm\">In an effort to protect Chin, one of the residents tried to direct the group out of the area, drawing the attention of one of the men.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lcs9\">“He starts going toe-to-toe with me, saying, ‘I’m going to ruin your life,’” the resident told the Guardian. “Then he reaches for his pocket, and I think he’s going for a knife or a gun or something, and I’ve got one second here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4qe6b\">The resident managed to flip the assailant to the ground, stunning him, and the group was able to run to safety.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fahm\">Griswold and a Globe spokesperson declined to comment on the incident. But Globe editor Nancy Barnes addressed the incident in an internal memo, which Northeastern Professor Dan Kennedy <a href=\"https://dankennedy.net/2025/07/24/globe-editor-nancy-barnes-addresses-security-following-an-assault-on-two-of-her-journalists/\">republished</a> in his Media Nation newsletter.</p><p data-block-key=\"4dkgk\">“The incident at Mass. and Cass involving our journalists, Niki Griswold and Barry Chin, is understandably concerning to everyone who goes out on assignment in places that might be dangerous,” Barnes said in the letter. Barnes added that going forward the Globe would require anyone reporting from Mass. and Cass to have security.</p><p data-block-key=\"9dus2\">“The work of a journalist, serving as a witness, is a challenging job on many days. We never want our journalists to put themselves in danger, or to lack the security and training they need to stay safe,” Barnes wrote.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4piy7\">News outlets in Boston, Massachusetts — including WBTS-CD — reported in July 2025 about a rise in safety concerns over drug use in the neighborhood of South End. Two Boston Globe journalists were confronted and chased while reporting in the area.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist threatened while covering public drug use in Boston",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-threatened-while-covering-public-drug-use-in-boston/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-05T19:27:44.220619Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-05T19:27:44.220619Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9wle4\">Boston Globe photojournalist Barry Chin was confronted by at least three men on July 16, 2025, while reporting on public drug use in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, according to local media <a href=\"https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/07/27/pols-politics-2-boston-globe-reporters-attacked-in-mass-and-cass-spillover-hot-spot/\">reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"gpjs\">Chin was reporting near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard — an area known as Mass. and Cass where drug use is common — alongside his colleague, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/boston-globe-reporter-threatened-while-covering-public-drug-use-in-boston\">reporter Niki Griswold</a>. The journalists were also accompanied by two South End residents.</p><p data-block-key=\"bhhpr\">In an <a href=\"https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/metro/mass-and-cass-south-end-resident-frustration-drug-use/\">article for the Globe</a>, Griswold reported that at least three men approached and began threatening the group after seeing Chin take pictures of the area. Two of the men were holding hammer-like tools and pursued the journalists and residents until they were able to find shelter in a nearby building, Griswold wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"mk7p\">The Boston Guardian, citing the two residents who were accompanying the journalists, also <a href=\"https://read.thebostonguardian.com/the-boston-guardian/2025/07/25/#?article=4326802\">reported</a> that the situation had escalated when Chin began to take photos. One man approached the group while swinging a metal rod with nails sticking out of it.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vt22\">While they were able to deter the first man, the group was then approached by two others who demanded that the photojournalist delete the photos and turn over the camera, according to the Guardian.</p><p data-block-key=\"o0v0\">In an effort to protect Chin, one of the residents tried to direct the group out of the area, drawing the attention of one of the men.</p><p data-block-key=\"43j09\">“He starts going toe-to-toe with me, saying, ‘I’m going to ruin your life,’” the resident told the Guardian. “Then he reaches for his pocket, and I think he’s going for a knife or a gun or something, and I’ve got one second here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3h81m\">The resident managed to flip the assailant to the ground, stunning him, and the group was able to run to safety.</p><p data-block-key=\"bni96\">“I am well and grateful that no one was injured in the incident,” Chin said in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He declined to comment further. A Globe spokesperson also declined to comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ocvf\">But Globe editor Nancy Barnes addressed the incident in an internal memo, which Northeastern Professor Dan Kennedy <a href=\"https://dankennedy.net/2025/07/24/globe-editor-nancy-barnes-addresses-security-following-an-assault-on-two-of-her-journalists/\">republished</a> in his Media Nation newsletter.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4dp0\">“The incident at Mass. and Cass involving our journalists, Niki Griswold and Barry Chin, is understandably concerning to everyone who goes out on assignment in places that might be dangerous,” Barnes said in the letter. Barnes added that going forward the Globe would require anyone reporting from Mass. and Cass to have security.</p><p data-block-key=\"ccn36\">“The work of a journalist, serving as a witness, is a challenging job on many days. We never want our journalists to put themselves in danger, or to lack the security and training they need to stay safe,” Barnes wrote.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"y4ubn\">News outlets in Boston, Massachusetts — including WBTS-CD — reported in July 2025 about a rise in safety concerns over drug use in the neighborhood of South End. Two Boston Globe journalists were confronted and chased while reporting in the area.</p>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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},
{
"title": "Photographer shot with crowd-control munitions at Southern California protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shot-with-crowd-control-munitions-at-southern-california-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-02T18:42:01.101262Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:26:46.366290Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T19:26:46.271324Z",
"date": "2025-07-10",
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"city": "Camarillo",
"longitude": -119.0376,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"aqlcz\">A photographer with Los Angeles-based broadcaster KABC-TV was struck with multiple crowd-control munitions by federal agents while covering an anti-deportation protest near Camarillo, California, on July 10, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"85k3j\">Protests in California <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">began</a> in early June in response to federal raids in and around workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with law enforcement officers and federal agents in Los Angeles, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.</p><p data-block-key=\"74l5l\">KABC-TV <a href=\"https://abc7.com/post/federal-agents-conduct-immigration-raid-camarillo-farm/17056098/\">reported</a> that federal agents conducted an immigration raid on a cannabis farm near Camarillo in Southern California, which was met with demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"3muln\">The situation developed into a tense standoff between protesters, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and National Guard members. At one point, the agents threw smoke canisters and stun grenades toward the crowd and began shooting crowd-control munitions at the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ndjl\">KABC-TV reporter Leo Stallworth <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3uQ36s9sB0\">said</a> he and his photographer were reporting on the demonstration when his photographer was hit twice by federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"99qf9\">“He’s got blood on one of his arms,” Stallworth said in his live report. He did not identify the photographer by name.</p><p data-block-key=\"certo\">“We just took off running with the entire crowd. It was absolutely chaotic,” Stallworth added.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6d90\">Neither Stallworth nor KABC-TV replied to requests for comment. ICE also did not respond as of press time.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/KABC_photoj_assault.f27b96e2.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"6lq96\">Leo Stallworth reporting live for KABC-TV following an immigration raid in Camarillo, California, on July 10, 2025. The photojournalist with him was shot twice with crowd-control munitions amid a standoff between demonstrators and federal officers.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified photojournalist 40 (KABC-TV)"
],
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}
]
