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{
"title": "Reporters excluded from Maine CDC media briefings after being labeled ‘advocacy journalists’",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-excluded-from-maine-cdc-media-briefings-after-being-labeled-advocacy-journalists/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T21:06:26.788778Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:48:08.330370Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:48:08.202880Z",
"date": "2021-08-25",
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"city": "Portland",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hfblx\">Reporters Katherine Revello of The Maine Wire and Evan Popp of the Beacon were barred from Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly livestreams after the agency changed its media policy on Aug. 25, 2021, to exclude those it deemed to be “advocacy journalists.”</p><p data-block-key=\"x74a2\">The agency <a href=\"https://bangordailynews.com/2021/10/06/politics/maine-cdc-bars-advocacy-journalists-from-briefings-kicking-off-debate/\">reversed the policy</a> on Oct. 6. Earlier that day, the Maine Policy Institute, a policy and lobbying organization and parent company to The Maine Wire, had publicized the initial policy change in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MainePolicy/status/1445787026599600128\">series of tweets</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">1/4 <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MEPublicHealth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MEPublicHealth</a> is not allowing our journalist at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheMaineWire</a> to participate in Maine CDC press briefings because the agency "can no longer accommodate 'advocacy journalists'".<br>First off, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/polisciwrites?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@polisciwrites</a> is not an advocacy journalist. Second, how does a govt agency determine</p>— Maine Policy Institute (@MainePolicy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MainePolicy/status/1445787026599600128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sqjyj\">Lauren McCauley, editor of the Maine People’s Alliance-affiliated Beacon, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Popp was notified by email on Aug. 25 that he could no longer attend the weekly news briefings.</p><p data-block-key=\"mvzlf\">In that email, CDC Communications Director Robert Long wrote that the agency could “no longer accommodate advocacy journalists,” and asked that any questions be directed to him.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rff3\">Long did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"fmy4v\">McCauley told the Tracker that Long later explained the change in policy during a phone call, saying it was done because the briefings had gotten too long and the agency needed to “preserve the CDC director’s time.”</p><p data-block-key=\"w2ssl\">According to McCauley, Beacon reporters had regularly attended the briefing without issues throughout the spring and summer.</p><p data-block-key=\"zd26y\">McCauley told Maine’s <a href=\"https://bangordailynews.com/2021/10/06/politics/maine-cdc-bars-advocacy-journalists-from-briefings-kicking-off-debate/\">Bangor Daily News</a> that the decision to exclude Beacon reporters, “harms the public interest and is especially damaging for folks who too often are left out of the conversation already.”</p><p data-block-key=\"daopr\">Jacob Posik, the editor of The Maine Wire, said Revello was hired in late May as a news reporter to cover the regular briefings and had attended one held on July 28 after requesting a link from the Maine CDC to attend.</p><p data-block-key=\"y4f47\">The once-daily briefings were halted by the agency during the summer as cases decreased, but weekly briefings began in early September as the Delta variant spread throughout the state, Posik told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"lk0xn\">But, according to Posik, The Maine Wire had stopped receiving media advisories about the briefings in early September.</p><p data-block-key=\"09r67\">Posik said the outlet has been highly critical of the state’s CDC data in their reporting of the pandemic and believes that the policy changed only after the outlet asked to attend the news briefings.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4bri\">“Once we hired a full time news reporter to hold the administration accountable, they kicked us out and called us advocacy journalists,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2r95h\">Posik said that he contacted CDC communications director Long in September after not receiving an invitation to attend two consecutive briefings. After almost three weeks of messaging and calling state officials, Posik said he got an answer to his original inquiry from Long on Oct. 6 that stated “We are no longer able to accommodate advocacy journalists during the media briefings.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1oll2\">“I responded to him by saying ‘Respectfully, that’s not how the First Amendment works — please show me a copy of the policy that you’re using to bar the attendance of my journalist to these briefings,’” Posik said.</p><p data-block-key=\"di8vq\">Posik has filed Freedom Of Access Act requests for a copy of the state CDC’s media policy and for the agency’s internal emails and messages that could explain the policy change but said he has not yet received any documents.</p><p data-block-key=\"ae6ks\">During the Oct. 6 briefing, a reporter attending the livestream asked Maine’s Health asked Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah how the CDC determines which outlets are allowed to ask questions during the briefings and how the policy agrees with the First Amendment.</p><p data-block-key=\"il3gj\">Both Lambrew and Shah defended <a href=\"https://youtu.be/UOlM8gUXzTo?t=3332\">the agency’s policy</a> to restrict the briefings by saying they were reserved for officials to “answer questions in the space of an hour from a set of credentialed reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"j9i2v\">McCauley and Posik confirmed to the Tracker that following the Oct. 6 briefing the agency sent an email to the outlets reinviting them to attend future briefings.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Independent journalist assaulted, equipment damaged during Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-assaulted-equipment-damaged-during-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-15T20:26:13.380629Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-25T18:13:33.321168Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-25T18:13:33.189093Z",
"date": "2021-08-22",
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"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n6i3k\">Independent journalist Maranie Staab was assaulted multiple times and several pieces of her equipment were damaged while she was covering clashing demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"h2blk\">Far-right demonstrators had planned for the “summer of love” protest in support of the “political prisoners” of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to take place downtown, The Intercept <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2021/08/23/portland-police-proud-boys-protest\">reported</a>, but had moved the location that morning to an abandoned Kmart parking lot in east Portland following the announcement of several counterprotests.</p><p data-block-key=\"1qe41\">The Portland Police Bureau announced ahead of the dueling demonstrations that officers would not intervene in any resulting clashes.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0npn\">“You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/portland-59abd74450bd0a0a166cd8d2b1f76c0e\">said in a statement</a>. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"08uis\">Staab told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was covering the planned demonstration for the Russian video news agency Ruptly and had arrived at the demonstration before its 2:30 p.m. start. Staab said that approximately 200 demonstrators had gathered, and the general mood was calm as the crowd listened to speeches from a platform.</p><p data-block-key=\"few89\">At around 4 p.m., Staab said, tensions rose when left-wing counterprotesters in black bloc arrived; far-right demonstrators began firing airsoft guns and antifascists responded with fireworks and clouds of mace.</p><p data-block-key=\"0qwki\">Staab told the Tracker that when both sides fell back, many of the journalists present found themselves in the middle of a no-man’s land between the two groups.</p><p data-block-key=\"gqxjl\">“I was first sprayed with something from behind — I didn’t see the person so I only saw it in a video — with what I thought was WD-40,” Staab said, referring to a rust-prevention spray. “It definitely wasn’t mace. Someone else said it was hornet spray or wasp spray or something.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3yaba\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1430278909048889345\">Footage of the incident</a> shows an individual quickly running past her and deliberately targeting her with the spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"ye55v\">Not long after the initial attack, Staab said, an antifa protester approached her and began belittling her personally, accusing her of endangering the community with her recent trip to Colombia and calling her a “slut.”</p><p data-block-key=\"57pg0\">“That group has never liked being documented. There’s been 10 to 15 that have been on the ground pretty consistently for the past year,” Staab said. “There are people that take particular issue with me.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Antifascists threatened to "smash cameras" of journalists, and targeted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaranieRae?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MaranieRae</a> personally.<br><br>She approached to speak to their group, and they shot paint and mace at her and threw her on the ground.<br><br>As she recovered, one shot more paint at both her and press helping her. <a href=\"https://t.co/XKgDxvFc5D\">pic.twitter.com/XKgDxvFc5D</a></p>— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1429660955034624005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eucqm\">Staab said the demonstrator told her to stop filming the group, but she refused.</p><p data-block-key=\"j9fky\">“Pretty immediately someone grabbed my cellphone out of my hand — it was on a little, small gimbal — threw it on the ground and smashed it,” Staab said. “Then someone pulled me down by my camera strap, which was on my right arm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"w7bee\">Staab said when she tried to get up, individuals also threw a paint-filled balloon at her and maced her. Several other journalists then led Staab away from the counterprotesters and aided her in rinsing her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"ulhs7\">“It is only because of my colleagues that I got out of there OK,” Staab said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Journalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaranieRae?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MaranieRae</a> has been injured, receiving treatment from medics now during street clashes between Proud Boys and Antifa in Portland. <a href=\"https://t.co/RjBK5rP4YX\">pic.twitter.com/RjBK5rP4YX</a></p>— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1429583652090880002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u6fmq\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1429660955034624005\">Footage captured</a> by News2Share co-founder Ford Fischer shows that while the journalists were helping Staab, another individual approached the group of journalists and sprayed them with purple paint. Some of the paint obscured Fischer’s lens, hindering his ability to continue covering events that day. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videojournalists-camera-sprayed-with-paint-during-clashing-portland-demonstrations/\">his equipment damage here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"o2wta\">In Fischer’s footage, Staab’s press credential can be seen on a lanyard around her neck. Staab told the Tracker she sat on a curb for at least an hour to an hour and a half recovering from the mace before she was able to safely leave the area and return home.</p><p data-block-key=\"swyg9\">In addition to the deliberate damage to her cellphone, Staab said the gimbal it was on is gone, her fall caused a crack in her camera lens and her Canon DSLR body was damaged by the paint balloon.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vkpx\">“This rounded out a year for me and others where we’ve been assaulted by the police, by persons on the right and now this,” Staab said. “To me this is really just an underscore of how dangerous this job has become.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qplme\">Staab told the Tracker she doesn’t intend to file a police report about the incidents.</p></div>",
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"election",
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{
"title": "Videojournalist’s camera sprayed with paint during clashing Portland demonstrations",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videojournalists-camera-sprayed-with-paint-during-clashing-portland-demonstrations/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-15T20:37:51.654036Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-25T18:18:07.338441Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-25T18:18:07.140743Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8kjfd\">A demonstrator sprayed the camera of Ford Fischer, co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share, with paint while he was documenting demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"aqb4h\">Far-right demonstrators had planned for the “summer of love” protest in support of the “political prisoners” of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to take place downtown, The Intercept <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2021/08/23/portland-police-proud-boys-protest\">reported</a>, but had moved the location that morning to an abandoned Kmart parking lot in east Portland following the announcement of several counterprotests.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjseq\">The Portland Police Bureau announced ahead of the dueling demonstrations that officers would not intervene in any resulting clashes.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0212\">“You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/portland-59abd74450bd0a0a166cd8d2b1f76c0e\">said in a statement</a>. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lsdtl\">Fischer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that far-right demonstrators had gathered and started drinking beer in the parking lot, with speeches beginning at approximately 2:30 p.m. After an hour and a half, Fischer said, tensions rose and conflicts began breaking out when some counterprotesters in black bloc arrived at the Kmart.</p><p data-block-key=\"sjk4f\">“Very suddenly everything changed tone,” Fischer said. “You had Proud Boys who were beginning to shoot paintballs and so forth at these antifascists, who were shooting mace and fireworks.”</p><p data-block-key=\"y7i2p\">At approximately 4:10 p.m., according to <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrOvJwRM_ew\">Fischer’s livestream</a>, one of the counterprotesters approached independent journalist Maranie Rae Staab and began shouting at her. When Staab attempted to speak with the counterprotester, another protester grabbed and destroyed her phone while others threw her to the ground, maced and struck her with a paint balloon.</p><p data-block-key=\"hxpdv\">“We, the rest of the media, sort of pulled her away from them,” Fischer said. “As she was recovering, one person in black bloc approached and sprayed all of the press with paint again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"plyb5\">Fischer said it appeared that the individual was using a fire extinguisher filled with paint, adapting what he said was a common leftist tactic of using paint balloons to mark “combatants” or damage electronic devices.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Antifascists threatened to "smash cameras" of journalists, and targeted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaranieRae?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MaranieRae</a> personally.<br><br>She approached to speak to their group, and they shot paint and mace at her and threw her on the ground.<br><br>As she recovered, one shot more paint at both her and press helping her. <a href=\"https://t.co/XKgDxvFc5D\">pic.twitter.com/XKgDxvFc5D</a></p>— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1429660955034624005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8trei\">Fischer told the Tracker that his 4K video camera was caught in the paint spray, covering the lens with drops of paint that hindered the auto-focus and disrupted his coverage of the clashes.</p><p data-block-key=\"2dfmu\">“The end result is that a lot of the footage that came since then was blurry and obscured by paint,” Fischer said. “It was not long after that assault that the Proud Boys piled on this individual who appeared to be a leftist in a vehicle transporting water bottles.</p><p data-block-key=\"tq8rt\">“While there was a lot of incredible photography of that incident, I think that my video is probably still the best recording of that and frankly it’s quite impeded, it’s probably not as decisive or clear as to who did what as it would have been if that hadn’t happened.”</p><p data-block-key=\"m8iyl\">Fischer said that while he was able to clean most of the paint off the lens, there is still paint in the mechanisms on the side of the camera and he will need to have it professionally cleaned.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkhji\">Fischer told the Tracker he has not filed a police report about the incident.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Freelance journalist struck with projectiles amid Portland demonstrations",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-struck-with-projectiles-amid-portland-demonstrations/",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"caafk\">Freelance journalist Shane Burley was shot with an airsoft gun projectile while on assignment for digital outlet Truthout documenting clashes between right- and left-wing protesters in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"5q3gj\">Far-right demonstrators had planned for the “summer of love” protest in support of the “political prisoners” of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to take place downtown, The Intercept <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2021/08/23/portland-police-proud-boys-protest\">reported</a>, but had moved the location that morning to an abandoned Kmart parking lot in east Portland following the announcement of several counterprotests.</p><p data-block-key=\"ouxd6\">The Portland Police Bureau announced ahead of the dueling demonstrations that officers would not intervene in any resulting clashes.</p><p data-block-key=\"kujz7\">“You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/portland-59abd74450bd0a0a166cd8d2b1f76c0e\">said in a statement</a>. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sn4xr\">Burley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he started the day covering the antifa counterprotest in downtown Portland, where approximately 200 young people in black bloc had gathered. When some in the crowd began talking about making their way to the far-right demonstration in the neighborhood of Parkrose, Burley said he drove over as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"9q63c\">“I pull up into the parking lot on the south side and can see that [the Proud Boys] are mostly in front of the Kmart on the north side,” Burley said. “So I stop, I see KGW — which is an NBC affiliate — and I stop and I say, ‘Hey, I’m a reporter on assignment. What’s the safe way to go in here?’ And they’re like, ‘There is no safe way. They just flipped a van over there.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"s9irj\">Burley said he parked at a Wendy’s across the street and then ran over to begin documenting the demonstration.</p><p data-block-key=\"o5f7s\">“Within a few minutes of being there, a couple of activist people came up behind me and they were shouting or something and then people started shooting what I think is paintballs,” Burley said. “I’m holding a bulletproof helmet, so I just put that in front of my face but I get hit five or six times.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aag6i\">Shortly after 5 p.m. Burley <a href=\"https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1429595322792103939\">posted a clip</a> to Twitter of the incident, which begins with him swearing as he is struck.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I got hit with a paintball. They are shooting paintballs and pepper spray at press and demonstrators. <a href=\"https://t.co/CgFYB5otcO\">pic.twitter.com/CgFYB5otcO</a></p>— Shane Burley (@shane_burley1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1429595322792103939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yp6dn\">In another <a href=\"https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1430279263798759429\">tweet</a>, Burley clarified that he was not sure what type of projectile had struck him, but may have been a rubber ball fired from a paintball gun. He <a href=\"https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1429656761342971904\">retweeted a video</a> posted by Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling showing someone in fatigues firing a paintball gun at people off-screen.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8rpi\">“I was hit by this, they were aiming them at protesters and next at press. I clearly had a press badge on, as did all the press shot,” Burley wrote. The Tracker was not able to confirm whether other journalists were struck during the demonstration.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnt3x\">Burley told the Tracker he felt deliberately targeted because in addition to his press badge, the helmet he held in front of his face was labeled “PRESS” and he shouted out that he was press before and while he was being shot.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfx4y\">“There’s no way that he didn’t think that I was press, plus it was a press group that they opened fire on,” Burley said. “None of this was justifiable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oagy7\">Burley said he has not filed a police report about the incident.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"tags": [
"election",
"Election 2020",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Reporter subpoenaed to give evidence at Missouri murder trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-subpoenaed-to-give-evidence-at-missouri-murder-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-15T19:30:33.057676Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-09-15T19:30:33.057676Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-09-15T19:30:33.019763Z",
"date": "2021-08-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Columbia",
"longitude": -92.33407,
"latitude": 38.95171,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>A judge in Missouri has allowed a reporter to be subpoenaed to give evidence at a murder trial.</p><p>The prosecutors have subpoenaed Gladys Bautista, a former reporter for CBS affiliate KRCG 13 in Columbia, Missouri. Bautista, now a reporter for WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky, will be asked to return to Columbia to attend the trial, according to a <a href=\"https://krcgtv.com/news/local/prosecutors-want-former-krcg-reporter-to-testify-in-joseph-elledge-murder-trial\">report by KRCG</a>.</p><p>The Boone County prosecutor’s office confirmed that the court had signed an order for the subpoena on Aug. 20, 2021.</p><p>Prosecutors charged Joseph Elledge with first-degree murder in the 2019 death of his wife, Mengqi Ji.</p><p>Prosecutors said exclusive interview footage with Bautista showed Elledge was lying when he said he didn’t know his wife’s whereabouts after reporting her missing.</p><p>The murder trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 1, the report said.</p><p>Bautista and KRCG did not reply to requests from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for a comment.</p></div>",
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"name": "Missouri",
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"Subpoena/Legal Order"
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"Gladys Bautista (KRCG)"
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"carried out"
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{
"title": "Twitter account of Fla. governor’s press secretary suspended for ‘abusive behavior’ against an AP reporter",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/twitter-account-of-fla-governors-press-secretary-suspended-for-abusive-behavior-against-an-ap-reporter/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-15T21:38:26.633327Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-04-06T14:54:21.274788Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-04-06T14:54:21.215855Z",
"date": "2021-08-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Tallahassee",
"longitude": -84.28073,
"latitude": 30.43826,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8dy3w\">Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Christina Pushaw, press secretary to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Aug. 20, 2021, for violating rules on abusive behavior after a series of her tweets incited harassment and online violence against an Associated Press reporter, <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-health-arts-and-entertainment-coronavirus-pandemic-philanthropy-ae3f2d37495c5a1d6c7eb2e18f825b26\">according to the outlet</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"rxdn5\">Florida-based AP reporter Brendan Farrington <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-4d0d18b24e0dd41de2424e19b3ed994f\">published a story</a> on Aug. 17, noting that a major funder of the DeSantis campaign invests in Regeneron, a COVID-19 treatment drug that DeSantis has promoted in Florida.</p><p data-block-key=\"m8lr6\">According to the AP and the <a href=\"https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/08/28/press-secretary-christina-pushaws-unneeded-meltdown-over-a-routine-news-story-editorial/\">Tampa Bay Times</a>, Pushaw retweeted Farrington’s article and wrote “Drag them” in a now-deleted post.</p><p data-block-key=\"gmocy\">AP reported that the press secretary wrote in another tweet that if Farrington didn’t change a story, she would “put you on blast.” She also retweeted a message that said “Light. Them. Up.” in reference to the AP.</p><p data-block-key=\"44v9n\">Pushaw’s Twitter account was locked for 12 hours after Farrington tweeted that he had received online threats and hate messages about the story. He said: “For your sake, I hope government doesn’t threaten your safety. I’ll be fine, I hope. Freedom. Just please don’t kill me,” according to the AP report. According to the outlet <a href=\"https://floridapolitics.com/archives/452054-twitter-suspends-account-of-ron-desantis-press-secretary-after-harassing-ap-reporter/\">Florida Politics</a>, Farrington said he received death threats.</p><p data-block-key=\"hiyy3\">Pushaw denied trying to direct the governor’s followers to target the AP reporter. She said her “drag them” comment was social media slang and was not meant as a violent threat. She said she deleted it because she didn’t want it to be misinterpreted, according to the AP.</p><p data-block-key=\"guf6b\">When asked for comment, Pushaw told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: “Criticizing unethical and misleading reporting isn’t ‘harassment’.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s3uzd\">AP’s incoming CEP, Daisy Veerasingham, <a href=\"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9QEZ5jWUAAx7a_.jpg\">wrote to DeSantis</a> saying the actions of the press secretary were “both dangerous and in conflict with Florida’s constitutional protections for freedom of speech and of the press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mlhg5\">Veerasingham also wrote that this kind of harassing behavior can “cause great harm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0ssww\">DeSantis responded with <a href=\"https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Lttr-1-crop.png\">an official letter</a> calling the AP story “a false narrative” and the blowback “deserved.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ojd9i\">Brian Carovillano, AP’s vice president and managing editor, said: “This is not pushback, it’s harassment. It’s bullying. It’s calling out the trolls at somebody who is just doing his job and it’s putting him and his family at risk.”</p><p data-block-key=\"evz25\">The Tracker approached Twitter and Farrington for comments, but received no response. AP referred the Tracker to the published story.</p><p data-block-key=\"omyrn\">Farrington’s tweets are now restricted, so the Tracker was not able to see his posts about the incident.</p></div>",
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"name": "Florida",
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"categories": [
"Chilling Statement"
],
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"Brendan Farrington (The Associated Press)"
],
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{
"title": "Reporter assaulted during Miami anti-mask mandate protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-assaulted-during-miami-anti-mask-mandate-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-26T13:23:17.635642Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-08-26T13:23:17.635642Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-08-26T13:23:17.609922Z",
"date": "2021-08-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Miami",
"longitude": -80.19366,
"latitude": 25.77427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Danny Rivero, a reporter for south Florida’s NPR and PBS stations, WLRN Public Media, was assaulted after taking a photo of anti-mask demonstrators in Miami, Florida, on Aug. 18, 2021.</p><p>Rivero, who did not respond to messages requesting comment, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TooMuchMe/status/1428125337934761985\">wrote on Twitter</a> he was covering protests against coronavirus mandates outside the Miami-Dade County Public Schools headquarters. At 6:45 p.m., Rivero said he had just been assaulted by a man he identified as a member of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Was just assaulted for doing my job at an anti-mask mandate protest <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MDCPS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MDCPS</a> headquarters by this Proud Boy in the yellow, for taking this photo. (I took many photos of many people on the scene.)<br><br>Some <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MiamiPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MiamiPD</a> officers came and pushed the Proud Boys off of me. No arrests. <a href=\"https://t.co/GIm9Zn7bUw\">pic.twitter.com/GIm9Zn7bUw</a></p>— Danny Rivero (@TooMuchMe) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TooMuchMe/status/1428125337934761985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 18, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>In Rivero’s police report about the incident, reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, he said that he was approached by three suspects, one of whom grabbed him by the arm and pushed him, telling him, “I will fuck you up!"</p><p>“The police escorted me across the street, and for a minute all eyes were on me on both sides of the line. But it’s not about me, it’s about the story,” he wrote in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TooMuchMe/status/1428125931999305732\">follow-up tweet</a>. Rivero added that he was “totally fine” and was able to continue conducting interviews and photographing the demonstrations.</p><p>The Miami Police Department confirmed to the Tracker that Rivero filed a police report about the incident on Aug. 19.</p></div>",
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"name": "Florida",
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},
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"tags": [
"coronavirus",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Danny Rivero (WLRN-FM)"
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{
"title": "Video journalist attacked, sprayed with chemical irritant while covering anti-vaccine rally in LA",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-attacked-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-while-covering-anti-vaccine-rally-in-la/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-22T18:57:56.136033Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:21:04.573337Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:21:04.476260Z",
"date": "2021-08-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ovg4r\">Jake Lee Green, an independent video journalist for News2Share, a collective that sells footage to news outlets, was <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lkMYFzWqj8\">slapped, kicked and sprayed with a chemical irritant</a> while covering an anti-vaccination rally in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"on73u\">Green told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering the “stop socialism, choose freedom march against medical tyranny” rally, a demonstration outside LA’s City Hall, where demonstrators gathered to protest against mask and vaccination mandates.</p><p data-block-key=\"xqlc2\">When counterprotesters arrived, Green moved away from the gathering to record a brawl that had broken out on the outskirts of the rally. Footage of the incident shared on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JLeeQuinn/status/1426972897751404548\">Twitter</a> shows an individual slap Green, who was wearing a black ballistic helmet and flak jacket, both labeled “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vvydk\">Video footage shows the same person then swinging a helmet at Green while a second individual kicked Green and then grabbed at his camera in an attempt to pull it away. In footage captured by Green, he is heard identifying himself as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"m337i\">Green said he backed away from the crowd to readjust his camera equipment and refocus his camera on the escalating violence when someone sprayed him with pepper gel.</p><p data-block-key=\"q7snw\">“I couldn't see anything and then I felt someone grab my camera, start pulling at it, and that’s when my mic broke off and damaged the screen on the side,” Green said.</p><p data-block-key=\"r6in3\">Green said the attack damaged his microphone but he attempted to keep recording until the pain from the irritant became unbearable.</p><p data-block-key=\"x8yc2\">Green told the Tracker he did not file a police report about the incident. At least two other <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?categories=10&city=Los%20Angeles&date_lower=2021-08-14&date_upper=2021-08-14&state=8\">journalists were assaulted by individuals</a> during the rally.</p></div>",
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{
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
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{
"title": "Journalist assaulted twice during anti-vaccine rally in LA",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-twice-during-anti-vaccine-rally-in-la/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-26T13:57:36.810645Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-08-26T19:23:32.831156Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-08-26T19:23:32.794343Z",
"date": "2021-08-14",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was assaulted while covering an anti-vaccine protest outside LA’s City Hall for the online outlet Status Coup on Aug. 14, 2021.</p><p>Demonstrators had gathered for a rally advertised as a “stop socialism, choose freedom march against medical tyranny” to protest COVID-19 vaccination requirements and mask mandates, LAist <a href=\"https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/im-fine-but-mad-after-right-wing-extremists-attacked-me-outside-city-hall\">reported</a>. Demonstrators carried signs from a cross-section of movements, including pro-Trump banners, signs calling for the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other signs and banners. While the demonstration on the south lawn of the City Hall grounds remained peaceful, according to LAist, some fights broke out on the edges of the rally. </p><p>Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived approximately 45 minutes before the violence began and was standing across from the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters with a few other journalists. In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg/status/1426659318254891011\">footage</a> Berg posted shortly after 2:30 p.m., a group of men can be seen gathering in a line as multiple people call out “Fuck antifa!”</p><p>At 0:22 in the clip, a man can be seen running up to Berg, pulling down his mask and saying “Hey bitch” before appearing to strike out at Berg and her camera; Berg said the man punched her and struck her camera. Another demonstrator intervenes and pulls the man away as Berg makes her way back to the sidewalk. </p><p>A few moments later, as a brawl appears to break out between the anti-vaccine demonstrators and counterprotesters, a second man runs up to Berg and attempts to pull the mask off her face while shouting, “Unmask them! Unmask them all!”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Anti-vaxxers in LA yell "Fuck Antifa" as one ATTACKS journalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TinaDesireeBerg</a>, who was injured as a result while reporting. More footage to come from fights that broke out. <a href=\"https://t.co/hHfuesJ38L\">pic.twitter.com/hHfuesJ38L</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1426955727642443780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1426711680034037763\">photo of the incident</a> shows the man pulling down Berg’s goggles and face mask; Berg’s press credentials can be seen on a lanyard around her neck.</p><p>Berg <a href=\"https://www.democracynow.org/2021/8/20/reporter_recalls_how_anti_vaccine_anti\">told Democracy Now</a> that she will not let the increasing violence, especially incidents targeting the press, prevent her from covering protests across California.</p><p>“People need to see what’s going on and if I let [the Proud Boys] control what I do then they sort of win the conversation,” Berg said. “They don’t want the press, they don’t want people filming them, they don’t want to be exposed for their violent actions. And so the intention of what they’re doing is to try to silence me and other journalists like me from covering what they’re doing and I absolutely am not deterred from doing it. I will be much more aware, take more security precautions.”</p><p>Berg told the Tracker she has not filed a police report about the incident, but plans to speak with the special investigations unit about it and the assault she witnessed of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-struck-over-the-head-with-baton-by-man-at-la-demonstration/\">videographer Rocky Romano</a> on July 3.</p><p><i>This article has been updated to include comment from the journalist.</i></p></div>",
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"tags": [
"coronavirus",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "Correspondent threatened, kicked during anti-vaccine protest at LA’s City Hall",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/correspondent-threatened-kicked-during-anti-vaccine-protest-at-las-city-hall/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-23T16:16:35.256903Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-08-23T16:16:35.256903Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-08-23T16:16:35.225609Z",
"date": "2021-08-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Frank Stoltze, a correspondent for the NPR station KPCC and LAist, was threatened, shoved and kicked while covering an anti-vaccine protest outside LA’s City Hall on Aug. 14, 2021.</p><p>Demonstrators had gathered for a rally advertised as a “stop socialism, choose freedom march against medical tyranny” to protest COVID-19 vaccination requirements and mask mandates, Stoltze wrote in an <a href=\"https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/im-fine-but-mad-after-right-wing-extremists-attacked-me-outside-city-hall\">account for LAist</a>. Stoltze, who did not respond to an emailed request for comment, wrote that demonstrators carried pro-Trump flags, signs calling for the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other signs and banners.</p><p>While the demonstration on the south lawn of the City Hall grounds remained peaceful, Stoltze told LAist that some fights broke out on the edges of the rally.</p><p>“Just a few steps into the park, I noticed a man with a bloody bandage on his head,” Stoltze wrote. “I asked what had happened and he said he’d gotten into a fight with ‘antifa.’”</p><p>Stoltze wrote that he identified himself as a journalist and asked the man if he’d be willing to be interviewed; the man declined. When Stoltze asked if he’d be willing to speak anonymously, the men with the injured man immediately started cursing at and threatening Stoltze.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Something happened to me today that’s never happened in 30 yrs of reporting. In LA. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LAist</a> I was shoved, kicked and my eyeglasses were ripped off of my face by a group of guys at a protest - outside City Hall during an anti-vax Recall <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GavinNewsom</a> Pro Trump rally. <a href=\"https://t.co/6s2Jfm8Xrg\">pic.twitter.com/6s2Jfm8Xrg</a></p>— Frank Stoltze (@StoltzeFrankly) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StoltzeFrankly/status/1426701012975325191?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>“One shoved me in the chest. Another came from behind, grabbed my hat, and ripped my prescription sunglasses off my head,” Stoltze wrote. “As I turned to leave, I told them I was going to find a cop. They called me an anti-gay slur and ‘little bitch.’”</p><p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1427181643547090944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1427181643547090944%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flaist.com%2Fnews%2Fcriminal-justice%2Fim-fine-but-mad-after-right-wing-extremists-attacked-me-outside-city-hall\">Footage</a> captured by journalist Andrew Kimmel shows part of the attack; as Stoltze walked away from the group of men, they followed him. Someone also ran up behind Stoltze and kicked him. According to Stoltze’s written account, the same man later knocked his phone out of his hands while Stoltze tried to film the man harassing others. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was unable to determine whether Stoltze’s phone was damaged.</p><p>“I was attacked,” Stoltze wrote. “I’m fine. But I’m mad as hell.”</p><p>The LAPD confirmed that Stoltze filed a police complaint, HuffPost <a href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/proud-boys-anti-vaxx-violence-los-angeles_n_6118888de4b01da700f6785c\">reported</a>. According to LAist, no arrests have been made in connection with the assault.</p></div>",
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"coronavirus",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Frank Stoltze (KPCC-FM/LAist)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Subpoena for podcast host testimony in murder case quashed",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/subpoena-for-podcast-host-testimony-in-murder-case-quashed/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-22T17:02:12.983853Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-07-13T18:50:15.921521Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-07-13T18:50:15.859616Z",
"date": "2021-08-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Luis Obispo County",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fe7ts\">A San Luis Obispo County superior judge quashed a subpoena seeking testimony and reporting materials from freelance reporter and podcast host Chris Lambert during hearings around the 1996 disappearance and murder of a California Polytechnic State University student.</p><p data-block-key=\"8tint\">Lambert’s 2019 podcast, “Your Own Backyard,” chronicled his independent investigation of the murder of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. In the span of 10 episodes, he interviewed new witnesses whom law enforcement <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/us-news-arrests-california-san-luis-obispo-9709acd23a734638d88e65013c0705ad\">officers had cited as “valuable”</a> in their decision to arrest Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, two longtime suspects in the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"w1k2h\">On Aug. 10, 2021, during preliminary hearings in the case, Paul Flores’ defense attorneys served Lambert, who was present in the courtroom covering the hearings as a member of the press, with an order to testify. The order also demanded he turn over confidential interview recordings, emails and notes gathered in the course of producing the podcast. Flores’ attorney argued Lambert had used <a href=\"https://www.newtimesslo.com/sanluisobispo/judge-cites-shield-law-in-dismissing-subpoena-against-podcaster-chris-lambert/Content?oid=11504300\">“the cloak of a journalist”</a> to try to influence the proceedings.</p><p data-block-key=\"3b79d\">Lambert’s attorney, Diana Palacios, <a href=\"https://www.ksby.com/news/kristin-smart-case/chris-lambert-files-objection-to-subpoena-in-flores-preliminary-hearing\">filed a motion to quash the order</a> on Aug. 23, citing First Amendment privileges granted to the press as well as California’s reporters’ shield law, which protects journalists from testifying and disclosing confidential sources or unpublished materials.</p><p data-block-key=\"regvr\">On Sept. 8, San Luis Obispo County Superior Judge Craig van Rooyen, the judge overseeing the case, dismissed the subpoena. He recognized Lambert as a member of the press and agreed that both the First Amendment and the shield law protected him from testifying in the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"0nvxi\">Van Rooyen also recognized that the order, had it been upheld, would have been a breach of confidence.</p><p data-block-key=\"myv7w\">“It is the chilling effect that the shield law means to avoid,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"s4wwq\">Lambert had been covering the preliminary hearings for his blog, “Hallway Blog,” but decided to <a href=\"https://www.yourownbackyardpodcast.com/hallwayblog/day-6\">suspend the posts</a> until the end of the hearings.</p><p data-block-key=\"ergrh\">Lambert declined a request for comment through his publicist when reached via email.</p></div>",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": "testimony about confidential source",
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Chris Lambert (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [
"quashed"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist aimed at with realistic AR-15 style airsoft gun in Portland",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-aimed-at-with-realistic-ar-15-style-airsoft-gun-in-portland/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-24T20:19:11.740579Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-04T13:36:20.906228Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-04T13:36:20.670356Z",
"date": "2021-08-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eeudq\">A man walking around downtown Portland, Oregon, aimed an airsoft gun modeled on an AR-15 rifle at freelance photojournalist Justin Yau on Aug. 8, 2021. The man was later arrested on charges of menacing and disorderly conduct, local NBC affiliate KGW <a href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/man-downtown-airsoft-rifle-arrested/283-c34b422a-087a-490c-b0fc-d4e39ab3758c\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4wync\"><a href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/groups-clash-downtown-portland/283-2f29569a-121b-4f7c-9d74-e3a82d7713cb\">According to KGW</a>, right- and left-wing demonstrators had clashed earlier that day at a religious gathering in Tom McCall Waterfront Park led by a Christian musician known for his opposition to COVID-19 restrictions. The groups, which had also clashed the previous night, had brawled and used various weapons, including bear spray, airsoft guns and paintball guns, The Oregonian <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/08/police-arrest-man-seen-pointing-airsoft-rifle-at-people-in-downtown-portland-after-weekend-clash.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"r7rqe\">At about 11 p.m., several journalists including Yau and freelance journalists Nathan Howard and Sergio Olmos photographed a man walking through downtown with what they described as an AR-15 rifle. In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1424638472858443776\">footage</a> captured by Olmos, the individual can be seen aiming the weapon directly at Yau as he continues to photograph the encounter. Yau did not respond to messages requesting comment.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A far-right extremist points his rifle at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wweek?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wweek</a> journalist Justin Yau (<a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PDocumentarians</a>) during a confrontation between anti-fascists and right-wing militia in Portland, Oregon on Sunday Aug. 8, 2021. <br><br>For <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GettyImages?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GettyImages</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/IgMeGEzBra\">pic.twitter.com/IgMeGEzBra</a></p>— Nathan Howard (@SmileItsNathan) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SmileItsNathan/status/1424645955207368707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 9, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"au8so\">According to The Oregonian, the man, identified as Mark Lee, called 911 claiming several people were following him and was told to walk to a nearby police precinct. Lee left the station that night, but police launched an investigation into the incident that ultimately led to Lee’s arrest on Aug. 12 on three counts of menacing and one count of second-degree disorderly conduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"2uk8o\">Police confirmed that Lee’s weapon was an airsoft gun, a sports gun designed to shoot plastic projectiles. The weapon was seized, along with a military-style tactical vest, gas mask and seven knives, KGW reported.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-09-23 00:00:00+00:00) Man convicted of menacing after pointing gun at journalist"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Justin Yau (Freelance)"
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},
{
"title": "City of Jackson, Mississippi, ordered to pay legal fees to broadcast station for violating public records law",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/city-of-jackson-mississippi-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-to-broadcast-station-for-violating-public-records-law/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-30T20:59:48.340005Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-22T17:03:34.958502Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-22T17:03:34.904049Z",
"date": "2021-08-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Jackson",
"longitude": -90.18481,
"latitude": 32.29876,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a2iv1\">The city of Jackson, Mississippi, was ordered to pay more than $170,000 in legal fees to local broadcaster WLBT’s parent company, Gray Television, on Aug. 6, 2021, after it was determined that the city violated the state’s public records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"v23aj\">WLBT <a href=\"https://www.wlbt.com/2021/08/06/city-jackson-slapped-with-largest-fine-state-history-following-wlbt-ethics-complaint/\">reported</a> that in 2019 the station’s chief investigative reporter, C.J. LeMaster, sent the Jackson Police Department seven requests for public records including emails, memos and crime statistics; the department never produced documents for five of the requests and waited nearly 600 days to produce portions of another request. Mississippi’s <a href=\"https://www.ethics.ms.gov/thepublicrecordact\">Public Records Act</a> requires public bodies to provide records within seven days of a request being filed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ju2o\">The station filed an ethics complaint in October 2019 and when the city did not produce any additional records for 10 months, a hearing was held in November 2020. Emmy Parsons, an attorney representing WLBT, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that LeMaster testified during the hearings that communications with the city were inconsistent and there appeared to be problems with the system used to handle records requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"jx3t2\">On Aug. 6, 2021, the Mississippi Ethics Commission unanimously approved a <a href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z3V6ODM5rVsg_RnO-uN2x0BHMtReC89Z/view\">final order</a> against the city, requiring that it pay $170,397.50 to reimburse the station’s legal fees and a civil penalty of $900, $100 for each violation, in accordance with the state’s Public Records Act. The order also mandated that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba designate public records officers for the city and its departments and undertake other measures to prevent further violations.</p><p data-block-key=\"k7hew\">“Confidence must be based upon trust which can only come from transparency. JPD and the rest of city government must be open and honest with the people it serves,” wrote Tom Hood, the ethics commission’s executive director, in the order. “The city’s officials and employees, especially those in JPD, need to learn that the Public Records Act is not a nuisance. Rather, it is a fundamental obligation of municipal government just like police protection, fire protection, water and sewer services. Without transparency in government there can be no confidence among the governed, and without the support of the community, those in government cannot succeed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"j4fg8\">Parsons told the Tracker, “WLBT station leadership and C.J. [LeMaster] were clear that this was a fight that was not only worth having but was necessary to have, and they were really committed to it throughout.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dff08\">“The hope at the end of the day with all of this is not just that WLBT receives the last remaining records that it is entitled to with regards to these seven requests, but that it serves as a wake-up call to the city that it is falling down on its job to provide records responses in compliance with the law and it needs to take that obligation seriously and prioritize that obligation,” Parsons said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bkzp1\">The city of Jackson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Senior reporter ordered to testify in assault trial connected to BLM protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/senior-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-20T16:37:31.021835Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-03-09T19:49:40.889637Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-03-09T19:49:40.753124Z",
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"city": "Madison",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0b8sh\">Dylan Brogan, the senior reporter at the digital outlet Isthmus, was one of three journalists subpoenaed on Aug. 5, 2021, to testify at the upcoming trial of two women charged with assault in Madison, Wisconsin.</p><p data-block-key=\"j6wi1\">Brogan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the subpoena is connected to the assault of state Sen. Tim Carpenter at a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020. On June 23, protesters were hostile to anyone who was filming or photographing and members of the crowd directed their ire at Carpenter when he stopped to take a photo of the demonstration, Brogan <a href=\"https://isthmus.com/news/news/statues-toppled/\">wrote in an article</a> at the time. A group of approximately 10 individuals then beat the senator as he attempted to identify himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"l5r0r\">According to a court filing in opposition to the subpoenas, the Dane County district attorney’s office issued subpoenas to Brogan, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">WORT 89.9 reporter Chali Pittman</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">WKOW-TV reporter Lance Veeser</a> via mail to compel their eyewitness testimony. An attorney representing the journalists notified Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey they would not comply with the subpoenas as served, as they were issued improperly and violated the state’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"5gx6m\">“The Wisconsin Legislature has enacted a reporters’ privilege law that absolutely prohibits compelling a news person to testify about confidential sources and conditionally prohibits the issuance of a subpoena compelling a news person to testify about ‘[a]ny news, information, or identity of any source of any news or information,’” the filing reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"6pb2m\">The district attorney’s office argued that it had been unable to identify other witnesses and therefore the journalists’ testimony is vital to the case against the defendants, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel <a href=\"https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2021/09/09/judge-compels-journalists-testify-trial-into-lawmakers-beating/8258733002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"x97fp\">On Sept. 9, 2021, Judge Josann Reynolds ruled in favor of the prosecutors and granted an order compelling the three journalists to comply with the subpoenas and appear to testify starting Oct. 18, according to the Journal Sentinel.</p><p data-block-key=\"aeapv\">“The public already knows everything that I know. Putting a journalist on the stand to provide some sort of narrative to supposedly aid in a criminal prosecution compromises all the ethics of being a journalist,” Brogan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5g97\">District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the Tracker via email that his office was pleased with the ruling.</p><p data-block-key=\"m4ipt\">“It is my understanding the court made a very good record of the decision in this case on this matter,” Ozanne wrote. “This is not a situation in which an informant’s identity needs to be kept confidential. I don’t believe telling the truth compromises a person’s reputation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"akqb8\">The reporters are considering appealing the ruling, Brogan told the Tracker, but the financial burden is daunting.</p><p data-block-key=\"433tx\">“We’re a small little reboot of a paper,” Brogan said of Isthmus. “The appeal process: we’re trying to figure it out, but it’s very expensive. On principle we want to fight this but I’m not sure we can afford it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vwhy5\">Brogan told the Tracker that if they are unable to move forward with an appeal or the appeal fails, he will likely comply with the subpoena.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"(2021-10-18 13:14:00+00:00) Senior reporter compelled to testify in senator’s assault trial"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
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{
"title": "Broadcast reporter ordered to testify in assault trial connected to BLM protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-20T16:42:09.341180Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-03-09T19:49:53.774938Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-03-09T19:49:53.675692Z",
"date": "2021-08-05",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m7rzp\">Lance Veeser, a broadcast reporter at WKOW, was one of three journalists subpoenaed on Aug. 5, 2021, to testify at the upcoming trial of two women charged with assaulting state Sen. Tim Carpenter at a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin.</p><p data-block-key=\"nbulp\">On June 23, protesters were hostile to anyone who was filming or photographing and members of the crowd directed their ire at Carpenter when he stopped to take a photo of the demonstration, Isthmus <a href=\"https://isthmus.com/news/news/statues-toppled/\">reported</a> at the time. A group of approximately 10 individuals then beat the senator as he attempted to identify himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"apfp4\">Veeser did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Veeser posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/lanceveeser/status/1275664180994080768\">an image to Twitter</a> on the night of the attack, writing, “I believe this is State Senator Tim Carpenter. Minutes earlier he told us the protesters assaulted him. Then he collapsed walking towards the Capitol. We called paramedics.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I believe this is State Senator Tim Carpenter. Minutes earlier he told us the protesters assaulted him. Then he collapsed walking towards the Capitol. We called paramedics. An ambulance is here now. <a href=\"https://t.co/uUSdKyQ1hp\">pic.twitter.com/uUSdKyQ1hp</a></p>— Lance Veeser (@lanceveeser) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/lanceveeser/status/1275664180994080768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"un5ku\">According to a court filing in opposition to the subpoenas, the Dane County district attorney’s office issued subpoenas to Veeser, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">WORT 89.9 reporter Chali Pittman</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/senior-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">Isthmus senior reporter Dylan Brogan</a> via mail to compel their eyewitness testimony. However, neither the police report about the incident nor the prosecutor’s motion in support of the subpoenas make any mention of Veeser witnessing the actual assault.</p><p data-block-key=\"2yz9e\">An attorney representing the journalists notified Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey they would not comply with the subpoenas as served, as they were issued improperly and violated the state’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ewnn\">“The Wisconsin Legislature has enacted a reporters’ privilege law that absolutely prohibits compelling a news person to testify about confidential sources and conditionally prohibits the issuance of a subpoena compelling a news person to testify about ‘[a]ny news, information, or identity of any source of any news or information,’” the filing reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwzhb\">The district attorney’s office argued that it had been unable to identify other witnesses and therefore the journalists’ testimony is vital to the case against the defendants, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel <a href=\"https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2021/09/09/judge-compels-journalists-testify-trial-into-lawmakers-beating/8258733002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ywx9k\">On Sept. 9, 2021, Judge Josann Reynolds ruled in favor of the prosecutors and granted an order compelling the three journalists to comply with the subpoenas and appear to testify starting Oct. 18, according to the Journal Sentinel.</p><p data-block-key=\"nl15n\">District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the Tracker via email that his office was pleased with the ruling.</p><p data-block-key=\"i26is\">“It is my understanding the court made a very good record of the decision in this case on this matter,” Ozanne wrote. “This is not a situation in which an informant’s identity needs to be kept confidential. I don’t believe telling the truth compromises a person’s reputation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"odjpo\">Brogan and Pittman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the journalists are considering appealing the ruling, but are concerned about the financial burden.</p></div>",
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"name": "Wisconsin",
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"updates": [
"(2021-10-18 13:12:00+00:00) Judge quashes subpoena for broadcast reporter’s testimony in assault trial connected to BLM protest"
],
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
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"Subpoena/Legal Order"
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{
"title": "Radio reporter ordered to testify in assault trial connected to BLM protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-20T16:46:24.596379Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-03-09T19:50:06.199235Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-03-09T19:50:06.098458Z",
"date": "2021-08-05",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w8hyb\">Chali Pittman, a reporter and news and public affairs director for WORT-FM, was one of three journalists subpoenaed on Aug. 5, 2021, to testify at the upcoming trial of two women charged with assault in Madison, Wisconsin.</p><p data-block-key=\"943r0\">Pittman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the subpoena is connected to the assault of state Sen. Tim Carpenter at a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020. On June 23, protesters were hostile to anyone who was filming or photographing and members of the crowd directed their ire at Carpenter when he stopped to take a photo of the demonstration, Isthmus <a href=\"https://isthmus.com/news/news/statues-toppled/\">reported</a> at the time. A group of approximately 10 individuals then beat the senator as he attempted to identify himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"t9r09\">According to a court filing in opposition to the subpoenas, the Dane County district attorney’s office issued subpoenas to Pittman, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/senior-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">Isthmus reporter Dylan Brogan</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-ordered-to-testify-in-assault-trial-connected-to-blm-protest/\">WKOW-TV reporter Lance Veeser</a> via mail to compel their eyewitness testimony. An attorney representing the journalists notified Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey they would not comply with the subpoenas as served, as they were issued improperly and violated the state’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"c9hn2\">“The Wisconsin Legislature has enacted a reporters’ privilege law that absolutely prohibits compelling a news person to testify about confidential sources and conditionally prohibits the issuance of a subpoena compelling a news person to testify about ‘[a]ny news, information, or identity of any source of any news or information,’” the filing reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbozx\">The district attorney’s office argued that it had been unable to identify other witnesses and therefore the journalists’ testimony is vital to the case against the defendants, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel <a href=\"https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2021/09/09/judge-compels-journalists-testify-trial-into-lawmakers-beating/8258733002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"tupti\">Pittman told the Tracker none of the three journalists are able to identify the individuals involved in the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"m663j\">On Sept. 9, 2021, Judge Josann Reynolds ruled in favor of the prosecutors and granted an order compelling the three journalists to comply with the subpoenas and appear to testify starting Oct. 18, according to the Journal Sentinel.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This morning, a Dane Co judge ruled to compel me and two other local journalists to testify about the events of this night and specifically, the attack against state Sen. Tim Carpenter. <br><br>Yet, none of us are unable to identify any of the attackers. <a href=\"https://t.co/cqXTKF8CKQ\">https://t.co/cqXTKF8CKQ</a></p>— chali (@chalipittman) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/chalipittman/status/1435993972313366544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 9, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5oecz\">“I have personal and professional reasons for not testifying beyond just reporter’s privilege,” Pittman said. “I work at a community radio station where I wear a lot of hats: One of them is building ties with communities who may not have always trusted community radio or had their voices well-represented in media. So testifying would make that more difficult.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ekqjr\">District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the Tracker via email that his office was pleased with the ruling.</p><p data-block-key=\"29y4j\">“It is my understanding the court made a very good record of the decision in this case on this matter,” Ozanne wrote. “This is not a situation in which an informant’s identity needs to be kept confidential. I don’t believe telling the truth compromises a person’s reputation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qhinn\">The reporters are considering appealing the ruling, Pittman told the Tracker, but the financial burden is daunting.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqjo0\">“Our lawyers told us that an appeal this time would cost about $20,000 and we’re a nonprofit radio station hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” Pittman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"s7qpz\">Pittman told the Tracker that if they are unable to move forward with an appeal or the appeal fails, she will comply with the subpoena.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Wisconsin",
"abbreviation": "WI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-10-18 13:04:00+00:00) Radio reporter compelled to testify in Wisconsin senator’s assault trial"
],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Chali Pittman (WORT-FM)"
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"carried out"
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{
"title": "Journalist at advocacy news organization dragged from press conference",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-at-advocacy-news-organization-dragged-from-press-conference/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-15T20:42:56.490127Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-03T14:02:23.708485Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-03T14:02:23.600077Z",
"date": "2021-08-05",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Hialeah Gardens",
"longitude": -80.3245,
"latitude": 25.8651,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8qqpj\">Grant Stern, executive editor of the news arm of the progressive political organization Occupy Democrats, said he was forcefully removed from a press conference at the Hialeah Gardens Museum in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on Aug. 5, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"xv03i\">Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was alerted to a press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers via email from the governor’s press office. The email noted that the press conference was open to all and did not require an RSVP. When he arrived, Stern said, he identified himself as a reporter for Occupy Democrats and was granted entry.</p><p data-block-key=\"78oaq\">“I went into the press conference like anybody else and I was there recording with my audio recorder,” Stern said, “and everything else I did with a cellphone or hand-held camera, recording all of these speeches.”</p><p data-block-key=\"iftgh\">Approximately 30 minutes into the press conference, Stern said, a congressional staffer approached him and asked him to identify himself and who he worked for. Stern said he identified himself again and offered to show them his Twitter profile and author bio, as he does not carry press credentials with him. When the staffer asked him to leave, Stern said he had complied with the procedure to enter and would leave only if asked to do so by a museum employee.</p><p data-block-key=\"xnyt6\">During the Q&A session at the end of the press conference 15 minutes later, he said, Stern began to ask a question about the House’s proposed Jan. 6 commission. In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/1423328925250473986\">his footage</a> of the incident, Stern’s camera suddenly begins shaking and moving backward as he attempts to finish his question. Stern said four officers dragged him out of the room on his heels and ordered that he leave the museum.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I tried to ask <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GOPLeader?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GOPLeader</a> McCarthy a question after he decried Cuban police pickup up people in the streets.<br><br>Why does he oppose the bipartisan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/January6thCommission?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#January6thCommission</a>?<br><br>A Congressional staffer had four cops pick me up and drag me from the room.<br><br>I still asked the question. <a href=\"https://t.co/HDqrhvARaC\">pic.twitter.com/HDqrhvARaC</a></p>— Grant Stern is fully vaccinated (@grantstern) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/1423328925250473986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 5, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4zr65\">“I start asking a question and I feel a hand on the small of my back through my backpack,” Stern said. “My first thought was whether someone was trying to steal my journalistic equipment and then I realized that they were searching me for weapons.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nqvuk\">Stern said the officers then grabbed him, pulled him out of the room and turned off his phone recording with such force they scratched the face of his cellphone in multiple places; he said he intends to replace the screen as a result of the damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"9qoqn\">“They dragged me clear out of the room, told me to go away, involuntarily turned off my camera and pushed me out of the front door,” Stern said. “They did not make any attempt to identify me, to arrest or detain me further, to ask me any other questions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0gq49\">A spokesperson for McCarthy <a href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kevin-mccarthy-press-conference-capitol-riot-b1897801.html\">told The Independent</a> that “congressional staff had nothing to do [with Stern’s] removal.” McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for additional comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"69gc4\">Stern told the Tracker his left knee capsule was ruptured as the officers pushed and dragged him, and he will need occupational therapy to restore full mobility.</p><p data-block-key=\"vfp68\">The Hialeah Gardens Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
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"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: Legislature",
"State government: Governor"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Denial of Access",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Grant Stern (Occupy Democrats)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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"Government event"
]
},
{
"title": "Parent accosts Michigan journalist after school board meeting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/parent-accosts-michigan-journalist-after-school-board-meeting/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-10T18:09:44.049141Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-08-10T18:09:44.049141Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-08-10T18:09:44.009465Z",
"date": "2021-08-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Mount Pleasant",
"longitude": -84.76751,
"latitude": 43.59781,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Reporter Eric Baerren was attacked by a parent who wanted him to delete photos from his camera on Aug. 2, 2021, after covering a school board meeting, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p>Baerren told the Tracker that the school board at Mount Pleasant High School in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, had been discussing wearing masks in school and he had been covering the story for the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun and taking photographs.</p><p>He told the Tracker that after the meeting, at about 9 p.m., a man approached him while he was packing up his equipment in front of the school auditorium and asked if he'd taken photos of his daughter during the public comment period.</p><p>“I told him I didn't know and he asked me if I'd go through my camera to check. I told him I wasn't going to do that and that if I did, it was while his daughter was giving public comment during a public meeting. He told me that he'd asked me nicely, which I took as an implied threat.”</p><p>The parent then “tried to grab my phone out of my hand and kick my camera away from my grasp. From behind me, I heard the district superintendent call for the police, so I got my equipment and stood up to wait for them.”</p><p>“Then the man indicated that he wouldn't let me leave until I complied with his wishes, and I then pointed my thumb to the approaching officer.” An officer from the Mount Pleasant Police Department’s Youth Services Unit was on scene, and he responded quickly.</p><p>Baerren said that the officer took them into the lobby, and after a brief investigation asked the reporter if he wanted to file assault charges. He declined, and two more officers kept the parent in a corner until Baerren could leave.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"coronavirus"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Eric Baerren (Mount Pleasant Morning Sun)"
],
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{
"title": "Independent videographer punched while covering anti-vaccine protest in LA",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-videographer-punched-while-covering-anti-vaccine-protest-in-la/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-05T17:30:05.530760Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-12-10T15:17:07.224297Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-12-10T15:17:07.162793Z",
"date": "2021-07-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Vishal Singh, a videographer who works on Netflix documentaries and has been covering demonstrations in Los Angeles since May 2020, said he was punched multiple times while documenting protests at a restaurant in Los Angeles, California, on July 29, 2021.</p><p>Local digital outlet WeHoTimes <a href=\"https://wehotimes.com/anti-vaccination-protest-returns-to-harlowe-restaurant-and-gets-violent/\">reported</a> that the West Hollywood restaurant Harlowe had become a target of anti-vaccine protests because of its policy requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter the premises. Similar stipulations have been put in place across the country in order to <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/03/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine\">curb the spread of coronavirus variations</a>, particularly amid unvaccinated populations.</p><p>Singh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived to document the protest at approximately 7 p.m., having <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1420609340398989312\">reported on violence</a> that broke out at the restaurant the night before. By the time he began filming from across the street, a scuffle had broken out between the protesters and another individual and the crowd began following the man down the street.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was just severely injured by a mob of anti-vaxxers. They were surrounding and assaulting someone. I went to film and help him escape. They attacked from behind. Possible concussion. Maced. Had to fight them off me by myself. Deployed mace in self defense after I was concussed. <a href=\"https://t.co/NTkn6A8XJT\">pic.twitter.com/NTkn6A8XJT</a></p>— Vishal P. Singh (They/He) (@VPS_Reports) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1420940687697055748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>As the crowd turned down an alley, Singh said they directed their attention on him; in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1420984675502153728\">footage</a> of the incident a man can be seen positioning himself behind Singh, bumping the videographer with his shoulder and then punching Singh multiple times as Singh defends himself. In the footage, Singh’s press badge can be seen on a lanyard around his neck.</p><p>Singh said a second individual then ripped the mask off his face and the man again punched him, knocking him to the ground. Singh told the Tracker he continued defending himself and used pepper spray to disperse the crowd until he was eventually able to leave the area.</p><p>“I felt that if I turned around they would chase me and beat me more, so I really didn’t have a choice but to stand my ground and defend myself,” Singh said.</p><p>Singh said he immediately went to a hospital, where he was told he suffered multiple breaks to his eye sockets and nose as a result of the attack.</p><p>Singh told the Tracker the day after the incident that he hadn’t yet filed a police report about the incident.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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},
"updates": [
"(2021-09-30 00:00:00+00:00) Independent videographer charged with assault in connection with anti-vaccine protest where he was punched"
],
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"coronavirus",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "Journalists for Polish news station were assaulted, chased out of DC’s Lafayette Square park during Cuba protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-for-polish-news-station-were-assaulted-chased-out-of-dcs-lafayette-square-park-during-cuba-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-17T14:38:26.527437Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-10-19T19:37:23.792838Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-10-19T19:37:23.750878Z",
"date": "2021-07-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Journalist Marcin Wrona, a U.S. correspondent for the Polish TV channel TVN Discovery, was filming a live broadcast on July 26, 2021, from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., when members of the public stopped the broadcast and started to throw objects at Wrona and his cameraman, Marcin Wyszogrodzki.</p><p>Wrona told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that individuals in the park repeatedly interrupted their broadcast, which was covering a declaration sponsored by the <a href=\"https://www.state.gov/united-states-and-concerned-nations-stand-together-for-the-cuban-people/\">U.S. State Department</a> calling for freedom in Cuba, signed by the United States and 19 other countries, and a protest <a href=\"https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2021-07-27-u208060-e208060-s27061-periodista-expulsado-cubanos-marcha-casa-blanca-prensa\">against repression in Cuba</a>.</p><p>The veteran broadcaster, who has worked in journalism for 33 years, told the Tracker: “First we were approached by an individual with a bullhorn who was yelling something in Spanish straight in our microphone and camera. I asked him to stop doing it, as the viewers would not be able to hear a word of our reporting. We moved a few steps over.</p><p>“Later a group of about five people lined up behind my back, blocking the view with their raised signs. I asked them to lower the signs because we would not be able to show how big the protest is.”</p><p>Wrona said that as he was about to go on air at 11 a.m., the crowd started yelling in Spanish, telling them they were not welcome there.</p><p>“They started physically pushing us out of the park,” he said, confirming that they were prevented from doing the broadcast. Wrona said their equipment displayed the station logo and his cameraman was carrying press identification. The assault of cameraman Wyszogrodzki and damage of the station equipment <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-and-journalist-for-polish-tv-station-chased-from-dcs-lafayette-park-during-protest-for-cuba/\">is documented by the Tracker here</a>.</p><p>When the TVN crew decided to pack up and leave, <a href=\"https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2021-07-27-u208060-e208060-s27061-periodista-expulsado-cubanos-marcha-casa-blanca-prensa\">the crowd started punching them, grabbing equipment</a>, spraying water on them and throwing bottles and other objects at them.</p><p>“They were calling me an assassin (<i>assassino)</i> and other words in Spanish. I heard people yelling in English that I had blood on my hands,” Wrona said.</p><p>The crew managed to get across H street, still chased by the crowd, and went toward two Metropolitan Police officers on a bicycle patrol. The officers tried to hold back the crowd with their bikes, and then called for backup. Finally about 10 officers escorted them to safety, Wrona said.</p><p>“We covered at least three or four blocks and the crowd was still attacking us. Finally the police decided to get us into their squad vehicle and their lieutenant drove us away, although her car was followed by some Cubans.”</p><p>He added that some people had started posting videos online, calling him a Cuban regime agent, communist, or supporter of the Castro regime. “Some were lamenting that I wasn't severely beaten.”</p><p>Wrona, who works for a TV station that is often described as the last <a href=\"https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/12/poland-government-in-chaotic-parliamentary-tussle-over-disputed-media-ownership-bill\">independent news</a> channel in Poland, said that he knows what living under communism is like, as he grew up under a communist regime. He said he was in a group of 10 people who built the first independent radio station in Poland after the fall of communism.</p><p>He also said that there had been some “horrible” follow-up personal attacks on social media, stoked by people spreading false information.</p><p>“There were a few really tough days emotionally after the attack. But I am a reporter; I have to keep doing my job,” Wrona said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Marcin Wrona (TVN Discovery)"
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{
"title": "Discovery Channel subpoenaed for documentary footage in criminal case",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/discovery-channel-subpoenaed-for-documentary-footage-in-criminal-case/",
"first_published_at": "2022-08-02T19:27:47.705155Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-02T19:27:47.705155Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-02T19:27:47.654744Z",
"date": "2021-07-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pscek\">Discovery Inc. was issued a subpoena by the state’s attorney of Cook County for unaired documentary footage as part of a wrongful-conviction hearing in Chicago, Illinois, on July 26, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"6c2ud\">An attorney for the media company, Steven Mandell, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the subpoena requested both published and unpublished footage from an episode of “Reasonable Doubt,” which aired on Investigation Discovery. The <a href=\"https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/video/reasonable-doubt-investigation-discovery/it-wasnt-me\">episode</a> investigated assertions that Roosevelt Myles was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1996, and included interviews with his family members and neighbors, including a witness who claimed he could provide Myles an alibi. The episode aired in May 2020 and Myles was released from prison that July. The subpoena was issued by an assistant state’s attorney as part of the post-conviction hearing discovery process.</p><p data-block-key=\"fdqtq\">Mandell said Painless Television, Inc., a California-based production company, produced the documentary for Discovery Channel and was itself subpoenaed in October 2021. The Tracker has documented that subpoena <a href=\"/all-incidents/production-company-subpoenaed-for-documentary-footage-in-criminal-case/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ek88k\">“One of the things that the prosecutor did was not only ask for the as-broadcast version of the program but also any outtakes, including any footage of witnesses that were not broadcast,” Mandell said. “In response, the producers at Discovery were willing to give the as-broadcast version but maintained — appropriately in my view — that the outtakes were protected by the shield law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"14p96\">Discovery and Painless Television are headquartered in New York and California, respectively, states that have some of the strongest shield laws for members of the press in the country, Mandell said. Illinois, on the other hand, has a qualified privilege meaning that it can be overcome or “divested” under certain circumstances.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgsvt\">Mandell told the Tracker that after the subpoena to Discovery Channel was mistakenly issued to an address in Washington state, it was reissued on March 11, 2022.</p><p data-block-key=\"el3mh\">“We argued that if there’s a public interest involved it’s to protect the press,” Mandell said. “One of the roles the press plays is to shine a light on government, not to assist or facilitate government action. To preserve the flow of information from confidential or even non-confidential sources, the press has to assert its privilege and not be viewed as an arm or an instrument of the police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"18sfa\">On June 27, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Carol Howard struck down the subpoenas against both Discovery and Painless Television. According to a <a href=\"https://medialaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/07.07.22illinois.pdf\">court transcript</a> reviewed by the Tracker, Howard found that the state’s attorney had failed to meet the requirements to overcome the reporter’s privilege.</p><p data-block-key=\"asrma\">“The State has not set forth the specific information that is sought and why that information is relevant to the proceedings. The State cannot say with any amount of specificity exactly what they are seeking,” Howard said. “And the State simply has not met the third requirement that requires you to exhaust all available sources of the information.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b8min\">Discovery Inc. did not respond to messages requesting comment.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"Discovery Inc."
],
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"categories": [
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"quashed"
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},
{
"title": "Cameraman and journalist for Polish TV station chased from DC’s Lafayette park during protest for Cuba",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-and-journalist-for-polish-tv-station-chased-from-dcs-lafayette-park-during-protest-for-cuba/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-17T14:29:24.867651Z",
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"date": "2021-07-26",
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"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yjg7v\">Cameraman Marcin Wyszogrodzki, who works for the Polish TV channel TVN Discovery, was trying to film a live broadcast from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2021, when members of the public prevented his team from broadcasting and threw objects at them.</p><p data-block-key=\"2be6i\">Wyszogrodzki told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that just before 11 a.m., members of the public in the park began making it difficult for him to film the TVN journalist Marcin Wrona and screaming at both him and Wrona.</p><p data-block-key=\"1yds4\">Normally, Wyszogrodzki said, they would walk away and film somewhere nearby, but in this case the angry people continued to follow them, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8vdzp\">“The worst thing was they didn’t want to give up — they would follow us and there was more and more hate against us. They were trying to rip off the wires from the camera. They were behind my back and pulling wires from the camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"odxxd\">“It was something unusual. It never should happen when you are doing your work,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"0vy3t\">“I felt like it was coming to the point when it might turn out very badly for us,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nrpcv\">One of the assailants had ripped a wire from the back of the camera and someone threw water at them and their equipment, but the camera was not damaged. Only a wire was missing, he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"foo8f\">Wrona told the Tracker that the crew had been covering a <a href=\"https://www.state.gov/united-states-and-concerned-nations-stand-together-for-the-cuban-people/\">U.S. State Department</a>-sponsored declaration calling for freedom in Cuba, signed by the United States and 19 other countries, and a protest <a href=\"https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2021-07-27-u208060-e208060-s27061-periodista-expulsado-cubanos-marcha-casa-blanca-prensa\">against government repression in Cuba</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"uoeyj\">“First we were approached by an individual with a bullhorn who was yelling something in Spanish straight in our microphone and camera. I asked him to stop doing it as the viewers would not be able to hear a word of our reporting. We moved a few steps over,” Wrona said.</p><p data-block-key=\"js111\">“Later a group of about five people lined up behind my back, blocking the view with their raised signs. I asked them to lower the signs because we would not be able to show how big the protest is.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hf5ua\">As he was about to go on air, the crowd started “yelling something in Spanish and telling us that we were not welcome there. They started physically pushing us out of the park,” he said, confirming that they were prevented from doing the broadcast. Wrona said the equipment displayed the station logo and Wyszogrodzki was carrying press identification.</p><p data-block-key=\"aunjc\">When the TVN crew decided to pack up and leave, <a href=\"https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2021-07-27-u208060-e208060-s27061-periodista-expulsado-cubanos-marcha-casa-blanca-prensa\">the crowd started punching them, grabbing equipment</a>, spraying water on them and throwing bottles and other objects at them. The Tracker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-for-polish-news-station-were-assaulted-chased-out-of-dcs-lafayette-square-park-during-cuba-protest/\">documented Wrona’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"0cmo2\">They managed to get across H street, still being chased by the crowd, and went towards two Metropolitan Police officers on a bicycle patrol. The officers tried to hold back the crowd using their bikes and then called for backup. Finally about 10 officers escorted them to safety, Wrona said.</p><p data-block-key=\"29io5\">“We covered at least three or four blocks and the crowd was still attacking us. Finally the police decided to get us into their squad vehicle and their lieutenant drove us away, although her car was followed by some Cubans.”</p><p data-block-key=\"roee3\">TVN is often described as the last<a href=\"https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/12/poland-government-in-chaotic-parliamentary-tussle-over-disputed-media-ownership-bill\"> independent news</a> channel in Poland.</p><p data-block-key=\"lv2gv\">Wrona also said that there had been some “horrible” follow-up personal attacks on social media, stoked by people spreading false information.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Independent journalist’s phone knocked from hands during ‘We Are Israel’ rally",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalists-phone-knocked-from-hands-during-we-are-israel-rally/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-05T18:50:08.764180Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-03-10T21:41:31.607362Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-03-10T21:41:31.548453Z",
"date": "2021-07-25",
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"city": "El Cajon",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"19rrr\">Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg’s phone was deliberately knocked out of her hands while she was documenting clashing demonstrations in El Cajon, California, on July 25, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"col8c\">The San Diego Union-Tribune <a href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/story/2021-07-25/we-are-israel-rally-draws-recall-candidate-trumps-former-secretary-of-state-and-protesters-to-el-cajon\">reported</a> far-right demonstrators had gathered in the San Diego suburb to attend the “We Are Israel” rally at which former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder were scheduled to speak. Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she began reporting that day around 2:30 p.m. at a nearby park where counterprotesters were gathering ahead of a planned march to the rally.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I’m in El Cajon, inland from San Diego, where Christian Zionists are staging a rally with Mike Pompeo and Larry Elders. Jewish Voice for Peace and PSL are staging a protest <a href=\"https://t.co/Gde2YHMhTS\">pic.twitter.com/Gde2YHMhTS</a></p>— Lefty-Desiree McLefty Face, Milkshake Whisperer (@TinaDesireeBerg) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg/status/1419409881832951809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 25, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jge2e\">Berg said that around 4 p.m. the marchers had made it to approximately a block away from the Prescott Promenade, where the rally was taking place, when they ran into a group of far-right demonstrators who were standing around some sort of a blockade on the street. Berg said she quickly ran up to begin filming the group and their interactions with the marchers.</p><p data-block-key=\"70ahs\">“As I was standing there filming I decided to pull out my phone camera too to get back-up footage just because there was so much going on,” Berg said. “And I’m standing there and I’m concentrating just on filming so I didn’t see it coming but he came over and he blasted the phone out of my hand and I ran to go get it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ljhd4\">At 2:08 in <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sac4J5Ct0g4\">footage</a> Berg posted to YouTube, an individual can be seen grabbing at independent videographer Vishal Singh’s press badge and then turning to taunt the crowd. At 0:33 in Singh’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1419431006264860677\">footage</a> of the incident, the same man can be seen deliberately knocking the phone out of Berg’s hands before seconds later returning to where Singh is filming and deliberately knocking the phone from his hands as well.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is an immediate clash between sides, instigated by the far right extremists. The man in the punisher shirt with the yellow sleeves tries to assault me, then he knocks <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TinaDesireeBerg</a>’s phone down, then he knocks my phone down as well. <a href=\"https://t.co/iO76cApYCi\">pic.twitter.com/iO76cApYCi</a></p>— Vishal P. Singh (They/He) (@VPS_Reports) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1419431006264860677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 25, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6o99d\">Berg <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg/status/1419435285075533826\">tweeted</a> immediately following the incident that she was also caught in a cloud of bear spray, and in her footage she can be heard coughing and reacting to the spray and puts her camera down at 6:15 in the clip in order to receive treatment. She told the Tracker that her phone was not damaged by the fall, but she decided shortly after the incident to leave without making it to the rally.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahk5d\">“Me and two of the other press guys who were there — I’m not sure who, one of them was from the San Diego Union-Tribune — we never made it down to the event because it was not safe,” Berg told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhx4y\">Berg said in addition to her video camera she was also wearing a press badge around her neck and a flak jacket labeled with “PRESS.” She said she hasn’t filed a police report about the incident.</p></div>",
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Independent videographer’s phone knocked from hands during ‘We Are Israel’ rally",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-videographers-phone-knocked-from-hands-during-we-are-israel-rally/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-05T18:53:27.439849Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-10-19T21:01:14.482816Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-10-19T21:01:14.434881Z",
"date": "2021-07-25",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "El Cajon",
"longitude": -116.96253,
"latitude": 32.79477,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Vishal Singh, a videographer who works on Netflix documentaries and has been covering demonstrations in Los Angeles since May 2020, was pushed and his phone knocked out of his hands as he documented clashing demonstrations in El Cajon, California, on July 25, 2021, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p>The San Diego Union-Tribune <a href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/story/2021-07-25/we-are-israel-rally-draws-recall-candidate-trumps-former-secretary-of-state-and-protesters-to-el-cajon\">reported</a> far-right demonstrators had gathered in the San Diego suburb to attend the “We Are Israel” rally at which former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder were scheduled to speak. Singh told the Tracker that he began reporting that day shortly before 3 p.m. at a nearby park where counterprotesters were gathering ahead of a planned march to the rally.</p><p>Singh said that around 4 p.m. the marchers had made it to approximately a block away from the Prescott Promenade, where the rally was taking place, when they ran into a group of far-right demonstrators standing around a barricade.</p><p>“There was pretty much immediately a clash between the two sides,” Singh said, “and I was one of the first people assaulted.”</p><p>Singh told the Tracker that an individual came forward from the barricade and attempted to push him and grab his press badge, but Singh was able to deflect him and told the man not to touch him. In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1419431006264860677\">footage</a> Singh posted to Twitter, the clip begins with the man approaching him. At 0:33 in the footage, the individual can be seen deliberately knocking the phone out of independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg’s hands before returning to where Singh is filming and deliberately knocking the phone from his hands as well.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is an immediate clash between sides, instigated by the far right extremists. The man in the punisher shirt with the yellow sleeves tries to assault me, then he knocks <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TinaDesireeBerg</a>’s phone down, then he knocks my phone down as well. <a href=\"https://t.co/iO76cApYCi\">pic.twitter.com/iO76cApYCi</a></p>— Vishal P. Singh (They/He) (@VPS_Reports) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports/status/1419431006264860677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 25, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Singh told the Tracker that his phone may have sustained additional damage, but the screen was already cracked from an <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-videographer-struck-with-baton-during-protest-at-las-wi-spa/\">incident on July 17</a>.</p><p>After the clashes continued, Singh said, a far-right demonstrator walked up to the counterprotesters and sprayed a chemical irritant at them. “And then he turned around to me, chased me and bear maced me,” Singh said.</p><p>Singh said he hasn’t yet filed a police report about the assaults.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Documentarian pushed, sprayed with chemical irritant while covering LA anti-mask protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-pushed-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-while-covering-la-anti-mask-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-09T18:32:06.274644Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-03-10T21:42:05.311127Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-03-10T21:42:05.235694Z",
"date": "2021-07-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2yf8s\">Documentary writer, director and producer Rocky Romano was shoved and sprayed with bear mace and his camera was knocked from his hands while he was covering anti-mask protests in Los Angeles, California, on July 22, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"3258j\">Romano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering demonstrations outside the Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services Building in West Hollywood, where <a href=\"https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkbxmg/breast-cancer-patient-attacked-anti-mask-protest\">demonstrators had gathered</a> to protest the clinic’s requirement that patients wear masks indoors. Similar rules have been put in place across the country in order to <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/03/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine#:~:text=Fully%20vaccinated%20people%20are%20protected,worse%20before%20it%20gets%20better.%E2%80%9D\">curb the spread of COVID-19 variations</a>, particularly among unvaccinated populations.</p><p data-block-key=\"0u4qe\">“The group consisted of anti-maskers holding signs with anti-vaxx and QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories gathered on the sidewalk by the cancer clinic harassing patients and doctors,” Romano wrote in an email to the Tracker. “Community members arrived and attempted to thwart the efforts of the anti-vaxxers and violence erupted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v25zp\">Romano said that at approximately 11 a.m. an anti-vaccine protester struck him, knocking his camera to the ground, when he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/directedbyrocky/status/1418970657438638080\">attempted to ask</a> why the protest was taking place. The individual then kicked the camera into the street, and both Romano and his assailant raced to get it; Romano said he was able to retrieve the camera before his assailant was able to kick it again into the intersection.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was assaulted and had my camera knocked out of my hand when I tried to inquire as to why the anti-vaccine protestors chose to protest a cancer clinic. Later I was bear maced along with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Katerqburns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Katerqburns</a>. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PlasticJesus9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PlasticJesus9</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wysiwygtv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wysiwygtv</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/chadloder?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@chadloder</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/misstessowen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@misstessowen</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/rALYP6ICHG\">pic.twitter.com/rALYP6ICHG</a></p>— Rocky Romano (he/him) (@directedbyrocky) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/directedbyrocky/status/1418970657438638080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"30f6b\">The camera sustained minor damage Romano said, and he was able to continue filming the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"30hhf\">Approximately three hours later, Romano said he was covering the main crowd of protesters in front of the clinic when an individual pulled out what he described as a can of bear mace and sprayed Romano, as well as a cancer patient and multiple counterprotesters.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Anti-vax protestor assaults members of the community, a credentialed media person (me), and cancer patient <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Katerqburns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Katerqburns</a> with bear mace to their faces. Notice the community member assisting the cancer patient to safety. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/misstessowen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@misstessowen</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/chadloder?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@chadloder</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VPS_Reports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@VPS_Reports</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PlasticJesus9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PlasticJesus9</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/rKhGii6MWn\">pic.twitter.com/rKhGii6MWn</a></p>— Rocky Romano (he/him) (@directedbyrocky) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/directedbyrocky/status/1419017484691132417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"efyfv\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/directedbyrocky/status/1419017484691132417\">footage of the incident</a> Romano posted to Twitter, Romano appears to have been one of the first people targeted with the bear mace. In the footage, Romano can clearly be seen wearing a helmet and flak jacket labeled “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uwhvt\">Romano told the Tracker his lungs and eyes were inflamed for four to six hours after he was sprayed, and it took him 24 hours to recover fully. He said he hasn’t yet filed a police report about the incident.</p></div>",
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"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"coronavirus",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Rocky Romano (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
}
]
