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{
"title": "WLS-TV photographer assaulted, phones stolen, vehicle damaged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wls-tv-photographer-assaulted-phones-stolen-vehicle-damaged/",
"first_published_at": "2023-08-31T19:40:00.280489Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-27T21:04:08.301555Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-27T21:04:08.180114Z",
"date": "2023-08-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4ix4w\">A photographer for WLS-TV was assaulted and robbed while preparing to cover a press conference in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 8, 2023.</p><p data-block-key=\"r62\">CWBChicago <a href=\"https://cwbchicago.com/2023/08/chicago-tv-news-photographer-mugged-abc7-west-side.html\">reported</a> that the photographer was approached at approximately 2 p.m. by two men asking for money. When the journalist replied that he didn’t have any, one of the men tried to grab his phone. The photographer pushed the man away and put his phone into a vehicle from the news station’s fleet, but the man then shoved him to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"3dbg\">The Chicago Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the victim, who they did not identify, was able to run away. The second man broke the vehicle’s window and took two phones from inside before both men fled the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"da091\">WLS <a href=\"https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-shooting-east-garfield-park-reward-reverend-paul-jakes/13619841/\">confirmed</a> that one of its photographers was assaulted and robbed, reporting that he was “fine and suffered only minor scrapes.” The station’s general manager did not respond to an emailed request for additional information.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4e92\">The Chicago police said that the incident is classified as an attempted strong-arm robbery with theft, simple battery and criminal damage to a vehicle, and is still under investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"7mf1b\">Less than three weeks later, a Univision Chicago news crew was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2023-08-28&date_upper=2023-08-28&city=Chicago&tags=robbery\">robbed, this time at gunpoint</a>, and one of the station’s cameras was taken.</p><p data-block-key=\"67n6h\">Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, <a href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2023/8/28/23850057/chicago-tv-news-crew-robbed-at-gunpoint-while-reporting-on-armed-robberies\">told the Chicago Sun-Times</a> that the union is arranging a safety meeting for members to voice concerns about the dangers they are increasingly facing.</p><p data-block-key=\"21o3d\">“We want to make sure that we provide a longer-lasting solution, that we work not only with management but our members, and make sure that we read some protocols that everyone is happy with and feels can be a workable solution,” Siddiqui said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qfuj\">Some Chicago news stations have begun to implement additional security measures in the meantime, Siddiqui added, including hiring security for some TV crews.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Cannabis commission restricts reporter’s access",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cannabis-commission-restricts-reporters-access/",
"first_published_at": "2023-10-06T15:43:35.974288Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-12-20T20:36:29.642546Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-12-20T20:36:29.561609Z",
"date": "2023-08-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Worcester",
"longitude": -71.80229,
"latitude": 42.26259,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3wu7c\">Independent journalist Grant Smith-Ellis was barred on Aug. 4, 2023, from attending future press scrums or otherwise engaging in a professional capacity with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, after the state body decided he was not a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"3il5a\">Smith-Ellis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that he has reported on the commission for more than four years, broadcasting its monthly public meeting and publishing articles about it on his personal website and with outlets such as DigBoston. But at the beginning of August, the commission emailed to notify him that he would only be permitted to interact with the commission and seek information through the same channels available to the general public.</p><p data-block-key=\"2k9pq\">The email, which Smith-Ellis provided to the Tracker, claimed that Smith-Ellis had voiced his personal opinions during legislative hearings and it questioned his “general code of conduct as a purported member of the press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4ke5c\">“On multiple occasions in recent months, the information you have disseminated as journalism on your social media channels has not been conveyed accurately or fairly, and blended rumor and conjecture with fact,” the commission wrote. “[The] information you rush to post is often riddled with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5o5sm\">When asked about the commission’s characterization of him as an advocate rather than a journalist, Smith-Ellis rejected the idea that reporters must maintain objectivity.</p><p data-block-key=\"5hc1p\">“Journalists are not dispassionate robots, nor should our government ever be in a position to demand such a thing from those in the Fourth Estate,” he said. “Journalists are human beings who tell human stories through human mediums.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3ghs2\">Smith-Ellis maintains that the target of the ban was his watchdog reporting and was an “attempt to silence critical coverage about internal agency dynamics.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7vc2p\">Smith-Ellis said he had asked the commission to review the decision, as it has no policy dictating press behavior or stipulations for inclusion on press lists. He was told on Aug. 7 that no review would be provided. A subsequent petition to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest appellate court, was denied without a hearing, Smith-Ellis added.</p><p data-block-key=\"dooo7\">“As things stand, I am no longer permitted to send press inquiries to [Cannabis Control Commission] press staff or attend press conferences after each monthly public CCC hearing,” Smith-Ellis told the Tracker. “Over the past month, this punitive ban has prevented me from being able to ask the CCC questions on a number of pressing issues in the public interest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"76vsd\">When asked via email about the commission’s media policies, a spokesperson said that the commission's public meetings are open to reporters, in person or online, and that journalists can question commissioners afterwards during a staff-led media availability. The spokesperson did not offer a further statement on why Smith-Ellis’ access was restricted.</p><p data-block-key=\"7eck8\">Smith-Ellis told the Tracker he is considering next steps to address what he characterizes as a chilling overreach by a government agency.</p><p data-block-key=\"brnmi\">“The government has a right to dislike my reporting. The government has a right to seek corrections (which I have always issued when asked). The government does not have a right to silence critical journalism, without even basic due process, on the basis of its content,” Smith-Ellis said.</p></div>",
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"name": "Massachusetts",
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],
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{
"title": "Maryland reporter subpoenaed to testify in Texas murder trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/maryland-reporter-subpoenaed-to-testify-in-texas-murder-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2025-04-10T14:58:45.810686Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-11T20:09:19.760324Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-11T20:09:19.657105Z",
"date": "2023-07-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Dallas",
"longitude": -96.80667,
"latitude": 32.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wog8t\">Journalist Jamie Leigh Thompson was subpoenaed to testify in a Texas murder trial on July 31, 2023, in connection with a 2017 story she wrote on the case for Dallas monthly D Magazine, according to court filings and news reports.</p><p data-block-key=\"3nqeq\">Thompson, a former contributing editor for the magazine, was living in Maryland when she received the legal order, so asked a court there to determine whether she could invoke the Maryland or Texas reporter’s shield law to avoid testifying at the trial.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lkl3\">A Maryland appellate court ultimately ruled in January 2024 that she would have to travel to Texas to plead her case under that state’s shield law. Later that month, however, the murder charges against the defendant were dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0af6\">Dallas County prosecutors had also issued subpoenas in October 2023 to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-sets-aside-texas-magazines-subpoena-in-murder-case/\">D Magazine</a> and Fort Worth TV station <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-tv-station-subpoenaed-in-murder-case-order-set-aside/\">KTVT</a>, which had produced a news report about the case; those subpoenas were struck down in November 2023.</p><p data-block-key=\"d1kin\">For her <a href=\"https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2017/may/ira-tobolowsky-lawyer-murder-something-evil-happened/\">story</a> about the high-profile death in 2016 of Dallas lawyer Ira Tobolowsky, Thompson had corresponded by email with a suspect, Steven Aubrey. After Aubrey’s <a href=\"https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2022/04/29/man-arrested-for-killing-texas-attorney-by-setting-him-on-fire-in-2016-police-say/\">arrest</a> on murder charges in 2022, prosecutors in Dallas County subpoenaed Thompson to testify at his trial about their correspondence.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ahcp\">According to court filings, Thompson had voluntarily turned over a “number of” emails from Aubrey to Tobolowsky’s son after the article was published. The son later gave them to prosecutors. The state sought to compel Thompson to testify at the trial “to authenticate the messages and to fill in the gaps that might exist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dfo6e\">On Aug. 3, 2023, Dallas County District Judge Hector Garza issued an order to secure Thompson’s presence at the trial. On Aug. 8, the Montgomery County state’s attorney in Maryland filed a petition on behalf of the state of Texas asking the Montgomery County Circuit Court to order Thompson to appear and testify at the Texas trial.</p><p data-block-key=\"792ho\">Thompson filed an objection to the petition on Aug. 28. In that objection, and at a Sept. 7 hearing, Thompson argued that she was shielded from testifying under the First Amendment and Texas and Maryland state laws that protect journalists from being forced to disclose newsgathering materials.</p><p data-block-key=\"6er4s\">Thomson asked the Maryland court to first rule on this question before ordering her to travel to Texas, which would subject her to an undue hardship. The Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that day that Thompson had to make her reporter’s privilege argument before the Texas court.</p><p data-block-key=\"17cl3\">The journalist appealed that ruling on Oct. 6. But the Appellate Court of Maryland <a href=\"https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/cosa/2024/1545s23.pdf\">upheld</a> the lower court’s decision on Jan. 9, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"6nt8q\">In its decision, the Maryland court found that Thompson doesn’t enjoy protection under the Maryland press shield law for news reporting conducted while in Texas. “If Thompson contends that she has a privilege not to testify or not to answer certain questions at some future trial, she may present her arguments to the Texas court,” the court added.</p><p data-block-key=\"67gb\">Just three days later, Texas prosecutors <a href=\"https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/da-drops-charges-against-litigant-charged-with-murder-of-prominent-dallas-lawyer#google_vignette\">dropped</a> the charges against Aubrey, even as they left open the possibility of reinstating the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"25uc4\">Lin Weeks, an attorney for Thompson and senior staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, <a href=\"https://thedailyrecord.com/2024/02/05/md-appellate-court-rules-montgomery-county-woman-would-have-to-testify-in-texas-criminal-trial/\">told</a> Maryland’s The Daily Record he believed Thompson’s case should have been heard by the Maryland court.</p><p data-block-key=\"9srf0\">“Maryland and Texas both have strong protections for journalists’ unpublished work product,” Weeks said, “and a Maryland court could look at either state’s law on reporter’s privilege and see that Ms. Thompson shouldn’t be required to testify.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dm592\">Thompson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that while the subpoena ultimately didn’t impact her work, “I think it's important to fight every battle of this sort and hold the line. Law enforcement has many powerful tools — weapons, subpoenas, warrants — and they should be able to hold their own in a court of law while bringing serious charges against citizens, not relying on journalists, who lose credibility if they lose independence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ekmbs\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a comment from Jamie Leigh Thompson.</i></p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bepqy\">A portion of Texas prosecutors’ July 31, 2023, subpoena for journalist Jamie Leigh Thompson to testify in a Dallas murder trial.</p>",
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{
"title": "Journalist called to testify before grand jury on Trump election interference",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-called-to-testify-before-grand-jury-on-trump-election-interference/",
"first_published_at": "2023-08-03T16:24:26.676439Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-08-31T16:41:35.990864Z",
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"date": "2023-07-31",
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"city": "Atlanta",
"longitude": -84.38798,
"latitude": 33.749,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nc5z4\">Freelance journalist George Chidi was subpoenaed for the second time on July 31, 2023, to testify before a grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia. Chidi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that it is connected to alleged 2020 election interference, though the subpoenas do not specify what Chidi would be questioned about.</p><p data-block-key=\"272os\">In December 2020, Chidi was covering the meeting of electors casting their official votes for President-elect Joe Biden at the Georgia State Capitol Building in Atlanta when he observed a Republican elector entering a side room. Chidi <a href=\"https://theatlantaobjective.substack.com/p/bearing-witness\">wrote in his newsletter</a>, The Atlanta Objective, that when he began filming and asked what was going on in the room, he was quickly ushered out.</p><p data-block-key=\"135qf\">Chidi was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/gchidi/posts/pfbid03878QJ4b9gPELdyrWNVgYNbunKa5ZV1BsqAd19xVzxNKeipqtfakwbzQDHeddWonql\">immediately suspicious</a> and believed Republican electors were working to submit fabricated election results certifying the state’s electoral college votes for Trump, despite Biden’s victory in Georgia.</p><p data-block-key=\"feevn\">The journalist was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-subpoenaed-to-testify-in-grand-jury-hearing-on-georgia-election-interference/\">subpoenaed to testify</a> before a special grand jury in July 2022, which he unsuccessfully fought in court. Chidi was able to limit the scope of the questions to election interference and what he witnessed at the Capitol.</p><p data-block-key=\"bc55a\">A little over a year later, Chidi wrote in <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2023/07/31/trump-georgia-grand-jury-subpoena/\">The Intercept</a> that he met with an investigator from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, who handed him two subpoenas. Chidi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was ordered to be “on call” to testify between Aug. 7 and Aug. 31 before both of the <a href=\"https://www.ajc.com/news/trump-probe-grand-jurors-likely-to-weigh-charges-against-former-president-selected/G2J5WSK2YVDMNPEF3BM32ZOMNU/\">recently empaneled</a> grand juries, and that he will receive notice at least 48 hours before he is expected to appear.</p><p data-block-key=\"7sqe\">Chidi said that he is not certain whether he will be asked to testify before one of the juries, both or neither.</p><p data-block-key=\"3m8vv\">The journalist told the Tracker that he has received some assurances in writing that the scope of questioning will again be limited to exclude any unrelated reporting and so expects to testify again. Were the circumstances different, he added that he would fight the subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"ad3o8\">“No district attorney anywhere in the United States should be making a habit of issuing subpoenas to journalists,” Chidi said. “This erodes the independence of a free press. And were it for anything less substantial than democracy and the principles of the United States, I would resist with complete vigor.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"o7x2x\">A portion of a July 31, 2023, subpoena ordering independent journalist George Chidi to be “on call” to testify before two grand juries potentially hearing cases alleging 2020 election interference by then-President Donald Trump and his allies.</p>",
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{
"title": "North Carolina judge seizes reporter’s notes, issues gag order",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/north-carolina-judge-seizes-reporters-notes-issues-gag-order/",
"first_published_at": "2023-08-09T19:35:06.383819Z",
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"date": "2023-07-28",
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"city": "Greensboro",
"longitude": -79.79198,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"41trf\">Kenwyn Caranna, a government reporter for the News & Record, was covering a juvenile court hearing on July 28, 2023, when a North Carolina judge seized her notes and told her she was under a gag order.</p><p data-block-key=\"dr01b\">News & Record Executive Editor Dimon Kendrick-Holmes <a href=\"https://greensboro.com/news/local/judge-issues-gag-order-seizes-notes-of-news-record-reporter/article_48caaecc-330d-11ee-9f7c-bfce08f902e6.html\">wrote</a> that Caranna had been observing proceedings in the Greensboro courtroom most of the day, the only exception being a closed hearing when all observers were ordered to leave the courtroom.</p><p data-block-key=\"denat\">District Court Judge Ashley Watlington-Simms reportedly asked Caranna to identify herself later in the day. When Caranna did so, the judge denied the reporter’s request to speak with an attorney and left the courtroom to consult with Chief District Court Judge Teresa Vincent.</p><p data-block-key=\"6q1a7\">When she returned, Watlington-Simms told Caranna she was under a gag order. The judge then directed bailiffs to seize Caranna’s notes from the day’s proceedings, telling the journalist she could appeal the decision on a later date.</p><p data-block-key=\"4vu9u\">Watlington-Simms entered a formal protective order on Aug. 2, which stated that the prior restraint was necessary to protect confidential information from the juvenile court cases, according to the News & Record. The order also sealed Caranna’s notes and barred her from disclosing information from the cases she observed.</p><p data-block-key=\"43rk3\">The News & Record has requested a hearing to vacate the gag order as well as unseal and return Caranna’s notes.</p><p data-block-key=\"3sq89\">When reached by email, Caranna directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to a <a href=\"https://www.theassemblync.com/newsletter/who-investigates-prosecutors/\">newsletter</a> about the ruling, but declined to comment further. The newsletter reported that a district trial court coordinator refused to release a copy of the protective order, stating that it is confidential.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Boston TV reporter shoved after court hearing",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/boston-tv-reporter-shoved-after-court-hearing/",
"first_published_at": "2023-09-27T20:44:52.351834Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-28T18:52:54.288422Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-28T18:52:54.203438Z",
"date": "2023-07-26",
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"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z7t4u\">A Boston TV reporter was allegedly assaulted on July 26, 2023, by a man leaving a courthouse after his arraignment for impersonating a police officer, according to law enforcement officials and <a href=\"https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/revere-man-charged-with-impersonating-police-officer-accused-assaulting-tv-reporter/CU76OYAVOJAMPPN3PTPNBYOQJ4/\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"cui1k\">Byron Boisseau, 44, allegedly <a href=\"https://www.suffolkdistrictattorney.com/press-releases/items/2023/9/12/revere-man-charged-with-impersonating-a-police-officer-faces-additional-assault-charge\">grabbed the TV reporter and shoved him</a> multiple times outside the District Court in Chelsea, Massachusetts, following Boisseau’s arraignment, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a Sept. 12 release.</p><p data-block-key=\"tp7l\">Police did not name the reporter, but WFXT-TV <a href=\"https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/police-man-caught-impersonating-officer-near-revere-beach-forced-drivers-off-road-with-fake-cop-car/YLQZJXVBR5HIRMQHFU7BMRT76A/\">reported on July 26</a> that Boisseau shoved reporter Bob Ward after he approached Boisseau for comment. Ward later turned over footage of the alleged attack to the Massachusetts State Police.</p><p data-block-key=\"dec6h\">The station said at the time that Ward was OK and had been checked out by medical professionals as a precaution.</p><p data-block-key=\"6p1bl\">Boisseau was charged with assault and battery of a person over 60 years old, according to the district attorney. Massachusetts law carries <a href=\"https://www.neymanlaw.com/massachusetts-g-l-c-265-13-k-assault-and-battery-upon-an-elderly.html\">enhanced penalties for assaults</a> on elderly people and people with disabilities.</p><p data-block-key=\"1i69c\">“This individual chose to commit another crime right after answering on a different one. We all have a job to do. Use of force or violence against someone performing their professional duties will never be tolerated, as this individual has found out,” DA Kevin R. Hayden said in a news release.</p><p data-block-key=\"2si25\">Paul Mahoney, Boisseau’s defense attorney, declined to comment on the assault charge. Boisseau is due back in court on Nov. 1.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"muvl6\">A Boston 25 News reporter was allegedly assaulted outside a courthouse on July 26, 2023, by a man who had just been arraigned for impersonating a police officer. The man has since been charged.</p>",
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"name": "Massachusetts",
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{
"title": "Proposed bill would direct media coverage of mass shootings",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/proposed-bill-would-direct-media-coverage-of-mass-shootings/",
"first_published_at": "2023-10-24T17:37:42.162462Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-07T15:54:45.723206Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-07T15:54:45.622603Z",
"date": "2023-07-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k9425\">Two Republican lawmakers jointly introduced a resolution on July 18, 2023, proposing guidelines for how the media should report on mass shootings.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mgq4\">Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee proposed a <a href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-concurrent-resolution/15/text\">concurrent resolution</a> asserting that “irresponsible and sensationalistic reporting practices” are one of the key factors behind the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States. They also alleged that the press routinely covers the shooter more than the victims, satisfying the attacker’s desire for “notoriety and infamy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b1g71\">The two called on the media to “voluntarily and responsibly” change its approach by, for instance, not naming alleged perpetrators or promoting the shooter’s ideology or advocacy for any particular public policy change. Instead, they said the media should focus coverage on memorializing victims and on the “heroism” of any law enforcement, first responders or bystanders.</p><p data-block-key=\"712mi\">Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University and former editor-in-chief of USA Today, <a href=\"https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/15/congress-resolution-on-media-coverage-of-shootings-raises-concerns-first-amendment-experts/70447777007/\">told The Tennessean</a> that any attempt by the government to stipulate how the media should operate raises immediate First Amendment concerns.</p><p data-block-key=\"15hhn\">Paulson also challenged the lawmakers’ assertion that the press voraciously covers every mass shooting, saying that while many newsrooms have independently reduced coverage to avoid inspiring copycats, the sheer number of incidents has made the coverage decision for them.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaac7\">“Mass murders now happen so often that they no longer get the same level of attention from the news media,” he said. “I believe the public sometimes confuses the coverage of unrelenting mass murders with excessive coverage of a single event.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0shi0\">Sen. Mike Lee of Utah speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in March 2022. Lee and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee jointly proposed a bill in July 2023 that proposed guidelines for how journalists should cover mass shootings.</p>",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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{
"title": "Colorado reporter says he was assaulted by subject of reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-reporter-says-he-was-assaulted-by-subject-of-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2023-09-21T19:57:35.433577Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-09-21T19:57:35.433577Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-09-21T19:21:39.440717Z",
"date": "2023-07-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Silverton",
"longitude": -107.66451,
"latitude": 37.81194,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xfd58\">Reporter Reuben Schafir of The Durango Herald said he was assaulted at a concert in Silverton, Colorado, on July 14, 2023, in retaliation for his reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"8icnp\">According to Schafir, a subject of two <a href=\"https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/silverton-locals-caught-in-avalanche-one-critically-injured/\">May</a> <a href=\"https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/skiers-recall-exacting-rescue-after-silverton-avalanche/\">stories</a> about a group of Silverton skiers caught in an avalanche walked up behind him at the concert, slowly poured a beer over his head and told him, “Go fuck yourself.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8rn09\">Schafir believes that the person attacked him because he “felt that the full narrative was not contained in my reporting, despite the fact that it was based off a first-person account posted to social media and official statements from first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dnpde\">The reporter also believes the individual may have acted because, as Schafir later learned, he had not notified all of his family members about the avalanche before the stories were published.</p><p data-block-key=\"6v1c1\">Schafir said he offered to talk with the individual after the stories were published, but that he did not respond. Schafir said he does not intend to file charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"i1qq\">“I stand by the reporting,” he said. “Obviously having a beer dumped on you is a small offense in the larger scheme of what reporters go through — but it felt worthwhile to make a note of it as it speaks to some of the unique hardships that come with being a small town reporter."</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"name": "Colorado",
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],
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{
"title": "WSAZ-TV publishes government document after judge ends protective order",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wsaz-tv-publishes-government-document-after-judge-ends-protective-order/",
"first_published_at": "2023-09-13T20:37:57.691359Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T19:32:22.102150Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T19:32:22.022144Z",
"date": "2023-07-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Charleston",
"longitude": -81.63262,
"latitude": 38.34982,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jqtmm\">West Virginia television station WSAZ, which had sued a state agency over access to documents that included a contentious draft letter terminating a senior official, was freed to publish the letter on Aug. 28, 2023, after Kanawha County Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard <a href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23929958/order-denying-defendants-motion-to-protect-and-dissolving-temporary-protective-order.pdf\">lifted a temporary protective order</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9sr0o\">In May 2022, WSAZ sued to access documents from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources after the department had <a href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23929959/wvdhhr-foia-denial.pdf\">rebuffed an earlier Freedom of Information Act request</a>. The station was, in part, seeking records related to the termination of the agency’s deputy secretary by its top administrator.</p><p data-block-key=\"670k3\">Ballard ruled in favor of the station, requiring the release of the requested documents, with the exception of the draft termination letter itself. But when the agency sent a PDF with hundreds of pages to the station in July 2023, it inadvertently included the letter. When the agency learned of the error, it asked that the letter be deleted. The station refused to delete it, so the agency asked the court to prevent its publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"frvc0\">On July 14, Ballard issued a temporary protective order barring disclosure of the letter’s contents. Ultimately, however, he determined a permanent bar would represent an unconstitutional prior restraint, so in August he lifted the protective order, <a href=\"https://www.wsaz.com/2023/08/28/wsaz-obtains-dhhr-deputy-secretary-termination-letter/\">allowing the station to publish the letter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"bs8r8\">“The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held,” the judge wrote in his decision, “that the news media has a First Amendment right, absent the government’s demonstration of a ‘state interest of the highest order,’ to publish information about a matter of public concern that it has lawfully obtained, regardless of whether the news media’s source violated the law in providing that information.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ft190\">Claire Magee Ferguson, an attorney with WSAZ’s parent company Gray Media, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “Judge Ballard’s ruling underlined that our daily pursuit of public information is a necessary, worthy fight. WSAZ and Gray Media were thrilled to receive judicial confirmation that the ‘overriding interest of justice’ inevitably sides with free speech.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fmqe2\">The agency did not respond to requests for comment from the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ufvnj\">A portion of the decision, filed Aug. 28, 2023, lifting the temporary restraining order that held West Virginia television station WSAZ couldn’t publish a government document it received by mistake.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "West Virginia",
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{
"title": "Pennsylvania cameraman struck by pellet gun on assignment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pennsylvania-cameraman-struck-by-pellet-gun-on-assignment/",
"first_published_at": "2023-07-24T15:22:38.458760Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-24T15:26:05.678081Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-24T15:26:05.565723Z",
"date": "2023-07-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Allentown",
"longitude": -75.49018,
"latitude": 40.60843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kjxer\">A photojournalist for WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was hit multiple times by airsoft projectiles while on assignment on July 11, 2023.</p><p data-block-key=\"95bii\">One of the objects struck the photojournalist in the corner of the eye, causing an irritation but no lingering injuries and did not require medical attention, WFMZ-TV News Director Brad Rinehart told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"343qc\">A fellow reporter was not hit and no equipment was affected or damaged, Rinehart added. He declined to name the news staffers.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ms2h\">The photojournalist and the reporter were at the scene of a homicide that had occurred a few days earlier inside a home on the 300 block of North 16th Street in Allentown when “a person in a passing car fired shots from an airsoft gun,”<a href=\"https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2023/07/wfmz-tv-69-news-crew-at-homicide-scene-hit-by-airsoft-gun-projectiles.html\"> lehighvallylive.com</a> reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0602\">“The photojournalist was taking pictures with his phone, and not a full-fledged television camera, at the time of the attack,” Rinehart said. “He was not wearing station-branded attire, and he was across the street from the branded news vehicle.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8pith\">Rinehart said he had no evidence that the attack was aimed at the staffer due to his job. “On the other hand, [the photojournalist] had been shooting with his TV camera earlier in the day and may have been identified by the shooter. Another reporter from our staff reported seeing a car circling the area on the morning of the attack,” Rinehart said.</p><p data-block-key=\"22oi8\">On the evening of the attack, WFMZ-TV News Anchor Rob Vaughn, with the station for more than 35 years, tweeted: “Awful: Today a<a href=\"https://twitter.com/69News\"> @69News</a> crew covering a 16th St,<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Allentown?src=hashtag_click\"> #Allentown</a> homicide was *shot at* by someone w/ a pellet gun (Airsoft?) fired from a passing car. Pellets hit our photographer in the head, including face. He's OK. If you know anything about it, call<a href=\"https://twitter.com/AllentownPolice\"> @AllentownPolice</a>”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Awful: <br><br>Today a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/69News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@69News</a> crew covering a 16th St, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Allentown?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Allentown</a> homicide was *shot at* by someone w/ a pellet gun (Airsoft?) fired from a passing car. Pellets hit our photographer in the head, including face. He's OK. If you know anything about it, call <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AllentownPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AllentownPolice</a></p>— Rob Vaughn (@RobVaughnNews) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RobVaughnNews/status/1678949535882661889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 12, 2023</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=\"kjxer\">The incident, which was reported to the Allentown City Police, was confirmed by Capt. Kyle Pammer, who said no suspects had been named, nor any leads, and no arrests had been made as of July 19. Pammer also said the incident does not appear to be targeted and that the investigation is ongoing.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebtto\">In May, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/philadelphia-news-crew-shot-at-with-pellets-during-live-broadcast/\"> reported</a> the assault of a WTXF-TV FOX29 news crew who was shot at with a pellet gun from a moving vehicle while reporting outside of City Hall in Philadelphia.</p></div>",
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"shot / shot at"
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Fox News subpoenaed by Trump attorneys for interview footage in Jan. 6 lawsuit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-subpoenaed-by-trump-attorneys-for-interview-footage-in-jan-6-lawsuit/",
"first_published_at": "2023-08-07T13:09:41.974599Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-02T14:04:59.866068Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-02T14:04:59.767738Z",
"date": "2023-07-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9ivkq\">Fox News Network was subpoenaed by former President Donald Trump’s legal team on July 11, 2023, for recordings and notes after ex-network host Tucker Carlson referenced an unaired interview he conducted with former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.</p><p data-block-key=\"60j4l\">Trump is facing a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60313941/smith-v-trump/\">lawsuit</a> filed by seven Capitol Police officers who were injured during the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. On March 16, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to reconsider his motion to dismiss the suit, as well as several others. Discovery in the case is now underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6a7\">Puck <a href=\"https://puck.news/trump-has-subpoenaed-fox-news-for-tuckers-unaired-jan-6-interview/\">reported</a> that Carlson spoke about his interview with Sund during a July 7 <a href=\"https://stayfreepodcastwithrussellbrand.podbean.com/e/tucker-carlson/\">podcast with Russell Brand</a>. According to Carlson, Sund claimed the Jan. 6 crowd was rife with federal agents. </p><p data-block-key=\"bsft\">Trump now seeks a copy of the recording and all communications referencing the interview, according to a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.234873/gov.uscourts.dcd.234873.227.1.pdf\">copy of the subpoena</a> reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"38fj4\">After receiving the subpoena, Fox News wrote Trump’s legal team arguing that the materials are protected under reporter’s privilege and suggested that they could obtain the information by deposing Sund himself, according to Puck. <a href=\"https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-reportedly-fighting-back-against-trump-subpoena-for-tucker-carlson-jan-6-interview/\">Mediaite reported</a> that Sund recently published a book about the riots.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4kco\">Fox News did not respond to a request for comment as of publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"dovf1\">On Aug. 10, Carlson, who was fired from Fox News the previous April, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1689783814594174976\">published</a> a recorded interview he conducted with Sund on the social platform X, writing that it took place because Fox News opted against airing the previous one. </p><p data-block-key=\"2q9to\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include details from the subpoena and Tucker Carlson’s second interview with Steven Sund.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"as1x8\">A portion of the subpoena issued to Fox News on July 11, 2023, seeking the recording and notes from an interview host Tucker Carlson held with former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund in connection with a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.</p>",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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"Fox News"
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{
"title": "LA Times journalists accused by police union of ‘stalking’",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-times-journalists-accused-by-police-union-of-stalking/",
"first_published_at": "2023-07-20T22:02:22.145424Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-20T22:02:22.145424Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-20T22:02:13.555079Z",
"date": "2023-07-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ruzdm\">Two Los Angeles Times reporters were accused of “stalking” by the city’s police union, which emailed the charge to its more than 9,000 members on July 10, 2023, after the pair went to an officer’s home to ask for comment for a forthcoming article.</p><p data-block-key=\"2r7kc\">Reporters Brittny Mejia and Libor Jany <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-14/lapd-refused-to-id-the-officers-behind-a-huge-fireworks-explosion-now-we-have-their-names\">were investigating</a> the June 2021 detonation of a seized fireworks cache <a href=\"https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/south-la-los-angeles-illegal-fireworks-explosion-lapd-bomb-squad-timeline/2926329/\">that went awry</a>, seriously injuring 17 people and damaging homes, businesses and vehicles on a South L.A. residential block. The Los Angeles Police Department repeatedly declined requests to identify the bomb squad officers involved, citing existing law, but the journalists were ultimately able to uncover their identities.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tv89\">Prior to publication, on July 8, Mejia and Jany went to the homes of several officers without incident, the Times <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-14/times-reports-what-the-lapd-wanted-buried-drawing-outrage-from-police-officials-union\">reported</a>. Then the two arrived at the home of Sgt. Stefanie Alcocer, who had been suspended for 10 days for her role in the blast.</p><p data-block-key=\"a93bn\">The journalists identified themselves and asked Alcocer if she’d like to provide comment, as their article would make her identity public for the first time. Alcocer, who denied her role in the incident, made a call, took their business cards, then asked them to leave. Mejia and Jany did so.</p><p data-block-key=\"74f6p\">After the journalists left, the Times reported that Jany noticed a missed call from LAPD spokesperson Capt. Kelly Muniz. When he called her back, Muniz reprimanded him for approaching Alcocer at home. LAPD Chief Michel Moore also called Jany and Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida with similar complaints.</p><p data-block-key=\"eu3rd\">In a subsequent interview over text, Moore told the Times, “Such unannounced visits unnecessarily create fear and intimidation on the part of our people and their family (including children) during a time in which we have individuals calling for violence against police officers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bvh6p\">Two days after the door-knocking, the Los Angeles Police Protective League — a union representing rank-and-file LAPD officers — sent an email to its members asserting that it was “unacceptable” for reporters to approach officers at their homes.</p><p data-block-key=\"e06oe\">The email alleged that Jany and Mejia had engaged in “stalking” and were “following officers to their homes,” the Times reported. The message also included photos of Mejia and Jany and identified them by name, according to a screenshot Mejia <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1679927245669011456\">posted on Twitter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"anv5c\">“You do not have to open your door to these individuals,” the email said. “You do not have to engage with them at all, and if they persist in ringing your doorbell or banging on your door, do not open it as their motives are suspect.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last weekend, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/liborjany?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@liborjany</a> and I door knocked LAPD bomb squad technicians to give them a chance to respond to our story. <br><br>The police union then circulated our photos to thousands of its members and accused us of following officers home. We didn’t. <a href=\"https://t.co/Xg0GHBmlyf\">https://t.co/Xg0GHBmlyf</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/XxdIlHbXzy\">pic.twitter.com/XxdIlHbXzy</a></p>— Brittny Mejia (@brittny_mejia) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1679927245669011456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 14, 2023</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=\"ruzdm\">Tom Saggau, a spokesperson for the union, told the Times that union leaders decided it was necessary to alert officers, as many are on edge following the publishing of thousands of officer photos online.</p><p data-block-key=\"42qnt\">A roster of more than 9,000 officers and their photos was released to Knock LA reporter Ben Camacho in September 2022 and subsequently published by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. In April, following backlash from the LAPD and union, the city of Los Angeles <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/los-angeles-sues-journalist-in-attempt-to-claw-back-photos-of-police-officers/\">filed a lawsuit against Camacho</a> in an attempt to claw back the photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fmbd\">Saggau did not respond to questions sent via text by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The LAPD declined to comment further when reached by email.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vh22\">Neither Mejia nor Jany responded to emailed requests for comment. But Times Executive Editor Merida, in a statement to the newspaper, defended the journalists’ actions as routine newsgathering.</p><p data-block-key=\"6cbjd\">“They are making an effort to give the subjects of their reporting an opportunity to speak for themselves and share their version of events,” Merida said. “As such, they are upholding the principles of journalism.”</p></div>",
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{
"title": "California reporter assaulted at meeting as man grabs camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-reporter-assaulted-at-meeting-as-man-grabs-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2023-09-12T21:20:16.164021Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-09-12T21:20:16.164021Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-09-12T21:18:33.603221Z",
"date": "2023-07-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Cottonwood",
"longitude": -121.97108,
"latitude": 38.65824,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r2ogh\">Journalist Doni Chamberlain said she was assaulted by conservative activists in Cottonwood, California, on July 6, 2023, after they surrounded her at a meeting and demanded she leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"25mmo\">Chamberlain, publisher and owner of A News Cafe, an online news magazine, was eventually escorted out of the gathering by deputies from the Shasta County Sheriff's Department. She has since filed charges against one of the activists, Mark Kent.</p><p data-block-key=\"dnmub\">Chamberlain said that at one point Kent, who the Redding Record Searchlight <a href=\"https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2023/06/06/shasta-leaders-face-outcry-for-lax-stance-to-use-of-n-word-at-meeting/70290365007/\">describes</a> as a far-right political activist, ordered Chamberlain to leave and grabbed her phone, which was hanging from a lanyard around her neck as she <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/1210986218/videos/214092161599401/\">recorded the meeting</a> for Facebook Live.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ej2\">“It caused the strap to snap my neck and pitch my head forward,” Chamberlain told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “It was momentarily like being hanged by my own phone strap.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8rpfr\">Chamberlain said she went to the emergency room the next day and was initially diagnosed with whiplash and a concussion. Later, her primary care physician diagnosed her with a traumatic brain injury. She said she has continued to experience severe confusion, aches in her neck and upper back, and tingling in her left hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"5e2ci\">Chamberlain explained to the Tracker that she found the invitation for the first of a monthly series of meetings posted on Facebook by Jesse Lane. Lane, who <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article278547069.html\">The Sacramento Bee calls</a> “an up-and-coming leader in the local far-right movement,” had <a href=\"https://anewscafe.com/2021/03/01/redding/zapata-and-friends-reveal-their-red-white-and-blueprint-to-reclaim-america/\">previously posted</a> of Chamberlain, “I think it’s time we remove her from our way of living.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1urcq\">Chamberlain said she was the only media present at what she considered a public gathering and added: “I maintain that as a journalist, covering meetings that most citizens are too afraid to attend, I had a right to be there to report.”</p><p data-block-key=\"48lrv\">But immediately after she arrived at the community center where the meeting was held, she said she was approached by Lane, who told her to leave. She was then approached by several more attendees, who repeated the demand. One attendee blocked Chamberlain’s camera with her hands and face. Chamberlain said that while she was surrounded, the meeting opened with approximately 200 people who prayed for her “salvation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5rqh7\">Lane ultimately called police to report her for trespassing and four sheriff's deputies subsequently arrived to escort her out of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9pp\">The sheriff’s office told the Tracker via email that the district attorney’s office for Shasta County is reviewing Chamberlain’s case, but declined to release the report of the sheriff’s investigation.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"530c3\">Journalist Doni Chamberlain shows the lanyard that was around her neck when a man grabbed at it, giving her whiplash, as she recorded a July 2023 meeting of conservative activists in Cottonwood, California.</p>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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{
"title": "Journalist subpoenaed five times in legal feud over boxing match",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-subpoenaed-five-times-in-legal-feud-over-boxing-match/",
"first_published_at": "2023-11-02T17:39:40.647351Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:38:50.017100Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-02T18:38:49.911620Z",
"date": "2023-06-30",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qayn8\">Journalist Lance Pugmire was subpoenaed on June 30, 2023, as part of a lawsuit around a major boxing match he covered in 2015 while a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mjih\">It was one of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_journalists=Lance+Pugmire&legal_order_type=SUBPOENA&legal_order_target=JOURNALIST&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">five subpoenas</a> Pugmire received in a plaintiff’s long-running lawsuit around finder’s fees for a 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The match broke pay-per-view records at more than $400 million in sales, as Pugmire himself <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-mayweather-pacquiao-ppv-record-20150512-story.html\">reported</a> for the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"cidb2\">The plaintiff in the suit claims that Showtime, which televised the fight, as well as Pacquiao and his trainer, Frederick Roach, promised him a finder’s fee for helping to negotiate the fight. The plaintiff first subpoenaed Pugmire for testimony in 2018 to have him confirm that quotations from Roach in Pugmire’s articles about the fight were accurately attributed. That subpoena was quashed on procedural grounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"ci55t\">The plaintiff, Showtime, Pacquiao and his trainer each subpoenaed the journalist for his testimony in June 2023 after a Showtime executive referenced a conversation with Pugmire in another deposition. The plaintiff also demanded that Pugmire produce correspondence with Showtime, the executive who had been deposed, and other executives involved in planning the fight.</p><p data-block-key=\"3bfbb\">On July 11, Pugmire objected to all of the subpoenas and refused to testify. The plaintiff then filed a motion to compel Pugmire’s cooperation with his subpoena. Defendants Showtime and Paramount Global, its parent company, also filed a motion to compel, claiming that Pugmire’s testimony would reveal “witness tampering” by the plaintiff.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ikhs\">In their opposition to the motions, Pugmire’s attorneys argued that California Shield Law and the reporter’s privilege wholly protect Pugmire. “The free flow of information to the public is jeopardized when litigants attempt to use the coercive power of the Court to turn journalists into witnesses and commandeer independent newsgathering efforts for parties’ private aims,” they wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"7k8qm\">On Sept. 11, the court denied the motions to compel, agreeing that forcing Pugmire to comply would violate the state’s shield law and reporter’s privilege.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0sse\">Pugmire’s attorney Karl Olson told the Tracker in October 2023 the parties should have been more respectful of the importance of the shield law. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Pugmire and the Times were dragged into this not once, but twice,” he said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"r75d5\">Boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao meet ahead of their 2015 match. Journalist Lance Pugmire was subpoenaed five times as part of a lawsuit involving the match and his coverage of it while at the Los Angeles Times.</p>",
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{
"title": "Reporters caught in EPA records dispute; Louisiana sues to obtain documents",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-caught-in-epa-records-dispute-louisiana-sues-to-obtain-documents/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-12T15:59:51.736671Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-01T16:13:06.822662Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-01T16:13:06.627779Z",
"date": "2023-06-29",
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"city": "Baton Rouge",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tz4zu\">Nine journalists and their news outlets are embroiled in a legal dispute between Louisiana and the federal government that started June 29, 2023, when the state sought communications between the reporters and a federal agency, according to legal documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6j65r\">Gov. Jeff Landry initiated the Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when he was the state’s attorney general. His administration has since continued his pursuit of the records, which relate to a <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/27/epa-investigation-louisiana-environmental-justice/\">since-shuttered EPA investigation</a> into “Cancer Alley,” a heavily polluted area primarily inhabited by Black residents. The state’s record request goes back to March 2021 and also seeks communications between the EPA and environmental activist groups.</p><p data-block-key=\"9klv\">Named in the state’s initial FOIA request were Halle Parker and/or news site Nola.com; Morgan Radford and/or MSNBC; Timothy Puko, Darryl Fears and Michael Phillis, and/or The Washington Post; Oliver Laughland and/or The Guardian; Anna McAllister and/or television station WGNO; Mike Smith and/or The Advocate newspaper; and Bobbi-Jeanne Misick and/or public radio station WWNO.</p><p data-block-key=\"1qtca\">Louisiana’s Deputy Solicitor General Joseph Scott St. John explained the records request in an August <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24388454-st-john-letter-to-epa#document/p2/a2424640\">letter to the EPA, in which he said,</a> “It has become apparent to the State from highly specific press inquiries that the EPA has been prodigiously leaking information to the press.” St. John did not cite any examples.</p><p data-block-key=\"firdj\">After the EPA said it would take more than a year to complete the records request, the state <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24388441-01\">filed a FOIA-related suit</a> on Dec. 19, 2023, seeking speedier release of the documents. The EPA was <a href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/politics/la-seeks-communications-from-journalists-in-epa-lawsuit/article_6dbb247a-c1f4-11ee-810c-471036efb78a.html\">reported</a> to have since sent the state 965 pages of information and was expected to send more in February 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"bon8g\">Parker, one of the journalists targeted by the state, told <a href=\"https://veritenews.org/2024/01/26/state-sues-epa-for-records-of-communications-with-la-environmental-groups-journalists/\">Verite News</a> she was surprised to learn she was part of its FOIA request. “I had never thought about a government agency looking to see what I had found out about them or what information I was seeking about topics in general. So it was just kind of eye opening to me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5qld2\">Kai Falkenberg, U.S. general counsel for The Guardian, whose reporter and news organization was also named in the FOIA suit, <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/02/louisiana-sues-epa-emails-journalists-cancer-alley-residents?mc_cid=73590f461e\">said</a>, “We are deeply concerned by what appears to be an attempt to intimidate journalists and interfere with their ability to report on alarming matters of environmental injustice.”</p><p data-block-key=\"98usb\">Rep. Troy Carter, whose district includes Cancer Alley, also told The Guardian, “The first amendment protects the right to free speech. The government should not have any appearance of targeting private individuals in a manner that could inhibit freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6k52u\">Freedom of the Press Foundation, which oversees the operation of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, characterized the state’s action as “highly problematic.” Seth Stern, FPF’s director of advocacy, <a href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/politics/la-seeks-communications-from-journalists-in-epa-lawsuit/article_6dbb247a-c1f4-11ee-810c-471036efb78a.html\">told Nola.com</a>, “The Freedom of Information Act is intended as a tool for Americans to obtain information about what government is up to, not for governments to obtain information about what reporters are up to.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"yv9o0\">In his role as state attorney general, Jeff Landry, seen speaking at a 2022 conference, initiated a public records request that involves communications between reporters and a federal agency. He’s continued to pursue the records as governor.</p>",
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"name": "Louisiana",
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Halle Parker (Nola.com)",
"Morgan Radford (MSNBC)",
"Timothy Puko (The Washington Post)",
"Darryl Fears (The Washington Post)",
"Michael Phillis (The Washington Post)",
"Oliver Laughland (The Guardian)",
"Anna McAllister (WGNO)",
"Mike Smith (The Advocate)",
"Bobbi-Jeanne Misick (WWNO)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist says public official shoved him after town meeting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-public-official-shoved-him-after-town-meeting/",
"first_published_at": "2023-10-26T17:44:35.976123Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-26T17:44:35.976123Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-26T17:34:16.435896Z",
"date": "2023-06-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Vestal",
"longitude": -76.05381,
"latitude": 42.08507,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2uhva\">Independent journalist John Solak contends he was shoved by the town supervisor for Vestal, New York, on June 26, 2023, while attempting to interview a town board member about his arrest, Solak told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"bnum9\">Solak, who posts regularly using the handle <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BinghamtonDaily?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">@BinghamtonDaily</a> on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that after a town board meeting at the town hall, he followed Councilman Stephen Donnelly out of the meeting room to where Donnelly exited the building. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BinghamtonDaily/status/1673456678891560960\">video</a> Solak shot of the encounter on an iPad, a man he identifies as Town Supervisor John Schaffer shouts, “Hey, get out of here!” Schaffer then positions himself between Solak and the exit, telling him that the exit is “not for you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9jkcp\">Solak told the Tracker, “He made contact with a body move on me and the iPad, which I used as a shield, causing me to lose balance.” He added that he would characterize Schaffer’s actions as a physical assault, but did not file a complaint.</p><p data-block-key=\"qj5a\">In the video, Schaffer then instructs a woman standing nearby, identified later by Solak as Councilwoman Patty Fitzgerald, to call the police. Solak leaves the town hall building through a different exit, before the police arrive.</p><p data-block-key=\"9g6j5\">Solak, who told the Tracker he has been attending local government meetings for about 50 years, said that he went to the emergency room later that day because, “as a heart [disease] patient, … the event caused more than a little stress.”</p><p data-block-key=\"198fr\">Schaffer subsequently filed an incident report with the Vestal Police Department in which he reported that “when he was attempting to prevent John Solak from speaking with [Donnelly], he was struck by Solak’s arm and in the chest.” Schaffer declined to prosecute. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "politician",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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],
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{
"title": "Journalist subpoenaed for testimony by boxer Manny Pacquiao",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-subpoenaed-for-testimony-by-boxer-manny-pacquiao/",
"first_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:08:57.498030Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:36:15.725236Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-02T18:36:15.612924Z",
"date": "2023-06-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1fmsm\">Journalist Lance Pugmire was subpoenaed on June 22, 2023, as part of a lawsuit around a major boxing match he covered in 2015 while a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ersb\">It was one of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_journalists=Lance+Pugmire&legal_order_type=SUBPOENA&legal_order_target=JOURNALIST&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">five subpoenas</a> Pugmire received in a plaintiff’s long-running lawsuit around finder’s fees for a 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The match broke pay-per-view records at more than $400 million in sales, as Pugmire himself <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-mayweather-pacquiao-ppv-record-20150512-story.html\">reported</a> for the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"5157f\">The plaintiff in the suit claims that Showtime, which televised the fight, as well as Pacquiao and his trainer, Frederick Roach, promised him a finder’s fee for helping to negotiate the fight. The plaintiff first subpoenaed Pugmire for testimony in 2018 to have him confirm that quotations from Roach in Pugmire’s articles about the fight were accurately attributed. That subpoena was quashed on procedural grounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"34p4d\">The plaintiff, Showtime, Pacquiao and his trainer each subpoenaed the journalist for his testimony in June 2023, after a Showtime executive referenced a conversation with Pugmire in another deposition. On July 11, Pugmire objected to all of the subpoenas and refused to testify.</p><p data-block-key=\"eluu6\">Showtime and Paramount Global, its parent company, then filed a motion to compel, claiming that Pugmire’s testimony would reveal “witness tampering” by the plaintiff. The plaintiff filed his own motion to compel Pugmire’s cooperation with his subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"2l9f6\">In their opposition to the motions, Pugmire’s attorneys argued that California Shield Law and the reporter’s privilege wholly protect Pugmire. “The free flow of information to the public is jeopardized when litigants attempt to use the coercive power of the Court to turn journalists into witnesses and commandeer independent newsgathering efforts for parties’ private aims,” they wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u2g5\">On Sept. 11, the court denied the motions to compel, agreeing that forcing Pugmire to comply would violate the state’s shield law and reporter’s privilege.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4jaq\">Pugmire’s attorney Karl Olson told the Tracker in October 2023 the parties should have been more respectful of the importance of the shield law. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Pugmire and the Times were dragged into this not once, but twice,” he said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"rly75\">Boxer Manny Pacquiao speaks at a press event ahead of his 2015 pay-per-view match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. As a defendant in a lawsuit around finder’s fees, Pacquiao subpoenaed journalist Lance Pugmire, who covered the match for the Los Angeles Times.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Journalist subpoenaed by Showtime in boxing lawsuit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-subpoenaed-by-showtime-in-boxing-lawsuit/",
"first_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:12:15.428189Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:39:46.686028Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-02T18:39:46.595156Z",
"date": "2023-06-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gudq3\">Journalist Lance Pugmire was subpoenaed on June 22, 2023, as part of a lawsuit around a major boxing match he covered in 2015 while a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"8vdrf\">It was one of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_journalists=Lance+Pugmire&legal_order_type=SUBPOENA&legal_order_target=JOURNALIST&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">five subpoenas</a> Pugmire received in a plaintiff’s long-running lawsuit around finder’s fees for a 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The match broke pay-per-view records at more than $400 million in sales, as Pugmire himself <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-mayweather-pacquiao-ppv-record-20150512-story.html\">reported</a> for the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"bdntt\">The plaintiff in the suit claims that Showtime, which televised the fight, as well as Pacquiao and his trainer, Frederick Roach, promised him a finder’s fee for helping to negotiate the fight. The plaintiff first subpoenaed Pugmire for testimony in 2018 to have him confirm that quotations from Roach in Pugmire’s articles about the fight were accurately attributed. That subpoena was quashed on procedural grounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"95erg\">The plaintiff, Showtime, Pacquiao and his trainer each subpoenaed the journalist for his testimony in June 2023, after a Showtime executive referenced a conversation with Pugmire in another deposition. On July 11, Pugmire objected to all of the subpoenas and refused to testify.</p><p data-block-key=\"5u6tg\">Showtime and Paramount Global, its parent company, then filed a motion to compel, claiming that Pugmire’s testimony would reveal “witness tampering” by the plaintiff. The plaintiff filed his own motion to compel Pugmire’s cooperation with his subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"1pt02\">In their opposition to the motions, Pugmire’s attorneys argued that California Shield Law and the reporter’s privilege wholly protect Pugmire. “The free flow of information to the public is jeopardized when litigants attempt to use the coercive power of the Court to turn journalists into witnesses and commandeer independent newsgathering efforts for parties’ private aims,” they wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"5aj5u\">On Sept. 11, the court denied the motions to compel, agreeing that forcing Pugmire to comply would violate the state’s shield law and reporter’s privilege.</p><p data-block-key=\"52qom\">Pugmire’s attorney Karl Olson told the Tracker in October 2023 the parties should have been more respectful of the importance of the shield law. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Pugmire and the Times were dragged into this not once, but twice,” he said.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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},
{
"title": "Journalist subpoenaed for testimony by boxing trainer",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-subpoenaed-for-testimony-by-boxing-trainer/",
"first_published_at": "2023-11-02T17:58:26.450840Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-02T18:36:48.605698Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-02T18:36:48.517180Z",
"date": "2023-06-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ifumf\">Journalist Lance Pugmire was subpoenaed on June 22, 2023, as part of a lawsuit around a major boxing match he covered in 2015 while a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"bgnpr\">It was one of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_journalists=Lance+Pugmire&legal_order_type=SUBPOENA&legal_order_target=JOURNALIST&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">five subpoenas</a> Pugmire received in a plaintiff’s long-running lawsuit around finder’s fees for a 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The match broke pay-per-view records at more than $400 million in sales, as Pugmire himself <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-mayweather-pacquiao-ppv-record-20150512-story.html\">reported</a> for the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"cihj\">The plaintiff in the suit claims that Showtime, which televised the fight, as well as Pacquiao and his trainer, Frederick Roach, promised him a finder’s fee for helping to negotiate the fight. The plaintiff first subpoenaed Pugmire for testimony in 2018 to have him confirm that quotations from Roach in Pugmire’s articles about the fight were accurately attributed. That subpoena was quashed on procedural grounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4ibr\">The plaintiff, Showtime, Pacquiao and his trainer each subpoenaed the journalist for his testimony in June 2023, after a Showtime executive referenced a conversation with Pugmire in another deposition. On July 11, Pugmire objected to all of the subpoenas and refused to testify.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vhro\">Showtime and Paramount Global, its parent company, then filed a motion to compel, claiming that Pugmire’s testimony would reveal “witness tampering” by the plaintiff. The plaintiff filed his own motion to compel Pugmire’s cooperation with his subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ohaj\">In their opposition to the motions, Pugmire’s attorneys argued that California Shield Law and the reporter’s privilege wholly protect Pugmire. “The free flow of information to the public is jeopardized when litigants attempt to use the coercive power of the Court to turn journalists into witnesses and commandeer independent newsgathering efforts for parties’ private aims,” they wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"9pjpl\">On Sept. 11, the court denied the motions to compel, agreeing that forcing Pugmire to comply would violate the state’s shield law and reporter’s privilege.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tgsv\">Pugmire’s attorney Karl Olson told the Tracker in October 2023 the parties should have been more respectful of the importance of the shield law. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Pugmire and the Times were dragged into this not once, but twice,” he said.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"y1138\">Boxing trainer Frederick Roach takes questions ahead of the 2015 Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. As a defendant in a lawsuit around finder’s fees, Roach subpoenaed journalist Lance Pugmire, who covered the match for the Los Angeles Times.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"Lance Pugmire (Freelance)"
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{
"title": "Iowa media outlets, nonprofit settle open records suit with governor's office",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/iowa-media-outlets-nonprofit-settle-open-records-suit-with-governor/",
"first_published_at": "2023-07-07T18:00:53.448597Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-12T21:38:52.831508Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-12T21:38:52.689359Z",
"date": "2023-06-21",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Des Moines",
"longitude": -93.60911,
"latitude": 41.60054,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"awse0\">Two media outlets and a government accountability nonprofit won a settlement in their open records lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on June 21, 2023. The case was brought by the Bleeding Heartland blog, the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council after their government records requests, including about the COVID pandemic, had gone unanswered for a year.</p><p data-block-key=\"o040\">The ACLU of Iowa <a href=\"https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/district-court-approves-agreement-open-records-lawsuit\">filed</a> the lawsuit on behalf of the organizations in December 2021, after eight separate government record requests between April 2020 and April 2021, all renewed at least once, had been <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2021/12/21/aclu-iowa-sues-governor-kim-reynolds-failure-answer-public-record-requests-covid/8924037002/\">ignored</a> by the governor’s office. The organizations claimed that in doing so Reynolds had violated Iowa’s open records law. Within days of the lawsuit being filed, the governor released the requested records, blaming the delay on COVID-19.</p><p data-block-key=\"bugel\">The government’s attorneys argued that the case should be dismissed because the governor isn’t obligated to respond in a timely manner and had ultimately released the records. When the judge denied their request for dismissal, they appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court. On April 14, 2023, the court <a href=\"https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-supreme-court-covid-19-public-records-lawsuit-aclu/43602280\">unanimously denied</a> the request and returned the case to the Polk County District Court, which <a href=\"https://www.aclu-ia.org/sites/default/files/05771_cvcv062945_orot_12141882.pdf\">approved</a> the <a href=\"https://www.aclu-ia.org/sites/default/files/settlement_agreement_-_file_stamped.pdf\">settlement agreement</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9atls\">“The Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling was a significant victory not only for press freedom but for the public’s ability to access government records,” said Kathie Obradovich, editor-in-chief of the Iowa Capital Dispatch, in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “It made clear that the governor’s office is subject to Iowa’s open records law and that the law’s provision that records requests be fulfilled within a reasonable period of time is, in fact, enforceable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"blusn\">Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, said the organization was pleased with the outcome of the legal challenge. “The governor and her staff cannot ignore their obligations under the public records statute,” said Evans in an email to the Tracker, “even when doing so might be inconvenient or embarrassing.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fr8rr\">Under <a href=\"https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/district-court-approves-agreement-open-records-lawsuit\">the terms of the settlement</a>, the governor’s office must pay the plaintiffs $135,000 to cover their legal fees (an amount <a href=\"https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-governor-kim-reynolds-settles-open-records-lawsuit-filed-by-media-groups/44315877#\">approved</a> by the State Appeal Board) and undergo a one-year period of judicial oversight to make sure it continues to comply with Iowa’s open records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"72l8g\">“It's sad that we are still having to fight to make sure government officials follow those laws,” Laura Belin, lead author of Bleeding Heartland, <a href=\"https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/press-releases/district-court-approves-agreement-open-records-lawsuit\">told</a> the ACLU of Iowa. "Journalists need to be able to report on what's happening in our state government without unreasonable delays, especially during a public health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic."</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"62lr1\">A portion of the June 2023 settlement agreement between Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Bleeding Heartland blog, the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council that concluded their open records lawsuit.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Iowa",
"abbreviation": "IA"
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"Bleeding Heartland",
"Iowa Capital Dispatch"
],
"tags": [
"public records"
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{
"title": "Three men charged with vandalizing homes of two NH radio journalists",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-men-charged-with-vandalizing-homes-of-two-nh-radio-journalists/",
"first_published_at": "2023-06-22T20:28:16.957955Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-12-09T19:00:33.659073Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-12-09T18:54:24.018648Z",
"date": "2023-06-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mau2k\">Federal prosecutors <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/three-new-hampshire-men-charged-conspiring-harass-and-intimidate-two-journalists\">filed charges</a> against three New Hampshire men in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 15, 2023, for allegedly conspiring to harass and intimidate two radio journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"8t8nf\">New Hampshire Public Radio’s Lauren Chooljian was the lead producer on a <a href=\"https://www.nhpr.org/2022-03-22/eric-spofford-granite-recovery-center-nh-sexual-misconduct\">March 2022 investigation</a> into New Hampshire businessman Eric Spofford and his alleged pattern of sexual misconduct and retaliation while CEO of a network of addiction rehabilitation centers.</p><p data-block-key=\"at11j\">On the night of April 24-25, 2022, <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/three-new-hampshire-men-charged-conspiring-harass-and-intimidate-two-journalists\">according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts</a>, Chooljian’s former residence in Hanover, New Hampshire, and NHPR News Director Dan Barrick’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, were vandalized with the word “CUNT” spray-painted in red letters on the front door. The home of Chooljian’s parents in Hampstead, New Hampshire, was also targeted, with the word painted across one of its garage doors and a rock thrown through a front window.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqkus\">Nearly a month later, on May 21, Chooljian’s current residence in Melrose, Massachusetts, was vandalized. The phrase “JUST THE BEGINNING” was spray-painted across the front of the house. Her parents’ home was also vandalized a second time.</p><p data-block-key=\"7gk02\">Following the last attack, Chooljian posted a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/laurenchooljian/status/1531730064353767425\">photo</a> of the damage on Twitter and condemned the attacks.</p><p data-block-key=\"6hifl\">"5 incidents of vandalism targeting journalists," she wrote. "Here's my house. It's not okay."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">5 incidents of vandalism targeting journalists.<br><br>The c-word spray-painted in red on my parents’ garage. 2 separate times.<br><br>The c-word in red on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/danielbarrick?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@danielbarrick</a>’s front door. And on a house I used to live in. Bricks thrown through windows.<br><br>Here’s my house. It’s not okay. <a href=\"https://t.co/N6KJnOmsJt\">pic.twitter.com/N6KJnOmsJt</a></p>— Lauren Chooljian (@laurenchooljian) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/laurenchooljian/status/1531730064353767425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2022</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=\"mau2k\">While Chooljian and her colleagues do not claim to know who was behind it, they <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/business/media/eric-spofford-new-hampshire-public-radio.html\">told The New York Times</a> earlier that they believe it’s connected to the investigation on Spofford. Spofford filed a defamation suit against Chooljian and three coworkers after the initial NHPR investigation was published, and the case was dismissed in April 2023. A judge <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-hampshire-public-radio-ordered-to-turn-over-interviews-notes/\">ordered Chooljian</a> on May 30 to turn over full recordings and notes from six interviews, including two with anonymous sources, to the court for review ahead of a possible refiling of the suit.</p><p data-block-key=\"f5fa5\">Three New Hampshire men — Tucker Cockerline, Michael Waselchuck and Keenan Saniatan — were each charged with “conspiring to commit stalking through interstate travel,” according to court records. Cockerline and Waselchuck were apprehended on June 16, but Saniatan remains at large.</p><p data-block-key=\"ddr25\">The men conspired with at least one other person — a close personal associate of Spofford — to retaliate against the NHPR journalists for the investigation, according to an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.258415/gov.uscourts.mad.258415.4.1.pdf\">FBI affidavit</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dk98\">In a statement, Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said: “Today’s charges should send a clear message that the Department of Justice will not tolerate harassment or intimidation of journalists. If you engage in this type of vicious and vindictive behavior you will be held accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"64nnn\">A preliminary hearing for Cockerline and Waselchuck was scheduled for June 20.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-09-08 15:23:00+00:00) Four men indicted for vandalizing journalists’ homes",
"(2024-08-27 00:00:00+00:00) First of four men sentenced to prison in journalist stalking case",
"(2024-09-09 00:00:00+00:00) Second of four men sentenced to prison in journalist stalking case",
"(2024-12-06 00:00:00+00:00) Last of four indicted in journalist stalking case is sentenced to prison",
"(2024-11-25 00:00:00+00:00) Third of four men sentenced to prison in journalist stalking case"
],
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"tags": [],
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"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lauren Chooljian (New Hampshire Public Radio)",
"Dan Barrick (New Hampshire Public Radio)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Publisher charged with harassment by former New York county supervisor",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/publisher-charged-with-harassment-by-former-new-york-county-supervisor/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-16T19:26:52.140296Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-11T16:39:42.037336Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-11T16:39:41.925270Z",
"date": "2023-06-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Lake Luzerne",
"longitude": -73.83484,
"latitude": 43.31285,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cyflk\">June Maxam, an investigative reporter and publisher of the North Country Gazette in Chestertown, New York, was charged with second-degree harassment on June 13, 2023, following a complaint filed against her by a former member of the Board of Supervisors in surrounding Warren County.</p><p data-block-key=\"9rksk\">Maxam told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she <a href=\"http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2022/10/24/seeber_residency/\">reported</a> in fall 2022 about questions of whether At-Large Supervisor Rachel Seeber Conine still resided in the town she represented. Seeber Conine announced her resignation from the position in November, <a href=\"https://poststar.com/news/local/seeber-to-resign-county-supervisor-post-to-focus-on-career-family/article_d43411a4-6fe7-11ed-9583-f7cc269344d4.html\">citing</a> her desire to focus on her family and career.</p><p data-block-key=\"dacf5\">Over the months that followed, Maxam said, Seeber Conine and her husband filed more than a dozen complaints against Maxam, all of which were dismissed for being fundamentally unsound. Seeber Conine filed her latest complaint against Maxam on May 25, 2023, alleging that the journalist was harassing her by continuously engaging in behaviors that caused her “annoyance or alarm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8q0li\">In the complaint, Seeber Conine wrote that she had sent Maxam a cease and desist letter on Dec. 12, 2022, “and since then June has written articles lying about me, filing false statements with local and state agencies and publishing.” She also alleged that Maxam “sent these false and alarming statements to my place of employment trying to discredit me, embarrass me, and get my employer to fire me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9d14q\">In April 2023, Maxam wrote an <a href=\"http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2023/04/09/expel-seeber/\">editorial</a> highlighting that the former supervisor had shared a promotion for a sale on firearms. According to Maxam, Seeber Conine alleged that Maxam then sent a link to the article to Seeber Conine’s employer.</p><p data-block-key=\"1dsko\">“I didn’t send the email, didn’t write the email, have no knowledge of the email she claims she received and now — a year later — they still can’t produce it because it doesn’t exist,” Maxam said.</p><p data-block-key=\"beq0s\">Maxam was issued a criminal summons based on Seeber Conine’s complaint, which ordered her to appear before the Justice Court of the Town of Lake Luzerne for arraignment on June 21, 2023. Maxam entered a not guilty plea on Aug. 16, according to court filings reviewed by the Tracker, after which her case was transferred among multiple courts following the recusal of several judges.</p><p data-block-key=\"1gp3k\">In an April 2024 filing, an attorney representing Maxam argued that the charges were an attempt to criminalize speech by a journalist and a newspaper that have served the community for more than 30 years.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8jsi\">“Rachel Seeber does not like articles that June Maxam writes in the North Country Gazette about her,” James Knox wrote. “Rachel Seeber attempted to rely on the influence of her husband — a retired member of Warren County Sheriff’s Department — to secure favorable treatment by New York State police, in getting the charges she wanted filed against a person she does not like, in a jurisdiction she wanted, to prohibit June Maxam from continuing to freely operate her paper.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bngg2\">The district attorney pursuing the charges, Emily Williams, argued in a filing that the assertion that Seeber Conine had shopped for a jurisdiction that would be favorable to them was unfounded. “Whether or not she personally felt like the Judge would dislike the defendant has no bearing on this case and is also completely irrelevant at this point due to the Town of Chester Judge recusing before a criminal summons was ever issued.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7pkol\">Williams also dismissed allegations that the complaints were part of a scheme to build a civil case against Maxam, noting, “Most of the time, there are civil remedies for crime victims in addition to criminal liability.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a95hs\">Maxam told the Tracker that neither Seeber Conine nor her husband have ever requested retractions or corrections from her or the Gazette. She confirmed in May that the charge against her is still pending.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"6rq4q\">A portion of a criminal summons issued to June Maxam, an investigative reporter and publisher of the North Country Gazette, on June 13, 2023, charging her with second-degree harassment and ordering her to appear in court later that month.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Lake Luzerne Town Court",
"arrest_status": "charged without arrest",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-07-29 00:00:00+00:00) Publisher acquitted of harassment charge involving former New York county supervisor"
],
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"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"June Maxam (North Country Gazette)"
],
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},
{
"title": "NHPR ordered to turn over reporter interviews, notes",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-hampshire-public-radio-ordered-to-turn-over-interviews-notes/",
"first_published_at": "2023-06-12T21:23:05.252027Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-24T17:29:05.287959Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-24T17:29:05.191898Z",
"date": "2023-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brentwood",
"longitude": -71.07284,
"latitude": 42.9787,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kipli\">New Hampshire Public Radio Senior Reporter and Producer Lauren Chooljian was ordered on May 30, 2023, to turn over transcripts and notes in connection with a defamation lawsuit against the radio news service.</p><p data-block-key=\"43t02\">The underlying suit was filed in September 2022 by Eric Spofford, the subject of a March <a href=\"https://www.nhpr.org/2022-03-22/eric-spofford-granite-recovery-center-nh-sexual-misconduct\">investigation</a> into his alleged pattern of sexual misconduct and retaliation while CEO of a network of addiction rehabilitation centers. Chooljian was named as a defendant, along with Senior Reporter and Producer Jason Moon and News Director Dan Barrick.</p><p data-block-key=\"1m00u\">The lawsuit was dismissed on April 18, NHPR <a href=\"https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-04-18/judge-dismisses-defamation-suit-against-nhpr-filed-by-new-hampshire-drug-recovery-leader\">reported</a>. In his decision, Rockingham Superior Court Justice Daniel St. Hilaire wrote that Spofford had failed to provide evidence of actual malice, the legal burden that public figures must meet in order to pursue libel claims.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6a1c\">Then, on April 26, Spofford, seeking evidence of alleged malice ahead of refiling his complaint, <a href=\"https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/spofford%20discovery%20motion/09e5bc216700cd65/full.pdf\">asked the court</a> to order Chooljian to turn over full recordings and notes from six interviews, including those she conducted with two anonymous sources, as well as notes about and communications with two other sources.</p><p data-block-key=\"babe3\">Attorneys for NHPR filed <a href=\"https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/nhpr%20opposition%20to%20discovery/7908373aecf2c952/full.pdf\">an opposition to the request</a> on May 8, arguing that it would be an “extraordinary inversion of the usual order of operations.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cimrm\">“NHPR’s story was based on nearly 50 sources — 4 who are named, and 2 more whom Spofford acknowledges are real,” the NHPR filing said. “Spofford has failed to allege a factual basis for concluding that NHPR’s sources lied, let alone — as would be required to establish actual malice — that NHPR either knew that its story was false or acted with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6ch8n\">But St. Hilaire largely <a href=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/e2/98/406fe9ca46e4bc44204fc8273522/order-on-discovery.pdf\">granted the discovery request</a> on May 30, giving NHPR 40 days to provide the documents and transcripts of the interviews to the court. St. Hilaire ruled, however, that he would review the materials in private first in order to determine whether Chooljian or NHPR “displayed a reckless disregard for the truth by reporting a story they knew or suspected was false.” He also noted that the radio service would have the opportunity to appeal the release of any materials in the event that he finds they are subject to disclosure.</p><p data-block-key=\"ko0c\">Chooljian did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"20f9f\">The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/business/media/eric-spofford-new-hampshire-public-radio.html\">reported</a> in June that shortly after Choolijan’s initial investigation was published, her home in Massachusetts was vandalized, as was her parents’ home and Barrick’s. Investigations into the attacks are ongoing, and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan has said her office is looking into whether the attacks were connected to NHPR’s reporting, <a href=\"https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-06-01/judge-orders-nhpr-to-turn-over-unpublished-reporter-material-in-defamation-lawsuit\">according to NHPR</a>. Spofford has denied any involvement.</p><p data-block-key=\"1qpvs\"><i>Editor’s Note: Read more about the vandalism and updates on the investigation</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-men-charged-with-vandalizing-homes-of-two-nh-radio-journalists/\"><i>in the Tracker</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7hrzd\">A portion of the May 30, 2023, order requiring New Hampshire Public Radio to turn over reporter Lauren Chooljian’s transcripts and notes in connection with a defamation suit against the news outlet.</p>",
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{
"title": "California reporter subpoenaed to testify at murder trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-reporter-subpoenaed-to-testify-at-murder-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2023-11-09T21:53:51.810167Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T17:05:18.372002Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T17:05:18.248880Z",
"date": "2023-05-24",
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"city": "Bakersfield",
"longitude": -119.01871,
"latitude": 35.37329,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r30gp\">Reporter Ishani Desai was subpoenaed on May 24, 2023, to testify at a murder trial in connection with her reporting for The Bakersfield Californian. The subpoena was the third seeking information from Desai’s jailhouse interview with a co-defendant in the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"5mopb\">The dispute began after Desai interviewed Sebastian Parra for an <a href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/man-indicted-in-shooting-death-of-corrections-counselor-denies-murder/article_c9ca6746-b555-11ed-8227-e3b918ad2c29.html\">article</a> published by the Californian on Feb. 26. Parra was a key witness in the murder indictment of another inmate, Robert Pernell Roberts, but was himself subsequently indicted as a co-defendant.</p><p data-block-key=\"2pa7i\">The newspaper was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newspaper-subpoenaed-for-reporters-notes-from-jailhouse-interview/\">subpoenaed</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newspaper-ordered-to-comply-with-subpoena-for-jailhouse-interview-notes/\">twice</a> earlier in the year seeking recordings from Desai’s interview or her questions and notes. While the first subpoena was quashed, a Kern County Superior Court judge upheld the second on May 10, giving the newspaper one week to turn over the materials. The newspaper refused and was found in contempt of court on May 24.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ppf2\">Desai was subpoenaed that same day to testify at Roberts’ trial, then scheduled for May 31, according to court filings reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"aob7u\">After an appeal by the newspaper, California's Court of Appeals for the Fifth Appellate District <a href=\"https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/F086308.PDF\">ruled on Nov. 7</a> that the lower court was incorrect in holding the Californian in contempt, but justified in ordering the newspaper to turn over Desai’s newsgathering materials.</p><p data-block-key=\"9srn3\">The ruling acknowledged the subpoena for Desai’s trial testimony, but wrote that the appellate court was not judging its enforceability.</p><p data-block-key=\"4hlmt\">Desai did not respond to a request for comment. The Californian’s attorney, Thomas Burke, said when reached by email that he is still discussing next steps with his clients.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lqoi\">Meanwhile, Parra’s trial has been placed on hold pending the resolution of Desai and the Californian’s subpoenas, Courthouse News <a href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/california-newspaper-must-produce-reporters-notes-in-connection-with-murder-case-appellate-court-rules/\">reported</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Desai.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ojdzh\">A portion of the subpoena issued to reporter Ishani Desai on May 24, 2023, ordering her to appear to testify at a murder trial concerning a jailhouse interview she conducted for The Bakersfield Californian.</p>",
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ishani Desai (The Bakersfield Californian)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist threatened, chased by woman wielding machete",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-threatened-chased-by-woman-wielding-machete/",
"first_published_at": "2023-06-01T22:08:03.340041Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-27T20:35:22.165067Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-27T20:35:22.027562Z",
"date": "2023-05-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t2ir6\">Two New York Post journalists were threatened and chased by an adjunct professor at Hunter College when attempting to interview her at her New York City apartment on May 23, 2023.</p><p data-block-key=\"9si85\">The Post <a href=\"https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/nyc-college-professor-shellyne-rodriguez-holds-machete-to-post-reporters-neck/\">reported</a> that photojournalist Robert Miller and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-post-reporter-threatened-kicked-by-woman-wielding-machete/\">reporter Reuven Fenton</a> knocked on the door of Shellyne Rodriguez’s Bronx apartment to ask about a viral video of her confronting anti-abortion students at the college earlier in the month.</p><p data-block-key=\"3r95u\">“Get the f–k away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!” Rodriguez shouted after Fenton identified himself as a Post reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"18bla\">In footage published by the outlet, Rodriguez then opens the door and holds a machete to Fenton’s neck, yelling at him to get away from her door before going back into the apartment.</p><p data-block-key=\"dd4tl\">The Post <a href=\"https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/disturbing-video-shows-machete-wielding-nyc-professor-chase-post-reporter-photographer/\">reported</a> that the journalists immediately left the apartment building, but Rodriguez followed them outside while still carrying the machete. After chasing Miller down the sidewalk, Rodriguez allegedly threatened them again and kicked Fenton in the shin as he tried to get in his vehicle. Miller did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lirp\">In a <a href=\"https://hyperallergic.com/824363/artist-shellyne-rodriguez-arrested-in-the-bronx/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-hyperallergic&utm_content=later-35399279&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio\">statement</a> to the art and culture publication Hyperallergic, Rodriguez said she had received numerous threatening messages and voicemails following the incident with the anti-abortion group.</p><p data-block-key=\"fcjkq\">“All this has taken a toll on my mental health, robbing me of my sense of safety, and creating reasonable fear that they would show up at my home to cause me physical harm, as has happened with so many other women who have similarly had their personal info exposed as a form of politically motivated harassment,” Rodriguez said.</p><p data-block-key=\"16api\">Rodriguez could not be reached for additional comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"94ffe\">Hunter College fired Rodriguez within hours of the incident, <a href=\"https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/nyc-college-professor-shellyne-rodriguez-who-threatened-post-reporter-with-machete-is-fired/\">according to the Post</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9jglq\">Hyperallergic reported that Rodriguez was charged with menacing and harassment in connection with the attack on Fenton, and turned herself into police custody on May 25. Neither the New York Police Department nor the Bronx District Attorney’s Office responded to emailed requests for additional information.</p></div>",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-10-02 16:37:00+00:00) Woman who chased New York photojournalist ordered into therapy",
"(2024-06-25 00:00:00+00:00) Court issues protective order for New York photojournalist threatened by woman wielding machete"
],
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"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Robert Miller (New York Post)"
],
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}
]
