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[
{
"title": "Florida man arrested for assaulting journalist, shattering windshield",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-man-arrested-assaulting-journalist-shattering-windshield/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-28T17:20:32.855572Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-27T21:33:05.696686Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-27T21:33:05.594020Z",
"date": "2019-05-03",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Altamonte Springs",
"longitude": -81.36562,
"latitude": 28.66111,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3nom3\">A man was arrested in Altamonte Springs, Florida, on May 3, 2019, for assaulting a FOX 35 News journalist and shattering his windshield with a beer bottle.</p><p data-block-key=\"0kbjt\">Reporter and anchor Albert “David” Bodden was covering an armed burglary that had taken place earlier that day when he was confronted by a nearby resident identified as Christopher Davis. Davis, who was not involved in the burglary, accosted Bodden and demanded that he leave the area, the <a href=\"https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-fox-35-reporter-windshield-shattered-20190506-story.html\">Orlando Sentinel reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"5sd3f\">The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office arrest report states that Davis appeared to be drunk—slurring his words, smelling of alcohol and carrying a bottle of Bud Light—and followed Bodden back to the FOX 35 vehicle while shouting profanities. When Bodden got into the passenger-side seat of the vehicle and closed the door, Davis threw the bottle he was carrying at the car, shattering the driver’s side windshield.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A man was just arrested for throwing a bottle at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Fox35News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Fox35News</a> vehicle, shattering the windshield. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/orlando?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#orlando</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/PkFl68Tapk\">pic.twitter.com/PkFl68Tapk</a></p>— Troy Campbell (@TroyLeeCampbell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TroyLeeCampbell/status/1124445830717562880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 3, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zdfxw\">According to the report, Davis then entered the vehicle from the driver’s side of the car. The report quotes Davis telling Bodden, “I’m going to fuck you up,” as he raised a clenched fist toward him. Bodden, fearing for his safety, exited the vehicle on the passenger side to avoid a possible blow.</p><p data-block-key=\"z0ugb\">Approximately $500 of damage was done to the vehicle’s windshield, and Bodden gave deputies a sworn statement and informed them that he wished to pursue charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"62jgk\">Davis was arrested at the scene on the charges of simple assault, burglary of an occupied conveyance, criminal mischief and disorderly intoxication. His arraignment has been scheduled for June 4.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/bodden_attack.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7x1dw\">A man was arrested for damaging the windshield of a news car and assaulting the reporter inside it. The shattered windshield was captured by another reporter also at the scene of an earlier burglary.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"actor": "private individual",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-02-08 10:02:00+00:00) Florida reporter’s attacker sentenced after assault"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Albert “David” Bodden (WOFL)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Independent journalist files assault charges following May Day protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-files-assault-charges-following-may-day-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-30T16:14:56.969947Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-08-31T20:57:13.952538Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-08-31T20:57:13.833276Z",
"date": "2019-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ji3dx\">Andy Ngo, who identifies as an independent journalist and photographer, says he was sprayed with bear repellent and assaulted while recording during a May Day protest and its aftermath in Portland, Oregon.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9hxy\">Ngo, who primarily publishes his videos on Twitter and YouTube, says he was documenting rising tensions between members of antifa, who had scheduled a gathering at local bar Cider Riot, and members of far-right groups, including Patriot Prayer, who arrived at the bar seemingly to confront antifa members.</p><p data-block-key=\"wi85v\">When he arrived in front of the bar at approximately 7:30 p.m., Ngo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that members of antifa who had covered their faces with bandanas and masks started shouting, “Camera! Camera!” Ngo said that the antifa protesters were familiar with him and his work, as he has been covering antifa critically since November 2016.</p><p data-block-key=\"80rgq\">While standing outside, Ngo said he was approached by a woman from the antifa side who said that she had applied for a job at his mother’s flower shop and a man who recited the shop’s address, which Ngo said felt like a pointed threat.</p><p data-block-key=\"fv9j0\">Patriot Prayer members arrived at the bar shortly after.</p><p data-block-key=\"5usny\">“[The two groups] were standing at the bar and across the street yelling at each other and eventually it did become physical,” Ngo said. “There was a brawl that involved what looked like pepper spray, mace and bear mace being sprayed, back-and-forth objects being thrown—glasses, bottles—and things were hitting cars and breaking on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1sevk\">About 10 minutes after he arrived, Ngo said he noticed that the interaction was becoming very hostile and decided to move a bit further back.</p><p data-block-key=\"rqa2g\">“I stood behind a van that was on the street and peaked around the corner with my camera,” Ngo told the Tracker. “And then a masked individual ran from the property of the bar and sprayed the chemical directly in my face.”</p><p data-block-key=\"su005\">In his video of the incident, a woman wearing sunglasses and a bandana covering her face can be seen coming from the opposite side of the van spraying what appears to be bear spray at members of Patriot Prayer before turning and spraying Ngo directly.</p><p data-block-key=\"8r0pi\">Ngo told the Tracker that the chemical burned his skin and eyes, and he had to be led across the street by a woman nearby to sit down. “I could still hear the fight and it sounded like it was getting closer and closer to me,” Ngo said. “The people around me said, ‘You’ve got to go, you’ve got to go now.’” Struggling to open his eyes, Ngo said he went to the nearest establishment, a wine bar, to use their restroom to wash what was left of the spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"62eqf\">At approximately 8:20 p.m., he called the police non-emergency line to report the incident. Ngo said the operator informed him that all available officers were currently engaged in policing the riot, and that no one would be available to take his statement for several hours. Ngo returned home, and just after 11 p.m. an officer came by to take his statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"qinog\">This was not the only incident Ngo reported to the police that day: He told the Tracker that he was punched while he was covering a protest earlier on that day, which he reported to officers at the scene. Ngo told the Tracker that protesters had recognized him when he arrived at a publicly announced protest just after noon.</p><p data-block-key=\"2f2cm\">“Immediately, they were hostile to me, although I’ve come to expect that,” Ngo said. “The ones that knew me flipped me off and cursed at me. The ones who didn’t know me went up to me and said, ‘I don’t give you permission to record me.’ I didn’t respond to that: it was in a public park.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b70d2\">At approximately 2:20 p.m. a man with his face covered and wearing sunglasses approached Ngo and sprayed his camera with silly string. An Oregonian reporter stepped between them, admonishing the man and prevented him from spraying Ngo or his gear further.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkifk\">It was shortly after, as the protesters’ march stopped in front of Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices at around 2:45 p.m., that Ngo says an antifa protester punched him in the stomach.</p><p data-block-key=\"nj4n5\">In an email, a Portland Police Bureau public information officer said that the investigations into the two assaults reported by Ngo are ongoing and therefore the bureau cannot provide comment or details.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Ngo1.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"k8k75\">In a screenshot from his video, Andy Ngo is sprayed with a chemical while filming May Day protests in Portland, Oregon.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "20CV19618",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-06-04 13:21:00+00:00) Conservative writer sues for damages claiming targeted assault, intimidation campaign",
"(2023-08-21 16:56:00+00:00) Writer awarded $300,000 in lawsuit alleging assault, intimidation campaign"
],
"case_statuses": [
"dismissed"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"anti-fascism",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Andy Ngo (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Two reporters forced out of restaurant, equipment attacked",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-reporters-forced-out-restaurant-equipment-attacked/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-21T20:27:58.111748Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-05-07T13:05:03.874642Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-05-07T13:05:03.788375Z",
"date": "2019-05-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Lithonia",
"longitude": -84.10519,
"latitude": 33.71233,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nq5m7\">Two members of an Atlanta, Georgia-based news crew were forced out of a restaurant and had their camera equipment repeatedly attacked while reporting a story on May 1, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"r87zi\">CBS46 photographer Dimitri Lotovski and reporter Adam Murphy were in a Denny’s in Lithonia asking employees about the restaurant’s failing inspection score when, <a href=\"https://www.ajc.com/blog/radiotvtalk/cbs46-photog-assaulted-two-employees-lithonia-denny-that-had-failing-restaurant-score/6yGLmvUQlZYzZEdSxtiljJ/\">according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a>, one employee became aggressive.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"80mnp\">In <a href=\"https://www.cbs46.com/news/restaurant-report-card-visit-ends-in-chaos/article_17a41538-6df3-11e9-8a99-eb434b9d47eb.html?fbclid=IwAR391aw_Gv6iNl5hECCguBFGMVq6sJmDGiZ4h0P5sgmgH891GFgr_ZcC7WE\">raw video footage of the incident</a> posted by CBS46, a Denny’s employee can be heard yelling at the reporters to get the camera “out of my face,” screaming profanities, and threatening to call the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckl0m\">Two employees shoved the camera, which was held by Lotovski, and then aggressively forced both reporters out of the restaurant.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"rburv\">Another employee can be seen repeatedly slapping the camera. Soon after, officers with the DeKalb County Police arrived at the scene and confirmed that the reporters had the right to be on the premises and ask the restaurant employees questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"nhn29\">CBS46 <a href=\"https://www.cbs46.com/news/restaurant-report-card-visit-ends-in-chaos/article_17a41538-6df3-11e9-8a99-eb434b9d47eb.html?fbclid=IwAR391aw_Gv6iNl5hECCguBFGMVq6sJmDGiZ4h0P5sgmgH891GFgr_ZcC7WE\">published the statement</a> it received from Denny’s corporate office:</p><p data-block-key=\"f5hz1\">“We are disappointed by the inappropriate and unacceptable behavior by employees at our restaurant in Lithonia, Georgia earlier this week. As a family dining restaurant, Denny's expects the highest ethical and personal behavior from our team members, and we do not tolerate this type of behavior. We have spoken to the franchisee at this location and he has taken immediate action to ensure the restaurant meets our high brand standards and has taken appropriate action with employees.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s6kkl\">Murphy <a href=\"https://www.ajc.com/blog/radiotvtalk/cbs46-photog-assaulted-two-employees-lithonia-denny-that-had-failing-restaurant-score/6yGLmvUQlZYzZEdSxtiljJ/\">told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a> that in years of covering restaurant inspection stories, this incident was the most aggressive altercation he had experienced.</p><p data-block-key=\"fe6a5\">“We’ve had a hand in the camera before,” he told the Journal-Constitution, “but not numerous punches like that. It was the most violent encounter I’ve ever experienced.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Georgia",
"abbreviation": "GA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dimitri Lotovski (WANF)"
],
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"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Ohio editor testifies at Oberlin College defamation trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ohio-editor-testifies-at-oberlin-college-defamation-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2024-08-15T20:14:04.846714Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-05-22T17:29:44.432263Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-05-22T17:29:44.312213Z",
"date": "2019-04-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Oberlin",
"longitude": -82.21738,
"latitude": 41.29394,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"13jti\">Jason Hawk, the editor of the Oberlin News-Tribune, was subpoenaed on April 29, 2019, to testify at a civil defamation trial against Ohio’s Oberlin College for claims filed by a local bakery. According to court records, Hawk complied, appearing during the first day of testimony on May 10, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmvta\">Hawk reported in November 2016 on protests outside of Gibson’s Bakery, which college administrators and students had accused of racial discrimination. The bakery filed its defamation suit against Oberlin College a year later.</p><p data-block-key=\"9grhr\">The college previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/oberlin-college-subpoenas-local-newspaper-editor-defamation-suit/\">subpoenaed Hawk</a> in 2018, seeking the editor’s communications with the bakery and his observations at the protest. Hawk sat for an initial deposition on June 27, during which he refused to answer any questions concerning his sources. Dissatisfied, Oberlin sought to compel further testimony while attorneys representing Hawk filed a motion to quash the subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"euqqv\">A county judge <a href=\"https://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Gibsons-Bakery-v-Oberlin-College-Order-on-Motion-to-Quash-Journalist-Deposition-8-22-2018.pdf\">ruled</a> on Aug. 22 that Oberlin could ask Hawk about what he witnessed but not about his sources or his communications with other News-Tribune staff, and the editor sat for that videotaped deposition on Sept. 18.</p><p data-block-key=\"79u4l\">According to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Hawk was called to testify again in April 2019 and appeared as a witness the following month.</p><p data-block-key=\"a559i\">The Chronicle <a href=\"https://chroniclet.com/news/126747/oberlin-police-chief-riot-team-was-almost-called-for-gibsons-bakery-protest/\">reported</a> that during his testimony Hawk described his experiences covering the 2016 protest, including that students shouted obscenities and spat at him, and that an Oberlin administrator attempted to block him from taking photos.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
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"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jason Hawk (Oberlin News-Tribune)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Baltimore court denies reporters access to courtroom audio recordings",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/baltimore-court-denies-reporters-access-courtroom-audio-recordings/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-07T19:04:43.411411Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-12T14:47:23.666106Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-12T14:47:23.569671Z",
"date": "2019-04-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Baltimore",
"longitude": -76.61219,
"latitude": 39.29038,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"am315\">The Baltimore City Circuit Court released an order dated April 24, 2019 that denies reporters the ability to obtain courtroom audio recordings. Independent journalist Justine Barron sued the judge that signed the order and Baltimore’s chief court reporter in response on May 2, alleging that it violates state law protections of public courtroom access.</p><p data-block-key=\"9aprs\">Barron has covered <a href=\"https://jewishjournal.com/blogs/n_the_case/236270/impossible-story-investigation-shooting-death-baltimore-police-detective-sean-suiter-part-1-commissioner-story/\">numerous stories</a> involving the city’s police department. She sought access to court audio recordings on April 17 as part of a case she is investigating.</p><p data-block-key=\"6buan\">Barron told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the circuit court was getting ready to fulfill her request, and told her she needed a check or money order. On April 23, Court Technologist Christopher Metcalf sent an email to Barron that she could pick up the record the next day.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"0lie1\">The next day, Barron was abruptly informed that the court would restrict “access of court audio to parties from now on.” Now, she said, she’ll have to return the money order she obtained to the post office and hope it will be refunded.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7tjr\">Barron noted that in Maryland, only parties to the case can obtain courtroom video, but anyone can obtain audio or transcripts.</p><p data-block-key=\"ukb2z\">“I kept being told that I’d have to view it in the office,” she said. “But I was wondering if he [Metcalf] was confused, because I wasn’t looking to view anything. And then it was clarified that they aren’t letting anyone get audio recordings, but didn’t say anything about an order at first.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xjerd\">Metcalf’s supervisor, Trish Trikeriotis, wrote to Barron on April 25 that the court had ordered that only parties or counsel representing a party were permitted to receive copies of recordings, although Barron could review the proceedings on site.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxvjb\">On April 29, Barron was sent a copy of a one-sentence order — dated April 24, the day she had originally been told she would be able to pick up the record — signed by Judge W. Michel Pierson:</p><p data-block-key=\"2e9co\">“Pursuant to the terms of Maryland Rule 16-504(h)(1)(C), it is, this day of April 24, 2019, ORDERED, that no copies of audio recordings maintained by the Office of the Court Reporter shall be made available to persons other than parties to the relevant proceeding or counsel to the relevant proceeding.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yo7oa\">Although courts in Maryland have historically granted the public access to audio recordings, broadcasting these recordings is prohibited. Several podcast producers have <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/05/03/baltimore-court-audio-recordings-keith-davis-jr/\">done so anyway</a>, and a local journalist that Barron has worked with in the past has <a href=\"https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/04/2019.04.09-Letter-to-Baltimore-City-Circuit-Court.pdf\">challenged the legality</a> of prohibiting broadcasting the recordings.</p><p data-block-key=\"iglbc\">A litigator with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center <a href=\"https://theintercept.com/2019/05/03/baltimore-court-audio-recordings-keith-davis-jr/\">told The Intercept</a> that denial of access to these audio recordings was “trying to replace one unlawful policy with another.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gvibp\">Barron said that although the order initially appeared to target her specifically, it has affected other Baltimore reporters.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5zh9\">“After I was denied, at least one other person was able to get his CD,” she said. “The next day, someone was able to get one. So it seemed to be about me at first, but now, they’re punishing everyone.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pwiq6\">Paul McGrew, a Fox45 investigative reporter in Baltimore, wrote on social media that he was also denied access to courtroom audio recordings under the new order.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We requested court audio from Balt. City Circuit Court and have been told Administrative Judge W. Michel Pierson is no longer allowing media to acquire court audio per the Recorders’ Office at Circuit Court.</p>— Paul McGrew (@McGrewFox45) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/McGrewFox45/status/1122972816276631552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ecvt1\"><a href=\"https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/05/Barron-v.-Trikeriotis-Mandamus-Petition.pdf\">Barron’s lawsuit</a> alleges that Judge Pierson’s order violates Maryland state law, which makes audio recordings of all trial court proceedings open to the public.</p><p data-block-key=\"vgn6v\">“...[A] local administrative order cannot override a State Rule,” it states. “Moreover, the ‘order’ that the Court Reporter’s office cited remains shrouded in mystery: the Court has not identified its reasons or authority for issuing the ‘order,’ nor has it posted the order publicly. These events paint a disturbing picture—that of local court officials seeking to stymie the State’s goal of shining a light on the judiciary and, worse yet, seeking to do so in the dark.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qj2sk\">Terri Charles, Assistant Public Information Officer for the Government Relations and Public Affairs Division of the Maryland Judiciary, provided the Tracker with a statement:</p><p data-block-key=\"z5mip\">“The Judiciary does not comment on pending litigation. The media and the public can still listen to the court proceedings at the courthouse. The order states that copies are no longer available.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xvsrk\">Barron told the Tracker that courtroom recordings are critical in shedding important context on a case so that the press and lawyers can better understand what happened — which a transcript of the audio could not provide.</p><p data-block-key=\"nns80\">“Transcripts are not always accurate,” she said. “They are often full of typos. And a transcript is a document that the court has decided we can see — so we have to trust that they haven’t made a decision to edit it in some way. And the nuance of what happens in courtrooms is very important — like if someone stalls before answering or laughs, these details are important.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2019-05-07_at_1.45.08.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"9mnxt\">Journalist Justine Barron has sued in Baltimore for access to audio recordings of court proceedings.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Maryland",
"abbreviation": "MD"
},
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"Judiciary: Circuit Court"
],
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"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Justine Barron (Independent)",
"Paul McGrew (WBFF)"
],
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"type_of_denial": [
"Change in policy or practice",
"Other"
]
},
{
"title": "Colorado newspaper denied access to cover horse roundup",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-newspaper-denied-access-cover-horse-roundup/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-02T17:23:23.012349Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-12-21T16:57:47.414895Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-12-21T16:57:47.337121Z",
"date": "2019-04-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": null,
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x89sc\">Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado denied the press access to cover a horse roundup and removal, a process that in the past has been open to the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"j5mqo\">Colorado-based newspaper The Cortez Journal <a href=\"https://the-journal.com/articles/136712\">sought access to cover the process</a>, but Park Superintendent Cliff Spencer sent an email to The Journal on April 24 that banned media coverage of the roundup. Spencer stated that representatives of the horse roundup did not want any distractions present that “would negatively affect the behavior of the horses.”</p><p data-block-key=\"znty8\"><a href=\"https://the-journal.com/articles/136712\">According to The Journal</a>, Tim McGaffic, a horse wrangler who will be part of the roundup, said the paper’s proposal to have a reporter and photographer document and observe the process “seems more or less fine.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1x23d\">Despite this, Spencer’s email forbade public or media access altogether, on the grounds that the groups involved with the roundup were “adamant” that only those directly involved should be present.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9s6t\">Attorney Steve Zansberg represented The Journal in an April 26 letter to Spencer seeking access, emphasizing that the public access to government activities protected under the First Amendment includes operations on federal land — like horse roundups.</p><p data-block-key=\"vzwvl\">“Accommodating a single reporter and pool photographer for a limited period of time at a considerable distance from the wrangler-horse interactions is a constitutionally appropriate way to protect the public’s First Amendment right to access a National Park and to engage in protected newsgathering activities there,” the letter reads. “It is certainly a far ‘less restrictive means’ than a blanket ban on coverage of this federal operation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wq6bt\">Zansberg also noted that other government agencies have <a href=\"https://www.deseretnews.com/article/705269631/Photo-gallery-Wild-horse-roundup.html\">allowed the press to cover roundups</a> of horses on federal property.</p><p data-block-key=\"kh7hj\">The Journal reporter Jim Mimiaga told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on May 1 that the roundup has been approved, but has not yet taken place. Mimiaga said he was not aware of other news outlets that sought to cover the roundup.</p><p data-block-key=\"3gi7e\">Zansberg said that no substantive response from Spencer had been received as of May 1, and if the request continued to be denied, he would confer with the paper about next steps.</p><p data-block-key=\"iy3ec\">The National Park Service did not immediately reply to request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"l0rnn\">Wild horses run in Utah as they are gathered by the Bureau of Land Management in 2010. Unlike this roundup and others, Mesa Verde National Park has denied access to press seeking to cover an upcoming Colorado roundup.</p>",
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"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"The [Cortez] Journal"
],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: Agency"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
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"Government event"
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},
{
"title": "Tennessee Highway Patrol blocks reporters from covering protest, threaten with arrest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-highway-patrol-blocks-reporters-covering-protest-threaten-arrest/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-19T14:36:49.836010Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-12-21T16:59:48.551065Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-12-21T16:59:48.448991Z",
"date": "2019-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Nashville",
"longitude": -86.78444,
"latitude": 36.16589,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y6fuv\">The Tennessee Highway Patrol threatened several reporters with arrest and blocked them from continuing reporting while they were covering a sit-in protest outside Gov. Bill Lee’s office in Nashville on April 16, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"j7u9f\"><a href=\"https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/16/troopers-kick-out-threaten-arrest-reporters-during-david-byrd-protest-governors-office/3491056002/\">According to The Tennessean</a>, state troopers told the reporters present that they would be “arrested if they didn't immediately leave the building, despite remaining out of the way and identifying themselves as working members of the media attempting to cover the news unfolding.” The reporters ultimately complied with the order.</p><p data-block-key=\"3x56p\">Four protesters remained from a larger demonstration in the Capitol building demanding a meeting with Lee to discuss Republican Rep. David Byrd, who has retained his office since sexual assault allegations became public.</p><p data-block-key=\"3nu4c\">The journalists were unable to continue their coverage of the protest, even though the protesters continued sitting outside of the office into the evening and spent the night. The remaining protesters were <a href=\"https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/18/five-arrested-outside-tennessee-gov-bill-lees-office-over-david-byrd/3506057002/\">ultimately arrested</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"q2rus\">The Tennessean/USA Today reporter Natalie Allison wrote on Twitter that she was one of numerous journalists — including fellow The Tennessean reporter Joel Ebert, Nashville Public Radio reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, and NewsChannel 5 reporter Kyle Horan — that were threatened with arrest and blocked from continuing to cover the news.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Reporters, including <a href=\"https://twitter.com/joelebert29?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@joelebert29</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SergioMarBel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SergioMarBel</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KyleHoranNC5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KyleHoranNC5</a> and me, should not have faced threats of arrest today for trying to do our jobs in the Capitol. This was the second time this session troopers have attempted to block us from covering news. <a href=\"https://t.co/5kwkeR3Tdi\">https://t.co/5kwkeR3Tdi</a></p>— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/natalie_allison/status/1118315544237813761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jdd1m\">Allison’s colleague Ebert further noted that although the Capitol building does have hours of access, credential press historically have had access beyond that.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is 100 percent wrong and is a break from all previous governors in recent memory. The building has hours of access but reporters have always had access beyond said hours. This is the second time this year that state troopers have stopped reporters from doing our jobs <a href=\"https://t.co/Wzwc6AXUaq\">https://t.co/Wzwc6AXUaq</a></p>— Joel Ebert (@joelebert29) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/joelebert29/status/1118296672176672769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1ej7l\">The Tennessean article quotes Gov. Lee’s communications director, Chris Walker, as defending the troopers’ actions <a href=\"https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/16/troopers-kick-out-threaten-arrest-reporters-during-david-byrd-protest-governors-office/3491056002/\">as standard protocol</a>. "However, we do not condone threatening of arrest to reporters while they are doing their jobs in trying to cover news," Walker said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Tennessee_Capitol.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nq0a5\">The state capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee, was the site of a sit-in protest that resulted in reporters being asked to leave and threatened with arrest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Tennessee",
"abbreviation": "TN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Law enforcement: State"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joel Ebert (The Tennessean)",
"Kyle Horan (WTVF)",
"Natalie Allison (The Tennessean)",
"Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (Nashville Public Radio)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": [
"Other"
]
},
{
"title": "School district demands prior review, threatens job of adviser over profile in student publication",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/school-district-demands-prior-review-threatens-job-adviser-over-profile-student-publication/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-03T13:33:24.768637Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T17:33:02.298371Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T17:33:02.208049Z",
"date": "2019-04-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Stockton",
"longitude": -121.29078,
"latitude": 37.9577,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zthlg\">Administrators with the Lodi Unified School District in California demanded a student newspaper adviser submit an article for review prior to publication, under threat of discipline and dismissal.</p><p data-block-key=\"np4os\">The latest edition of Bear Creek High School’s student newspaper, the Bruin Voice, is set to include a profile of an 18-year-old student who is active in the porn industry.</p><p data-block-key=\"fufed\">“This young woman has quite a story to tell,” the paper’s adviser, Kathi Duffel, <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/25/free-speech-isnt-free-is-it-sensitive-story-could-cost-high-school-journalism-teacher-her-job/?utm_term=.5b848a3b3e86\">told The Washington Post</a>. “She has every right to tell her story, and we have every right to report it.” Duffel said the administrators do not seem to understand that First Amendment rights must be respected.</p><p data-block-key=\"wznkj\">Word about the profile spread around the school, and Bear Creek High School Principal Hillary Harrell delivered a letter by Lodi Unified School District Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer to Duffel on April 11, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"89jwt\">“You are hereby directed to refrain from publishing the article prior to the District’s review and approval,” <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/25/free-speech-isnt-free-is-it-sensitive-story-could-cost-high-school-journalism-teacher-her-job/?utm_term=.5b848a3b3e86\">Nichols-Washer wrote</a>. “Should you fail to provide a copy of the article as directed, you may be subject to discipline, up to and including dismissal.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cb6mp\">As longtime adviser of the Bruin Voice, Duffel has won <a href=\"https://spjnorcal.org/2015/02/08/winners-announced-for-2015-james-madison-freedom-of-information-award/\">awards for her leadership</a> — including in previous fights over censorship with Bear Creek High School.</p><p data-block-key=\"58rds\">Lilly Lim, a managing editor, sports editor, and photography editor at The Bruin Voice, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that newspapers containing the student profile will be distributed on May 3.</p><p data-block-key=\"i0era\">“As an editorial staff, we unanimously decided to continue with writing the story and submit it into publication,” Lim, a junior, said. “Soon after we notified the district of our decision, the request turned into a mandate whereby we were demanded to send a review. Since then, everything has been a back-and-forth battle.”</p><p data-block-key=\"clxsg\">In a <a href=\"https://www.lodiusd.net/district/superintendents-office/communications-and-community-outreach/media-statements\">statement released by Lodi Unified School District on May 1</a>, the district stated it will not continue to seek to prevent the article’s publication</p><p data-block-key=\"ylhaj\">“The District has determined that it will rely on the promises Mrs. Duffel’s personal attorney has made on her behalf regarding the content of the article and on that basis will not prevent its publication. However, the District does not agree with all aspects of the legal opinion provided by the attorney and is disappointed that an independent review was not provided as agreed to by the District and Mrs. Duffel. Moreover, because the District has been denied an opportunity to preview the article, the District does not endorse it. Because we are charged with the education and care of our community’s children, we will always be diligent in our efforts to provide a safe learning environment for all students, while complying with our obligations under the law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"axgd1\"><a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/25/free-speech-isnt-free-is-it-sensitive-story-could-cost-high-school-journalism-teacher-her-job/?utm_term=.5b848a3b3e86\">The Washington Post</a> reported that Duffel emphasized that in her decades as a student newspaper adviser, she has “never buckled and provided the administration with a copy of a story in advance.”</p><p data-block-key=\"309pr\">Lim said Duffel has had a significant impact on her life during her tenure at Bear Creek High School. “Ms. Duffel is, in my opinion, the most renowned and influential teacher on Bear Creek's campus,” she told the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"The [Bear Creek High School] Bruin Voice"
],
"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
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},
{
"title": "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested and charged with conspiracy",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-and-charged-conspiracy/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-11T20:34:11.567547Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-26T01:54:57.670553Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-26T01:54:57.414928Z",
"date": "2019-04-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Alexandria",
"longitude": -77.04692,
"latitude": 38.80484,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"39ttb\">On April 11, 2019, federal prosecutors <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy\">unsealed an indictment</a> against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, charging him with one count of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, a WikiLeaks source, to violate a federal anti-hacking law. The charge was unsealed just hours after Ecuador terminated Assange’s political asylum and <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/11/julian-assange-arrested-at-ecuadorian-embassy-wikileaks\">British police arrested Assange</a> inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.</p><p data-block-key=\"rt5pb\">The indictment — originally filed under seal in the Eastern District of Virginia on March 6, 2018 — focuses on Assange’s communications with Manning in 2010, when she was an Army intelligence analyst looking to leak classified documents to WikiLeaks.</p><p data-block-key=\"0i62x\"><a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5816961-Assange-Indictment.html\">According to the indictment</a>, between January 2010 and May 2010, Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of internal government documents — including significant activity reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, diplomatic cables, and Guantanamo Bay detainee reports — and leaked them for publication on WikiLeaks.</p><p data-block-key=\"t3lcs\">The indictment alleges that in March 2010, after Manning had already leaked large caches of documents to Assange, she asked Assange to help her cover her tracks in order to avoid being detected as WikiLeaks’ source. Specifically, she wanted help breaking a hashed password so that she could use a different user account to access the government databases from which she was downloading documents. The indictment alleges that Assange agreed to help Manning decrypt the password, though it does not mention whether he actually did so.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tyit\">Assange is being charged with one count of conspiracy to violate provisions of the <a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030\">Computer Fraud and Abuse Act</a>, a broad anti-hacking law that prohibits unauthorized access to computer systems. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.</p><p data-block-key=\"flbbw\">The indictment specifically alleges that Assange entered into a conspiracy with Manning to “facilitate Manning’s acquisition and transmission of classified information related to the national defense of the United States so that WikiLeaks could publicly disseminate the information on its website.” It alleges that Assange tried to further this conspiracy by agreeing to try and crack the password for Manning.</p><p data-block-key=\"g2y81\">The indictment also lists different “ways, manners, and means” that Assange and Manning allegedly used to carry out the conspiracy, some of which are typical of interactions between sources and reporters:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-blockquote\">\n\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\" >\n\t<div class=\"rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"u062s\">19. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning took measures to conceal Manning as the source of the disclosure of classified records to WikiLeaks, including by removing usernames from the disclosed information and deleting chat logs between Assange and Manning.</p><p data-block-key=\"6tgik\">20. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States.</p><p data-block-key=\"625xr\">21. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning used a special folder on a cloud drop box of WikiLeaks to transmit classified records containing information related to the national defense of the United States.</p></div>\n\t\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ijop5\">The indictment alarmed some press freedom groups.</p><p data-block-key=\"8y0d1\">“The indictment and the Justice Department’s press release treat everyday journalistic practices as part of a criminal conspiracy,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, said in a statement about the charges. “Whether the government will be able to establish a violation of the hacking statute remains to be seen, but it’s very troubling that the indictment sweeps in activities that are not just lawful but essential to press freedom — activities like cultivating sources, protecting sources’ identities, and communicating with sources securely.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hlzr9\">Manning is currently imprisoned for refusing to testify in front of a grand jury. Assange is currently in British police custody in London, and it is unclear whether he will be extradited to the United States to face these federal charges.<br/></p><p data-block-key=\"cb826\">“We can confirm that Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America,” the UK Home Office <a href=\"https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/11/extradition-factsheet/\">said in a statement</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"kyr21\">Assange will have the opportunity to challenge his extradition at a May 2 hearing held at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gp0yr\">WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van in London, England, after his removal from the Ecuadorian Embassy and arrest by British police on April 11, 2019.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "U.S. Department of Justice",
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"name": "Virginia",
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"(2019-05-23 16:13:00+00:00) WikiLeaks founder indicted on Espionage Act charges, raising press freedom concerns",
"(2022-06-17 11:53:00+00:00) British home secretary signs extradition papers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange",
"(2024-06-26 17:20:00+00:00) WikiLeaks founder pleads guilty to Espionage Act charge, sentenced to time served",
"(2020-06-24 18:50:00+00:00) Justice Department announces new indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange",
"(2024-05-20 17:52:00+00:00) WikiLeaks founder granted leave to appeal extradition order"
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{
"title": "Harvard Crimson reporter subpoenaed for reporting materials, testimony in defamation suit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/harvard-crimson-reporter-subpoenaed-reporting-materials-testimony-defamation-suit/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-21T15:34:37.027037Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-08-14T22:17:15.228912Z",
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"date": "2019-04-10",
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"city": "Cambridge",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jek55\">A reporter and multimedia editor for The Harvard Crimson, the university’s daily paper, was issued a subpoena on April 10, 2019, to testify in a deposition and provide communications and reporting materials.</p><p data-block-key=\"23dkf\">Shera Avi-Yonah was one of The Crimson reporters who had written on activities around and including a defamation lawsuit brought by Harvard College staff members Carl and Valencia Miller against Gail O’Keefe, a faculty dean.</p><p data-block-key=\"ditkz\">The defamation suit stemmed from interactions with a student activist and another faculty dean’s decision to represent Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer who is facing multiple allegations of sexual assault. Other journalists involved in the reporting did not receive subpoenas.</p><p data-block-key=\"yxjuj\">The Crimson <a href=\"https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/4/22/crimson-resists-subpoena-by-winthrop-tutors/\">reported</a> that the subpoena specifically requested all of Avi-Yonah’s communications and documents “concerning” the Millers, as well as communications and documents related to the faculty deans and student activist Danu Mudannayake, who is also on staff at The Crimson.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0kc5\">The subpoena also required Avi-Yonah to testify at a May 14 deposition.</p><p data-block-key=\"julzd\">Robert Bertsche, an attorney representing The Crimson, filed a written objection to the subpoena on April 19. The Millers’ attorney, George Leontire, emailed a statement on his clients’ behalf a few days later communicating their intention to bring a motion to compel Avi-Yonah’s testimony.</p><p data-block-key=\"z9zmx\">Leontire also stated that he anticipated issuing “numerous other subpoenas,” and would not hesitate to depose other Crimson staff.</p><p data-block-key=\"qtrs9\">“If I believe other individuals at the Crimson have relevant or probative information relative to Dean Gal O’keefe’s [sic] defamation of the Millers I will seek to subpoena such individuals,” wrote Leontire, according to The Crimson.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ni0d\">Crimson President Kristine Guillaume wrote in an emailed statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the paper would resist the subpoena because the reporter is not a party to the suit, citing the First Amendment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6d2eu\">Massachusetts does not have a shield law in place, though courts <a href=\"http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/massachusetts-protections-sources-and-source-material\">have recognized reporter’s privilege</a> to protect their sources and reporting material under “common law.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5yue3\">The president for The Harvard Crimson, the university’s daily newspaper, said the paper would resist a subpoena directed at a reporter’s communications.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
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"student journalism"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "California Congressman Devin Nunes files defamation suit against newspaper for its coverage",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-congressman-devin-nunes-files-defamation-suit-against-newspaper-its-coverage/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-17T16:01:12.509970Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:15.463358Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:15.373136Z",
"date": "2019-04-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Charlottesville",
"longitude": -78.47668,
"latitude": 38.02931,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gfd9u\">California Representative Devin Nunes has filed a $150 million defamation lawsuit agaiont The McClatchy Company, which owns The Fresno Bee, arguing that its reporting on the congressman constituted “character assassination.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b03ms\">The April 2019 lawsuit focuses on an exposé <a href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/business/article210912434.html\">The Bee published</a> in May 2018, about a yacht party in which Napa Valley wine investors took cocaine. Nunes <a href=\"https://www.scribd.com/document/405589277/Amended-Complaint-4-9-19\">claims that</a> the story was defamatory because it implied that he was involved in the cocaine and sex worker-fueled party. The article does not state that Nunes was present, but it does name him as a partial investor in the company.</p><p data-block-key=\"ctrgo\">Nunes’ <a href=\"https://www.scribd.com/document/405589277/Amended-Complaint-4-9-19\">lawsuit accuses</a> McClatchy and the reporter, MacKenzie Mays, of unethical journalism:</p><p data-block-key=\"8js1p\">“The Defendants in this case abandoned the role of journalist, and chose to leverage their considerable power to spread falsehoods and to defame the Plaintiff for political and financial gain.”</p><p data-block-key=\"88np4\">The McClatchy California Opinion Editors authored a <a href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article229034054.html\">piece in The Bee</a> on April 10 refuting many of Nunes’ core allegations.</p><p data-block-key=\"2v3k4\">The lawsuit also accuses Republican consultant Liz Mair of conspiring with Mays to derail Nunes’ work and “smear” him.</p><p data-block-key=\"aj7dd\">Mair is also a defendant in a secondary <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/us/politics/devin-nunes-twitter-lawsuit.html\">defamation lawsuit by Nunes against Twitter</a> and several of its users over parody accounts that he made. Nunes is accusing the social media company of “shadow banning” his tweets, or curtailing the reach of his social media presence.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2kt8\">Mair responded to the Twitter litigation in a <a href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/05/devin-nunes-suing-me-free-speech-twitter-liz-mair-column/3346525002/\">USA Today column</a> on April 5.</p><p data-block-key=\"7k77h\">“It’s vitally important that the entire nation understands what this lawsuit is really about: A sitting member of the U.S. government, specifically, a congressman, is trying to stifle free speech — mine, yours and every other American’s — by using litigation as a cudgel to bully and intimidate,” Mair wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"9gf2m\">During an April 10 interview on the Fox News show Fox & Friends, <a href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/politics/devin-nunes-150m-lawsuit-mcclatchy\">Nunes accused McClatchy</a> of being the “biggest perpetrator of fake news,” and said that he intended to “go after” other news outlets with defamation outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"685d1\">“McClatchy is one of the worst offenders of this,” Nunes said. “But we're coming after the rest of them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fn8ac\">The same day, CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/media/devin-nunes-lawsuit-mcclatchy/index.html\">reported</a> on an internal memo and statement from McClatchy, which vowed to defend The Bee.</p><p data-block-key=\"30cgq\">“The lawsuit represents a baseless attack on local journalism and a free press,” read McClatchy’s statement. “At a time when local journalism is facing more pressing and urgent challenges, the lawsuit is an unproductive distraction and a misuse of the judicial system.”</p><p data-block-key=\"paq4\">Nunes’ office did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0jjsn\">Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) speaks in March at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Nunes is suing newspaper company McClatchy in a $150 million defamation lawsuit.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
"abbreviation": "VA"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-10-20 00:00:00+00:00) Congressman Nunes drops $150 million lawsuit against bankrupt McClatchy Company"
],
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"targeted_institutions": [
"McClatchy"
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{
"title": "Pastor threatens Greenville News during sermon",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pastor-threatens-greenville-news-during-sermon/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-08T15:31:27.524108Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:32.798943Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:32.675113Z",
"date": "2019-04-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Greenville",
"longitude": -82.39401,
"latitude": 34.85262,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hfbrt\">Pastor Hope Carpenter appeared to threaten Greenville News during a sermon at a South Carolina church on April 2, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"2dgxr\">Toward the end of Carpenter's monologue at Relentless Church in Greenville, she expressed gratitude to the church leadership before targeting Greenville News.</p><p data-block-key=\"pr7yb\">"I cut people. I got a knife right in that pocketbook," Carpenter told the congregation, <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/04/02/i-cut-people-hope-carpenter-relentless-church-greenville-news/?utm_term=.3613664d6146&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1\">according to the Washington Post</a>. "Greenville News, come on. We done went through this. I'm still here, and guess who else is still going to be here?" Carpenter ended, pointing to controversial pastor John Gray.</p><p data-block-key=\"f0xpg\">Relentless Church's new leaders, pastors John and Aventer Gray, had recently been the subjects of investigative reporting by Greenville News, which <a href=\"https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2019/01/19/john-gray-house-relentless-church-pastor/2360826002/\">wrote in January 2019</a> how John Gray lives in a nearly $2 million home funded by the church. In another piece, Greenville News <a href=\"https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2019/01/19/john-gray-house-relentless-church-pastor/2360826002/\">covered lavish personal purchases</a> he made for his wife.</p><p data-block-key=\"p6dh6\">Carpenter did not respond to request by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"81vb9\">"The Greenville News strives to cover every organization in our community in a fair and unbiased way and also aggressively and comprehensively,” said Greenville News Executive Editor Katrice Hardy. “Our robust coverage of Relentless church has included stories ranging from the church's assistance in helping launch an emergency homeless shelter in Pickens County to the way that the church has used its resources."</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "South Carolina",
"abbreviation": "SC"
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"targeted_institutions": [
"The Greenville News"
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{
"title": "Texas high school journalism adviser resigns; district implements prior review policies",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-high-school-journalism-advisor-resigns-district-implements-prior-review-policies/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-01T16:49:56.963315Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:52.865397Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T18:59:52.789404Z",
"date": "2019-04-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Katy",
"longitude": -95.8244,
"latitude": 29.78579,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"scd13\">The journalism adviser at a high school in Katy, Texas, has resigned after a prolonged conflict with school administration, which originated over how the yearbook should cover LGBTQ content. In the wake of this conflict, the principal also changed campus policy so that future issues of the yearbook will be subject to prior review.</p><p data-block-key=\"c1v2x\">The Seven Lakes High School teacher, Katie Moreno, declined to speak with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker about the situation, citing the conditions of her employment contract with the Katy Independent School District. But she consulted with the legal team at the Student Press Law Center, and a staff attorney there, Sommer Ingram Dean, provided to the Tracker a 30-page document in which Moreno details her interactions with Seven Lakes principal Kerri Finnesand.</p><p data-block-key=\"bucoe\">“When a school district forces an award-winning journalism teacher to resign, you have to think there’s something more to the story than what school officials may be stating. Time and time again we see fearless journalism advisers teaching their students sound, responsible journalism, and winning awards for it, but still struggling to keep a job,” Dean said. “Every adviser that is bullied out of a job and every student that is pressured into silence is a threat to free speech. I hope Seven Lakes understands the gravity of this situation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s16se\">Moreno, who has taught at Seven Lakes since January 2014, was awarded the Journalism Education Association’s “Rising Star” award in November 2018, according to an<a href=\"http://katytimes.com/education/article_b1f9a6ea-1e4b-11e9-8de0-97d16d333762.html\"> article</a> published by the Katy Times in January.</p><p data-block-key=\"4u1kj\">According to Moreno’s account, in November 2018 she brought a yearbook page for the Pride Club, the school’s group for LGBTQ students, to Finnesand for her review. The yearbook content had never been subject to prior review before, but Moreno showed it to Finnesand out of respect for a former administrator, whose child was featured on the page. Finnesand wrote in an email to Moreno that the administrator's child “will not be featured in the year book with the Pride Club” and ordered her to contact the parent of every student featured “about their child’s quote and the context of the club.” Finnesand did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"gyagn\">Moreno drafted a permission slip for parents to sign and let the adviser of the Pride Club know about it. The adviser protested, saying that no other clubs faced such a requirement, so it could be construed as discriminatory. When the adviser brought it up directly with Finnesand, the principal told Moreno she was being “insubordinate” by broaching the topic with the Pride Club adviser.</p><p data-block-key=\"374s1\">On Dec. 5, a yearbook student sent a private message on social media, writing that the principal wanted to change the publication layout for several groups, and have the parents of all Pride Club members sign a permission slip. The student lamented that “[a]ll the work we’ve done to build these clubs, all the memories, all the growth, will all be excluded from the yearbook if we don’t use our voice now in whatever ways possible.” Another student reposted the message, and Moreno brought the message to Finnesand’s attention, who viewed it as a “personal attack,” according to Moreno’s documentation.</p><p data-block-key=\"z4y1u\">The next afternoon, Finnesand came into Moreno’s classroom and confronted her within earshot of her students. “She said I’m not doing my job, and that I clearly can’t control my kids. And I ‘let’ them go to social media to slander her. And because of that I don’t need to be the yearbook adviser here,” Moreno wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"0mxkl\">A meeting between Finnesand and Moreno’s journalism students took place on Dec. 7, where they agreed on a plan on how to cover non-curriculum clubs in the yearbook going forward.</p><p data-block-key=\"g003r\">After the students left that meeting, Finnesand spoke with Moreno again where she expressed that she never has problems dealing with leaders of other organizations. Moreno, in her document, wrote her interactions with Finnesand left her feeling belittled: “[d]ue to the nature of student publications, there will be times she needs to have a conversation with the adviser and with the editors. Every single time I have contacted her with a question or an update, I am met with animosity, condescension, and judgement. This is an unfair comparison, as issues regarding censorship do not arise from service organizations or athletics.”</p><p data-block-key=\"noq9q\">The print edition of the school’s newspaper, The Torch, has always operated under prior review. Moreno’s students dropped off a proof of the December issue for review by Finnesand on Dec. 3, and it was returned to Moreno without any comments. The issue’s cover included an edited image of a girl surrounded by a cloud of smoke, accompanying an article about vaping titled “A Fatal Fad.” The photograph was taken using dry ice. The cover was included in the approved proof binder, but after the issue was distributed, Moreno was given a performance review memorandum to sign for the image appearing on the cover.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1o5v\">Following a series of interactions with Finnesand, Moreno sent a grievance letter to Jeff Stocks, assistant superintendent of the Katy ISD, in which she outlined the communication difficulties she was having with Finnesand. At a meeting with Stocks and Finnesand on Jan. 8, 2019, Moreno was giving a document that stated that “campus administration will approve all pages of the SLHS yearbook,” a departure from the previous policy that did not require prior review. At the conclusion of that meeting, Finnesand informed Moreno that she would not be the yearbook or newspaper sponsor next school year, according to Moreno’s account.</p><p data-block-key=\"nozzi\">According to Moreno’s account, after a series of meetings with a school district Human Resources representative where the future of Moreno’s teaching contract was called into question, she opted to resign on April 1, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"sfdhz\">Moreno will teach through the end of the school year, and in her resignation cited her intention to find a teaching position in another school district, Ingram Dean at the SPLC told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"kr016\">Justin Graham, the general counsel for Katy ISD, told the Tracker in an email that Moreno resigned “unilaterally and voluntarily” from her job at Seven Lakes.</p><p data-block-key=\"nnxcu\"><i>Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Jeff Stocks as superintendent of Katy Independent School District. Stocks is assistant superintendent.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"aeauh\">Journalism adviser Katie Moreno, left, works with Seven Lakes High School students in Katy, Texas. In April 2019, Moreno resigned from her position following a series of disagreements with school administration about content.</p>",
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{
"title": "Judge limits media access to evidence in Minnesota police shooting trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-limits-media-access-evidence-minnesota-police-shooting-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-04T20:20:59.122542Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-11T18:02:53.184250Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-11T18:02:53.101249Z",
"date": "2019-03-29",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2e8m7\">The judge presiding over the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor ruled on March 29, 2019, that media and members of the public will be restricted from viewing “graphic evidence”—including body cam footage and photographs from the crime scene and medical examiner’s office—in the case that will be displayed for the jury.</p><p data-block-key=\"efjq5\">At a final pretrial hearing, Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn L. Quaintance said she was blocking this evidence from being seen by anyone aside from the jury and attorneys in the case because “there’s privacy interest involved,”<a href=\"http://www.startribune.com/attorneys-judge-to-address-final-details-in-upcoming-noor-trial/507825992/\"> according</a> to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. She called airing this evidence publicly “inflammatory, potentially” as it “shows the deceased in extremely compromising situations.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8emnn\">Noor is accused of fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an Australian woman who had called police to alert them to a possible assault taking place in the alleyway behind her home. Noor allegedly shot and killed her when she approached his police cruiser. Jury selection in the case began on April 1.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9og4\">A coalition of media representatives including the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio filed a <a href=\"http://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-18-6859/NoticeofMotionandMotion040219.pdf\">motion</a> on April 2 objecting to Quaintance’s ruling barring media from viewing evidence, arguing it amounts to a unconstitutional “de facto closure of the courtroom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v81nr\">“Excluding the press and public from viewing evidence presented to the jury and other trial participants violates the Constitutional and common law rights of press and public access to criminal proceedings,” wrote Leita Walker, an attorney for the media coalition, in a <a href=\"http://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-18-6859/MemoranduminSupportofMotion040219.pdf\">memorandum</a> supporting the motion.</p><p data-block-key=\"87fgd\">As of publication, the motion had not been scheduled for a hearing. Jury selection in the case is ongoing.</p><p data-block-key=\"15238\">Courts have upheld the notion that media outlets and the public have a right to “contemporaneous access” to evidence during a trial, Walker argued, citing the Second Circuit case ABC v. Stewart, where the court found “[t]he ability to see and to hear a proceeding as it unfolds is a vital component of the First Amendment right of access—not . . . an incremental benefit.” Additionally, Quaintance’s argument is invalid, Walker wrote, as the state of Minnesota “does not recognize a posthumous right to privacy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"w6w6m\">The judge’s decision to limit access to evidence “clearly crossed a constitutional boundary,” Mark Anfinson, an attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"xunrv\">In an <a href=\"http://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-18-6859/OrderonConductatTrial032719.pdf\">order</a> issued on March 27, Quaintance wrote that to preserve “order and decorum” in the courtroom, space devoted to the media will be limited to eight seats, of which four will be available to local media outlets and four to national and international outlets. Four seats each will be reserved for the family members of the victim and defendant, one for a sketch artists, which leaves only 11 seats for the public, <a href=\"http://www.mnspj.org/2019/03/29/mnspj-opposes-hennepin-county-courts-severe-restrictions-on-noor-shooting-trial-coverage/\">according</a> to Joe Spear, the president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune <a href=\"http://www.startribune.com/judge-restricts-media-public-s-access-to-noor-murder-trial/507810372/\">noted</a> that other courtrooms in the building contain double the amount of seating.</p><p data-block-key=\"i70np\">The judge’s initial <a href=\"http://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-18-6859/OrderonConductatTrial032719.pdf\">order</a> stated that overflow seating will be available in another courtroom, where an audio feed of the proceedings will be played. But after media outcry, Quaintance issued an amended <a href=\"http://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-18-6859/AmendedOrderonConductatTrial032819.pdf\">order</a> the next day stating that a video feed would be available in that overflow courtroom as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjb5a\">Walker, the attorney for the media coalition, in a March 29 letter to Judge Ivy Bernhardson, the Chief Judge of Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District, asked that the trial be moved to a larger courtroom, or a second overflow room be reserved for media. “The Coalition is dismayed that, on the eve of trial, uncertainties remain about whether the press and public will be able to adequately monitor one of the highest profile trials the State of Minnesota has ever seen,” Walker wrote. In response, Judges Bernhardson and Quaintance on April 1 added seven more media seats to the existing courtroom, <a href=\"http://www.startribune.com/after-backlash-seven-new-seats-added-for-media-at-noor-trial/507977122/\">according</a> to the Star Tribune.</p><p data-block-key=\"hlmkw\">Quaintance’s order also banned all electronic or recording devices, including cellphones, tablets, and laptops, from the entire floor of the courthouse where the trial was taking place.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"imo94\">Mohamed Noor, far right, enters the courthouse with his attorneys ahead of the murder trial against the former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer, charged in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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{
"title": "Texas law enforcement seizes gear from TV crew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-law-enforcement-seizes-gear-from-tv-crew/",
"first_published_at": "2025-02-26T17:10:13.504978Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-03T16:02:09.615419Z",
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"date": "2019-03-28",
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"city": "Austin",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"o9m89\">Law enforcement officials in Austin, Texas, briefly seized equipment belonging to the crew of reality TV show “Live PD” after the crew filmed the death of a man in custody on March 28, 2019, according to news reports and court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"cm35d\">“Live PD” parent company Big Fish Entertainment <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59770975/big-fish-entertainment-llc-v-williamson-county-sheriffs-office/\">sued</a> the City of Austin, Williamson County and 11 police officers on March 26, 2021, alleging violations of the First, Fourth and 14th amendments and the Privacy Protection Act in connection with the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"d95va\">The reality show followed the activities of police officers across the U.S., with camera crews and producers embedded with patrols and riding along in police vehicles.</p><p data-block-key=\"fetu7\">On that day in 2019, producers and camera operators Colin Mika and Jeff Moriarty, along with associate producer Ruby Garson Tarzian, were riding in two separate squad cars — with GoPro cameras mounted on the windshields of each — when the Williamson County sheriff’s deputies began chasing Javier Ambler II after he allegedly failed to dim his headlights.</p><p data-block-key=\"51hg6\">After more than 20 minutes, Ambler’s car became disabled and officers tried to handcuff him, shocking him with Tasers four times. Mika and Moriarty got out of the squad cars and filmed the encounter with handheld cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"3j10f\">Ambler, who was Black, repeatedly told officers he had congestive heart failure and could not breathe. He eventually became unconscious and was pronounced dead about an hour later.</p><p data-block-key=\"8cbbi\">In an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1128115/gov.uscourts.txwd.1128115.8.0.pdf\">amended complaint</a> filed on April 23, 2021, the production company said that the crew stopped filming when Ambler became nonresponsive. Soon after, it added, officers from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and the Austin Police Department “took the extraordinary step of jointly seizing the production crew’s cameras and footage of the incident that the crew had left in WCSO squad cars.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bj1b3\">Mika kept his handheld camera with him, according to the complaint, but left his GoPro and other equipment in one of the sheriff’s vehicles. Moriarty’s handheld camera, GoPro and other equipment <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-law-enforcement-seizes-cameras-equipment-from-tv-crew\">were also seized</a>, along with Tarzian’s personal belongings.</p><p data-block-key=\"5obkv\">The seizure took place in the absence of “a warrant, a subpoena, or even probable cause to believe that any of the Live PD crew had committed or was committing a criminal offense,” according to the complaint.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjanr\">The production company said that officers prevented the crew from retrieving their cameras from the squad cars because they considered the footage “to be evidence secured in the police custody.”</p><p data-block-key=\"64iu0\">After more than an hour, the crew was allowed to recover their equipment from the squad cars, and then they left the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2kt2\">The next day, the crew sent the recordings to Big Fish’s editorial office in New York, which reviewed the footage and decided not to air it. The company noted in the complaint that it had anticipated that Texas officials would issue a court order for the video as part of a probe into Ambler’s death — and that they were prepared to provide it — but no one ever asked for it.</p><p data-block-key=\"48u1f\">The complaint said the footage was destroyed after 30 days in accordance with a clause in the show’s contract with Williamson County, <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/08/14/who-responsible-for-destruction-video-in-ambler-death-javier-chody-nassour-trial-tampering-live-pd/74771979007/\">reportedly added after Ambler’s death</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fonbn\">In June 2020, the Austin American-Statesman and TV station KVUE published an <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/lifestyle/public-safety/2020/06/08/austin-area-police-chase-ends-in-death-as-lsquolive-pdrsquo-cameras-roll/43273631/\">investigation</a> into Ambler’s death that made public the police body camera footage and other documents. That report came in the wake of widespread protests after the May 2020 killing in police custody of another Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis.</p><p data-block-key=\"4q1mr\">Amid renewed scrutiny of the Ambler case, “Live PD” was accused by Texas officials of failing to cooperate with an official probe into the incident, including refusing to turn over the footage.</p><p data-block-key=\"fr0ag\">In the suit, Big Fish alleged that investigators made those allegations to cover up the fact that they failed to undertake a meaningful investigation into Ambler’s killing until June 2020. It also noted that the entire incident was captured on the officers’ body cameras and dashcams, duplicating the “Live PD” footage.</p><p data-block-key=\"bb5u\">The case was dismissed on Aug. 22, 2023, after the parties agreed in June 2021 to stay and abate the proceedings in light of “other pending proceedings related to the same subject matter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8no8b\">It was not immediately clear what proceedings they were referring to. However, two former Williamson County officials <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/08/14/who-responsible-for-destruction-video-in-ambler-death-javier-chody-nassour-trial-tampering-live-pd/74771979007/\">went on trial</a> in August 2024 on charges of evidence tampering in the Ambler case; they were accused of taking steps to ensure that the “Live PD” footage was destroyed. The case was <a href=\"https://www.kxan.com/news/local/williamson-county/judge-grants-stay-in-tampering-case-against-former-sheriff-robert-chody-prosecutor/\">stayed</a> for an indefinite period later that month.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qkc8\">Williamson County’s Public Affairs Department declined to comment. The Austin Police Department, in an emailed statement, noted: “Litigation was dismissed without any findings or wrongdoing against the City or any settlement by the City.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fr91k\">Big Fish and its attorneys Elizabeth McNamara and David Gonzalez did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"aud2l\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include responses from Williamson County and the Austin Police Department.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"z36gw\">A portion of a complaint filed on March 26, 2021, by Big Fish Entertainment over the seizure of camera equipment and footage from the crew of its “Live PD” TV series after a police-related death in Austin, Texas, two years earlier.</p>",
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{
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"name": "Texas",
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},
{
"title": "Texas law enforcement seizes cameras, equipment from TV crew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-law-enforcement-seizes-cameras-equipment-from-tv-crew/",
"first_published_at": "2025-02-26T17:12:34.188833Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:52:16.041988Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:52:15.938558Z",
"date": "2019-03-28",
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"city": "Austin",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xprkl\">Law enforcement officials in Austin, Texas, briefly seized equipment belonging to the crew of reality TV show “Live PD” after the crew filmed the death of a man in custody on March 28, 2019, according to news reports and court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"3apao\">“Live PD” parent company Big Fish Entertainment <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59770975/big-fish-entertainment-llc-v-williamson-county-sheriffs-office/\">sued</a> the city of Austin, Williamson County and 11 police officers on March 26, 2021, alleging violations of the First, Fourth and 14th amendments and the Privacy Protection Act in connection with the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"4lagf\">The reality show followed the activities of police officers across the U.S., with camera crews and producers embedded with patrols and riding along in police vehicles.</p><p data-block-key=\"afmfm\">On that day in 2019, producers and camera operators Jeff Moriarty and Colin Mika, along with associate producer Ruby Garson Tarzian, were riding in two separate squad cars — with GoPro cameras mounted on the windshields of each — when the Williamson County sheriff’s deputies began chasing Javier Ambler II after he allegedly failed to dim his headlights.</p><p data-block-key=\"3832u\">After more than 20 minutes, Ambler’s car became disabled and officers tried to handcuff him, shocking him with Tasers four times. Mika and Moriarty got out of the squad cars and filmed the encounter with handheld cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"9i165\">Ambler, who was Black, repeatedly told officers he had congestive heart failure and could not breathe. He eventually became unconscious and was pronounced dead about an hour later.</p><p data-block-key=\"6l9k8\">In an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1128115/gov.uscourts.txwd.1128115.8.0.pdf\">amended complaint</a> filed on April 23, 2021, the production company said that the crew stopped filming when Ambler became nonresponsive. Soon after, it added, officers from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and the Austin Police Department “took the extraordinary step of jointly seizing the production crew’s cameras and footage of the incident that the crew had left in WCSO squad cars.”</p><p data-block-key=\"17un8\">Moriarty placed his handheld camera along with his other equipment in a sheriff’s vehicle after officers began their investigation, according to the complaint, and they were seized along with his GoPro. Mika’s GoPro and camera equipment <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-law-enforcement-seizes-gear-from-tv-crew\">were also seized</a>, along with Tarzian’s personal belongings.</p><p data-block-key=\"9fo34\">The seizure took place in the absence of “a warrant, a subpoena, or even probable cause to believe that any of the Live PD crew had committed or was committing a criminal offense,” according to the complaint.</p><p data-block-key=\"76vaq\">The production company said that officers prevented the crew from retrieving their cameras from the squad cars because they considered the footage “to be evidence secured in the police custody.”</p><p data-block-key=\"p7nm\">After more than an hour, the crew was allowed to recover their equipment from the squad cars, and then they left the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"5th93\">The next day, the crew sent the recordings to Big Fish’s editorial office in New York, which reviewed the footage and decided not to air it. The company noted in the complaint that it had anticipated that Texas officials would issue a court order for the video as part of a probe into Ambler’s death — and that they were prepared to provide it — but no one ever asked for it.</p><p data-block-key=\"duj92\">The complaint said the footage was destroyed after 30 days in accordance with a clause in the show’s contract with Williamson County, <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/08/14/who-responsible-for-destruction-video-in-ambler-death-javier-chody-nassour-trial-tampering-live-pd/74771979007/\">reportedly added after Ambler’s death</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4225n\">In June 2020, the Austin American-Statesman and TV station KVUE published an <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/lifestyle/public-safety/2020/06/08/austin-area-police-chase-ends-in-death-as-lsquolive-pdrsquo-cameras-roll/43273631/\">investigation</a> into Ambler’s death that made public the police body camera footage and other documents. That report came in the wake of widespread protests after the May 2020 killing in police custody of another Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis.</p><p data-block-key=\"ef084\">Amid renewed scrutiny of the Ambler case, “Live PD” was accused by Texas officials of failing to cooperate with an official probe into the incident, including refusing to turn over the footage.</p><p data-block-key=\"12jim\">In the suit, Big Fish alleged that investigators made those allegations to cover up the fact that they failed to undertake a meaningful investigation into Ambler’s killing until June 2020. It also noted that the entire incident was captured on the officers’ body cameras and dashcams, duplicating the “Live PD” footage.</p><p data-block-key=\"atang\">The case was dismissed on Aug. 22, 2023, after the parties agreed in June 2021 to stay and abate the proceedings in light of “other pending proceedings related to the same subject matter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6q638\">It was not immediately clear what proceedings they were referring to. However, two former Williamson County officials <a href=\"https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/08/14/who-responsible-for-destruction-video-in-ambler-death-javier-chody-nassour-trial-tampering-live-pd/74771979007/\">went on trial</a> in August 2024 on charges of evidence tampering in the Ambler case; they were accused of taking steps to ensure that the “Live PD” footage was destroyed. The case was <a href=\"https://www.kxan.com/news/local/williamson-county/judge-grants-stay-in-tampering-case-against-former-sheriff-robert-chody-prosecutor/\">stayed</a> for an indefinite period later that month.</p><p data-block-key=\"doijb\">Williamson County’s Public Affairs Department declined to comment. The Austin Police Department, in an emailed statement, noted: “Litigation was dismissed without any findings or wrongdoing against the City or any settlement by the City.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1agrp\">Big Fish and its attorneys Elizabeth McNamara and David Gonzalez did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0v6p\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include responses from Williamson County and the Austin Police Department.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qlwb4\">A portion of a complaint filed on March 26, 2021, by Big Fish Entertainment over the seizure of camera equipment and footage from the crew of its “Live PD” TV series after a police-related death in Austin, Texas, two years earlier.</p>",
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{
"quantity": 2,
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{
"quantity": 1,
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"name": "Texas",
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},
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},
{
"title": "New York County Supreme Court judge quashes subpoena for HBO documentary outtakes",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-county-supreme-court-judge-quashes-subpoena-hbo-documentary-outtakes/",
"first_published_at": "2019-06-07T20:30:15.035851Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-04-03T15:44:24.443814Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-04-03T15:44:24.344123Z",
"date": "2019-03-27",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u4qjf\">New York County Supreme Court Judge Carol Edmead quashed a subpoena for outtakes from the HBO documentary “Rock and a Hard Place” on June 5, 2019, citing New York’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"qior9\">Christy Laster, a former correctional officer who appeared in the documentary, stands charged of bribery, grand theft and extortion, but alleged the footage she sought through the subpoena would exonerate her, <a href=\"http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2019/2019_29164.htm\">according to the ruling</a>. Laster argued that because Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appeared in and produced the documentary, it was rendered a “celebrity reality TV show” and therefore would not be protected under the statute.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ib7p\">Edmead dismissed this categorization, <a href=\"http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2019/2019_29164.htm\">writing in her decision</a> that Laster “cites no authority for the notion that the mere involvement of a celebrity in a project renders it somehow incapable of being classified as a documentary, or that a celebrity known for other endeavors cannot be deemed a ‘journalist’ under the [shield law].”</p><p data-block-key=\"b0uju\">In addition to his credit as an executive producer for “Rock and a Hard Place,” Johnson was the executive producer of the episode “Stand Your Ground” in the “Finding Justice” series and of the feature documentary “Racing Dreams.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"8hpxs\">The New York County Supreme Court ruled that the state’s shield law applies to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his role producing the 2017 documentary film, “Rock and a Hard Place.”</p>",
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"subpoena_type": "journalist communications or work product",
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"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
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"Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson (HBO)"
],
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"quashed"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter assaulted by heavyweight boxer during on-camera interview",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-assaulted-heavyweight-boxer-during-camera-interview/",
"first_published_at": "2019-07-25T20:42:37.653895Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-17T21:36:54.506959Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-17T21:36:54.423054Z",
"date": "2019-03-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Costa Mesa",
"longitude": -117.91867,
"latitude": 33.64113,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cgcaw\">A heavyweight boxer forced a kiss on a reporter during an on-camera interview following a match in Costa Mesa, California, on March 23, 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"hp50s\">Jennifer Ravalo, a Vegas Sports Daily contributor and web host who uses the byline <a href=\"http://vegassportsdaily.com/author/jenny/\">Jennifer SuShe</a>, was conducting a video interview following Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev’s knockout victory when he grabbed her face, reached around her back and kissed her on the lips.</p><p data-block-key=\"ob93t\">In the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE05akv_k08\">video of the incident</a>, Ravalo initially appears to laugh it off, saying, “All right, thank you,” as Pulev walks away. Ravalo later lodged a complaint with the California State Athletic Commission asserting that the kiss was without her consent and unwelcome. Ravalo also said Pulev sexually harassed her a second time, moments after the interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"myfsq\">“I was immediately shocked and embarrassed, and didn’t know how to respond,” Ravalo said while reading from a prepared statement at a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/gloriaallred/videos/10157199305955879/\">press conference</a> following the incident. “Next, I walked to the table to put my items in my backpack. He grabbed both of my buttocks and squeezed with both of his hands. Then he walked away without saying anything to me and laughed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sfyr4\">The commission suspended Pulev’s boxing license for six months in May, the New York Daily News <a href=\"https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-boxer-can-return-to-ring-after-kissing-reporter-without-consent-20190722-4dyov36lp5gfpn7chnamzrwagy-story.html\">reported</a>, citing him for violating rules prohibiting conduct considered a “discredit to boxing.” Pulev was also fined $2,500 and ordered to attended a sexual harassment awareness course.</p><p data-block-key=\"svvv7\">On July 22, the commission voted unanimously to lift the suspension on Pulev with the caveat that another violation could result in a lifetime suspension.</p><p data-block-key=\"axx8u\">“It’s disappointing he didn’t do the full six months,” Ravalo said. “I don’t know if he’s really sorry. I won’t know until I see how he acts.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0eutb\">Attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Ravalo, has also spoken out against comments made by Pulev’s promoter, Bob Arum, Reuters <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-boxing-pulev/california-boxing-license-returned-to-bulgarian-athlete-who-forcibly-kissed-reporter-idUSKCN1UI03U\">reported</a>. In an <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhaOuVwIQyg&feature=youtu.be\">interview on iFL TV</a> posted to YouTube on June 15, Arum claimed that Ravalo had been “fooling around” with Pulev ahead of the fight in March and that Pulev’s suspension was “totally crazy” as he “did nothing wrong.”</p><p data-block-key=\"z02xn\">Allred called the statement “blatantly false,” pointing to the fact that both Pulev and Ravalo testified before the commission that they first met at the weigh-in the day before the fight, The Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/23/boxer-who-kissed-female-reporter-ring-can-fight-again-says-it-was-my-mistake/?utm_term=.b48648d763e1\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lrl3u\">Ravalo <a href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/2019/jul/23/boxing-license-reinstated-for-fighter-who-forced/\">told KPBS</a> that the incident and subsequent fallout has negatively impacted her career. Arum and his promotion company, which represents almost 100 boxers, will not allow her to cover their events and some boxers have been standoffish about providing interviews, she said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"z2mza\">The California State Athletic Commission recently reinstated the boxing license of Kubrat Pulev, seen here at a 2017 press conference, following his suspension for forcibly kissing and groping a reporter.</p>",
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"sexual assault"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Jennifer Ravalo (Vegas Sports Daily)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Pennsylvania borough settles lawsuit after punitively withdrawing advertising from local newspaper",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pennsylvania-borough-settles-lawsuit-after-punitively-withdrawing-advertising-local-newspaper/",
"first_published_at": "2019-04-05T17:59:11.309012Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-16T19:14:59.149033Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-16T19:14:59.053255Z",
"date": "2019-03-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Borough of Middletown",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"poel6\">On March 19, 2019, the Borough of Middletown in Pennsylvania agreed to a settlement on a lawsuit filed by the Press & Journal, a local weekly. The newspaper sued after the mayor and borough council sent an official policy letter withdrawing advertising dollars from the Press & Journal in retaliation for the paper’s reporting and editorializing.</p><p data-block-key=\"osvlk\">Joseph Sukle, publisher and vice president of the Press & Journal, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that there had been contentions with the borough over the last year or so.</p><p data-block-key=\"c8oij\">“I guess they didn’t like what we were reporting or the editorial viewpoints that we expressed, and then they just cut off all communications and not talking to us or our reporters, not commenting,” Sukle said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7znvu\">Sukle said he noticed that the borough stopped publishing public notices in the newspaper in June 2018. When he reached out to the borough to see if there was a problem, he was told he would shortly receive an official communication.</p><p data-block-key=\"5tduh\">Mayor James Curry III and six out of seven of the Middletown Borough Council members sent Sukle a <a href=\"http://cdn4.creativecirclemedia.com/pressandjournal/original/20190326-161915-Ltr_MtownBC_7_17_2018.jpg\">signed policy letter</a> the next month. The letter claimed that the newspaper’s reporting and editorials had been “detrimental to the efforts and initiatives of the Borough” and that it has contained “disheartening and demoralizing instances of distasteful sensationalism, misrepresentation of information and statements, unfounded speculation, questionable sourcing and observable bias.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qza2i\">The letter ended: “Should the Press and Journal demonstrate reliability to professionally and responsibly report on the actions and statements of Borough Council and Management, as well [sic] critiquing us from a founded and balanced position, we will be happy to patron your newspaper again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"taiwe\">In an <a href=\"http://pressandjournal.com/stories/we-are-not-the-enemy-editorial,55807\">editorial following the settlement</a>, the Press & Journal wrote that the letter took no pains to hide the meaning of the advertising ban: “In short, the letter was evidence of an unapologetic retaliation aimed at speech protected by the First Amendment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"o2td7\">In an effort to resolve the issue out of court, Aaron Martin, the newspaper’s attorney, appeared at a Sept. 18 borough council meeting to read a <a href=\"http://www.pressandjournal.com/stories/press-journal-lawyers-letter-to-council-we-implore-you-to-correct-the-unconstitutional,41133?\">letter</a> requesting a retraction of the policy letter. It argued that the council’s withdrawal of the borough’s advertising after a decades-long business relationship was a First Amendment violation.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0knq\">“This attempted punishment of a member of the free press—requiring a kind of probationary penitence prior to restoration—is a naked attempt to coerce favorable press coverage,” the letter <a href=\"http://www.pressandjournal.com/stories/press-journal-lawyers-letter-to-council-we-implore-you-to-correct-the-unconstitutional,41133?\">reads</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pgkai\">The Press & Journal provided copies of the letter to each council member and Mayor Curry.</p><p data-block-key=\"bhqjh\">“While our attorney was standing there, and just about the time he was finished reading it,” Sukle said, “the mayor actually takes the letter, takes it in his hands, rips it apart, and tosses it on the desk in full view of everybody: fellow councilors, our attorney. It was just an incredible action by an elected official.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kfjdc\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"4f73v\"><br/></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-image\">\n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Mayor_Curry_tears_letter_in_half2x.width-828.png\" width=\"828\" height=\"184\" alt=\"Photo collage\">\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5y2jp\">In this photo collage from a recording, Borough of Middletown Mayor James Curry III, back left, rips a letter from the Press & Journal during the Sept. 18, 2018, borough council meeting. The recording can be found at: <a href=\"https://middletownborough.com/event/borough-council-meeting-16/\">https://middletownborough.com/event/borough-council-meeting-16/</a></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"uwxxv\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3f492\">The paper asked that the council respond within seven days to its request in an effort to resolve the dispute out of court. Sukle told the Tracker that, in the end, they waited more than two weeks.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9mnx\">On Oct. 23, 2018, the law firm of Mette, Evans & Woodside filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the borough on the newspaper’s behalf, asserting violations of the Press & Journal’s rights to free speech and free press under the First Amendment.</p><p data-block-key=\"esq6v\">Within days, Council President Angela Lloyd <a href=\"https://middletownborough.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018.10.26-Press-Release.pdf\">issued a press release</a> stating, “The global services offered by the Press and Journal do not meet the Borough’s needs.” She also charged that the suit had “no merit in fact or law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gani0\">On Nov. 14, the borough <a href=\"https://dockets.justia.com/docket/pennsylvania/pamdce/1:2018cv02064/118460\">attempted</a> to have the suit dismissed. However, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Conner ruled against the borough and denied its request for dismissal on Dec. 13, stating that while no formal contract existed between the borough and the Press & Journal, the borough had placed more than 200 notices over the previous 10 years, establishing a reasonable expectation of future business.</p><p data-block-key=\"84b0z\">Though government bodies are required to publish certain public notices in publications available to the populations they serve, there are no federally mandated guidelines. In order to not violate the first amendment rights of publications, government entities cannot take into account the content or viewpoint of the news service as a criteria for placing public notices.</p><p data-block-key=\"vmild\">“Judge Conner’s decision will likely provide support to other media outlets facing retaliatory action by government for their reporting and editorializing,” Martin, the newspaper’s attorney, said in the Press & Journal’s editorial.</p><p data-block-key=\"6m9tc\">Under the terms of the settlement reached in March, the borough is required to spell out its criteria for placing advertisements on bases that are “content-neutral and viewpoint-neutral consistent with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Of the six council members who signed the official letter to the Press & Journal, five remain on the council that established these criteria through a resolution.</p><p data-block-key=\"rm138\">Sukle, however, told the Tracker that the criteria are written in a way that excludes the Press & Journal because it is a weekly publication. Further, Sukle said, the mayor has continued to restrict the newspaper’s access, most significantly to the police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"96bxb\">“It’s gone so far that our staff—almost all of our staff—is blocked from the mayor’s Facebook pages, so we can’t access those,” Sukle said.</p><p data-block-key=\"f0o5r\">The newspaper did not ask for damages in the suit, though the settlement did require that Middletown Borough pay $22,000 to the Press & Journal’s law firm for legal costs.</p><p data-block-key=\"dvbbk\">In the editorial discussing the settlement, the Press & Journal wrote that it is undeterred by the borough council and mayor’s attempts to sway the newspaper’s reporting or editorializing: “We are not the borough council’s enemy. And we are not its PR firm.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"vg3op\">A signed letter from Borough of Middletown, Pennsylvania, council members and mayor explicitly links withdrawal of the borough's advertising dollars to what it considers "detrimental" editorial content.<br/></p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
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"[Middletown] Press & Journal"
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"Other Incident"
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},
{
"title": "Department of State bars press pool from briefing call, allowing only “faith-based media”",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/department-state-bars-press-pool-briefing-call-allowing-only-faith-based-media/",
"first_published_at": "2019-03-25T17:06:27.177663Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-12-21T17:07:01.529386Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-12-21T17:07:01.452197Z",
"date": "2019-03-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ghgf4\">The State Department barred the department’s press corps from a briefing call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 18, 2019, stating that only “faith-based media” were permitted to participate. The department also took the unusual step of refusing to release a full transcript or a list of attendees.</p><p data-block-key=\"r9ygi\">The phone briefing was to discuss “international religious freedom” ahead of the secretary’s five-day trip to Beirut, Jerusalem, and Kuwait City. CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/politics/state-department-faith-outlets-briefing/index.html\">reported</a> that one member of the department’s press corps was invited, but was un-invited after RSVPing. CNN also attempted to RSVP to the call, but received no reply from the department.</p><p data-block-key=\"38bqn\">Despite repeated inquiries and complaints from members of the press corps, The State Department announced that it would not provide a transcript of the call, a list of the faith-based media outlets allowed to participate, the criteria used to determine which outlets would be invited nor answer if the media outlets invited included a range of faiths.</p><p data-block-key=\"4hfs8\">Religion News Service reported that it was invited to participate in the call, though it stated that the publication “is not a faith-based media organization, but rather a secular news service that covers religion, spirituality and ethics.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1ynjo\">RNS also included a list of publications that asked questions during the briefing call: the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Algemeiner (which covers Jewish and Israel news), World Magazine (which publicizes its content as “reporting the news from a Christian worldview”), America Magazine (“the Jesuit perspective on news, faith and culture”) and The Leaven, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. CNN reported that a reporter with EWTN Global Catholic Television said the outlet was not originally invited but asked permission to participate.</p><p data-block-key=\"4drws\">In a statement sent to CNN, a State Department spokesperson said that while some press engagements, including department press briefings, teleconferences, briefings and sprays are open to any interested domestic or international press, that is not always the case. “Other engagements are more targeted or designed for topic, region, or audience-specific media. This has always been the case,” they said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i7cnv\">Former State Department spokesperson John Kirby, now a global affairs analyst for CNN, told the outlet that he has “certainly seen times when particular journalists or columnists have been targeted for inclusion on given topics.” However, “to exclude beat reporters from something as universally relevant as religious freedom in the Middle East strikes me as not only self-defeating but incredibly small-minded.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0dh1q\">Kirby also tweeted in response to news that no transcript of the briefing would be released. “This is absolutely not OK. Cabinet officials are public servants. They work for us. When they speak to reporters on the record everything they say—in its entirety—needs to be released at the earliest appropriate time,” he wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is absolutely not OK. Cabinet officials are public servants. They work for us. When they speak to reporters on the record everything they say — in its entirety — needs to be released at the earliest appropriate time. That’s proper accountability. That’s what we deserve. <a href=\"https://t.co/OBJht2BaAK\">https://t.co/OBJht2BaAK</a></p>— John Kirby (@johnfkirby63) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnfkirby63/status/1107826830919327744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 19, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3p4of\">Standard norms are that when it concerns Cabinet-level officials like Pompeo, the department is expected to provide a transcript of the meeting remarks and a list of who attended to any interested journalist.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b0v3i\">The same day the State Department barred members of the press corps from an earlier briefing call with him, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media on his plane after departing for the Middle East.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
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"targeted_institutions": [
"CNN",
"State Department Press Corps"
],
"tags": [],
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"Federal government: Agency"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
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},
{
"title": "Judge orders ProPublica Illinois, other media, not to publish details of juvenile court case",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-orders-propublica-illinois-other-media-not-publish-details-juvenile-court-case/",
"first_published_at": "2019-03-27T17:42:06.855461Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-01-11T18:01:47.005478Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-01-11T18:01:46.921049Z",
"date": "2019-03-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yk0h4\">On March 14, 2019, a Cook County Juvenile Court judge ordered ProPublica Illinois and other news organizations not to publish certain details about an ongoing child welfare case in the Chicago-based juvenile court.</p><p data-block-key=\"xyjws\">In the course of reporting on child welfare issues, a ProPublica Illinois reporter had learned about the case. On March 7, after the reporter tried to attend a hearing in the case, the hearing was closed to the public and press.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltia1\">Bruce Boyer — a Loyola University law professor whose legal clinic represents the foster children in the case — then requested that the court issue an order prohibiting news outlets from publishing details about the case. On March 14, Patricia Martin, the presiding judge of the juvenile court’s child protection division, granted the request and issued a prior restraint order.</p><p data-block-key=\"jd6zv\">Documents related to the juvenile court case, including Martin’s prior restraint order, have not been made public. But on March 19, ProPublica Illinois <a href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/cook-county-judge-blocks-propublica-illinois-from-publishing-details-of-child-welfare-case\">reported on the existence of the prior restraint order</a>, describing it as an order “forbidding news organizations from publishing the names, addresses or any demographic information that would identify the children or the foster parents in a case ProPublica Illinois has been investigating.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2po47\">ProPublica Illinois was not initially a party to the case, but it asked the court to intervene in order to oppose the prior restraint order. On March 19, the court granted ProPublica Illinois’ motion to intervene, and on March 22, the news organization filed its opposition to the prior restraint order. A court hearing on the prior restraint order is now scheduled for April 5.</p><p data-block-key=\"12c1z\">Prior restraint orders are relatively unusual and should not be confused with sealing orders, which are far more commonly employed by courts. A sealing order is used when a court needs to allow attorneys and parties to a case access to sensitive information; the sealing order just prohibits the attorneys and parties from turning around and disclosing that information to the public. A prior restraint order is much more serious, since it prohibits a third party with no connection to the case (often a news organization) from publishing information that they learned on their own.</p><p data-block-key=\"lo76r\">ProPublica Illinois is opposing Martin’s prior restraint order because it sees it as an unconstitutional attempt by the government to interfere in its editorial process.</p><p data-block-key=\"m29a4\">“The Supreme Court has made it very clear that courts are not supposed to be editors,” ProPublica President Richard Tofel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “One of the Constitution’s guarantees is that editors should be editors.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ogi9w\">Tofel is correct that legal precedent is on ProPublica Illinois’ side. In 1971, the Supreme Court famously ruled that the government’s attempts to prevent The New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing a classified history of the Vietnam War <a href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/713/\">violated the news organizations’ First Amendment rights</a>. This “Pentagon Papers” case established the precedent that, except in extreme circumstances, prior restraints on the press are unconstitutional.</p></div>",
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"assailant": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": "dropped",
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-04-15 13:33:00+00:00) Judge lifts some restrictions on publishing ban"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"Media",
"ProPublica Illinois"
],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Prior Restraint"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Ohio political reporter removed from Democratic Party mailing list, reinstated by chair",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ohio-political-reporter-removed-democratic-party-mailing-list-reinstated-chair/",
"first_published_at": "2019-05-09T15:52:01.899747Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T19:00:24.809537Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T19:00:24.677359Z",
"date": "2019-03-05",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Cleveland",
"longitude": -81.69541,
"latitude": 41.4995,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sgy3z\">Cleveland political reporter Seth Richardson was removed from the Ohio Democratic Party press release mailing list by staff in March 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"k21lf\">Richardson posted a thread on Twitter that he had apparently been “frozen out” from covering the Ohio Democratic Party, and suggested he may have been removed from the press distribution list in response to his reporting.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So I normally hate threads like these, but I've tried solving this privately and it feels like it deserves to be out there in the open. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DavidPepper?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DavidPepper</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kirstinalv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kirstinalv</a> are apparently trying to freeze me out of covering the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/OHDems?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@OHDems</a> 1/</p>— Seth A. Richardson (@SethARichardson) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SethARichardson/status/1125842409542307841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 7, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8s2di\">Richardson, who reports for Cleveland.com, noted that not receiving the press releases made it difficult for him to do his job.</p><p data-block-key=\"t63ll\">Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper responded to Richardson on Twitter, and told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was not aware of the problem until he saw the tweets. Pepper confirmed that Richardson was added back to the press release list immediately.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Seth, I was not aware of this and have already made clear you should be on the press list. <br><br>Take care.</p>— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DavidPepper/status/1125854087088607233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 7, 2019</a></blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hk8d2\">“Any suggestion that I requested a reporter be removed from an email list because of a story, general coverage or any other reason is false,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5o8xo\">“We pride ourselves on not only being open to the press, but in supporting the freedom of the press at all levels,” Pepper wrote to the Tracker. “This was a poor decision made at a staff level that I immediately reversed when it came to my attention."</p><p data-block-key=\"oxcnb\">Pepper said that while there is not a written policy for removing reporters from the distribution, he said that practically, “we do not remove people from our press list,” and would never ask anyone to be removed. Pepper emphasized that the Ohio Democratic Party welcomes press coverage.</p></div>",
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"assailant": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Democratic Party (state)"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Seth Richardson (Cleveland.com)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": [
"Press credential or media list"
]
},
{
"title": "Sacramento Bee reporter detained while covering protest march",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-march/",
"first_published_at": "2020-03-12T15:56:38.779285Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-09-16T20:22:48.248210Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-09-16T20:22:48.167400Z",
"date": "2019-03-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Sacramento",
"longitude": -121.4944,
"latitude": 38.58157,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kpbm0\">Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler was one of three journalists arrested on March 4, 2019, in Sacramento, California, as police blocked off exits and began arresting those remaining at a protest march.</p><p data-block-key=\"bf7f7\">Then-Sacramento Business Journal reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-journalists-arrested-while-covering-stephon-clark-protest-sacramento/\">Scott Rodd</a> and California State University student reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-among-reporters-arrested-while-covering-sacramento-protest/\">William Coburn</a> were also arrested. A Bee photojournalist, Hector Amezcua, was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-photojournalist-pushed-ground-police-while-covering-protest-his-camera-damaged/\">shoved to the ground by a bike officer</a> when police began to cordon protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9xqy\">About 100 people gathered around 6:30 p.m. in East Sacramento to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against officers in the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man. The march proceeded uneventfully and eventually circled back to where it had begun, in a Trader Joe’s parking lot in the Fab 40s neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"0b6kt\">Police spokesperson Sgt. Vance Chandler <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/700317892/police-arrest-84-after-stephon-clark-protest-in-east-sacramento\">told</a> NPR that officers gave 10 orders to disperse over a two-hour period. “Shortly after we started monitoring the group at [approximately] 7:30 p.m., we established the group was unlawfully assembling by standing in the street,” Chandler said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3uw64\">Protest organizers also reportedly encouraged attendees to leave, and many did. Soon after, however, a row of riot gear-clad officers formed a line and began slowly advancing while vans of bicycle officers blocked all side roads, leaving the only exit down 51st Street toward an overpass.</p><p data-block-key=\"vtj4t\">Kasler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a line of officers, unseeable at first, waited for them at the end of the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"vax7q\">Police had received reports that at least five cars had been keyed, according to a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NormLeong/status/1102816147471196160\">tweet</a> from Sacramento Police Department Capt. Norm Leong, and shortly after 10 p.m. officers began arresting those that had not dispersed.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkkg5\">The Sacramento Bee <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article227116519.html\">reported</a> that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqaa2\">Kasler was live-streaming when two officers approached him and zip-tied his hands behind his back, placing his phone in his pants pocket. “I had held up my Bee badge and explained that I was a journalist but was taken into custody anyway,” Kasler <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article227127619.html\">wrote</a> in an account for The Bee.</p><p data-block-key=\"wmihe\">Within an hour, The Bee’s publisher and editor had made calls to have Kasler released. “Some higher-ups were summoned, I was pulled out of the line and my zip-ties were cut,” Kasler recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"w41h5\">Kasler told the Tracker that after giving a brief statement to a sergeant he was given a certificate of release, on which the officer had checked the box for “arrestee exonerated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gnwpb\">Reporters Rodd and Coburn were also zip-tied, and waited on a curb for 2 ½ hours before police loaded them onto vans heading to Cal Expo, a state fair ground, to be processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"hqad8\">The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced a few days later that it would not charge those arrested at the protest, the San Francisco Chronicle <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/amp/Stephon-Clark-demonstration-Sacramento-County-DA-13674720.php\">reported</a>. Sacramento's police department and public safety accountability office are conducting ongoing internal investigations into the police tactics used during the protest, The Bee <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article227124634.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt98e\">“I’m very disappointed the protest ended the way it did. I have many questions about what went on that precipitated the order to disperse and the subsequent arrests,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Mayor_Steinberg/status/1102831149716451328\">tweeted</a> in the early morning on March 5. “No matter the reason an order to disperse was given, no member of the press should be detained for doing their job.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6esh6\">Kettling—surrounding protesters in order to prevent any exit, often followed by indiscriminate detentions and arrests—is used across the country as a protest response despite the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">risk it poses</a> to journalists covering the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"cf7m8\">“I thought I had made it clear to them as they were detaining me that I was a reporter,” Kasler told the Tracker. “I was telling them that I’m with The Sacramento Bee and my colleagues on the other side of the police line, who were not detained, were shouting, ‘This is a reporter! This is a reporter! This is a reporter!’ And it didn’t seem to matter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ryq2a\"><i>Editor’s Note: While Kasler told the Tracker that he was not told that he was under arrest nor read his Miranda rights, and his experience is widely considered a detainment, the Tracker documents it as an arrest. In our methodology, his detainment for an hour in a context where police had announced that those failing to disperse would be arrested — and were indiscriminately detaining those present ahead of processing — coupled with the certificate noting “arrestee exonerated,” categorizes his experience as an arrest.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"l3edj\">Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler, center, was live-streaming a planned protest when officers put him in flexible cuffs. Police arrested more than 80 people in conjunction with the march.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Sacramento Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dale Kasler (The Sacramento Bee)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Student journalist among reporters arrested while covering Sacramento protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-among-reporters-arrested-while-covering-sacramento-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-03-12T15:51:33.353083Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-05T18:54:12.349624Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-05T18:54:12.280455Z",
"date": "2019-03-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Sacramento",
"longitude": -121.4944,
"latitude": 38.58157,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x8asp\">William Coburn, a reporter for the California State University student newspaper, The State Hornet, was one of three journalists arrested while covering a protest march on March 4, 2019, in Sacramento, California.</p><p data-block-key=\"jnvfa\">Then-Sacramento Business Journal reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-journalists-arrested-while-covering-stephon-clark-protest-sacramento/\">Scott Rodd</a> and Sacramento Bee reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-march/\">Dale Kasler</a> were also arrested that night. A Bee photojournalist, Hector Amezcua, was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-photojournalist-pushed-ground-police-while-covering-protest-his-camera-damaged/\">shoved to the ground</a> by a bike officer when police began to cordon protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4wys\">About 100 people gathered around 6:30 p.m. in East Sacramento to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against officers in the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man. The march proceeded uneventfully and eventually circled back to where it had begun, in a Trader Joe’s parking lot in the Fab 40s neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"4vouz\">Coburn told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the march had started uneventfully, and that fewer people had gathered than in the days after Clark was killed. After about two hours, the march circled back to the parking lot where it had begun.</p><p data-block-key=\"btkjn\">“It looked to me like the protest was winding down,” Coburn said.</p><p data-block-key=\"t96qd\">Police spokesperson Sgt. Vance Chandler <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/700317892/police-arrest-84-after-stephon-clark-protest-in-east-sacramento\">told</a> NPR that officers gave 10 orders to disperse over a two-hour period. “Shortly after we started monitoring the group at [approximately] 7:30 p.m., we established the group was unlawfully assembling by standing in the street,” Chandler said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eh1zl\">Protest organizers also encouraged people to leave, Coburn said, and many did. Others were still mingling in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, including a few photographers, and Coburn joined them to conduct a few final interviews. Then, he said, a row of riot gear-clad officers formed a line and began slowly advancing, leaving the only exit down 51st Street.</p><p data-block-key=\"pe6tc\">“The police just started marching forward, taking a few steps and then stopping,” Coburn told the Tracker. “By stepping forward, we all started moving along 51st Street looking for places to get out, but all of them were blocked off, either by vans or by a few bike cops. It looked like it was just the two bike cops going over the overpass, so we assumed they just wanted us out of this neighborhood.”</p><p data-block-key=\"744k2\">A line of officers, unseeable at first, waited for them at the end of the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"ng2tp\">Police had received reports that at least five cars had been keyed, according to a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NormLeong/status/1102816147471196160\">tweet</a> from Sacramento Police Department Capt. Norm Leong, and shortly after 10 p.m. officers began arresting those that had not dispersed.</p><p data-block-key=\"xhs30\">The Bee <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article227116519.html\">reported</a> that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"tcciv\">Coburn told the Tracker that he had a professional camera around his neck, and when officers came to arrest him he said repeatedly that he was a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"7q3n9\">“After a while I just stopped saying [that I was a journalist] because they just didn’t know what to do about it,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"r0e4r\">While he was originally in handcuffs, Coburn told the Tracker that once officers sat him down on the curb they switched him into flexi-cuffs. He sat that way for 2 ½ hours before police loaded all those arrested into vans heading to Cal Expo, a state fair ground, to be processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"o8yk5\">After more than four hours in detention, Coburn was released around 2:30 a.m. on March 5 with a ticket for failure to disperse and a court hearing scheduled on June 4.</p><p data-block-key=\"ocmbl\">The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced a few days later that it would not charge those arrested at the protest, the San Francisco Chronicle <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/amp/Stephon-Clark-demonstration-Sacramento-County-DA-13674720.php\">reported</a>. Sacramento's police department and public safety accountability office are conducting ongoing internal investigations into the police tactics used during the protest, The Bee <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article227124634.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"gv4q0\">“I’m very disappointed the protest ended the way it did. I have many questions about what went on that precipitated the order to disperse and the subsequent arrests,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Mayor_Steinberg/status/1102831149716451328\">tweeted</a> in the early morning on March 5. “No matter the reason an order to disperse was given, no member of the press should be detained for doing their job.”</p><p data-block-key=\"iu6rh\">Kettling—surrounding protesters in order to prevent any exit, often followed by indiscriminate detentions and arrests—is used across the country as a protest response despite the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">risk it poses</a> to journalists covering the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"0opeh\"><i>Editor's Note: William Coburn originally reported to the Tracker that he was wearing university-issued press credentials when he was arrested, but it was later confirmed that he was not. This article was updated March 3, 2020.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"fnweb\">A line of police officers follow Sacramento, California, protesters who gathered in response to the district attorney’s decision to not prosecute officers after the shooting death of a young black man.</p>",
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"name": "California",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Nevada judge orders online journalist to reveal sources, says not protected by shield law",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nevada-judges-orders-online-journalist-reveal-sources-says-not-protected-shield-law/",
"first_published_at": "2019-03-23T20:27:58.242506Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-13T22:35:54.868665Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-13T22:35:54.741469Z",
"date": "2019-03-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Carson City",
"longitude": -119.7674,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"clpb0\">A Nevada state court judge issued an <a href=\"https://www.scribd.com/document/401772560/Order-on-Plaintiff-s-Motion-to-Compel#from_embed\">order</a> on March 4, 2019, to compel an online journalist to reveal his confidential sources, ruling that because he did not work for a print publication he did not qualify as a journalist—and was thus not covered by Nevada's shield law at the time.</p><p data-block-key=\"812aa\">Sam Toll founded the online news site <a href=\"http://thestoreyteller.online/\">the Storey Teller</a>, covering Storey County, Nevada, in February 2017 and joined the state press association in August 2017. Toll was sued for defamation in December 2017 by Lance Gilman, a Storey County commissioner and owner of the Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel. In five stories, published between April and December 2017, Toll published claims that Gilman lives outside of Storey County, meaning he fails to meet the residency requirement to hold county office under Nevada law. The defamation suit demands Toll produces the sources of any information he procured before August 2017.</p><p data-block-key=\"w5ph2\">Nevada's shield law—considered to be one of the most robust in the nation—states that "[n]o reporter, former reporter or editorial employee of any newspaper, periodical or press association ... may be required to disclose the source of any information procured or obtained by such person, in any legal proceedings, trial or investigation." But because this law was passed in 1969, some 14 years before the inception of the internet, it does not explicitly extend this protection to reporters for online publications.</p><p data-block-key=\"gxrmf\">In what has been criticized as an unduly narrow reading of the law, Judge James Wilson found that "[b]ecause Toll was not a reporter for a newspaper or press association before August of 2017 he was not covered by the news media privilege before August 2017, and therefore, the motion to compel must be granted as to any source of information obtained or procured by Toll before August of 2017."</p><p data-block-key=\"43nvj\">Wilson ruled that because the Storey Teller is an online-only publication, it "is not a newspaper and, therefore the news media privilege is not available to Toll under the 'reporter of a newspaper' provision of [Nevada's shield law]."</p><p data-block-key=\"o4liz\">In at least two other instances, Nevada courts have ruled that web-only publications were covered by the shield law, <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/07/nevada-judge-rules-online-sites-not-protected-media-shield-law/3098026002/\">according</a> to the Reno Gazette Journal. “My understanding is that it’s the first ruling of its kind and actually conflicts with other rulings,” Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, told the newspaper.</p><p data-block-key=\"8iky6\">Toll's lawyers filed a petition for writ of prohibition with the state Supreme Court on March 18. "While we respect Judge Wilson, we fundamentally disagree that an online journalist should be compelled to reveal their sources because they publish news articles in an online newspaper instead of traditional print newspaper," Luke Busby, one of Toll's attorneys, wrote in a statement. "Such a ruling undermines the protection of fundamental Constitutional principles of freedom of speech and of the press and stifles the free flow of information that is essential for any free society to exist."</p><p data-block-key=\"gjgwi\">On March 22, the Supreme Court stayed Gilman’s discovery request, pending review of Toll’s writ of prohibition. A deposition had been scheduled for March 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"x1cg4\">Other critics opined that Judge Wilson was splitting hairs in his order. "Unlike too many jobs in this country there is no such thing as a licensed journalist," newspaper columnist Thomas Mitchell <a href=\"https://elkodaily.com/opinion/columnists/thomas-mitchell-nevada-press-shield-law-protects-bloggers/article_431a34d6-e23f-5499-b2cf-30cfcc19edea.html\">wrote</a> in the Elko Daily Free Press.</p><p data-block-key=\"srgy3\">Toll told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he would go to jail, if necessary, to protect his sources. But he worried that if this ruling stands, it could have a chilling effect on online media in Nevada.</p><p data-block-key=\"jj9vy\">"It would be potentially devastating for people who report on matters of public interest to not be able to protect whistleblowers," Toll said. "Do I relish going to jail? No. But for the people behind me, who currently have an online-only presence, I owe it to them to stand my ground."</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Toll_legal_order.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"loebp\">A Nevada judge has ruled that journalist Sam Toll is not protected under the state's shield laws because he publishes exclusively online.<br/></p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [
"(2019-12-05 16:03:00+00:00) Supreme Court of Nevada rules that shield law applies to digital media, too",
"(2020-03-19 09:16:00+00:00) Nevada state judge says online publisher can’t be further compelled for confidential sources",
"(2020-06-15 13:24:00+00:00) District judge dismisses defamation suit against Nevada digital reporter"
],
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],
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"Sam Toll (The Storey Teller)"
],
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}
]
