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[
{
"title": "Photojournalist, camera struck by officer at NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-camera-struck-by-officer-at-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-30T19:19:21.739324Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-30T19:19:21.739324Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-30T19:15:56.780438Z",
"date": "2024-04-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xxf7y\">Independent photojournalist Michael Nigro said a New York City police officer smacked his camera while he was documenting a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brooklyn on April 23, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"5l15e\">The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/nyregion/schumer-seder-protest-brooklyn.html\">reported</a> that hundreds gathered in Grand Army Plaza, one block from the home of Sen. Chuck Schumer, to protest against a final congressional vote approving $26 billion in aid to Israel and to call for a cessation of military support amid the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"3s6li\">Nigro told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the demonstration was one of the most peaceful he has documented. But while photographing the protests, Nigro said he saw an officer pull out his baton and moved to follow him.</p><p data-block-key=\"cea1b\">“This officer came over and said, ‘Don’t follow my officers.’ I said, ‘I can be here, this is what this badge says I can do,’” he told the Tracker, referring to his visible press credential. “Then he just said, ‘Get away from me!’ and smacked my camera.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ddot0\">Nigro said that his equipment wasn’t damaged, but that officers have routinely obstructed photojournalists documenting pro-Palestinian protests over recent months.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e5u6\">“The tactic of late with the NYPD and the press is to block us from covering it,” Nigro said. “They’ll stand in front of your camera and put their hands in front of it or just push you back and back. Or, the newest tactic has been taking the press and detaining them, sometimes flexy-cuffing them, and then letting them go.”</p><p data-block-key=\"63ifs\">Nigro said such tactics are “extremely troubling” and that journalists covering New York City protests are banding together to watch each others’ backs and document police aggressions against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"ejn8k\">“The fact that some of these officers are getting all these complaints and — whether they’re allegations or substantiated — nothing seems to be happening except what I don’t even want to say is a slap on the wrist but more of a pat on the back,” Nigro said. “I feel that if you don’t hold them accountable it’s just going to get worse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2nm1g\">The New York City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZK1S8.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cwdrj\">At a demonstration on April 23, 2024, New York City police detain protesters who had demanded that the U.S. government end military support for Israel. Independent photojournalist Michael Nigro was struck by police while documenting the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"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": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Michael Nigro (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck by officer attempting to knock phone from his hands",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-by-officer-attempting-to-knock-phone-from-his-hands/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-29T16:12:19.033366Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-29T16:12:19.033366Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-29T15:11:49.692621Z",
"date": "2024-04-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9wmlp\">Independent photojournalist Gabe Quinones was struck by a New York City police officer who attempted to knock the phone from his hands as he reported on a protest outside Columbia University on April 20, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ttm4\">Protesters at Columbia set up an encampment on campus on April 17 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and divestment from Israeli-owned companies, inspiring similar demonstrations at universities and colleges nationwide.</p><p data-block-key=\"cq8v5\">Quinones told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was wearing his press credentials and working alongside other members of the press when police instructed everyone to move back from the university gates. Quinones said he walked backward to continue filming as he complied with the orders and that an officer became fixated on him.</p><p data-block-key=\"99ljt\">In a clip Quinones <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6ByVDJO4Xw/\">shared on Instagram</a> with the audio removed, the officer appears to order Quinones to get back before attempting to grab the phone from his hands or knock it to the ground. As he returns to filming, the officer again appears to order him to get back while pushing Quinones and another member of the press away from the advancing police line.</p><p data-block-key=\"4l2cj\">“At Columbia University I witnessed and filmed police as they became aggressive with members of the press trying to document the action,” Quinones wrote. “I watched as they deliberately stood in front of cameras and denied legal observers the opportunity to document a situation where the officers stormed through the middle of the group of peaceful protestors.”</p><p data-block-key=\"db2kk\">The New York City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTSZEAVB.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"z7crv\">Protesters gather outside Columbia University in New York City in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on April 20, 2024. A police officer struck photojournalist Gabe Quinones that day when attempting to grab the phone from his hands.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"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": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Gabe Quinones (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalists pepper-sprayed, threatened and harassed at campus protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-pepper-sprayed-threatened-and-harassed-at-campus-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2024-05-20T19:50:22.632667Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-02T21:00:39.548576Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-02T21:00:39.418682Z",
"date": "2024-04-17",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><i>Following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s resulting monthslong war in Gaza, protests have erupted across the United States — and the globe — calling for a cease-fire. Some of the loudest voices have come from U.S. campuses. On April 17, 2024, protesters at Columbia University in New York City set up an encampment on campus, inspiring similar demonstrations nationwide, with students occupying campus buildings or erecting encampments to demand that administrations divest from weapons manufacturers and Israeli-owned companies. As professional and student journalists alike have worked to document these demonstrations, they have been exposed to chemical irritants, harassed by both protesters and counterprotesters, and subject to restrictions enacted by campus authorities or law enforcement. Below is a roundup of such incidents, grouped by campus. This collection will be updated as additional incidents are verified.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"fs69k\"><i>A full accounting of incidents in which members of the press were assaulted, arrested or had their equipment damaged while covering these protests can be found</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2024-04-17&date_upper=2024-05-10&tags=Israel-Gaza+war%2Cprotest\"><i>here</i></a><i>. To learn more about how the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/about/\"><i>https://pressfreedomtracker.us/about/</i></a><i>.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"17frc\"></p><p data-block-key=\"22o9h\"><b>Columbia University</b></p><p data-block-key=\"efs8d\"><i>April 20, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"9vehu\">Independent photographer <b>Madison Swart</b> told the Tracker that while documenting a rally outside campus, New York City police officers forced her and other members of the press further and further back from the university gates ahead of making arrests. She said the decision to do so seemed random, and that she had never seen officers push press photographers as far back as they did that night.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"4q462\"><i>April 30, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"9b3pk\">The <b>Columbia Spectator</b>, the university’s student-run newspaper, published <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024/05/04/letter-from-the-editors-columbia-enabled-the-nypd-to-suppress-free-press-as-it-brutalized-our-peers/\">a letter from the editors</a> detailing how its staff was denied access or harassed by law enforcement while they attempted to document the clearing of Hamilton Hall. Pro-Palestinian protesters had occupied the administrative building early that morning, following the April 18 <a href=\"https://columbianewsservice.com/2024/05/03/protest/\">sweep</a> of the campus encampment that resulted in the arrests of over 100 demonstrators. <b>Isabella Ramírez</b>, editor-in-chief and president, and <b>Esha Karam</b>, managing editor and vice president, wrote that when the campus first went under complete lockdown, they and countless other journalists were stuck outside. Ramírez, Karam and two other Spectator journalists were eventually allowed to return to campus after speaking to the university’s Office of Public Affairs. As New York City police officers advanced on Hamilton Hall, however, they reported that police pushed them further and further from the building. Once the journalists were approximately 400 feet away and near John Jay Hall, where they had left their belongings, officers prevented them from entering the building, instead forcing them off campus via the nearby exit at 114th Street near Amsterdam Avenue.<br/><br/> One block away, at 114th Street and Broadway, police argued with two other Spectator reporters about whether they were indeed journalists, with the officers reportedly “jeering at their makeshift press passes.” In the middle of the block, an officer grabbed another Spectator journalist by the shoulder to move her out of the way while ordering everyone off the street. Another student journalist in the same area was shoved twice, grabbed and pushed to the side by an NYPD officer.<br/><br/>Another group of Spectator journalists were standing on the bridge over Amsterdam Avenue near Columbia Law School when officers rushed at the crowd, threatening arrest. “Officers mocked our journalists and told them to run, swearing at them and laughing as students bolted away in panic,” the editors reported. The officers then chased the reporters until a university public safety officer intervened.<br/></li><li data-block-key=\"4f4hc\"><b>Şeyma Bayram</b>, a fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, <a href=\"https://x.com/SeymaBayram0/status/1785727176651796832\">reported on social media</a> that she was among the journalists prevented from covering the raid on Hamilton Hall and was removed from campus.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NYPD officers raided the Columbia University campus at the request of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik on Tuesday evening, April 30. The officers also forcibly removed journalists, myself included, who were covering the raid. Photos by me for <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AP</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/LW8J8tA9wO\">pic.twitter.com/LW8J8tA9wO</a></p>— Şeyma Bayram (@SeymaBayram0) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SeymaBayram0/status/1785727176651796832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>Olga Fedorova</b>, a freelance photojournalist, and other members of the press were <a href=\"https://x.com/olgafe_images/status/1786419065843523867\">ordered</a> to leave the area around Hamilton Hall under threat of arrest. At around 9:30 p.m., New York City police officers advanced on the building and began arresting the protesters outside. In footage Fedorova posted to social media a few days later, an officer can be heard telling the journalists, “Get out! Guys, I’m asking you to leave. Now. Now! Get off the stairs!” A second officer can also be heard threatening them with arrest if they don’t comply.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Prior to making arrests at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Columbia_University?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Columbia_University</a> NYPD cleared nearly all journalists from the area, then threatened me and other members of the press with arrest. <a href=\"https://t.co/fNFRh6wey7\">pic.twitter.com/fNFRh6wey7</a></p>— Olya Fedorova (@olgafe_images) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/olgafe_images/status/1786419065843523867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 3, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i8jmd\"><b>Fordham University</b></p><p data-block-key=\"euje6\"><i>May 1, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"btpf8\">Independent reporter <b>Katie Smith</b> <a href=\"https://x.com/probablyreadit/status/1785794877474718150/history\">recorded</a> as university staff hung a tarp over the window of a campus building to block the press and the public’s view of a protest encampment as New York City police officers prepared to make arrests. New York Focus <a href=\"https://nysfocus.com/2024/05/09/fordham-university-encampment-arrest\">reported</a> that a few dozen students had erected the encampment inside the building earlier that morning and the tarp wasn’t big enough to block the entire window.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NOW: Staff at Fordham University hang a tarp over the window to block the view of the encampment as NYPD prepares to make arrests <br><br>Protesters then broke through police barricades are are now closed heading to the other entrance <a href=\"https://t.co/qOgruDGRHr\">pic.twitter.com/qOgruDGRHr</a></p>— katie smith (@probablyreadit) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785794877474718150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>Harvard University</b></p><p data-block-key=\"9gla\"><i>May 10, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"bkjt3\">A <b>student journalist</b> for The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student-run newspaper, <a href=\"https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/5/11/harvard-crimson-reporter-involuntary-leave-protest/\">was sent</a> an “involuntary leave of absence notice,” alongside 20 students whom the Harvard administration identified as having remained in the student encampment. The Crimson <a href=\"https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/5/10/harvard-palestine-encampment-involuntary-leave/\">reported</a> that the students who were issued notices would not be able to finish their exams or remain on campus, and were functionally trespassed from the campus. The Crimson’s leadership alerted Harvard College officials that they had issued a notice to a freshman reporter who had been on assignment covering the encampment and had not participated in the protest. The College retracted the notice and apologized for the error, but did not offer an explanation for how the mistake was made.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"bcrq\"><b>New York University</b></p><p data-block-key=\"ahf7a\"><i>April 22, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"fokpo\"><b>Samson Tu</b>, a photojournalist for the student newspaper Washington Square News, was pepper-sprayed while reporting on student protests on NYU’s campus. “I was documenting the use of barricades to block police access when I was sprayed,” Tu said. “I did not intend nor did I interfere with police instructions.” He told the Tracker that he was not wearing his New York City press corps credential at the time, and didn’t think the New York police officers targeted him as a journalist. Tu noted that other student journalists from the News were pepper-sprayed as well, but did not identify them.<br/><br/>Tu told the Tracker in June that he filed a report with New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates police misconduct, specifically excessive use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy and offensive language. He said that, following his initial interview, he was told it might take months to investigate the incident.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One of the people NYPD maced last night is a photojournalist for NYU’s student paper, Washington Square News.<br><br>Photo shared with me by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Gabe_Vascon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Gabe_Vascon</a>, a journalism student at NYU. <a href=\"https://t.co/ZBs4C7Ecam\">pic.twitter.com/ZBs4C7Ecam</a></p>— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1782719521364574630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 23, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>The City College of New York</b></p><p data-block-key=\"f3d1r\"><i>April 30, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"5odgr\"><b>An unidentified journalist</b> was pepper-sprayed while reporting on protests on the campus that day. In a video shared online, the journalist can be seen receiving treatment, with individuals instructing him to keep blinking while they pour water over his face. Another person, who appears to be holding a professional camera and wearing a press credential, can be seen supporting the man receiving treatment and heard thanking those providing aid. The Tracker was unable to identify the journalists. NYCity News Service, a student news service out of the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, <a href=\"https://www.nycitynewsservice.com/2024/05/04/pepper-spray-and-surging-crowds-videos-show-flashpoints-at-city-college/\">reported</a> that university public safety officers deployed a cloud of pepper spray against protesters at close range.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">🚨🇺🇸BREAKING: JOURNALIST PEPPER-SPRAYED AT CCNY<br><br>Police allegedly used pepper spray on a journalist during ongoing campus protests at City College. <br><br>Source: Quds News <a href=\"https://t.co/WdDA1Bc1b9\">https://t.co/WdDA1Bc1b9</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/Z6FiJxpOWe\">pic.twitter.com/Z6FiJxpOWe</a></p>— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1785474358372397062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>University of California, Los Angeles</b></p><p data-block-key=\"b54r8\"><i>April 30, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"7quoo\"><b>Anna Dai-Liu</b>, a student journalist for UCLA’s student newspaper the Daily Bruin, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/yaxiins/status/1785880589700342026\">reported on social media</a> that she was “gassed” within minutes of entering Dickson Plaza, where pro-Palestinian protesters had erected an encampment at the heart of campus. A group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment that day, the Bruin <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2024/05/01/pro-israel-counter-protesters-attempt-to-storm-encampment-sparking-violence\">reported</a>, tearing down the barricades surrounding it, shooting fireworks inside and releasing chemical irritants.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dailybruin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@dailybruin</a> reporters return to Dickson Plaza for the second time in 24 hours, a look back on the violence that occurred last night toward students – including me, as I was gassed minutes after entering the plaza: <a href=\"https://t.co/5HOW6Vraej\">https://t.co/5HOW6Vraej</a></p>— Anna Dai-Liu (@yaxiins) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/yaxiins/status/1785880589700342026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><i>May 2, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"n1o7\"><b>Three Daily Bruin photographers</b> were <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/stonewall\">threatened with arrest</a> by California Highway Patrol officers while documenting the police sweep of the encampment early that morning. The officers ordered the photojournalists to leave, despite the fact they were carrying press passes signed by the university police, as well as letters from Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako granting them access to a building on campus to aid in their reporting.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"d6jna\"><b>University of Southern California</b></p><p data-block-key=\"crtob\"><i>May 5, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"7v1qo\">Student journalists for <b>Annenberg Media</b> were prevented from covering the Los Angeles Police Department’s clearing and destruction of the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on campus early that morning. The student-led news platform <a href=\"https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2024/05/05/campus-reopens-after-lapd-clears-divest-from-death-encampment/\">reported</a> that officers established a “press staging area” outside an auditorium several hundred feet from the encampment.<br/><br/> <b>Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan</b>, an editor for Annenberg Media, told <a href=\"https://www.thewrap.com/usc-palestine-student-journalists-police/\">TheWrap</a> that officers pushed student journalists beyond the point where they could see what was happening. “We tried to set up, we tried to ask them multiple times, but they kept pushing media towards the back, towards the end, where we really couldn’t see anything,” Khan said. “We really had to sort of put ourselves at risk, actually, to sort of go towards the front so we could document.”<br/><br/>Annenberg Media reporter <b>Makayla Idelburg</b>, who was with Khan that night, <a href=\"https://x.com/IcebergMakayla/status/1787363243868180528\">recorded</a> as officers ordered her to return to the staging area or leave campus. One of the officers can be heard saying, “If you mouth off, we’re going to go ahead and treat you like the protesters. Act like the media.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Early this morning, myself and other student journalists were prevented from gaining appropriate access to cover the encampment clear-out. When I questioned the officer, I received aggressive responses and threats. <br><br>*this is my vid*<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/USC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#USC</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/university_students?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#university_students</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/studentjournalism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#studentjournalism</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/GtceHKiVlh\">pic.twitter.com/GtceHKiVlh</a></p>— Makayla Idelburg (@IcebergMakayla) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IcebergMakayla/status/1787363243868180528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 6, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>Jeremy Lindenfeld</b>, a freelance reporter, was also among the members of the press <a href=\"https://x.com/jeremotographs/status/1787085353398223014\">ordered back</a> to a media staging area hundreds of feet away from the encampment. An officer can be heard telling him to go there “before you get hit by an officer.” Lindenfeld also filmed as USC Journalism professor Alan Mittelstaedt <a href=\"https://x.com/jeremotographs/status/1787078373468262754\">argued</a> with an officer about the staging area being hundreds of feet from the encampment as he and multiple other journalists were ordered to remain on the far side of the auditorium.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LAPD giving illegal orders moving media hundreds of feet away from the encampment. We are too far to see anything. <a href=\"https://t.co/eO43aM2vdJ\">pic.twitter.com/eO43aM2vdJ</a></p>— Jeremy Lindenfeld (@jeremotographs) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jeremotographs/status/1787085353398223014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"9zzgf\">Freelance journalist <b>Jon Peltz</b> was first directed out of view of the encampment and then off campus. In <a href=\"https://x.com/JonnyPeltz/status/1787091757395857802\">footage</a> he posted on social media, officers direct the crowd — which appears to consist of protesters, legal observers and members of the press — to “leave the area.” The crowd appears to be ushered through the gate of a wrought iron fence that is then closed behind them.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Got pushed out by a baton. <a href=\"https://t.co/j68vNSMJdM\">pic.twitter.com/j68vNSMJdM</a></p>— Jon peltz (@JonnyPeltz) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonnyPeltz/status/1787091757395857802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9zzgf\"><b>University of Texas at Austin</b></p><p data-block-key=\"2ntgd\"><i>April 29, 2024</i></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"cf8nv\"><b>Maryam Ahmed</b>, a senior news reporter for the student newspaper The Daily Texan, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Maryamahm92/status/1785918524583522763\">posted on social media</a> that she was pepper-sprayed and had a flash-bang grenade “knock out” her eardrums while reporting on the protests on the UT Austin campus. In her <a href=\"https://thedailytexan.com/2024/04/29/ut-austin-pro-palestine-encampment-dismantled-by-law-enforcement-over-100-protesters-arrested/\">coverage</a> of law enforcement’s dismantling of the protest encampment on April 29, she wrote that university police officers issued their first dispersal order shortly after 1 p.m. Department of Public Safety officers arrived on campus shortly after, and law enforcement began making the first arrests at 1:45 p.m. Just under three hours later, Ahmed wrote, officers began pepper-spraying protesters and set off two flash-bang grenades.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In the last week I’ve been pepper sprayed; I’ve had flashbangs knock out my eardrums; I’ve seen protesters beaten, choked and arrested (footage from Monday’s protest 4/29 ⬇️ TW: violence). It’s been a hell of a week. <a href=\"https://t.co/9SaxlGN7xK\">pic.twitter.com/9SaxlGN7xK</a></p>— Maryam Ahmed (@Maryamahm92) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Maryamahm92/status/1785918524583522763?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"v4o9g\">Columbia University students gather at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the New York City campus on April 29, 2024. Journalists reporting on similar encampments across the country faced chemical irritants, harassment, threats and restricted access.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist detained while documenting NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T18:41:50.952263Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-26T21:26:46.187989Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-26T21:26:46.047605Z",
"date": "2024-04-15",
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"city": "New York",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5n9v\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was repeatedly shoved and briefly detained by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"4j211\">Fedorova told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was on assignment for FreedomNews.TV covering a protest that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u7od\">Protesters and police were engaged in what Fedorova described as a game of cat and mouse, as officers attempted to prevent the demonstration from moving onto the bridge. Fedorova said officers repeatedly pushed her as she was filming while walking backward, nearly knocking her over.</p><p data-block-key=\"7kphh\">As a group of protesters made their way onto the bridge at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic, Fedorova told the Tracker she and fellow photojournalists <a href=\"/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/\">Jon Farina</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-nyc/\">Neil Constantine</a> followed in order to continue their coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nqu2\">“The protesters were being chased by cops on bicycles, and a group of them climbed over to the pedestrian side in order to evade the bicycle unit,” Fedorova said.</p><p data-block-key=\"624ea\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000\">footage</a> captured by Farina, he and Fedorova can be heard identifying themselves as press. An officer responds that he understands but orders them to keep moving across the bridge.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">🚨NYPD officers temporarily detain Status Coup cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonFarinaPhoto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonFarinaPhoto</a>, who has covered over 40 Ceasefire protests in NYC and D.C for Status Coup. "I can't climb over [the fence], I've got too much equipment on," Jon told officers. They eventually un-cuffed him/let him go... <a href=\"https://t.co/gSIzB5mWuc\">pic.twitter.com/gSIzB5mWuc</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5n9v\">After most of the protesters had climbed the fence or been arrested, Fedorova said she decided to climb over the fence as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"br17c\">“As I approached the fence and had my back turned to the cops — on my backpack I have a patch that says ‘PRESS’ — one of them grabbed me and pulled me by the hair backwards,” Fedorova said. “I identified myself as press and showed him my press badge, but they cuffed me and then cuffed Jon Farina.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dv5he\">Fedorova said both she and Farina identified as press multiple times, but were detained in zip-tie cuffs for approximately 10 minutes. The officers called the department’s Legal Bureau, she said, which advised them to release the journalists without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkjjg\">“There’s a pattern of what seems to be ignorance or lack of understanding of what the press does or the rights of the press,” Fedorova said. “Sometimes it’s like some of the officers have never seen a press badge before or haven’t been educated as to what that is.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e9fp8\">She told the Tracker she plans to file a complaint with the deputy commissioner of public information. The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Fedorova_arrest.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"65gr4\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova, right, was briefly detained and handcuffed by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge on April 15, 2024. She was released without charges.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name": "New York",
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"categories": [
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in NYC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-nyc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:29:20.681998Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-28T15:13:17.031269Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-28T15:05:15.047432Z",
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"longitude": -74.00597,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7fq8e\">Neil Constantine, a photojournalist for the monthly newspaper The Indypendent, was arrested by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"41lbh\">Constantine told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived to document the protest as demonstrators gathered in front of the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan at around 2 p.m. Protesters then made their way toward City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b3o1f\">Police had blocked most entrances to the bridge, Constantine said, but a group of at least 100 protesters found a way onto the roadway at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic. Constantine said he followed the demonstrators to continue his coverage and was toward the back of the group.</p><p data-block-key=\"3rua1\">Bicycle officers with the Strategic Response Group followed the protesters as they marched across the bridge, and when protesters began running to evade arrest, Constantine said he remained behind.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ood8\">“Two officers on bikes pulled up and told me to stop and that I was under arrest,” Constantine said. “I wasn’t given an order to get off the bridge or disperse or anything, I was just arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aumi5\">Constantine told the Tracker that he identified himself as a journalist to the officers and that both his city-issued and National Press Photographers Association credentials were visible. One of the officers told him that he didn’t care and that he was trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"9f3e0\">The photojournalist was placed in zip-tie cuffs and loaded into a van with eight demonstrators. Two other photojournalists, <a href=\"/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/\">Jon Farina</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">Olga Fedorova</a>, were briefly detained by police after the majority of protesters had been arrested or had successfully climbed over a fence to the bike lane.</p><p data-block-key=\"7964v\">Constantine said he was then taken to police headquarters in Manhattan for processing. Throughout his booking process, he identified himself as a member of the press, which he said seemed to surprise some of the officers, one of whom asked, “Wait, really? Was your pass visible?”</p><p data-block-key=\"b8u73\">“I ended up being let out first, or close to first, even though I wasn’t the first one in,” Constantine told the Tracker. “At the summons desk, when they were trying to get my paperwork in order, one of the officers told a higher-up, ‘Oh, he’s the one.’ And the other said, ‘He’s that one? He needs to go. You need to get him out of here now.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"21bih\">The photojournalist was released at approximately 7:30 p.m. with a summons for walking on the roadway. His initial appearance hearing is scheduled for May 3. Constantine said he was able to resume his coverage, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheIndypendent/status/1780039621700636862\">filming</a> as demonstrators were released and began protesting again.</p><p data-block-key=\"49a7e\">Constantine told the Tracker that police aggression toward protests and the journalists covering them has ramped up in recent months.</p><p data-block-key=\"665k6\">“Since January, they’ve started cracking down on many aspects of protesting. They’ve started going after you if you don’t have a permit and start using a microphone and now also for being in the street,” Constantine told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"d2v19\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Constantine.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nkuaw\">Shortly after Neil Constantine, photojournalist for The Indypendent, captured this image of demonstrators marching across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on April 15, 2024, he was arrested and charged with walking in the roadway.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2024-04-15",
"detention_date": "2024-04-15",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
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},
"updates": [
"(2024-06-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against photojournalist arrested during New York City protest"
],
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{
"title": "Status Coup photojournalist briefly detained while covering NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:13:42.934365Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:35:22.812948Z",
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"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nd69a\">Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina was briefly detained by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"cn3pi\">Farina told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he documented the protest as demonstrators made their way from Wall Street in Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge, shutting it down. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"71nd\">Police had blocked most entrances to the bridge, Farina said, but a group of approximately 100 protesters found a way onto the roadway at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic. Farina said he and freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova followed the demonstrators to continue their coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"aonpn\">Bicycle officers with the Strategic Response Group followed the protesters as they marched across the bridge, then began to arrest them one by one.</p><p data-block-key=\"67tbl\">“I stayed behind with Olga to document as the rest of the protest continued forward,” Farina said. “The officers started telling us to move along, and they were in Olga’s face trying to prevent her from documenting the arrests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ap9g2\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000\">footage</a> captured by Farina, he and Fedorova can be heard identifying themselves as press, and an officer responds that he understands but orders them to keep moving across the bridge. A few moments later, another officer orders Farina to climb over the fence to the pedestrian side.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">🚨NYPD officers temporarily detain Status Coup cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonFarinaPhoto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonFarinaPhoto</a>, who has covered over 40 Ceasefire protests in NYC and D.C for Status Coup. "I can't climb over [the fence], I've got too much equipment on," Jon told officers. They eventually un-cuffed him/let him go... <a href=\"https://t.co/gSIzB5mWuc\">pic.twitter.com/gSIzB5mWuc</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nd69a\">Farina said he responded that he had too much equipment and that he didn’t want to risk damaging it, so he told the officer that he’d walk to the end of the bridge. When Fedorova saw that he wasn’t climbing over she also stayed to walk with him, Farina told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mb9g\">As they neared the end of the bridge, officers boxed in <a href=\"/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">Fedorova</a> and handcuffed her, despite her protestations that she was a member of the press documenting the demonstration. Moments later, Farina was detained and cuffed with zip ties as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"d56sp\">“We’re in the street documenting because there’s action happening — officers are making arrests or protesters are marching. We’re not there for no reason,” Farina told the Tracker. “If we can’t be there to properly document the arrests, then people aren’t going to see the truth of what’s happening on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c386t\">In an interview with the Tracker, Fedorova said the two of them were detained for approximately 10 minutes. The officers called the department’s Legal Bureau, she said, which advised them to release the journalists without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"892ch\">Farina contended that the lack of charges shows that they shouldn’t have been detained in the first place and that such actions are part of a larger problem with the NYPD’s response to demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0ld1\">“This is an issue and it’s been growing each week, every protest. The police, the violence and the chaos they cause, and the assaulting of journalists and the detaining of journalists, it’s just been getting worse,” Farina said. “I’m hoping we can fight back against this because it’s getting out of control.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bnpe0\">Farina told the Tracker he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-police-twice-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">assaulted</a> while covering a separate pro-Palestinian protest on March 28. The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Farina2x.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3t529\">In screenshots of footage captured by a bystander, New York Police Department officers detain Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina while he was covering a pro-Palestinian protest. He was released without charges after approximately 10 minutes.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "Independent photojournalist to stand trial on charges from NYC protest arrest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-to-stand-trial-on-charges-from-nyc-protest-arrest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-25T16:59:43.452299Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-05-06T16:03:29.252759Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-05-06T16:03:29.035167Z",
"date": "2024-03-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dphq0\">Independent photojournalist Javier Soriano was arrested while covering a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on March 30, 2024, according to social media posts and court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qah\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JavierSorianoNY/status/1774465379097616811\">post on social media</a>, Soriano wrote that he was arrested by New York Police Department officers while covering a “<a href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/30/land-day-what-happened-in-palestine-in-1976\">Land Day</a>” march from Manhattan’s City Hall Park to Union Square to commemorate a deadly 1976 protest in Israel over the seizure of Palestinian land.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks Neil and Talia for the pic. of NYPD cops arresting me while I was covering the march <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/LandDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LandDay</a> organized by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WOLPalestine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WOLPalestine</a>.<br><br>I love the image of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. “Land and freedom” was Zapata's motto.Mexican Pres. AMLO dedicated 2019 to Emiliano Zapata. <a href=\"https://t.co/mXGrsL5Jdd\">https://t.co/mXGrsL5Jdd</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/VxQyD5fgTP\">pic.twitter.com/VxQyD5fgTP</a></p>— Javier Soriano (@JavierSorianoNY) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JavierSorianoNY/status/1774465379097616811?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 31, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dphq0\">The photojournalist could clearly be seen wearing press credentials at the time of his arrest in a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C5KlSohM7Ua/\">photo</a> captured by Neil Constantine, a photojournalist for the monthly newspaper The Indypendent.</p><p data-block-key=\"1d90v\">Soriano was charged with walking in the roadway, according to court records. He told the Tracker that he opted to move forward with a trial during his initial appearance hearing on April 18, but declined to comment further. His bench trial is scheduled for May 2.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Soriano2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dx5qo\">Independent photojournalist Javier Soriano, center, was arrested and charged with walking in the roadway while reporting on a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on March 30, 2024. He is set to face trial on the charge in May.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-03-30",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-05-02 11:27:00+00:00) Charges dropped against independent photojournalist arrested at NYC protest"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Javier Soriano (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shoved by police twice while documenting NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-police-twice-while-documenting-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:08:47.444038Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:34:52.283123Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-18T19:34:52.193268Z",
"date": "2024-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yqwbi\">Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina was shoved multiple times by a police officer while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on March 28, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"2p95u\">Farina told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10owcIuZ2mo&t=6400s\">reporting live</a> on the demonstration held outside Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, where Democrats were holding a reelection <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/democrats-election-2024-fundraiser-new-york-ebfbc81d3b70f38745ae00c7ce6a382d\">campaign fundraiser</a> for President Joe Biden.</p><p data-block-key=\"6d5fc\">Demonstrators were marching in the street and blocking traffic, Farina said, when police began making arrests, targeting one of the organizers.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ng9d\">“I’m in the street documenting, my credentials are out and I’m obviously filming,” Farina told the Tracker. “A cop grabs me by my jacket and shoves me back. I tell him that I’m press and that I can be here to document. And he just kept screaming in my face, ‘Get on the sidewalk!’”</p><p data-block-key=\"as99t\">As the march continued, Farina said he looked for the officer in order to obtain his name and badge number. Once he saw him, the photojournalist said he walked into a crosswalk that the officer was nearing and filmed his badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"eft8b\">“He grabbed me again by my shirt, by my jacket, and lifted me up off the street and pushed me all the way back onto the sidewalk,” Farina said. “He bruised up my arm from that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3uh42\">In Farina’s <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/10owcIuZ2mo?feature=shared&t=6480\">footage of the second encounter</a>, the officer can be heard threatening the photojournalist with arrest the next time he steps foot in the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"78sge\">Farina told the Tracker that the incident was symptomatic of a police crackdown on protests and the press that covers them.</p><p data-block-key=\"ac7ud\">“This is just getting worse. NYPD is getting worse. Attacks on journalists are getting worse,” he said. “It’s the same strategy to eliminate the witness so that there’s no documentation, no proof of crimes being committed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"esd9r\">At a protest a few days later, Farina said he approached a police captain to identify himself as a journalist and “set some ground rules” for covering the protest, telling the officer that he had been assaulted a few days prior.</p><p data-block-key=\"7r8m6\">“He kind of just said, ‘Oh, when things are getting crazy and chaotic, we don’t know who’s who, and we can’t distinguish who’s press and who’s not,’” Farina recounted. “I said, ‘Well that’s why we have our credentials out. Once you see these and our cameras, you should know we’re there documenting and just leave us alone.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"b61uo\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Farina_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0v7jf\">A New York Police Department officer yells at Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina moments before grabbing and shoving the journalist backward during a protest on March 28, 2024. The same officer grabbed Farina a second time that day, bruising his arm.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jon Farina (Status Coup)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Oklahoma TV station sues after its journalists barred from public meetings",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/oklahoma-tv-station-sues-after-its-journalists-barred-from-public-meetings/",
"first_published_at": "2024-09-26T18:51:53.293248Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-12-12T19:47:21.204818Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-12-12T19:47:20.956545Z",
"date": "2024-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Oklahoma City",
"longitude": -97.51643,
"latitude": 35.46756,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f2fn9\">Journalists from Oklahoma City broadcast station KFOR-TV were barred from attending Oklahoma State Board of Education meetings and news conferences on four occasions in 2024, starting in March. The outlet’s parent company and three of its journalists filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 23 against the state officials behind the exclusions.</p><p data-block-key=\"295qq\">According to the <a href=\"https://www.ifs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Complaint.pdf\">complaint</a>, KFOR-TV journalists were the only members of the press sent to an “overflow” room to observe the meetings on March 28, June 27, July 31 and Aug. 22 — despite ample space in the board meeting room — and were barred from attending the subsequent news conferences.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6392\">Dan Isett, the press secretary for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, made it clear that the outlet as a whole was excluded, despite the station having been granted two statehouse press credentials by the state’s Legislative Services Bureau.</p><p data-block-key=\"uo8d\">After watching a livestream of the July 31 board meeting from the overflow room, reporter Dylan Brown and photographer Kevin Josefy attempted to attend the news conference with Superintendent Ryan Walters. But, the suit said, Isett stopped them before they reached the door.</p><p data-block-key=\"3jb28\">In <a href=\"https://www.ifs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Kfor-Osde-1.mp4\">footage of the interaction</a> that followed, Brown asks Isett, “We can’t ask him (Walters) questions?” to which Isett responds, “No, that’s a privilege for press.” The journalists defend the reputation of the station, the oldest TV broadcaster in the state, and Josefy then asks, “You’re saying we aren’t a legitimate news organization? Is that what you are trying to say?” Isett simply responds, “Yes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dhgrb\">During a similar incident on Aug. 22 that was also recorded, Isett intercepted Brown and Josefy at the door of a postmeeting news conference, placing his hands on Brown and blocking him from entering.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l4lm\">Brown asked Isett to give a reason why they were not permitted in the room, but Isett moved to close the door, preventing their entry. As he did so, Brown said, “If you close that door on me you’re restricting my First Amendment rights of access to a public official, sir. That’s what you’re doing.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ek2e8\">When <a href=\"https://x.com/mikesimonsphoto/status/1826810578154697070\">asked</a> by another journalist inside why KFOR-TV was being denied access, Isett reportedly said, “I don’t think they’re a legitimate news organization.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dan Isett with the State Department of Education bars <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kfor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kfor</a> journalists from entering the room for a news conference with Superintendent Ryan Walters. When asked why Isett said, "I don't think they're a legitimate news organization." <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/oklaed?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#oklaed</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/oklahoma?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#oklahoma</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/journalism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#journalism</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/VgFWYP3Jnl\">pic.twitter.com/VgFWYP3Jnl</a></p>— Mike Simons (@mikesimonsphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mikesimonsphoto/status/1826810578154697070?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f2fn9\">The Society of Professional Journalists <a href=\"https://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=3035\">condemned</a> the barring of the KFOR-TV journalists, saying that it is not within Isett’s power to choose which outlets are “legitimate.”</p><p data-block-key=\"acevp\">“This is a blatant violation of press freedom by a government agency,” SPJ National President Ashanti-Blaize Hopkins said. “By denying these journalists access to the news conference, he illegally prevented them from carrying out their duty to inform the public.”</p><p data-block-key=\"977je\">SPJ said that when it reached Isett via email, he replied, “Our office works with hundreds of journalists across the state and around the country to keep the public informed about the success Oklahoma students are seeing under Superintendent Walters. We will not work with tabloids who consistently editorialize and report false information rather than inform the public.”</p><p data-block-key=\"57o2t\">Isett did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for further comment.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f2fn9\">The lawsuit argued that the exclusion of KFOR-TV is in retaliation for the outlet’s editorial stance, and requested a temporary restraining order requiring that its journalists be granted full access to upcoming Board of Education meetings, including one <a href=\"https://x.com/dylantbrown/status/1839297426127204412\">on Sept. 26</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"30oic\">A judge <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.okwd.128571/gov.uscourts.okwd.128571.14.0_1.pdf\">granted the request</a> during a hearing on Sept. 25, ruling that the station is likely to succeed in its First Amendment claim against the state officials and that the justification for the exclusion is “little more than a ruse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7gt5\">District Judge Bernard Jones wrote that permitting a governmental agency to restrict access based on a unilateral decision that an outlet’s reporting is false “would empower the government to act as the final arbiter of truth, chilling investigative journalism and suppressing dissenting viewpoints.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ca0nd\">“The First Amendment has never permitted the government to silence the press simply because it disagrees with the content of its reporting,” Jones added.</p><p data-block-key=\"689hg\">Brown <a href=\"https://x.com/dylantbrown/status/1839044672187957407\">posted</a> on the social platform X about the order and quoted a response from Isett: “A judge can give KFOR privileges, but that doesn’t keep the organization from being fake news.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5hg06\">The temporary restraining order grants KFOR-TV access for two weeks while hearings in the case continue, which will include the station’s request for a preliminary injunction to ensure access through the duration of the suit.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Soooo….we were let in. An hour early. OSDE meeting gets underway in an hour! Not in the overflow room, so this is different. Less than 24 hours after a federal judge said “let them in” - <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kfor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kfor</a> is let in! <a href=\"https://t.co/0j33nuq85u\">pic.twitter.com/0j33nuq85u</a></p>— Dylan Brown (@dylantbrown) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dylantbrown/status/1839297426127204412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 26, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/KFOR-TV_denial.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"wc53s\">Dan Isett, director of communications for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, prevents KFOR-TV journalists Dylan Brown and Kevin Josefy from attending a news conference after a state Board of Education meeting on Aug. 22, 2024.</p>",
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"case_number": "5:24-cv-00980",
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"name": "Oklahoma",
"abbreviation": "OK"
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"(2024-12-11 00:00:00+00:00) Oklahoma TV journalists win access to public meetings"
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{
"title": "Tennessee reporter arrested while covering student protest against Israel-Gaza war",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-reporter-arrested-while-covering-student-protest-against-israel-gaza-war/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-28T18:33:43.195920Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-29T16:09:55.698142Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-29T16:09:55.547208Z",
"date": "2024-03-26",
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"city": "Nashville",
"longitude": -86.78444,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v3guo\">Eli Motycka, a reporter for the alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene, was arrested while covering a student protest at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee on March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against the journalist was dropped after a few hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"bn98v\">Motycka told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived on campus around noon to report on an ongoing sit-in student protesters were holding at the Kirkland Hall administrative building in opposition to the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"bshej\">The Vanderbilt Hustler, the university’s student-run newspaper, <a href=\"https://vanderbilthustler.com/2024/03/26/inside-kirkland-hall-vanderbilt-divest-coalition-protestors-report-inhumane-treatment-amid-student-suspensions-and-arrest-of-reporter/\">reported</a> that the demonstrators were calling on the administration to allow the student government to vote on participating in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"d03k6\">After calling and texting his press contacts at the university for comment, Motycka told the Tracker he went to one of the doors of the hall and spoke with a Vanderbilt University Police Department officer standing guard there.</p><p data-block-key=\"bv4b7\">“I asked if I could go inside, after identifying myself as a journalist. He told me that he was under orders not to let anyone in and that he wished he could let me in but he couldn’t,” Motycka said. “I went to other doors and talked to at least four officers and each of them told me different things: Some told me there was construction going on, some told me that the building was closed, some told me that they might be able to let me in later.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1dke9\">After his colleague, photographer Hamilton Matthew Masters, arrived on campus, Motycka said he spoke to a final VUPD officer through a door and asked who he should contact for comment or about being granted access to the building. He said that at no point was he told to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"43l1p\">At approximately 1:30 p.m., two officers approached the journalists, ordered Motycka to put his hands behind his back and told him he was under arrest for criminal trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"d7rmv\">In footage of the arrest captured by Masters, an officer can be heard telling Motycka that he had previously been told to leave under threat of arrest, which Motycka disputed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Scene reporter Eli Motycka (<a href=\"https://twitter.com/ejmotycka?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ejmotycka</a>) was arrested by Vanderbilt police while reporting on student protests. <a href=\"https://t.co/5HPcRHtI7H\">pic.twitter.com/5HPcRHtI7H</a></p>— Nashville Scene (@NashvilleScene) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NashvilleScene/status/1772700392058454389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v3guo\">“No, I haven’t been warned,” Motycka says. “I am here doing my job and I will happily leave, if someone warns me that I’m in danger of trespassing, to avoid all of this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ui3v\">The officers allowed Masters to take all of Motycka’s belongings before escorting him to a VUPD vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mp6a\">“I’m a credentialed member of the media. I’m a reporter for the Nashville Scene. I wasn’t warned today that I’d be taken off of this campus in handcuffs,” Motycka says in Masters’ footage. “I was here interviewing students. I was here witnessing a protest. And now it’s about me, I guess.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3jitb\">Motycka told the Tracker that he was taken to the Downtown Detention Center, where he was processed and fingerprinted. He was released shortly after 4 p.m. after a public defender informed him that Judicial Magistrate Timothy Lee had determined there was no probable cause and dropped the charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ftoe\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/scene-reporter-arrested/article_522c14b8-eba6-11ee-b344-ebb6b5f6f03e.html\">statement to the Scene</a>, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said, “This office will not prosecute a journalist for peacefully doing his or her job.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b1h7e\">Motycka’s arresting officer drove him back to campus soon after, Motycka said. The officer said he believed the arrest was justified and told Motycka that he would risk further arrest if he returned to campus without a legitimate purpose and authorization from the administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"4e7cp\">A different VUPD officer began following Motycka once he was returned to campus, he told the Tracker. Unclear whether Motycka could be rearrested, his editor advised him to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uorp\">In a written statement to the Tracker, a Vanderbilt University spokesperson said that Kirkland Hall was on lockdown and police were on “high alert” when Motycka repeatedly attempted to enter the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"9d6r8\">“It has long been the practice of Vanderbilt University to grant access to members of the media who request and receive clearance to be on campus,” the statement said. “In yesterday’s case, though the reporter made his presence known, he did not have permission to access locked administrative buildings, which are on private property.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a8614\">Motycka told the Tracker that he had never been told he needed clearance to be on campus. He added that while there are no pending charges, he is concerned about his ability to continue reporting on the university and the broader chilling effect of his arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"3cdkr\">“I definitely feel intimidated to go back to campus, because I’m not sure of whether and where I can and can’t be to do my job,” he told the Tracker. “I think it functions as an act of intimidation against the press and has a cooling effect on all reporters in Nashville who may want to report on Vanderbilt, who now feel that they could be arrested without warning.”</p><p data-block-key=\"97ggu\">D. Patrick Rodgers, the editor-in-chief of the Scene, expressed his dismay over Motycka’s arrest and his support for Motycka, Masters and Scene reporter Kelsey Beyeler for their coverage of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3euaa\">“It's alarming and disappointing that Vanderbilt University — with so many eyes on them as a result of ongoing student protests — would arrest a reporter in the process of doing his job,” Rodgers said. “We’ll have more coverage in the days to come.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tte6x\">Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka was arrested by Vanderbilt University Police while reporting on a student sit-in at the Tennessee campus on March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against him was dropped later that day.</p>",
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{
"title": "Missouri attorney general subpoenas Media Matters after report on X",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T16:37:53.784895Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-14T19:47:44.732413Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sr2vu\">Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a civil investigative demand, a form of subpoena, to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Media Matters for America on March 25, 2024, for documents related to its reporting about the social platform X. A day later, Bailey filed a lawsuit in Missouri circuit court seeking to enforce his demand, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"aid31\">On Nov. 16, 2023, Media Matters published a <a href=\"https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle\">report</a> written by its investigative reporter Eric Hananoki that found advertisements for major brands appeared next to pro-Nazi posts on X. Following the report’s publication and a post on X by owner Elon Musk that appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-x-advertisers.html\">several</a> major companies <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/17/23965928/apple-x-ads-elon-musk-antisemitic-posts\">paused</a> their advertising on the platform.</p><p data-block-key=\"cp5lg\">The report touched off a <a href=\"https://www.mediaite.com/news/missouri-attorney-general-promises-elon-musk-hes-investigating-media-matters-over-nazi-report/\">firestorm</a> of response from X and from Republican politicians across the country. X filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454.1.0_1.pdf\">lawsuit</a> on Nov. 20 against both Media Matters and Hananoki, alleging that they had manipulated the platform’s algorithms to produce the report’s findings in order to harm X’s relationship with advertisers. (Media Matters filed a motion to dismiss X’s suit in March 2024.)</p><p data-block-key=\"drg8p\">Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also cited allegations of algorithm manipulation in a probe he initiated into “potential fraudulent activity,” issuing his own <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">civil investigative demand</a> on Dec. 1, 2023, that Media Matters turn over documents related to its reporting on X. Media Matters <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/media-matters-elon-musk-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-rcna129402\">sued</a> to block that demand and was granted a preliminary injunction against Paxton in April 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"cnk7i\">Bailey opened his investigation into Media Matters on Dec. 11, 2023, <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023.12.11-Notice-of-Investigation-MMFA-Final.pdf\">alleging</a> that it appeared to have used the “coordinated, inauthentic activity” described in X’s lawsuit “to solicit charitable donations from consumers.” He said that his office would look into whether this violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws, “including laws that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.” Bailey instructed the nonprofit to preserve all records related to the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"37psd\">Three days later, Bailey <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/attorney-general-bailey-directs-letter-to-advertisers-amidst-media-matters-investigation/\">announced</a> that he and then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (now serving as governor) had sent letters to several major companies that paused their advertising on X, including Apple, Disney, IBM and Sony, informing them of the investigation into Media Matters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4kd17\">Bailey then issued a civil investigative demand similar to Paxton’s and <a href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/ago.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55bd24fd8f5e7d3dc227d1072&id=db4680359b&e=5061322ab3__;!!EErPFA7f--AJOw!ETYd6-r89czF7zE17gLE1hiQGpb-d6nFvURvBmLd5C5hnpNE48q4-5B7kDa_RWdG0trenZqszeKvVFdR6_JbXWk$\">petitioned</a> a state court to enforce it, arguing that given Media Matters’ response to Paxton, it was unlikely to comply by his April 15 deadline.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nckc\">Bailey’s <a href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/ago.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55bd24fd8f5e7d3dc227d1072&id=b6ed931e46&e=5061322ab3__;!!EErPFA7f--AJOw!ETYd6-r89czF7zE17gLE1hiQGpb-d6nFvURvBmLd5C5hnpNE48q4-5B7kDa_RWdG0trenZqszeKvVFdRm4ayoAE$\">demand</a> included requests for Media Matters’ 2023 and 2024 donation records, documents associated with Hananoki’s reporting and materials “related to generating stories or content intended to cancel, deplatform, demonetize, or otherwise interfere with businesses located in Missouri, or utilized by Missouri residents,” among other records.</p><p data-block-key=\"1meec\">“My office has reason to believe Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers into pulling out of X, the last social media platform dedicated to free speech in America,” Bailey said in a <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/attorney-general-bailey-files-suit-against-media-matters-for-refusal-to-cooperate-with-investigation/\">news release</a>. “If there has been any attempt to defraud Missourians in order to trample on their free speech rights, I will root it out and hold bad actors accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9srir\">The organization has objected to Bailey’s demand in full. Media Matters President Angelo Carusone <a href=\"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/missouri-ag-sues-media-matters-in-lawsuit-echoing-elon-musks-complaints/\">told Ars Technica</a>, “This Missouri investigation is the latest in a transparent endeavor to squelch the First Amendment rights of researchers and reporters; it will have a chilling effect on news reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9p00r\">In a response to Bailey’s announcement of the suit on X, Elon Musk <a href=\"https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1772339333673972131\">wrote</a>: “Much appreciated! Media Matters is doing everything it can to undermine the First Amendment. Truly an evil organization.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dclkv\">Carusone, in the Ars Technica article, countered: “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Elon Musk has actually intensified his efforts to undermine free speech by enlisting Republican attorneys general across the country to initiate meritless, expensive, and harassing investigations against Media Matters in an attempt to punish critics.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hynhn\">Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in Washington, D.C., in March 2024. That month, he demanded documents from nonprofit Media Matters related to its reporting about the social platform X and accused it of manipulating X’s algorithms.</p>",
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"(2024-08-22 00:00:00+00:00) Media Matters wins injunction against Missouri attorney general",
"(2025-02-10 00:00:00+00:00) Media Matters settles with Missouri attorney general",
"(2024-04-24 00:00:00+00:00) Media Matters sues Missouri attorney general in federal court"
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{
"title": "Colorado council member sends threatening note to local weekly over reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-council-member-sends-threatening-note-to-local-weekly-over-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:59:39.596726Z",
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"date": "2024-03-20",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2vg5k\">Council member Peggy Lindsey of Ouray County, Colorado, mailed a threatening note to the Ouray County Plaindealer mid-March 2024, several weeks after the paper published a story detailing her texts about a high-profile sexual assault case.</p><p data-block-key=\"skea\">“What comes around goes around, and you haven’t seen yours yet, but it is coming,” Lindsey wrote in the note from a personalized notepad. “May your days be numbered.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fget0\">The story, written by Plaindealer co-Publisher Mike Wiggins, reported on city officials’ responses to the sexual assault, which allegedly occurred inside the home of the Ouray County police chief.</p><p data-block-key=\"2julm\">The note is the latest in an ongoing saga following the Plaindealer’s coverage of the case. On Jan. 18, 2024, a Colorado resident <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-resident-swipes-issues-of-local-weekly-covering-sexual-assault-case/\">stole</a> more than 200 copies of the paper after it published its first article on the allegations.</p><p data-block-key=\"5taui\">In an <a href=\"https://www.ouraynews.com/2024/03/20/councilors-threat-wont-work/\">account of the most recent incident</a>, the paper wrote that for his Feb. 21 story, Wiggins filed an open records request for communications by officials, including about the police chief before he was placed on paid administrative leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"6uivd\">The records Wiggins obtained revealed that Lindsey first sent the chief a text message following the allegations, in which she wrote, “And this 2 shall pass. I’ve been in the hot seat many times for many reasons. You will be ok.”</p><p data-block-key=\"duijv\">She then texted a friend questioning the chief’s ability to keep his job, writing “I doubt you’ll ever see him in uniform again. … It’s too small of a town to overcome this, I think.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qdjb\">Wiggins later wrote in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mikewiggins76/status/1770877492091298022\">thread</a> on X, formerly Twitter, that Lindsey had reached out to him before the records request was fulfilled, and asked him not to include the conversation with her friend, saying that it was a private conversation.</p><p data-block-key=\"9eg47\">“The text concerned public business and therefore was a matter of public record,” Wiggins said in a <a href=\"https://x.com/mikewiggins76/status/1770886377288151509?s=20\">tweet</a>. “The city wouldn’t have provided it to us otherwise. Lindsey was angry and said she would pull her advertising, which she did.”</p><p data-block-key=\"831s7\">Plaindealer co-Publisher Erin McIntyre, in her <a href=\"https://www.ouraynews.com/2024/03/20/councilors-threat-wont-work/\">explanation to readers</a>, wrote, “Our job requires us to act independently. That means when someone threatens us to try to affect the outcome of our reporting and prevent a story from being published, we need to move forward and do the job, because the priority is the public’s right to know. No matter how uncomfortable that may be sometimes, especially in a small community, it’s what we’re charged to do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4rjs1\">McIntyre and Wiggins were not able to comment at the time of publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"ajpc4\">Lindsey declined to answer questions about the note.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hi11s\">Screenshot of an editorial published by the Ouray County Plaindealer on March 20, 2024, with an accompanying photograph of what it described as an “ominous” note sent by a local council member to the Colorado paper.</p>",
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{
"title": "Sacramento Bee columnist detained at pro-Palestinian protest at City Hall",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-columnist-detained-at-pro-palestinian-protest-at-city-hall/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-25T21:17:02.052277Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:14:44.142305Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:14:44.013744Z",
"date": "2024-03-19",
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"longitude": -121.4944,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"keydz\">Robin Epley, an opinion columnist for The Sacramento Bee, was briefly detained while documenting a protest that disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting March 19, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1u7p\">In an <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article286982055.html\">account of the incident</a> published by the Bee, Epley wrote that a pro-Palestinian protest in the City Council chambers began after Mayor Darrell Steinberg introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Steinberg recessed the meeting and ordered the chambers to be cleared, but many people initially refused to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"4phti\">After about 90 minutes, by 10:37 p.m., Epley wrote, only a few dozen people remained and she noticed that she was the only journalist still observing the protest. “From experience, I know that’s a rare and potentially important position; I’d never relinquish it unless absolutely necessary,” Epley wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"54som\">Epley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that more than 50 police officers then entered the chambers, gave a final warning and began arresting the last 12 stragglers. Shortly after 10:50 p.m., Epley saw the officer who was overseeing the arrests point at her.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ndun\">“Surely, I thought, he was motioning to someone behind me?” Epley wrote. “By the time I realized no one was there, a couple of officers had already descended on my back, ripping my cellphone from my hand and locking me in a pair of black metal cuffs.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sac PD just tried to arrest me <a href=\"https://t.co/GvzRQi6fmw\">pic.twitter.com/GvzRQi6fmw</a></p>— Robin Epley (@ByRobinEpley) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobinEpley/status/1770328803564511274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"keydz\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobinEpley/status/1771211911842935192\">footage</a> Epley shared on social media, she can be heard asking the officers, “Are you really arresting me right now?”</p><p data-block-key=\"5bc\">Epley told the Tracker that she was wearing press credentials issued by the Bee and that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. After approximately 25 seconds, the officers uncuffed her and checked her press pass before allowing her to resume documenting the other arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"auppe\">“There is no reason, no action I took, nothing I said nor did that provoked these officers of the Sacramento Police Department to handcuff me,” Epley wrote. “Their actions alone resulted in the illegal detainment of a working and visibly credentialed journalist, no matter how short the duration of my time in their custody.”</p><p data-block-key=\"egavn\">David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the Bee that police have no business arresting members of the press, even if only for a few seconds.</p><p data-block-key=\"a6k6s\">“There is a disturbing trend around the country of journalists being arrested and prosecuted simply for being journalists,” Loy said. “Whether the arrest just happened for just a few minutes or someone is prosecuted, these are clear threats to press freedom and the First Amendment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dt6nd\">Epley told the Tracker that she is undaunted by the experience.</p><p data-block-key=\"8lod7\">“I feel fired up,” Epley said. “I try to remind myself that when informed of their mistake they let me out of the cuffs pretty immediately. Ultimately I’m fine, but it’s the meaning of it that is making me upset, what it means to have handcuffed a journalist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"erg7p\">She said that the Sacramento Police Department has reached out to the Bee to set up a meeting with editors.</p><p data-block-key=\"8me62\">The Sacramento Police Department said in an emailed statement that when the chambers were cleared they advised members of the press to stage in the lobby and that officers were instructed to look for city-issued press credentials, which it asserts Epley was not wearing.</p><p data-block-key=\"9kcfi\">Epley said that she wasn’t told the credentials were mandatory and that, when the lightweight pass broke, she stopped wearing it. She also refuted the police’s assertion that media were told to stage in the lobby, saying that no officers spoke with her after the meeting was recessed.</p><p data-block-key=\"78h7c\">In a statement shared with the Tracker, Mayor Steinberg said that there was “some confusion” concerning Epley’s credentials and that she was immediately released once it was cleared up.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gdhk\">“I do not support the arrest of journalists in chambers,” Steinberg said. “It is essential that we uphold and protect the important role that the press plays in our society.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"74br4\">Sacramento Bee columnist Robin Epley was briefly detained while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down a City Council meeting at Sacramento City Hall on March 19, 2024.</p>",
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{
"title": "Journalist, newsrooms ordered to delete articles about real estate dispute",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-newsrooms-ordered-to-delete-articles-about-real-estate-dispute/",
"first_published_at": "2024-11-05T20:08:53.479199Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-05T20:08:53.479199Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-05T20:08:41.213225Z",
"date": "2024-03-13",
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"city": "Miami",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cuv8d\">Legal journalist Eugene Volokh and multiple newsrooms were targeted in a March 13, 2024, court order to remove articles in connection with a real estate dispute between a former mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, and his daughter. A judge partially vacated the order in October after Volokh challenged it.</p><p data-block-key=\"eejvn\">Alex Daoud, who served as Miami Beach mayor from 1985 to 1991 before being convicted of bribery, was sued in 2012 by his daughter, Kelly Hyman, an attorney and frequent TV commentator. Hyman alleged that Daoud was trying to take away her company and that she was the rightful owner of his residence, which he disputed, the Miami Herald <a href=\"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article3985285.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"rq4u\">As part of a settlement agreement, Daoud <a href=\"https://lumendatabase.org/file_uploads/files/4698629/004/698/629/original/2020-11-03%20Agreed%20Order-%20websites.pdf?1605809823&access_token=PmqlvB2uV55U65_hZwOt6A\">agreed</a> in November 2020 to remove defamatory statements he had posted online or that had been posted at his behest.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bu58\">Volokh — co-founder of the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy and retired law professor — <a href=\"https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/24/overbroad-injunction-used-to-try-to-vanish-articles-about-daughters-property-lawsuit-against-father/\">reported</a> on that initial order, highlighting that Google was asked to deindex (or remove from search result pages) articles by several mainstream media outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"8u76v\">“My recollection is that Google did not actually remove them,” Volokh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “But I wrote about this attempt to try to get things removed and then I started noticing that there were attempts to deindex that very article. So I write about that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f8dpg\">In a January 2024 filing reviewed by the Tracker, Hyman wrote that more than three years after the initial order she had still come across “disparaging material” that she believed should have been removed in compliance with it. She asked the judge to amend the order to include new web addresses, and Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull did so in March 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"8t3gt\">Among the around two dozen URLs that the new order demanded be taken down, deleted or deindexed were Volokh’s <a href=\"https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/14/attempt-to-vanish-my-article-about-attempt-to-vanish-my-article-about-attempt-to-vanish-other-articles/\">article</a> about the attempt to deindex his previous article and a piece about an <a href=\"https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/24/an-odd-response-from-one-of-the-lawyers-in-the-kelly-hyman-v-alex-daoud-case/\">“odd” response</a> he received from one of Hyman’s attorneys.</p><p data-block-key=\"39id6\">Reporting published by the Herald, WFOR-TV, the Daily Mail, The Real Deal and Law.com was also targeted, as was a link to an appellate ruling in the lawsuit <a href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/third-district-court-of-appeal/2016/3d14-2984.html\">published on Justia</a>, a legal information website.</p><p data-block-key=\"5q3mh\">Rebull specified that the website host or service provider must remove or deindex the links within 10 days of receiving a copy of the order, and that “all statements, posts, social media, or videos or documents” directly or indirectly related to the underlying lawsuit must be removed as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"armhd\">At least one article by WFOR-TV appears to have been removed — a review of the Internet Archive shows that it was still available <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20231221105541/https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/notorious-father-faces-eviction-by-daughter/\">as of December 2023</a>, but <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20240405121108/https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/notorious-father-faces-eviction-by-daughter/\">by April 2024</a> it had been removed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1pu15\">Volokh <a href=\"https://reason.com/volokh/2024/10/28/another-attempt-to-vanish-my-posts-about-kelly-hyman-v-alex-daoud-seemingly-backed-by-court-order/\">wrote</a> that he learned of the court order Oct. 17, when he received an email directing him to delete the two articles from his blog. He argued that the order was “unjustified,” adding that he had obtained legal representation who filed a motion Oct. 25 challenging the order.</p><p data-block-key=\"4lg0h\">“The Order, if applied to my posts, would violate the First Amendment,” Volokh wrote. “Those posts consist entirely of statements from public records, other accurate factual statements, and opinion.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sn1d\">Rebull clarified his order Oct. 28, writing specifically that it does not apply to Volokh and clarifying that the order only applies to Daoud, Hyman and those acting in their interests.</p><p data-block-key=\"52d7a\">Volokh told the Tracker it was heartening to see the order corrected so quickly.</p><p data-block-key=\"2t2uo\">“I just think that this was an error of the form that human beings — including ones wearing robes — make. Shouldn’t have. He should have, I think, recognized that they were asking for too much,” Volokh said. “But once he was alerted to it, he very promptly fixed it: blazingly fast by the standards of our legal system.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"afh89\">A portion of an Oct. 28, 2024, court order partially vacating a decision in March that ordered multiple newsrooms and independent legal journalist Eugene Volokh to delete news stories concerning a real estate dispute in Miami, Florida.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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{
"title": "Court blocks Trump subpoena over Stormy Daniels documentary on NBC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/court-blocks-trump-subpoena-over-stormy-daniels-documentary-on-nbc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-11T15:29:20.595654Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T15:29:20.595654Z",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ctteu\">The justice overseeing the hush money criminal trial of former President Donald Trump quashed a subpoena April 5, 2024, that sought material from a recent NBCUniversal documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels.</p><p data-block-key=\"16jcg\">The subpoena, first issued March 11, was part of an effort by Trump to prove that NBCUniversal and Daniels conspired to release the documentary close to his trial date, according to <a href=\"https://nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/pdfs/DecisionOnMotion-Quash4-5-24.pdf\">legal documents</a> reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The documentary was released March 18, a week before the original trial date.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rsbh\">The subpoena requested access to all materials related to the making, promotion, premiere and release of the documentary. But Justice Juan Merchan wrote in the court order that granting the subpoena would give Trump and his legal team “unfettered access to the notes and materials of a media organization,” in violation of New York’s <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/privilege-compendium/new-york/#reporters-privilege-compendium\">shield law</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9lr43\">Trump’s claims were unsupported, he ruled, adding that, “His subpoena and the demands therein are the very definition of a fishing expedition.”</p><p data-block-key=\"al2d3\">In the underlying criminal case, Trump is accused of covering up hush money payments made by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to Daniels after she said she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records after allegedly misidentifying payments to Cohen, marking them as for legal services when he was repaying him for the hush money given to Daniels.</p><p data-block-key=\"6cd9u\">Trump is currently expected to go on trial for the charges April 15, despite multiple efforts to stall the proceedings.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4soqw\">Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 2024. The judge overseeing Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York quashed a subpoena April 5 that sought material from an NBCUniversal documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels.</p>",
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{
"title": "Freelancer forcibly removed, press badge taken at Israeli conference in NYC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelancer-forcibly-removed-press-badge-taken-at-israeli-conference-in-nyc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-13T15:50:29.887146Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:15:22.472950Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:15:22.356382Z",
"date": "2024-03-04",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ceral\">Freelance reporter Caroline Haskins was asked by a security guard to leave shortly after recording pro-Palestinian protests at an Israeli tech conference in New York City on March 4, 2024, and was then shoved out, her press badge yanked from her neck, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckc7m\">Haskins, who described the encounter at a midtown Manhattan conference center to the Tracker and in <a href=\"https://hellgatenyc.com/pro-palestine-protest-eric-adams-israeli-tech-conference\">an article</a> for the independent New York outlet Hell Gate, said that the guard came up to her while she was tweeting about the protests. He asked who she was and when Haskins identified herself as a freelance reporter, he told her to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"fjqd3\">After Haskins asked the security guard why she was being removed, she said the guard responded, “I don’t know, management just told me to remove you,” and advised her to reach out to the event organizers for an explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"24k57\">She then started filming the encounter, but said that the security guard grabbed her phone out of her hands. Haskins immediately took it back, and he then clutched both of her arms, brought them behind her back, and pushed her out of the conference hall from behind. As he did, she said he reached for her conference pass lanyard, which was caught in the cords of her headphone cord, and yanked it off before shoving her out the door.</p><p data-block-key=\"fp8dr\">Haskins later contacted conference organizers to ask about her ejection. She <a href=\"https://twitter.com/car0linehaskins/status/1767649498803630091?s=42\">tweeted</a> March 12 that she received a response from a spokesman, who said: “I understand there was turmoil during the TED Talk of Google’s CEO, and security took those people out. I guess that they took out everyone who filmed it and thought they might be a part of this.” She wrote that the spokesman apologized for the delay in response and for her experience, and added that he had “asked for details about what really happened.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jzj28\">New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaking March 4, 2024, at a New York City conference on the Israeli high-tech industry. Reporter Caroline Haskins was forcibly removed from the event after tweeting about interruptions by protesters.</p>",
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{
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"protest"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Former Fox News reporter held in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoena",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-fox-news-reporter-held-in-contempt-for-refusing-to-comply-with-subpoena/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-01T18:16:56.949951Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:16:21.134149Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:16:21.026791Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
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"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qeihw\">Journalist Catherine Herridge was held in civil contempt Feb. 29, 2024, for refusing to comply with a subpoena compelling her to reveal a confidential source, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6q0mt\">The ruling stemmed from a series of Fox News investigative online articles and broadcast reports by then-correspondent Herridge published in early 2017 about a federal investigation into the possible foreign military ties of a Chinese American scientist, Yanping Chen.</p><p data-block-key=\"7q9g1\">The articles cited, and included excerpts of, materials from the investigation, such as FBI interviews, Chen’s immigration forms and photos of her in a Chinese military uniform. The six-year investigation was concluded in 2016.</p><p data-block-key=\"5anlr\">No charges were brought against Chen, and in December 2018 she sued the FBI and the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, arguing that investigators violated her rights under the Privacy Act when her personal information was leaked to Herridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"a0vun\">Chen <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-fox-news-journalist-subpoenaed-to-reveal-confidential-source/\">subpoenaed Herridge</a> in June 2022, seeking documents, communications and testimony concerning the federal investigation as well as sufficient information to identify her source. Fox News and producers Pamela K. Browne and Cyd Upson — who were also bylined on the articles — received similar subpoenas for documents and testimony. The Tracker has documented each of the subpoenas <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2022-05-19&date_upper=2022-06-16&city=washington&state=District+of+Columbia&targeted_institutions=Fox+News&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7pbuu\">While U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper quashed the requests for documents, he ruled in August 2023 that the identity of the confidential source was central to the lawsuit’s claim and ordered Herridge to testify about her reporting and any sources. “Chen’s need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ab32\">Herridge sat for a deposition in September, but refused to answer any questions about the identity or intent of her sources, according to court filings.</p><p data-block-key=\"1kl2r\">Herridge attempted to appeal the ruling, but <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.163.1.pdf\">was instructed</a> by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals that the proper procedure required her to refuse to comply and then appeal the resulting contempt order. In November 2023, Chen <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.161.1_1.pdf\">asked the court</a> to hold Herridge in contempt and proposed a graduated fine of $500 a day for the first seven days, $1,000 a day the following week and $5,000 for each day after.</p><p data-block-key=\"53uu7\">The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.177.1.pdf\">amicus brief</a> in support of Herridge, arguing that holding her in contempt would have a significant chilling effect on national security reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"eoilh\">“The ability of journalists to assure sources that their identities will remain confidential is central to preserving the press’s structural role as a check on government, particularly in the national security sphere,” RCFP wrote. “When sources stop talking to journalists because they fear that their identities cannot be protected, that loss impairs the electorate’s ability to make informed political, social, and economic decisions, and to hold elected officials and others in power accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q01i\">Cooper <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.193.0_3.pdf\">held Herridge in contempt</a> in February 2024. “The Court does not reach this result lightly,” Cooper wrote in his decision. “Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity.”</p><p data-block-key=\"auook\">He ordered that Herridge be fined $800 a day until she complies with the subpoena, but stayed the fine for 30 days or until an appeal of the ruling is completed, whichever comes later.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0j0l\">Neither Herridge nor her attorney were immediately available to comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"pm11h\">A portion of the order holding former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Feb. 29, 2024, for her refusal to comply with a subpoena seeking testimony about a confidential source.</p>",
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{
"title": "Florida paper says sheriff disinvited it from news conference for second time",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-paper-says-sheriff-disinvited-it-from-news-conference-for-second-time/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-25T21:14:56.544103Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:17:45.183272Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:17:45.083841Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
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"city": "DeLand",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"17gfu\">The Daytona Beach News-Journal was purposefully not invited to a news conference held by Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Feb. 29, 2024, according to the Florida news outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"dh7mi\">The Sheriff’s Office had announced via social media on Feb. 28, 2024, that Chitwood would be holding a news conference the following day about a break in a 20-year-old missing persons investigation. But <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">the newspaper said</a> Chitwood’s media staff did not send it an announcement with details about the briefing, nor did they reply to emails and texts from reporters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ca6a\">Two other Florida TV stations, WESH and WOFL, had news crews present at the briefing, but the paper said it was unclear how Chitwood communicated to them the time and place of the event.</p><p data-block-key=\"9o1ok\">It was the second time the News-Journal has been left off the invitation list for a news conference held by Chitwood, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">according to the news outlet</a>. The first time was for a news conference <a href=\"/all-incidents/florida-daily-newspaper-said-feud-led-sheriff-to-disinvite-it-from-news-conference/\">Oct. 2, 2023</a>, where <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/10/03/sheriff-mike-chitwood-bans-news-journal-from-press-conferences/71041359007/\">the paper said</a> it was not invited although there was a “contingent of media” present.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ecp\">The paper says the missing invitations are the result of a long-standing conflict between the daily paper and Chitwood that has also resulted in the Sheriff’s Office refusing to comment on any News-Journal stories.</p><p data-block-key=\"3oc0g\">After the October news conference, for instance, News-Journal reporter Frank Fernandez <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">wrote</a> that when the paper contacted Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Andrew Gant to ask about the oversight, Gant replied, “No oversight, sorry. The Sheriff is no longer inviting the NJ to his news conference or commenting for stories.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5bk8l\">Chitwood, in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/profile/100044203642856/search/?q=news-journal\">series of Facebook posts</a> going back to September, has been highly critical of News-Journal coverage of several high-profile criminal investigations.</p><p data-block-key=\"1otdp\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0xTg2xH8jFYSMwHKBAhEBYPmaDWE6g15e1XEMrrytKqTZTup2aQVKrPyVoTh915WSl\">Sept. 21 post</a>, Chitwood wrote, “I don’t take Frank Fernandez’s calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore,” then added on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0mNY8oGZDV9TKcAHrXksh5kfsqfrVHVUSU3wGrHUSP6EpVDoHbZ2G2kca5bw5oVkpl\">Sept. 26</a>, “This is nothing personal, strictly business, but the only real recourse I have is to unsubscribe from the News-Journal and quit commenting in it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1r3nh\">News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar, in an opinion piece after the Sept. 21 Chitwood post, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/09/25/chitwood-feeds-reporter-to-the-social-media-wolves-for-doing-his-job/70953403007/\">wrote</a>, “The sheriff’s reaction is disturbing for a number of reasons. First, he’s falsely accusing an enormously dedicated and hard-working reporter of being one-sided and unprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second, his bullying behavior can lead to a chilling effect on anyone who dares to write something he doesn’t like. And third, he’s creating a scapegoat and invoking his followers to tell him ‘what they think.’ What happens if they respond with more than words?”</p><p data-block-key=\"6be9c\">Chitwood’s derogatory comments continued, however. In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0J6r6Co6C53CWSdBhvgbnueyNdeLKJ13AN8gwmhAfKE9FAVuMm6yoX8AZ3HwWJ4dzl\">March 5 post regarding</a> the Feb. 29 news conference, the sheriff wrote, “The Irrelevant Daytona Beach News-Journal smears my deputies, insults the law enforcement community, misleads the 5 readers it has left, and then cries foul when I quit responding. The News-Journal knew exactly when and where this press conference was, and they chose not to show up. If they did, I’d exercise my right to ignore their BS questions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f9ctc\">The same day, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">Fernandez reported</a> that Chitwood opted not to include The News-Journal in the news conference even though Gant <a href=\"https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/10/11/editorial-sheriffs-screed-against-reporter-hurts-everyone-including-himself/\">told the Orlando Sentinel</a> that if a News-Journal reporter shows up to a news event, they won’t be turned away. “The News-Journal has the same access to that as anybody else,” Gant said. “They just don’t have exclusive access.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5cijq\">The sheriff’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fuvu\">Grace Nezkwesi, legal fellow at the First Amendment Foundation, was reported as saying she did not believe that Chitwood could exclude one media outlet while allowing others to attend the briefings. “It does sound like a chilling effect and a restraint on your organization’s First Amendment Rights,” <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">she told the News-Journal</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"e2b92\">“It’s a form of intimidation. I mean, he’s the sheriff. He’s a very powerful man and very popular in the county,” Dunbar told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"bupk7\">Dunbar added that he was concerned that the decision could impact the News-Journal’s access to information regarding the upcoming hurricane season. “This is really an issue of public safety because we’re the newspaper of record,” Dunbar said. “We can’t be at odds.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5fkej\"><i>Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i1d8k\">Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida, during a Feb. 29, 2024 news conference. The Daytona Beach News-Journal said it was purposefully not invited to the event.</p>",
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{
"title": "Police agree to pay Las Vegas paper’s legal fees in public records lawsuits",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-agree-to-pay-las-vegas-papers-legal-fees-in-public-records-lawsuits/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-18T13:34:46.932438Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-18T13:39:45.689888Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-18T13:39:45.607965Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
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"city": "Las Vegas",
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"latitude": 36.17497,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7dfc1\">The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department agreed on Feb. 29, 2024, to pay the Las Vegas Review-Journal a total of $620,000 to cover the paper’s legal fees, settling two lawsuits against the department for violations of the state’s public records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"67bp9\">The settlement stemmed from two incidents in which the department repeatedly denied the newspaper’s requests for documents or provided heavily redacted files, the Review-Journal <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/metro-approves-600k-in-settlement-payments-to-the-review-journal-3009319/\">reported</a>. The first request sought the case file of a 2018 police investigation into a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper who had allegedly asked a confidential informant to harm or kill his wife. The second sought information about a deadly fire at the city’s Alpine Motel Apartments in 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g561\">The newspaper filed lawsuits challenging both of the public records denials in February 2020. Immediately after the Review-Journal filed its suit concerning the fire, the department released some records, including a small portion of the body-camera footage, 911 calls and radio traffic records, according to court filings reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"29fb0\">After years of litigation, both lawsuits were appealed to the state Supreme Court, which determined in two <a href=\"https://caseinfo.nvsupremecourt.us/document/view.do?csNameID=60895&csIID=60895&deLinkID=894987&onBaseDocumentNumber=23-09679\">separate</a> <a href=\"https://caseinfo.nvsupremecourt.us/document/view.do?csNameID=61493&csIID=61493&deLinkID=913002&onBaseDocumentNumber=23-26983\">rulings</a> in March and August of 2023 that the police department had violated the Nevada Public Records Act when failing to comply with the Review-Journal’s requests. The court ordered that the records be released with limited redactions and awarded the newspaper attorneys’ fees and costs under the NPRA’s fee-shifting mandate.</p><p data-block-key=\"80scv\">During a public meeting at police headquarters on Feb. 29, 2024, the Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs — which oversees the department’s finances — approved payments of $325,000 and $295,000, the Review-Journal <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/metro-approves-600k-in-settlement-payments-to-the-review-journal-3009319/\">reported</a>. </p><p data-block-key=\"8d205\">An attorney for the Review-Journal told the newspaper that such reimbursements for legal fees are vital after taking the government to court, but lamented the impact they have on the public.</p><p data-block-key=\"eqtmu\">“It is a shame that governmental entities so often spend public money to fight against transparency when in the end it is taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill,” Review-Journal Chief Legal Officer Ben Lipman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mepr\">Since January 2023, the Review-Journal has been awarded just under $1 million in attorneys fees following successful public records lawsuits. In addition to the recent settlements, the newspaper received <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/what-are-they-hiding-taxpayers-foot-legal-bills-to-hide-public-records-2933105/\">$337,000</a> in connection with a lawsuit over denied requests for child autopsy reports as part of the Review-Journal’s investigation into how child protective services handled cases in which children died.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mnci\">Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/huge-win-for-public-supreme-court-finds-metro-violated-records-law-2753650/\">told the outlet</a> after the March 2023 ruling that he hopes it will lead to increased police transparency and compliance with the state public records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"9spes\">“The Nevada Supreme Court has very clearly upheld the public’s right to know again and again,” Cook said. “If Metro would stop withholding public records, it would improve public trust, save taxpayer money and spare the courts a lot of wasted time and resources.”</p><p data-block-key=\"duj02\"></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"aj197\">A portion of a 2023 Nevada Supreme Court ruling finding that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department wrongfully withheld records. The department agreed to pay the Las Vegas Review-Journal legal fees in connection with two suits on Feb. 29, 2024.</p>",
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"case_number": "A-20-811063 & A-20-809924",
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{
"title": "Independent journalist arrested at Wall Street protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-arrested-at-wall-street-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-26T14:30:14.786465Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-25T20:46:48.853500Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-25T20:46:48.759348Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t9n3k\">Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was shoved to the ground and arrested by police officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"ed9hs\">Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators initially gathered at Union Square in Manhattan before taking the subway downtown en masse to the Financial District to attempt to disrupt Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned remarks at a Wall Street restaurant. An organizer with the protest group Within Our Lifetime <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/nyregion/wall-street-gaza-protest-hochul.html\">told The New York Times</a> that they targeted Hochul over statements she made that month about the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"3onhn\">Police closed down the block around the restaurant, Jegroo said, and protesters tried to march around the block before ultimately making their way up to the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street. As he crossed the street and neared the sidewalk, Jegroo said a bicycle officer suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the street.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pro-Palestine protesters in NYC gave NYPD the slip, got on a train to Wall Street where NY Governor Kathy Hochul was speaking at an event, & then marched in Lower Manhattan last nite. NYPD repressed the protest & made multiple arrests (including me). Here’s my video of my arrest: <a href=\"https://t.co/Es0Iy0UMTc\">pic.twitter.com/Es0Iy0UMTc</a></p>— Ash J (@AshAgony) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AshAgony/status/1763628081556697541?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t9n3k\">“When they grabbed me there were people and other journalists yelling, ‘He’s press! He’s press!’” he told the Tracker. “Even though I wasn’t resisting at all, they pulled both of my arms behind my back aggressively and almost pushed me face-first onto the ground where they'd thrown their bikes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7aa6c\">Jegroo said that he was able to position himself so he landed on the bicycles on his knees, which caused a gash across his shin. Three or four other people at the demonstration were also arrested, at least two of whom were also injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ronv\">Upon arriving at One Police Plaza, Jegroo said he was the last of the arrestees to be processed because of confusion over who his arresting officer was. He was released later that night and charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway when a sidewalk was available. It was his <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-pushed-arrested-at-nyc-pro-palestinian-march/\">second arrest</a> in recent months while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City.</p><p data-block-key=\"fqbcl\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bcr3m\">Gideon Oliver, an attorney representing Jegroo, told the Tracker that a judge dismissed the walking on the roadway charge during a preliminary hearing on March 20. For the disorderly conduct charge, Jegroo accepted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which proceedings are put on hold for six months. After that, the charge is dismissed if there have been no further arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3h2c6\">“Obviously I have to be a little bit more cautious now: I can’t take as many risks,” Jegroo told the Tracker. “I can’t get as close to the action as I’d like to, but I’m not going to stop. I’m still going to go out there. That’s the only ‘chill’ there will be on my reporting.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ddcm7\">When reached via email, a press officer for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they could not provide further information because the case was sealed, but noted that accepting an ACD is one of the reasons a case may be sealed.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lgqq9\">Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024. He was charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway.</p>",
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"name": "New York",
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"(2024-09-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against independent journalist arrested at NYC protest"
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"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
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},
{
"title": "Utah AG appeals order to turn over calendar to news outlet and pay court fees",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/utah-ag-appeals-order-to-turn-over-calendar-to-news-outlet-and-pay-court-fees/",
"first_published_at": "2024-06-24T15:15:07.538023Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-24T15:15:07.538023Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-24T15:15:07.438850Z",
"date": "2024-02-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Salt Lake City",
"longitude": -111.89105,
"latitude": 40.76078,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"av28g\">Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes on May 24, 2024, appealed a February court order that he release his official calendar as part of an open records request and reimburse a journalist and her outlet’s attorneys fees.</p><p data-block-key=\"d9eog\">KSL-TV journalist Annie Knox requested Reyes’ official calendar in November 2022. The State Records Committee ruled in May 2023, that the calendar — with personal appointments and locations redacted — should be public. On Feb. 27, 2024, 3rd District Judge Patrick Corum agreed, and ordered the attorney general to pay $132,241 in the journalist’s court fees.</p><p data-block-key=\"bp4g5\">“He’s a public official and all we’re asking for is what his official duties were in his calendar,” Knox’s attorney David C. Reymann told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “Daily calendars are essentially the most basic information about how they do their jobs.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5nfrk\">In his summary judgment, Corum noted that six people in the attorney general’s office had access to the calendar as part of their official duties.</p><p data-block-key=\"cu6am\">In a similar case brought by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Jessica Miller that seeks a different time frame of the calendar, the State Records Committee agreed that Reyes’ calendar should be open to the public. Reyes appealed that ruling and it was randomly assigned to Corum, the same judge that heard Knox’s case.</p><p data-block-key=\"2v7ej\">A spokesperson for Reyes didn’t respond to an email from the Tracker seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"evnme\">The fight over calendars is unlikely to be repeated in Utah: The state Legislature passed a law, also on Feb. 27, making <a href=\"https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/02/27/utah-ag-sean-reyes-official/\">all calendars of government employees private</a>. But the law change doesn’t apply retroactively to these two cases.</p><p data-block-key=\"bd0m8\">Reyes’ appeal of Knox’s case could take a year or more to resolve, Reymann said, meaning the attorney general would be out of office before the release of his calendar. He is not seeking reelection.</p><p data-block-key=\"86gmo\">Knox “wanted to do some reporting on how he’s been spending his time, and this [case] has prevented her from doing this,” Reymann told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"847c6\">Among the issues in question are ties between Reyes and Tim Ballard, founder of the anti-human trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad, who has been <a href=\"https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/02/27/utah-ag-sean-reyes-official/\">accused of sexual misconduct</a>. Reyes’ office has <a href=\"https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/12/08/ag-sean-reyes-launches-criminal/\">opened an investigation into Ballard</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"swae4\">A portion of the order issued on Feb. 27, 2024, by a district court directing Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to release his calendar and pay more than $130,000 in court fees to KSL-TV journalist Annie Knox.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Utah",
"abbreviation": "UT"
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"tags": [
"public records"
],
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"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Annie Knox (KSL-TV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Salman Rushdie subpoenaed for memoir materials by alleged attacker",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/salman-rushdie-subpoenaed-for-memoir-materials-by-alleged-attacker/",
"first_published_at": "2024-12-20T14:01:34.905341Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-12-20T14:01:34.905341Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-12-19T22:15:16.749987Z",
"date": "2024-02-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Mayville",
"longitude": -79.50449,
"latitude": 42.25395,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0y4s9\">Author Salman Rushdie was subpoenaed on Feb. 26, 2024, in connection with the criminal case against a man charged with assaulting him during a public lecture in Chautauqua, New York, in 2022. The subpoena — which sought his notes, communications and contracts for a memoir about the incident — was quashed five months later, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1pove\">Rushdie was about to begin speaking at a literary festival on Aug. 12, 2022, when a man <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salman-rushdie-attacked-stage-new-york/\">rushed the stage and stabbed the author</a> multiple times. The man, later identified as Hadi Matar of New Jersey, was subsequently <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salman-rushdie-coming-to-terms-with-knife-attack-writing-new-book-60-minutes/\">charged</a> with attempted murder and assault, as well as <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-jersey-man-charged-terrorism-offenses-relating-his-attempted-murder-salman-rushdie\">terrorism-related offenses</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gj78\">In February 2024, Matar’s attorney subpoenaed Rushdie, seeking all drafts, writings and communications concerning his planned memoir about the attack, “<a href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738826/knife-by-salman-rushdie/\">Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder</a>,” which was later published in April.</p><p data-block-key=\"6rfp\">Penguin Random House, the publisher of the book, was <a href=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-quashes-subpoena-for-salman-rushdies-memoir-notes-contract\">issued</a> a nearly identical subpoena Feb. 8, according to court records.</p><p data-block-key=\"1fd\">After filing an initial objection March 4, attorneys representing Rushdie filed a joint motion with counsel for Penguin Random House to quash the subpoenas. The April 15 motion argued, in part, that they were protected from disclosing the materials by both New York’s reporter shield law and the First Amendment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lsq0\">The subpoenas include “sprawling requests for editorial material,” according to the motion, and “constitute nothing more than an overbroad fishing expedition” for material to harm Rushdie’s credibility.</p><p data-block-key=\"qsg6\">“These are all highly personal documents concerning the editorial process that would ordinarily never be made public or even privately shared with third parties,” Rushdie wrote in an affidavit supporting the motion. “To have these unpublished materials—or indeed, any of my private documents—become fodder for the Defendant (or his counsel) to sift through would be an extraordinary invasion of my privacy and sense of security.”</p><p data-block-key=\"48n8t\">County Court Judge David Foley quashed both subpoenas following a hearing on July 18, according to court filings. In addition to ruling that the subpoenas were “overbroad and unreasonably burdensome,” Foley also affirmed that Rushdie and Penguin Random House, as well as the memoir, are protected under the shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"8anbq\">Matar’s trial was scheduled to begin Oct. 15, but was delayed to allow a state appeals court to consider whether to move the case out of Chautauqua County, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/nyregion/salman-rushdie-stabbing-trial-testify.html\">reported</a>. Rushdie is expected to testify when the trial moves forward.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Rushdie_subpoena.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1khug\">A portion of the subpoena served on author Salman Rushdie on Feb. 26, 2024, in connection with the criminal case against a man accused of attacking him in 2022. A judge quashed the subpoena, ruling that Rushdie is protected by New York’s shield law.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "State",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Student journalists, adviser sue school, alleging intimidation",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalists-adviser-sue-school-alleging-intimidation/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-29T16:19:57.942906Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T16:45:12.335647Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T16:45:12.210026Z",
"date": "2024-02-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Mountain View",
"longitude": -122.11746,
"latitude": 38.00881,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n8x06\">Student journalists and the former adviser of a high school newspaper in California filed a lawsuit against the school district and administrators on Feb. 22, 2024, alleging intimidation and retaliation in violation of the state’s student press freedom law.</p><p data-block-key=\"88vku\">According to the <a href=\"https://splc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Mountain-View-Complaint-Feb2024.pdf\">complaint</a>, the Oracle newspaper at Mountain View High School is entirely student-run, with the young journalists choosing, writing and editing their own articles. Former faculty adviser Carla Gomez would review articles before publication and provide guidance on journalistic standards and techniques.</p><p data-block-key=\"5tll4\">In early 2023, students on the newspaper’s In-Depth team — which produces long-form investigative articles — began reporting on allegations of student-on-student sexual harassment at the school. Administrators learned of the article when students contacted them for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"79pep\">Principal Kip Glazer spoke to the students on March 27, telling them that the planned article would lead to “catastrophic consequences” if published and that the newspaper should only present the school in a “positive light,” according to the suit. She also asserted that she could censor the article, but that she did not want to, and asked to review the piece before publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jdjd\">The students <a href=\"https://lahstalon.org/editor-and-former-adviser-of-mvhs-newspaper-threaten-to-sue-over-alleged-censorship/\">told reporters for The Talon</a>, a student newspaper at a nearby high school, that following Glazer’s review they made some changes for journalistic reasons, but made many more because they were afraid of upsetting her.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ei8s\">“We were kind of confused and kind of scared of what her implications were,” Assistant In-Depth Editor Renuka Mungee said of Glazer’s mandate. “Was the entire Oracle going to get in trouble? Were we individually going to get in trouble for publishing it? I think we felt compelled to remove certain details because we were scared of what her reaction would be or what the consequences would be.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ps73\">Mungee and In-Depth Editor Myesha Phukan told the Talon that though they had followed journalistic and ethical best practices when reporting the piece, they ultimately self-censored: a decision they said they’ve come to regret</p><p data-block-key=\"k2bh\">A <a href=\"https://mvhsoracle.com/32614/features/i-just-felt-like-nobody-cared-students-open-up-about-their-experiences-with-sexual-harassment/\">modified version of the article</a> was published on March 31, but without descriptions of some of the harassment, details of one of the accused harasser’s participation in the choir program or other contextual information, according to the suit. Less than a month later, Glazer announced that the school’s Introduction to Journalism course was being cut and that Gomez was being replaced as the newspaper’s adviser.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4aki\">Glazer, who did not respond to requests for comment, <a href=\"https://lahstalon.org/mvhs-journalism-program-to-undergo-major-changes-next-school-year/\">told the Talon</a> in May that she is a staunch supporter of the First Amendment and student journalism.</p><p data-block-key=\"30ufl\">“I believe that the purpose of public education is to create an educated populace for the protection of democracy, and I believe that the role of the press is extremely important,” Glazer said. “Democracy doesn’t exist without a robust and free press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b80lk\">Attorney Jean-Paul Jassy <a href=\"https://splc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Jassy-Letter-to-MVHS-09-27-23.pdf\">sent a letter</a> on behalf of Gomez and Hanna Olson, co-editor-in-chief, to the superintendent, board of trustees and Glazer on Sept. 27 detailing the alleged intimidation and retaliation, and requested the release of communications surrounding the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"7nd9b\">The letter also asked for a written acknowledgement that Glazer’s actions amounted to censorship in violation of <a href=\"https://splc.org/1977/02/california-student-free-expression-law-includes-adviser-protection-provision/\">California Education Code 48907</a>, a reinstatement of the introductory course with Gomez as the adviser and a written commitment that there would be no further attempts at censorship.</p><p data-block-key=\"831mt\">When those requests were not met, Jassy filed the lawsuit making similar requests on behalf of Gomez, Olson and Hayes Duenow, one of the authors of the article.</p><p data-block-key=\"5uhjh\">“The ideas and the principles that underlie the First Amendment are first experienced and first taught to students when they’re in high school or college,” Jassy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “So it’s really important that they have the liberty to do investigative journalism, to do research and to report on issues in their communities, just like the professional or mainstream media do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5533f\">Gomez told the Tracker that she hopes the lawsuit will ensure the independence of the Oracle and that students have a voice in the direction the newspaper takes. “If you don’t have the student-run aspect and the independence, it’s very hard to have a strong journalism program. If they’re worried about writing a story that offends somebody in power, that it’s going to affect the program, then it’s going to have a chilling effect,” Gomez said.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7crd\">In a <a href=\"https://splc.org/2024/02/lawsuit-alleges-california-principal-bullied-retaliated-against-student-newspaper/\">statement</a> to the Student Press Law Center, Olson said that she joined the lawsuit to ensure the spirit of the Oracle carries on.</p><p data-block-key=\"3bl8\">“This case matters to me because I want to ensure the long term stability and prosperity of my school’s journalism program,” Olson said, “and I want student journalists at my school to be empowered to stand by their rights to publish stories that need to be told.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hkwcz\">Two student journalists and the former adviser for a California high school sued the district and administrators on Feb. 22, 2024, alleging that the principal intimidated and retaliated against them over an article on sexual harassment at the school.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "24CV431640",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"ongoing"
],
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"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
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"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Hanna Olson (Mountain View High School Oracle)",
"Hayes Duenow (Mountain View High School Oracle)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "New York courts grant, then overturn prior restraint on documentary release",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-courts-grant-then-overturn-prior-restraint-on-documentary-release/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:34.182479Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:34.182479Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:29.738541Z",
"date": "2024-02-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xddzx\">A&E Television Networks was briefly barred from distributing its new documentary, “Where Is Wendy Williams?”, after a New York justice granted a temporary restraining order against the company on Feb. 22, 2024. The order was reversed the following day.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ckl3\">According to <a href=\"https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Morrissey-v.-AETN-AETN-Appeal-Papers111.pdf\">court filings</a> reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, A&E worked with former TV host Williams and her family to chronicle her life for nearly two years following the end of her talk show, including her subsequent health issues and placement under guardianship. Williams is credited as an executive producer on the documentary.</p><p data-block-key=\"m71d\">A <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjJDhf5ll70\">trailer</a> for the four-episode documentary aired on Feb. 2. Nearly three weeks later, Williams’ court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit against A&E seeking a temporary restraining order to halt its planned release and requesting that the case proceed under seal. A New York Supreme Court justice granted both requests on Feb. 22 without providing A&E the opportunity to argue against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"fl3np\">Morrissey argued that Williams — who has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia — was not competent to sign a talent agreement with producer Entertainment One and that the documentary was exploitative and could permanently damage Williams’ reputation.</p><p data-block-key=\"9a4rf\">The order forbade A&E from releasing the documentary or any further footage, trailers, dialogue or communications to anyone other than Morrissey or their respective attorneys without court approval.</p><p data-block-key=\"ek75a\">An attorney representing A&E filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the court the following day, arguing that the restraining order constituted a prior restraint and that Morrissey sought to prevent the airing of criticisms of her and the guardianship process.</p><p data-block-key=\"fuuj9\">“At a time when guardianship proceedings are being debated in our own State legislature and through headlines across the nation, the Order impermissibly gags Defendants from publishing speech that is unquestionably a matter of public concern,” attorney Rachel Strom wrote. She added that the restraint also deprived Williams and her family of “their right to speak out about her experiences, including and especially to criticize her care and treatment under a guardianship regime—the same regime which seeks to silence her now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"br71b\">Strom argued that Williams, her family and her manager were actively involved in the production of the documentary and that Morrissey had been aware of the documentary for more than a year. She also noted that, without an emergency reversal, A&E would be unable to proceed with the documentary’s planned release on Feb. 24, at great financial and reputational cost.</p><p data-block-key=\"7m7ja\">Appellate Justice Peter Moulton lifted the restraining order on Feb. 23, writing in a decision that was <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20240224010943/https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=p35y9WMvbEcX7iHDEWmN5A==\">briefly made public</a> that the restraining order was “an impermissible prior restraint on speech that violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” Moulton, however, upheld the decision to keep the court proceedings under seal.</p><p data-block-key=\"1b3qd\">The documentary was released on A&E’s Lifetime channel as planned on Feb. 24 and 25, but the lawsuit remains ongoing.</p><p data-block-key=\"elnie\">Attorneys for Morrissey and A&E did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1trfn\">A new A&E Television Networks documentary about former TV host Wendy Williams, pictured above at a premiere in 2019, was briefly barred from airing after a New York judge granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 22, 2024.</p>",
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{
"title": "Florida photojournalist struck by rock thrown by rapper",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-photojournalist-struck-by-rock-thrown-by-rapper/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-28T19:55:13.516818Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-28T21:56:44.977399Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-28T21:56:44.897023Z",
"date": "2024-02-21",
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"city": "Fort Lauderdale",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a05ka\">Photojournalist Bryan Murphy of Florida television station WPLG was struck in the ribs with a rock thrown by rapper Kodak Black in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 21, 2024, the broadcast outlet reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"dco4d\">WPLG reporter Rosh Lowe <a href=\"/all-incidents/florida-reporter-threatened-after-questioning-rapper-kodak-black/\">was also threatened</a> by the rapper, who was being questioned by the news crew following his release from a Broward County jail.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7oho\">WPLG <a href=\"https://www.local10.com/news/local/2024/02/23/kodak-black-fans-defend-him-for-throwing-rocks-at-photojournalist-outside-broward-jail/\">said</a> that a police report was filed but that Murphy decided not to press charges. Murphy and Lowe did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"cae3v\">In <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qM748M9BPg\">video</a> captured by Murphy, the rapper begins throwing rocks at the crew, as Murphy tells Lowe to “call the cops.” The rapper’s threat to punch Lowe was not shown on camera, but he acknowledged it later in the video. “You threatened to punch me,” Lowe said on camera. “I did,” replied the rapper.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o4nh\">Lowe reported later that some of the rapper’s fans have since come to his defense and issued threats, including one posted on Instagram that read “next rock to ya Head big Z.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3nvp2\">But in Lowe’s earlier account, the reporter noted: “It is very usual in our profession to interview people coming out of jail, especially noteworthy people. What is unusual is what happened here today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"95gcc\">The legal representative for Kodak Black did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"an0ki\">Frame from a WPLG video showing rapper Kodak Black throwing rocks at photojournalist Bryan Murphy, hitting him in the ribs.</p>",
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"name": "Florida",
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]
