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{
"title": "Two charged with placing incendiary device under Utah news vehicle",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-charged-with-placing-incendiary-device-under-utah-news-vehicle/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-15T16:59:04.188289Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-15T16:59:04.188289Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-15T16:58:05.034777Z",
"date": "2025-09-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Salt Lake City",
"longitude": -111.89105,
"latitude": 40.76078,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"87el5\">The FBI has charged two Utah men with allegedly placing an incendiary device under a news vehicle from broadcast station KSTU in Salt Lake City on Sept. 12, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"14ipc\">KSTU <a href=\"https://www.fox13now.com/news/crime/fbi-arrests-2-after-incendiary-device-left-under-fox-13-news-vehicle\">reported</a> that the device was determined to be real and, according to officials, the bomb had been lit but “failed to function.” No injuries were reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"aiab6\">As a result of the device’s type and location, it was deemed a “significant threat to public safety,” according to the television station, and the investigation was taken over by the FBI.</p><p data-block-key=\"a91jt\">Two suspects — identified as Adeeb Nasir and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir of the nearby suburb of Magna — were arrested late Sept. 13. According to jail records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, both face multiple felony charges, including attempted aggravated arson, threat of terrorism, possessing weapons of mass destruction and possessing an incendiary device.</p><p data-block-key=\"e45np\">It was not immediately clear whether the news vehicle was deliberately targeted or what the suspects’ motives may have been.</p><p data-block-key=\"ftbpo\">In a statement published by the news outlet, KSTU Station Manager Leona Wood said, “FOX 13 News is working closely with law-enforcement and our risk management team, with the safety of our employees as our top priority.”</p><p data-block-key=\"86uoc\">Neither KSTU, the FBI nor the Salt Lake City Police Department responded to requests for comment as of press time.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sthz8\">Utah broadcaster KSTU reported a bomb was placed under one of the TV station’s news vehicles in Salt Lake City on Sept. 12, 2025. The incendiary device “failed to function” and no injuries were reported. Two men have since been arrested by the FBI.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Utah",
"abbreviation": "UT"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"KSTU"
],
"tags": [
"bomb / bomb threat"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
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},
{
"title": "TV reporter harassed, camera damaged while reporting in California",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-reporter-harassed-camera-damaged-while-reporting-in-california/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-12T18:49:13.443959Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-12T18:49:13.443959Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-12T18:49:13.220915Z",
"date": "2025-09-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chico",
"longitude": -121.83748,
"latitude": 39.72849,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6flmx\">KNVN reporter Nathan Espindula’s news camera was damaged when a man harassed him with racial slurs while he was reporting in Chico, California, on Sept. 4, 2025, the television station <a href=\"https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/action-news-now-reporter-harassed-in-altercation-after-live-broadcast/article_24a98d28-202a-4c09-9186-61237b8e5948.html\">reported.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"2q07d\">Espindula had just finished a live segment around 6 a.m. when a man approached, threatening him and shouting racist terms for a Hispanic individual.</p><p data-block-key=\"6uu73\">“I started hearing someone yelling slurs at me, and as soon as I noticed that, I ran into the car and locked the car,” Espindula told KNVN. “And then the individual approached me, yelling and going across the car.”</p><p data-block-key=\"443ak\">Espindula said the man threatened to find out where he lives and continued shouting racist and profane insults, which Espindula recorded on his phone. His camera equipment was damaged during the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"4mi2a\">Espindula did not respond to a U.S. Press Freedom Tracker request for comment. But as a fellow reporter noted on the station’s account of the incident, “What began as a routine live report on a community event turned into a frightening confrontation for one of our colleagues.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5rngs\">The suspect, identified as Kiano Sen Saechao, has pleaded not guilty to a <a href=\"https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-1/title-11-6/chapter-2/section-422-6/\">felony civil rights violation</a> for the property damage, which is classified as a hate crime, according to Butte County court records.</p><p data-block-key=\"b03lt\">A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 25.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"k0aqf\">Nathan Espindula, seen above in a standup shot, said his news camera was damaged by a man who harassed him with racial slurs while he was reporting in Chico, California, on Sept. 4, 2025.</p>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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"Nathan Espindula (KNVN)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist ejected from Capitol Hill news conference on Epstein files",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-ejected-from-capitol-hill-news-conference-on-epstein-files/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-09T15:56:34.552853Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-09T15:56:34.552853Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-09T15:52:41.455719Z",
"date": "2025-09-03",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v73f2\">Independent journalist Michael Tracey says he was ejected from a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025, after he asked a question about the credibility of a Jeffrey Epstein accuser.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ajsh\">Tracey told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the office of Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, had invited him to attend the news conference. Tracey is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes about U.S. politics on <a href=\"https://www.mtracey.net/\">Substack</a>. He said he confirmed that he would attend the event the day before.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ii2a\">The news conference, held outside the Capitol, aimed to pressure lawmakers to vote for the release of the files from the Justice Department’s Epstein investigation. Multiple U.S. representatives from both parties were joined by a group of Epstein’s accusers, who told of the sexual abuse they say they faced from the convicted sex offender, who took his own life in 2019 while in federal custody facing sex trafficking charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"91j55\">At the news conference, Tracey questioned attorney Bradley Edwards about his late client Virginia Giuffre, who had been one of the most vocal Epstein accusers before her death by suicide in April 2025. In 2022, Giuffre had <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/us/alan-dershowitz-virginia-giuffre-allegations-dropped\">dropped</a> her allegations of sexual abuse against attorney Alan Dershowitz, saying she “may have made a mistake.” (Dershowitz had denied the allegations.)</p><p data-block-key=\"cmlum\">“I asked Bradley Edwards, why should the public regard this person as having unimpeached credibility?” Tracey said. “You’re supposed to ask critical or skeptical questions.” Edwards did not answer the question, according to <a href=\"https://x.com/mtracey/status/1963317647015379179#m\">video</a> of the encounter, and moved on to another journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"5o6d4\">Khanna then interjected and addressed Tracey’s question. After the journalist asked a follow-up, Tracey said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, urged the U.S. Capitol Police to eject him.</p><p data-block-key=\"bp9pk\">Capitol Police officers obliged, Tracey said, and escorted him away. Neither Greene’s office nor the police responded to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9vmnl\">“They threw me out. They threatened me with arrest,” said Tracey, who added that he did not resist. “I was ejected based on the content of the question.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"30nh4\">Rep. Thomas Massie speaks at a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025, calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Journalist Michael Tracey was removed after he questioned an Epstein accuser’s credibility.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"Federal government: Legislature"
],
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"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
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"Michael Tracey (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Investigative reporter told to stop contacting police in California city",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/investigative-reporter-told-to-stop-contacting-police-in-california-city/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-10T19:07:49.551228Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-10T19:07:49.551228Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-10T18:21:10.296179Z",
"date": "2025-08-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Santa Ana",
"longitude": -117.86783,
"latitude": 33.74557,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fd63c\">Ben Camacho, an investigative reporter and co-founder of The Southlander, was ordered to stop reaching out for comment from police officers in Santa Ana, California, in a cease and desist letter sent by the city’s police union on Aug. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"8c5eb\">Camacho told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he is one of the few journalists who has done investigative reporting on the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association and has written numerous articles critical of the police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ovpu\">When he received the email from the union, Camacho said, “I just kind of immediately laughed at it and then sent it to my attorneys.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mq75\">The letter, reviewed by the Tracker, alleged that Camacho had “begun to harass and attempt to intimidate certain members of the SAPOA,” but did not identify affected officers nor specific instances of the unacceptable conduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"2a2qg\">“You have telephoned certain officers and emailed them demanding they answer your questions and to respond to your frivolous requests,” it continued. “This must stop.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1ao83\">Camacho said that, while he doesn’t know for sure what prompted the letter, he had worked on several recent stories involving two Santa Ana Police Department officers who are under investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office for their shooting of an unarmed individual in December 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"d8jes\">“As I continued to look into the officers involved, I later learned that one of those officers, one month after killing one person, he was involved in another incident where he shot and killed somebody, although this person had a knife. Still, a police shooting,” Camacho said. “That sparked my interest because it surprised me that he’s under investigation, yet he’s still on active duty.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f7cvk\">After going through his normal reporting process, Camacho said he published an article about the back-to-back shootings in June 2025. Later that month, the same officer was also involved in the beating of an unarmed teenager.</p><p data-block-key=\"56plu\">Camacho told the Tracker he was able to obtain a copy of an incident report through public records requests, and reached out to the officer in June through his city email address.</p><p data-block-key=\"750u7\">“I emailed him once or twice, just to see if he would comment. And then I ended up just sending him my questions after not hearing back, on just the off chance that he later wants to reply,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5p0bj\">Camacho reached out for comment again at the beginning of August, after the family of the victim shot by police in December 2024 announced its plans to file a federal lawsuit against the two officers, as well as the city.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt5sm\">“I didn’t hear back. I think I emailed them once more the next day. In that email, I indicated to the one that I did have a phone for, that ‘I’m going to call you in about an hour if I don’t hear back, it’s just because I’m on deadline. Keep an eye out for my number in the signature and let me know if you are refusing to comment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5jdu1\">The officer answered when he called, Camacho said, but after he identified himself and said he was a reporter for Caló News — the outlet he was on assignment for that day — the call abruptly ended.</p><p data-block-key=\"6hve\">“I didn’t know if it was a call drop or if he hung up, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and called back, but then it went straight to voicemail,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1gt0r\">Camacho said he went through a similar process trying to contact a third officer involved in a traffic stop at issue in a lawsuit quickly settled by the city in July.</p><p data-block-key=\"5j6d8\">“The cease and desist doesn’t specify who or what or when or where, but of recent interactions, those are the three,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"cj2as\">In a letter to the police union in response, Camacho’s attorney Shakeer Rahman wrote that its demands were “ridiculous.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8eeg5\">“There is no lawful basis to gag a person from ever communicating with government officials, let alone from communicating with an entire police force. That would be unconstitutional,” Rahman wrote. “And it is a bedrock journalistic practice to offer a person an opportunity to comment on forthcoming news reporting about them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9pj0e\">Camacho told the Tracker that it was a clear attempt to stop him from continuing to report on the police department entirely.</p><p data-block-key=\"rt56\">“They’re framing journalism as a criminal act,” he said. “They’re framing my reasonable efforts to reach someone and make sure that they truly have a chance to comment or answer questions as a criminal act. That is not just anti-First Amendment, that is anti-democracy. And I think it’s a symptom of a larger problem we’re seeing right now under the rise of really harsh authoritarianism.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gqak\">“But this is not my first rodeo, I’ve dealt with bigger fish,” he added, referring to a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/los-angeles-sues-journalist-in-attempt-to-claw-back-photos-of-police-officers/\">pair of</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/los-angeles-sues-journalist-in-attempt-to-claw-back-photos-of-police-officers/\">lawsuits</a> filed against him by the city of Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"3l5mt\">The Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"r86ds\">Attorneys for the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association in California sent a cease and desist letter to investigative reporter Ben Camacho on Aug. 27, 2025, alleging that he had harassed various officers when he attempted to contact them.</p>",
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{
"title": "San Francisco journalist grabbed, pepper-sprayed by federal agents",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-francisco-journalist-grabbed-pepper-sprayed-by-federal-agents/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-28T13:05:27.174720Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-08T13:17:19.560179Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-08T13:17:19.441981Z",
"date": "2025-08-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lid1d\">Eddie Kim, a reporter for the Gazetteer San Francisco, was grabbed by the throat, pushed and sprayed with a chemical irritant while reporting on protests outside an immigration court in San Francisco, California, on Aug. 20, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"f6mbl\">Protests in California began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. While concentrated in Los Angeles, protests have continued throughout the state, centered around operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"c0t55\">In an account for the Gazetteer, Kim <a href=\"https://sf.gazetteer.co/i-reported-from-an-ice-action-on-sansome-and-all-i-got-was-a-face-full-of-pepper-spray\">wrote</a> that he arrived at the San Francisco Immigration Court at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 20 after he was alerted that a detainee was being transferred.</p><p data-block-key=\"duau0\">“By the time I got there, a melee was already unfolding among law enforcement agents, protesters, drivers, and passersby,” he wrote. “With agents hitting bikes with batons, cars honking, a bus stuck in the road, and pedestrians filming and shouting, tensions were through the roof.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dq4dv\">Kim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that officers impeded his ability to report on the scene almost as soon as he arrived.</p><p data-block-key=\"8bbsq\">“From the moment I got there and started recording to the moment I got pepper-sprayed was just about six-and-a-half minutes,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"adm62\">Kim said that as he crossed the street to get to the other side of the vehicles, a Department of Homeland Security officer rushed toward him and told him to get out of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"7oikb\">“Then when I said, ‘I am a member of the press and documenting the scene,’ they basically put their hands on my chest,” he told the Tracker. “As they were pushing, I felt his fingers kind of grabbing me around my face and throat, and I got shoved that way.</p><p data-block-key=\"52m87\">“And once I was getting near the sidewalk, somebody else — a Customs and Border Protection agent with a baton and vest — came up toward me and, holding his baton horizontal with two hands, shoved me in the chest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"669ud\">Kim told the Tracker that — with officers from multiple federal agencies milling around the vehicles — the scene was disorderly at best, judging from years of covering demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"bnmep\">“There are ways to create formations, create lines, to keep people back. There are dispersal orders that can be used. There are more coherent warnings that are given,” Kim said. “But it was so chaotic, so disorganized, that it really started to look like individuals — individual ICE agents, individual DHS, CBP officers — were making their own decisions on what to do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2o1ht\">As demonstrators continued their attempts to block the ICE transport vans from departing, federal agents responded aggressively, a stark change from the law enforcement response June 24 when, Kim <a href=\"https://sf.gazetteer.co/a-front-row-view-to-an-ice-abduction-turns-into-chaos-at-jackson-square\">reported</a>, agents had adopted a more defensive approach to the protesters gathered outside ICE’s San Francisco headquarters.</p><p data-block-key=\"58urk\">“The language and behavior was more aggressive and, in many cases, preemptive,” Kim wrote. “Several protesters were thrown to the ground. Some people were pepper-sprayed without provocation.</p><p data-block-key=\"bn4gc\">“One of those people was me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"93nhb\">Kim wrote that he was following a loose formation of federal agents as they walked away once ICE transport vans were able to successfully leave the area. While several people on the sidewalk began shouting “Shame!” and insults at the agents, he said it seemed that the action had slowed.</p><p data-block-key=\"21o3f\">A lone ICE agent then grabbed a protester’s bike, attempting to yank it away. As Kim moved forward to film the interaction, the agent retrieved his pepper gel — a concentrated form of chemical irritant — and sprayed the protester and then Kim in the eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"5tp6t\">“The searing pain came as quickly as the attack itself. I fell to the ground near Sansome and Pine streets, more surprised than seriously hurt,” Kim wrote. “I felt the thick liquid smearing on my face as I attempted to wipe away as much of it as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"80u5c\">He added that multiple people nearby came to his aid, flushing his eyes with water. Kim told the Tracker that he wasn’t able to see properly for 20 minutes, at which point he was able to walk to the Gazetteer office nearby, where he spent another hour recovering.</p><p data-block-key=\"5k2lh\">“What happened to me, the cyclist protester, and others is a sign that individual federal agents are now willing to proactively employ brute force against people who are not attacking them or even entering their personal space,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"f1iho\">Kim told the Tracker that he is working with his editor to determine how to pursue a formal complaint against the officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"c8po6\">ICE and its San Francisco Field Office acknowledged receipt when reached via email, but did not respond as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"t1ic\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with additional comments and details from Eddie Kim.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zlcun\">Eddie Kim, a reporter for the Gazetteer San Francisco, wrote about his experience being assaulted and sprayed with a chemical irritant while covering an immigration protest outside a courthouse in San Francisco’s Financial District on Aug. 20, 2025.</p>",
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"Eddie Kim (Gazetteer San Francisco)"
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},
{
"title": "Andrew Ferguson targets news media as FTC chair",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/andrew-ferguson-targets-news-media-as-ftc-chair/",
"first_published_at": "2025-05-23T16:48:42.006809Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-19T21:08:32.360533Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-19T21:02:56.263897Z",
"date": "2025-08-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hxo03\">Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second term began, Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate news media that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting Ferguson’s efforts in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"cucrp\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"be50\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"c6jfn\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#Aug 15\">Aug. 15, 2025 | Media Matters granted preliminary injunction against FTC</a></p>\r\n<p><a href=\"#May 21\">May 21, 2025 | FTC chair announces investigation into Media Matters for America</a></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hxo03\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"64jt0\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"Aug 15\" name=\"Aug 15\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"hfa7u\">Aug. 15, 2025 | Media Matters granted preliminary injunction against FTC</h4><p data-block-key=\"3f5g2\">Media Matters for America was granted a preliminary injunction on Aug. 15, 2025, protecting the nonprofit from being forced to hand over a trove of newsgathering and editorial materials to the Federal Trade Commission.</p><p data-block-key=\"9t520\">The FTC, under Chair Andrew Ferguson, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/andrew-ferguson-targets-news-media-as-ftc-chair/#May%2021\">opened</a> an investigation in May into Media Matters over its alleged collusion with companies that paused their advertising on the social platform X after the media watchdog <a href=\"https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle\">reported</a> that ads for major brands were appearing next to pro-Nazi posts.</p><p data-block-key=\"fc3ot\">The agency ordered the nonprofit to turn over scores of internal records, including communications, budget documents and any evidence of coordination with other advocacy groups, Status reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"ijf1\">In a <a href=\"https://www.status.news/p/ftc-investigates-media-matters-elon-musk\">statement to Status</a>, a spokesperson for Media Matters described the FTC probe as a political hit job, and the nonprofit <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.281859/gov.uscourts.dcd.281859.1.0.pdf\">filed a lawsuit</a> June 23 to halt the order.</p><p data-block-key=\"dcajg\">“Media Matters faces an ongoing campaign of retribution for exercising its First Amendment rights,” attorneys for the nonprofit wrote. “Now the Federal Trade Commission seeks to punish Media Matters for its journalism and speech in exposing matters of substantial public concern—including how X.com has enabled and profited from extremist content that proliferated after Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eompq\">In late 2023 and early 2024, Republican attorneys general in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">Texas</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">Missouri</a> issued civil investigative demands — a form of subpoena — to the nonprofit for documents related to its reporting. Media Matters ultimately won preliminary injunctions blocking the requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8nnj\">District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.281859/gov.uscourts.dcd.281859.34.0_1.pdf\">ruled</a> in favor of Media Matters on Aug. 15, writing that the case “presents a straightforward First Amendment violation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e5f6a\">“It should alarm all Americans when the Government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate,” she continued. “And that alarm should ring even louder when the Government retaliates against those engaged in newsgathering and reporting.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6ct2n\">Sooknanan issued an order barring the FTC from implementing or enforcing the request for the nonprofit’s files and communications.</p><p data-block-key=\"47u4v\">Angelo Carusone, chairman and president of Media Matters, praised the decision in a <a href=\"https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/media-matters-wins-preliminary-injunction-against-retaliatory-ftc\">statement</a>, citing the importance of standing up to what he described as “intimidation from the Trump administration.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4n238\">“This case is not just about the campaign to punish and silence Media Matters,” Carusone wrote. “It is a critical test for whether the courts will allow any administration - from any political party - to bully media and non-profit organizations through illegal abuses of power. We will continue to stand up and fight for the First Amendment rights that protect every American.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9938q\">Attorneys for the agency appealed the ruling Aug. 18 and it will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"May 21\" name=\"May 21\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"hxo03\">May 21, 2025 | FTC chair announces investigation into Media Matters for America</h4><p data-block-key=\"e184p\">Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson opened an investigation on May 21, 2025, into Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Media Matters for America concerning its alleged illegal collusion with advertisers, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/technology/ftc-investigates-media-matters.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"arjhq\">In November 2023, the media watchdog 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 the social platform X. <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-x-advertisers.html\">Several</a> major companies subsequently <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=\"7icj1\">Elon Musk, the owner of X, promptly <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454.1.0_1.pdf\">sued</a> Media Matters and Hananoki in federal court, alleging they had manipulated the platform’s algorithms to harm X’s relationship with advertisers. The suit is ongoing, and in 2025, Musk became a senior adviser to Trump and the de facto head of the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency.</p><p data-block-key=\"53g6j\">In late 2023 and early 2024, Republican attorneys general in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">Texas</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">Missouri</a> issued civil investigative demands — a form of subpoena — to the nonprofit for documents related to its reporting. Media Matters ultimately won preliminary injunctions blocking the requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"7hk06\"><a href=\"https://www.status.news/p/ftc-investigates-media-matters-elon-musk\">According to Status</a>, Musk’s targeting of the outlet has contributed to budgetary strain that forced Media Matters to lay off employees and scale back its work in 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"5l3pc\">The FTC investigation marks an escalation in the targeting of the nonprofit, and the agency has ordered Media Matters to turn over scores of internal records, including communications, budget documents and any evidence of coordination with other advocacy groups, Status reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"ehi5f\">Ferguson has previously detailed his concern over “colluding” in advertising, the Times reported, in which coordinated advertising boycotts could threaten the “free exchange of ideas.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7osul\">In a statement to Status, a spokesperson for Media Matters described the FTC probe as a political hit job.</p><p data-block-key=\"ad2nu\">“The Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics,” the representative said. “It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here, given Media Matters’ history of holding those same media figures to account. These threats won’t work; we remain steadfast to our mission.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2025-02-08T195338Z_960488062_RC2I.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1cd2d\">Andrew Ferguson, commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, speaks at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 8, 2025.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
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"Chilling Statement"
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shoved by LAPD while covering pro-immigrant car caravan",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-by-lapd-while-covering-pro-immigrant-car-caravan/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-09T14:52:47.181380Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-09T14:52:47.181380Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-09T14:48:43.786253Z",
"date": "2025-08-12",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ykzr6\">Freelance journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was shoved by a police officer while covering a pro-immigrant car caravan in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"d24av\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.<a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\"> Raids</a> at<a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\"> Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a<a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\"> July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"4v2rv\">Beckner-Carmitchel <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwa5vuyewc2j\">reported</a> that the caravan, organized by several unions and immigrant rights groups, made its way from MacArthur Park toward the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmaf1\">“As the car caravan arrived on Alameda and Temple, they were met by an LAPD blockade,” Beckner-Carmitchel <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwabglj5y22j\">wrote</a>. “A union representative attempted to negotiate with an officer, who repeatedly is saying ‘we don’t want any conflict’ on this street.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qq0s\">Beckner-Carmitchel was following as Los Angeles Police Department officers then approached the driver of the lead vehicle — a semitruck pulling a band in an unwalled trailer — when another officer suddenly turned and shoved him, the journalist <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwabzfvft22j\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"devse\">He was able to continue <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwb2hhk7h22m\">covering</a> <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwb6dwti4k2z\">protests</a> as they continued into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"c5drb\">Two days later, Beckner-Carmitchel <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwfxpqqyac2q\">wrote</a> that he had been diagnosed with a rib fracture, likely as a result of being <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-detained-amid-la-immigration-protest/\">struck with a baton</a> on Aug. 8.</p><p data-block-key=\"e36rb\">“It hurts a *lot* and I pride myself on being a pretty tough soldier in the journalism industry. But I’ll likely be out of commission for at least a few days,” he wrote. “Extremely frustrating that there are things I could be writing about, photographing or filming and instead I’ll be sitting on my couch.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fgg5u\">The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bl1i7\">A police officer turns toward freelancer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel moments before shoving the journalist, who was reporting on a pro-immigrant car caravan in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shoved by officer during LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-by-officer-during-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.707939Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.707939Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-26T17:25:12.489984Z",
"date": "2025-08-12",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k06ne\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, an investigative reporter with L.A. Taco, was shoved by a police officer and blocked from filming parts of an immigration enforcement protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1bmn\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lglk\">In a video posted to the social platform <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwavv3jwnc2f\">Bluesky</a>, an LA police officer can be seen demanding that Ray move back while he identifies himself as media and holds his badge up.</p><p data-block-key=\"9s83d\">“Get back, get on the sidewalk,” the officer said before pushing him. “Walk faster.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dk8g4\">Ray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off parts of the area in advance of a planned vigil near the Metropolitan Detention Center. When he asked officers at the scene why the streets were closed, he said he was unable to get a clear explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mhak\">After protesters arrived from a march that began several miles away at MacArthur Park, police ordered cars out of the intersection and began clearing the street in front of the detention center. That’s when a motorcycle officer approached him.</p><p data-block-key=\"5bf07\">“I was filming them from what was a pretty safe, reasonable distance,” Ray said. “One officer, he got in my face, initially told me to back up, and then he shoved me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8ts33\">Ray said he and other journalists had difficulty crossing police lines and accessing areas where confrontations between protesters and law enforcement were unfolding. Officers, he said, forced reporters to remain in one area and restricted their movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"9s6re\">“It was pretty clear that if we didn’t, we’d be arrested,” he said. “There’s definitely things that we missed because we were not able to move around freely.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2u9ue\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for comment. In a statement posted earlier to the <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">social platform X</a>, the department’s Central Division said it will continue to support the First Amendment rights of all people. “However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced,” it read.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c7nl\">The LA Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of LA in contempt for violating a temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of journalists, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"dtsg\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"52v7k\">In June, Ray was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-immigration-protest/\">struck by pepper balls fired by federal law enforcement</a> (over which he later sued), and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sheriffs-deputy-searches-journalists-bag-during-la-immigration-protest/\">a sheriff’s deputy searched his backpack</a>. The Tracker has documented other incidents in which Ray was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-repeatedly-shoved-while-covering-la-reproductive-rights-protests/\">shoved,</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-taco-reporter-detained-while-covering-echo-park-protest/\">detained,</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-equipment-damaged-while-covering-dodgers-celebrations/\">tackled</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-covering-protests-los-angeles-assaulted/\">struck with a baton</a> while covering protests and gatherings in LA.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cs90o\">A Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray, at center, during an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with baton, detained amid LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-detained-amid-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:07:13.664152Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:07:13.664152Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pkclc\">Freelance photojournalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was pushed, struck with a baton and detained by police while documenting anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025. He was ultimately released without being charged.</p><p data-block-key=\"bqp3i\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"84jdc\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fefd\">In a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.6.pdf\">declaration</a> filed in connection with a Los Angeles Press Club lawsuit against the city, Beckner-Carmitchel said he covered the protest and subsequent march, and was carrying a professional camera and had his press credential on a lanyard attached to his pants.</p><p data-block-key=\"ep9qi\">He wrote that approximately 100 demonstrators gathered outside the detention center and protested “in a spirited, non-violent way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cn0vq\">“At some point, I saw the LAPD officers form a line in the street in front of the MDC and start screaming at the protesters to ‘Move back’ as officers marched with their batons drawn,” Beckner-Carmitchel wrote. “As the LAPD line moved toward the protesters, I saw officers shove quite a few people to the ground. I did not hear any instructions for media. I saw LAPD officers strike multiple journalists with batons, and shove and push journalists in the street in a span of a few minutes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"32lui\">During a pause in the officers’ advance, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that he approached the police line and asked to speak to a supervisor or public affairs officer, but was told to move back. He tried again, saying that he wanted to remind them of the <a href=\"https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-409-7/\">penal code</a> that protects journalists covering protests, given that multiple members of the press had already gotten hurt.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nu7f\">“An LAPD officer responded by shoving me and hitting me in my ribs on my left side with his baton. I still have sore ribs a day later and a small bruise,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"5eqm5\">The use of force continued for nearly an hour before officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, around a small group of journalists and demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7vt1\">Beckner-Carmitchel asked for a supervisor or public information office nearly a dozen times and was cuffed while live on YouTube, with an officer telling him he could “bitch” however he wanted. He was held for one to two hours, he wrote, and when asked for his identifying information, he “pointedly told the officer that my ID was in my wallet in my right pocket, beneath my press pass.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rp4q\">He was then given a card that read, “Detained during an illegal assembly. Failed to disperse after multiple dispersal orders.” A lieutenant eventually approached him to ask if he was media and, when he said yes, to show her his press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"8la6f\">“Lt. Stelter lectured me and the other journalists who had been detained that we were at fault because we stayed in the crowd of protesters,” Beckner-Carmitchel wrote, adding that he was released without charges. “When I was in the process of being uncuffed and allowed to leave, I began filming again, and an officer told me I was still under detainment and was not permitted to film.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2vru9\"><a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">Two</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/\">journalists</a> without physical press badges were taken to a police station and later released.</p><p data-block-key=\"6raqc\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"98fbi\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"11emg\">Beckner-Carmitchel disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “From my vantage point, I did not see the protesters act violently or throw anything at officers when the officers arrived,” he wrote in his declaration. “I did not hear any declaration of an unlawful assembly or dispersal order at this point. As the LAPD line moved toward the protesters, I saw officers shove quite a few people to the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2jrjh\">The LA Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order it had obtained as part of its lawsuit, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Beckner-Carmitchel and other members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"75oph\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"7ta0i\">In an Aug. 14 <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3lwfxpqqyac2q\">post on social media</a>, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that he had been diagnosed with a rib fracture, likely as a result of being struck with a baton on Aug. 8.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rd29\">“It hurts a *lot* and I pride myself on being a pretty tough soldier in the journalism industry. But I’ll likely be out of commission for at least a few days,” he wrote. “Extremely frustrating that there are things I could be writing about, photographing or filming and instead I’ll be sitting on my couch.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"c258y\">Journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, center in red, was detained alongside other members of the press while documenting immigration protests in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025. Officers also pushed and struck him in the ribs with a baton that evening.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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],
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"categories": [
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"Assault"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with baton, press credential damaged at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T16:29:05.478101Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-28T17:45:37.456528Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-28T17:45:37.351185Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ey72h\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern was pushed by police and then, after retrieving his damaged press credentials, struck in the face with a baton in Los Angeles, California, while covering anti-deportation protests on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7qo4\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"2tv46\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"9vohr\">Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that it was the first demonstration he had gone to cover since his leg was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/munition-strikes-photojournalist-at-la-protest-shrapnel-surgically-removed/\">severely injured</a> while documenting a protest in Compton on June 7, and he planned to be very cautious.</p><p data-block-key=\"a60ai\">“It’s been incredibly frustrating for me watching this go down and not being able to get there and document it,” he said. “My plan was to go and, if it looked like things were getting sideways or if an unlawful assembly order was called, to either leave the area or get to an area which I considered very safe.</p><p data-block-key=\"d1rt6\">“I wasn’t given that option,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qb8t\">After the crowd began its march toward downtown, Stern said he instead drove the two miles, as he is still recovering from an emergency surgery and is incapable of walking the distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"3h28e\">Three police vehicles arrived, and LAPD officers exited with batons and crowd-control weapons drawn.</p><p data-block-key=\"4na8q\">“Within a matter of minutes, dozens of police started to form skirmish lines,” he said. “There was no unlawful assembly or dispersal order called. They just started laying into people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ff474\">Stern told the Tracker he attempted to move away from the line and was pushed from behind by police, then fell into a group of people and onto the ground. When he got up, he realized that the cord holding his press credential around his neck had broken and his press pass was on the ground behind the advancing officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gkgs\">“I went back to retrieve it, and said, ‘I’m press, I need to get my badge. It’s down there on the ground.’ The first cop just pushed me aside,” Stern said. After telling another officer the same, a third picked it up and passed it to Stern.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Stern_assault_88_-_1.width-828.jpg\" width=\"633\" height=\"907\" alt=\"COURTESY NICK STERN\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"vqjgv\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern’s Los Angeles Press Club credential, still caked with blood after an LAPD officer struck him in the face with a baton amid immigration protests in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY NICK STERN\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ey72h\">“I then showed the cop who was immediately in front of me my press ID again, at which point one of the cops then brought a baton across my face, causing a laceration to my chin,” he recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"5rtq6\">Multiple journalists covering the protest told the Tracker that Stern appeared dazed from the strike. Soon afterward, he and three colleagues left together to find an open urgent care center, but were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qfha\">Stern said that his wife — a nurse and wound care specialist — later examined his injury and said that while it should have received stitches, it had stopped bleeding and would heal with strong antibiotic cream.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r5vl\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dtdua\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3of9t\">Stern disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “It was peaceful: There were people with drums, people chanting, people with banners. I saw no acts of violence, no acts of criminal damage or vandalism or conflict or anything,” Stern told the Tracker. “We just met this line of brutality.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2ft4\">“In 2020, with the George Floyd, Black Lives Matter protests, LAPD and law enforcement were universally condemned about their brutality, their tactics, their lack of planning, their lack of strategy and the way they were brutalizing people. And since then, they’ve gotten worse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fa14h\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Stern and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gjne\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"ba5ui\"><i>Editor's Note: This article was updated Aug. 14, 2025, to include details of the contempt motion filed by the LA Press Club and Status Coup.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qoprl\">A Los Angeles police officer uses a baton to strike photojournalist Nick Stern, bottom left, as Stern holds up his press credentials amid immigration protests on Aug. 8, 2025. Stern was pushed and struck in the face, and his credentials were damaged.</p>",
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"categories": [
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist struck with baton, finger injured amid protests in downtown LA",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-14T18:15:59.589915Z",
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"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tk99l\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was shoved and struck multiple times with a baton by police, injuring her finger, while reporting on immigration protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1137h\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"am1m6\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sbqv\">Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that once the march reached the detention center, protesters gathered largely in the street in front of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cng9\">When police arrived, she said officers spoke to the organizer, who then announced that if everyone got on the sidewalk, they’d be fine. Berg said that, despite moving to comply, the police suddenly “went ham for no reason.”</p><p data-block-key=\"56tso\">“There was no warning. They didn’t call an unlawful assembly at all,” she told the Tracker. Multiple journalists found themselves “sandwiched” between protesters and the advancing police line, Berg said. “It was almost like they were way more aggressive with us than they were to the protesters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7l7h1\">When a fellow journalist was knocked to the ground, Berg said she went to try to help. It was either just before or after that Berg was struck in the arm and back with a baton, bruising her and leaving welts on her arm. The pinkie finger of her left hand was also split open.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Berg_CA_assault_8_8_-_2.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"1104\" alt=\"COURTESY TINA-DESIREE BERG\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"zgpot\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg photographed the laceration to her pinkie finger after she was struck and pushed by police while documenting immigration protests in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY TINA-DESIREE BERG\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tk99l\">“It was wild: At first, I didn’t even realize I was injured. And then I looked down and there was blood dripping everywhere,” she said, noting that she’s not certain how it happened. “Honestly, it was such chaos. It could have been a baton, it could have been something else.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cehev\">Berg told the Tracker she wasn’t carrying most of her usual protective gear — just ballistic goggles and a small respirator — and had left her helmet in her car.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sugr\">She left the protest soon after, alongside multiple other journalists who had been injured — including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">photographer Nick Stern</a> — to find an open urgent care center, but were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"co1nu\">Berg said that, while having covered demonstrations in Southern California for years, this was the first time she had sought medical care.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vtnd\">“I’ve never felt the need before. I’m pretty tough, so if I’m going to the doctor, you know it’s bad,” she said. After flushing the wound and applying antibiotic cream and a stitchless wound closure, she was told to repeat the process as needed to keep it clean.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0id8\">The injury was expected to keep her out of the field and off the job for approximately two weeks, Berg said. “I can’t go out until my fingers heal. I just don’t want an infection.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eekrs\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eff80\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8u6mc\">Berg disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “Nobody was throwing anything. They didn’t give a warning, didn’t call an unlawful, and then they just swept in and started beating people,” she said. “I have the strong belief that until these individual officers are held accountable for their actions, there will be no change.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2aa1i\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Berg and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"fs6o\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"o3nf3\">Status Coup journalist Tina-Desiree Berg, after being struck with a baton by a Los Angeles police officer amid anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025, filmed while cleaning blood from her injured hand.</p>",
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"(2025-09-10 12:46:00+00:00) LA Press Club wins order protecting reporters from LAPD violence"
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{
"title": "Agency photojournalist pushed to ground, lens damaged at LA-area protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/agency-photojournalist-pushed-to-ground-lens-damaged-at-la-area-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:47:02.308269Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T15:47:02.308269Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T15:41:09.787846Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"chf3n\">Shutterstock photojournalist Chelsea Lauren was shoved to the ground with a baton by police, damaging her telephoto lens, while documenting anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"7hka5\">Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"6kc6r\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"12emu\">Lauren told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she arrived at the Home Depot and followed the march in her car with a couple of other journalists, arriving at the detention center shortly before the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"7enf3\">“There were probably 15 or 20 of them there already, because they basically have a 24-hour camp going across from the MDC,” Lauren said. “The protests met up and, you know, everybody was kind of staying behind the bollards that were the designated ‘do not cross’ point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"326a3\">As demonstrators shouted and flashed lights at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside the building, multiple police cruisers pulled into the middle of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"el9s3\">“They basically asked everyone to get away from the cars and onto the sidewalks, and people actually listened,” she said. “We thought, ‘Oh, OK, cool. That de-escalated, we’re good. And then almost immediately after that, the police made a line and just started pushing.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8d2ek\">The officers used their batons to push back the crowd, including members of the press. As officers repeatedly shouted “Back up!” Lauren said she just kept repeating, “I’m trying, I’m trying.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e7stl\">“One of them decided he didn’t think I was backing up fast enough. And he put his baton into my ribs and knocked me to the ground,” she told the Tracker. “I’m on the ground, seeing all of them with their batons over me and they’re about to hit me, and I’m scooting back on my butt while trying to get up, my cameras are dragging on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"577dq\">A fellow journalist, Tina-Desiree Berg, and a protester helped Lauren get up, but Berg was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">injured in the process</a>. Lauren told the Tracker that, meanwhile, her knee was skinned, her ankle bruised and her telephoto lens damaged when she fell.</p><p data-block-key=\"3co9k\">Lauren left the protest soon after, alongside Berg, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">photographer Nick Stern</a> and filmmaker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-hit-with-police-baton-equipment-damaged-at-la-protest/\">Rocky Romano</a>, who were also injured. They attempted to find an open urgent care center, but they were unsuccessful.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7a9b\">She returned to the protest after dropping off the others, having learned that police had corralled and detained <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">multiple members of the press</a>, alongside the remaining protesters, using a technique called kettling.</p><p data-block-key=\"j97g\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for additional comment. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7m6st\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eg3cg\">Lauren disputed the department’s characterization of the protest. “There was no escalation on the protester side that I noticed,” she told the Tracker. “From the minute police pulled up, to the minute a bunch of us were assaulted was only seven minutes. There’s no way they gave a dispersal order first.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cc4co\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g8p1\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"l232f\">Shutterstock photojournalist Chelsea Lauren, bottom center, being shoved to the ground by Los Angeles police officers, damaging her telephoto lens, while covering anti-deportation protests outside a federal building in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
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{
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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{
"title": "Documentarian hit with police baton, equipment damaged at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-hit-with-police-baton-equipment-damaged-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.838279Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.838279Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T02:39:25.741482Z",
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"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oubi\">Documentary writer, director and producer Rocky Romano was pushed by police and hit with a baton while covering an immigration raid protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gv7u\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"bqqkv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9895\">Romano was filming for his production company, Winters Rock Entertainment, when LAPD officers charged a crowd outside the detention center. Officers did not issue a dispersal order before pushing the group of protesters and journalists, Romano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6osfp\">“They just started batoning everybody, including the press, shoving us,” he said. “They were just hammering people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3daec\">Romano said he believes he was shoved and struck in the arm and side with a police baton. Romano was carrying a gimbal and a Sony FX3 camera, both of which were damaged when he was knocked to the ground and other journalists fell on top of him.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vj3n\">“My knees were bloody, my elbows were bloody, my hand was bloody,” he said. “My back and my hip were just killing me.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Image-1.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"545\" alt=\"COURTESY SEAN BECKNER-CARMITCHEL\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"jt86h\">Documentarian Rocky Romano, at left in black helmet, was knocked to the ground as LAPD officers pushed a crowd of protesters and press on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY SEAN BECKNER-CARMITCHEL\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oubi\">Despite wearing visible press credentials, a helmet labeled “Press” and carrying professional gear, Romano said the officers did not discriminate. The police line kept advancing, even as one journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">held up a press badge and shouted</a> he was press.</p><p data-block-key=\"1i2vp\">“It was such a remarkable show of violence towards the press,” Romano said. “It definitely adds another layer of psychological fear.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8kgkb\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"847p\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6v0ki\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of Romano and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detention</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"8p66n\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sdldq\">Los Angeles Police Department officers push forward during an immigration enforcement protest in downtown LA on Aug. 8, 2025. Documentarian Rocky Romano was hit with a baton and knocked to the ground during a scuffle at the demonstration.</p>",
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{
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{
"title": "Photographer assaulted, detained while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T19:19:27.610650Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T14:10:04.251730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-18T14:10:04.126450Z",
"date": "2025-08-08",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rahlo\">Independent photojournalist Nate Gowdy was assaulted and detained by police while documenting a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sc25\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"8eblc\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qvd\">Gowdy, who was visiting from Seattle, Washington, said he had been photographing the Aug. 8 protest with his partner, fellow journalist <a href=\"/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/\">Carrie Schreck</a>. The two began documenting the demonstration as protesters started to march. The protest remained peaceful, Gowdy said, until the LAPD arrived.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ep0a\">“They basically lined up and without any provocation, in order to move people, started just swinging their batons indiscriminately,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ciah\">Gowdy watched as one journalist, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-baton-press-credential-damaged-at-la-protest/\">Nick Stern</a>, waving his press badge to officers, was struck in the face with a police baton. Gowdy himself was <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNIYacDx5nT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\">thrown to the ground</a> by several officers, scraping his elbow and damaging the metal connectors on the strap holding his spare camera lenses.</p><p data-block-key=\"f69f\">“They were so aggressive and wild-eyed and violent,” he said of the LAPD.</p><p data-block-key=\"4s9bj\">After police declared the protest an unlawful assembly, officers pushed demonstrators farther from the detention center. Gowdy and Schreck had stopped photographing and were leaving the area when they were suddenly kettled, or herded by police, along with a handful of journalists and demonstrators, just three blocks from Schreck’s apartment.</p><p data-block-key=\"epdbv\">Some had press credentials, but Gowdy said officers ignored them.</p><p data-block-key=\"34bnt\">“They said they didn’t care, and that everyone should have to line up against the wall,” Gowdy recalled.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ctdf\">The journalists’ hands were placed in zip-tie restraints. While some were released, Gowdy and Schreck remained detained for not having physical press badges. Despite carrying camera gear and being vouched for by their colleagues, the officers questioned their legitimacy and denied their requests to speak with a public information officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vsvi\">Gowdy offered to show digital credentials and suggested a quick online search to verify his work with major news outlets, but was told he’d be cited for failure to disperse. He and Schreck were taken to a nearby police station and eventually released after more than two hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6hgp\">Gowdy said such traumatic encounters can discourage journalists from covering protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"8dn2m\">“In this case, the law was on our side,” he said. “But they didn’t seem to know the law, or they willfully disregarded it in order to intimidate and harass us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"df147\">Gowdy said he doesn’t wear a press badge when he covers protests in Seattle, after it made him a police target. Covering the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-shoved-off-railing-during-capitol-riot/\">Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection</a>, he saw how press credentials can also attract threats from demonstrators. Still, he said this incident convinced him to carry one just in case.</p><p data-block-key=\"56aoi\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cgjrc\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d9s92\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Gowdy and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"11q76\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p><p data-block-key=\"14tnt\"><i>Editor's Note: This article was updated Aug. 14, 2025, to include details of the contempt motion filed by the LA Press Club and Status Coup.</i></p></div>",
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{
"title": "Independent journalist shoved, detained while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-detained-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-13T21:04:45.901954Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-14T18:54:49.661261Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5woxq\">Journalist Melanie Buer was shoved multiple times and detained by officers while covering a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"6em4n\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"878hv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sbkl\">Buer, an independent journalist, was documenting protesters marching to the detention center. About a half-hour after demonstrators arrived there, LAPD officers formed a skirmish line. While Buer and other journalists were photographing the line, law enforcement began advancing on them.</p><p data-block-key=\"74efh\">“Almost without warning, police officers began using batons on anyone within the vicinity, of which there were many journalists,” Buer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"badpp\">She described aggressive shoving by police and witnessed journalists being struck with batons, pushed and trampled. Though not seriously hurt, Buer was shoved into pylons multiple times. An officer swung a baton at her back but missed.</p><p data-block-key=\"qfe3\">“They were swinging the batons like baseball bats,” said Buer, who posted a video of the assault to <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/melbuer.bsky.social/post/3lvwxnq4mbc2r\">social media.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"7gpcl\">The use of force continued for nearly an hour before officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, around a small group of journalists and demonstrators. When Buer and others identified themselves as reporters and asked to leave, officers refused.</p><p data-block-key=\"5adjc\">“They disregarded that we were media, told us to walk to the wall and that we would be put under arrest,” said Buer, who was wearing her International Federation of Journalists press badge. “One officer said, ‘The statutes don’t matter.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"66nce\">She and several other journalists were placed in zip-tie handcuffs and held for about 90 minutes. Officers took their information, photographed them and eventually released them without charges. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">Two journalists</a> without physical press badges were taken to a police station and later released.</p><p data-block-key=\"9igol\">Buer was previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/omaha-police-shove-detain-freelance-journalist-during-protest/\">detained by Omaha police</a> while covering a protest in 2020, but said this was the first time it had happened to her in LA.</p><p data-block-key=\"105nj\">“Myself and other reporters were doing nothing that would warrant this,” Buer said. “So I’m just going to keep reporting as I report.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fp5sc\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bgngk\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"j22i8\">Journalist Melanie Buer, in middle wearing her press credential, stands facing police as an officer takes her photo. Buer and other press were detained by Los Angeles Police Department officers while covering a protest in LA on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist pushed, detained by police at LA immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pushed-detained-by-police-at-la-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:45:49.852472Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-18T02:45:49.852472Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ffjto\">Freelance photojournalist Carrie Schreck was pushed by police officers and detained while covering a protest against federal immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 8, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"38ggm\">Protests in LA began in <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">early June</a> in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. <a href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/federal-agents-westlake-home-depot-penske-moving-van\">Raids</a> at <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/federal-agents-target-day-laborers-in-raids-at-van-nuys-home-depot\">Home Depots</a> in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70594806/87/pedro-vasquez-perdomo-v-kristi-noem/\">July 11 court order</a> temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.</p><p data-block-key=\"352jv\">On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70553115/44/los-angeles-press-club-v-city-of-los-angeles/\">a court order</a> protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.</p><p data-block-key=\"7reeb\">Schreck was on assignment for Redux Pictures, an independent syndication photo agency, when LAPD officers began pushing protesters and journalists with batons, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Police then kettled the crowd — a tactic used to trap and control groups — striking both demonstrators and members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6k10j\">Schreck said she was shoved, and then watched as officers threw her partner, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">photographer Nate Gowdy</a>, to the ground. When they and other media tried to leave, they were blocked by advancing police lines. Eventually, officers detained the two of them and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">other journalists</a>, despite some wearing visible press badges.</p><p data-block-key=\"alhpj\">“I give a lot of leeway to people, and I try to be understanding in the moment of why they make decisions they make,” Schreck said. “But it’s unacceptable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9pf08\">Schreck, who had not yet received her physical press credentials, carried professional gear and digital documentation of her work, including a letter from Redux confirming her assignment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2be59\">“I showed it to them and they said, ‘Yeah, but where’s the ID?”</p><p data-block-key=\"etjd4\">While some credentialed journalists were released, officers questioned whether Schreck and Gowdy were legitimate members of the press. California station KABC-TV <a href=\"https://abc7.com/post/16-people-cited-unlawful-assembly-declared-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest-friday/17488273/\">reported</a> that the LAPD claimed two people, identified later as Schreck and Gowdy, were detained at the protest for “pretending to be media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dki6s\">Schreck said she was frisked twice, had her hands zip-tied, and was placed in a police vehicle before being taken to a nearby station, where she and Gowdy were eventually released after more than two hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"fffam\">“The entire experience makes me doubt that police understand or care about their own rules at all,” she said. Schreck said her credential arrived by mail afterward, and she plans to bring copies with her on assignment in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"22vqa\">The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954033509586309303\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9cpg4\">“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it <a href=\"https://x.com/LAPDCentral/status/1954195124831097112\">continued</a>. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2976h\">The Los Angeles Press Club filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511/gov.uscourts.cacd.974511.63.1_3.pdf\">motion</a> Aug. 13 to hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order in place to protect journalists while they’re covering protests, citing the Aug. 8 <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detentions</a> of Schreck and others, as well as the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-08-08&date_upper=2025-08-08&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Assault\">assaults</a> of multiple members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"4rilk\">“Defendants’ actions evince a blatant disregard for the First Amendment and an unwillingness or an inability or both on the part of the City to take steps necessary to ensure compliance with this Court’s Injunction,” the motion read. “What will it take to get the LAPD to respect the constitutional rights of journalists?”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bs9ak\">Freelance photographer Carrie Schreck, second from left, is ringed by police while she and other press are detained during an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2025-08-08",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name": "California",
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"tags": [
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],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Carrie Schreck (Redux Pictures)"
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},
{
"title": "Trump, his administration move to punish outlets during second term",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/",
"first_published_at": "2025-01-30T20:43:36.335430Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-07T15:05:38.087717Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-07T15:00:00.125938Z",
"date": "2025-08-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"63pix\">From the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, he and his administration have taken steps to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered them unfavorably. We’re documenting Trump’s direct actions in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"coqi2\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"cv9ql\"><i>This article was first published on March 14, 2025.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"aq2uo\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#Aug. 1\">Aug. 1, 2025 | Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shutter following Trump funding cuts\r\n</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#July 15\">July 15, 2025 | Trump administration, Congress target public broadcasting</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#June 29\">June 29, 2025 | Trump says journalists will be forced to reveal sources in pursuit of Iran report leakers</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#June 3\">June 3, 2025 | White House asks Congress to repeal $1.1 billion in funding to public media</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#May 1\">May 1, 2025 | Trump signs executive order eliminating funding to NPR, PBS</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#April 14\">April 14, 2025 | White House plans to formally ask Congress to cut PBS, NPR funding</a> \r\n<p><a href=\"#March 14-2\">March 14, 2025 | Trump signs executive order gutting government-funded news outlets</a> \r\n<p><a href=\"#March 14-1\">March 14, 2025 | Trump says negative press coverage ‘illegal’ during speech at DOJ</a></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3ocum\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"a5gu5\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"Aug. 1\" name=\"Aug. 1\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"ztgt6\">Aug. 1, 2025 | Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shutter following Trump funding cuts</h4><p data-block-key=\"dj7ua\">The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Aug. 1, 2025, that it would cease its operations after Congress passed President Donald Trump’s request to cancel the $1.1 billion in funding earmarked for the organization for the next two years.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ekj1\">CPB and the public broadcasters it supports have been a target of Trump’s second administration since its earliest days. In a <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/the-npr-pbs-grift-has-ripped-us-off-for-too-long/\">statement</a> published April 14, the White House asserted that NPR and PBS “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’” and that funding them is a waste of taxpayer money.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ldkv\">Trump <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#June%203\">attempted to fire</a> three CPB board members in April, despite lacking the authority to do so under the law that established the private, nonprofit corporation. Just days later, on May 1, he signed an executive order instructing the CPB to cease federal funding for the public media outlets. In June, Trump filed the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#June%203\">rescission request</a> to Congress that would cancel already approved funding for the corporation.</p><p data-block-key=\"63ctp\">CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a <a href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/Corporation-Public-Broadcasting-Addresses-Operations-Following-Loss-Federal-Funding\">statement</a> Aug. 1 that, after more than 60 years, the corporation had begun winding down its operations, “despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB.”</p><p data-block-key=\"118s0\">“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"652ff\">While CPB and the three board members targeted by Trump sued to protect them from being fired, two have since withdrawn their claims and resigned their positions on CPB’s board of directors.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"July 15\" name=\"July 15\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"vjjz1\">July 15, 2025 | Trump administration, Congress, target public broadcasting</h4><p data-block-key=\"6m6j0\">The Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit on July 15, 2025, against the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which provides funding to NPR, PBS and their local affiliates — in an attempt to oust the three Democratic board members.</p><p data-block-key=\"d8ipg\">Trump had <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#June%203\">attempted to fire</a> the board members in April, and just days later, on May 1, signed an executive order instructing the private nonprofit corporation to cease federal funding for the public media outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"85dld\">NPR<a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/05/27/npr-lawsuit-trump-executive-order-funding-cuts/\"> sued</a> to halt the order, calling it “textbook retaliation.” NPR CEO Katherine Maher<a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/g-s1-69017/npr-and-katherine-maher-ceo-of-npr-statement\"> wrote</a>, “The intent could not be more clear — the Executive Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4lmog\">The following month, Trump further targeted government support for the public broadcasters through a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#June%203\">rescission request</a>, asking Congress to cancel $1.1 billion in already-approved funding.</p><p data-block-key=\"571tq\">The House approved the package in a close vote — <a href=\"https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025168\">214-212</a> on June 12.</p><p data-block-key=\"ot3j\">In a <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/cfa69aeac4dd/\">July 10 post</a> on the social platform Truth Social, Trump called on Senate Republicans to grant the request, especially as it pertains to the broadcasters.</p><p data-block-key=\"79ts2\">“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump wrote. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c6lpn\">The Senate approved the request in a 51-48 vote early morning July 17, despite concerns from members of Congress that it surrendered the legislative branch’s power of the purse, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/senate-vote-trump-bill-pbs-npr-foreign-aid.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"61miv\">One holdout, Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, voted in favor after he was assured by Trump officials that unspent funds would be used “to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption” for next year, according to the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"foith\">The House gave final approval for the White House’s request early July 18, The Associated Press <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/pbs-npr-budget-cuts-trump-republicans-b0044285659ab708e23eb2dc2f3eabfa\">reported</a>, making it the first successful rescissions request to Congress in decades.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"June 29\" name=\"June 29\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"0wuzj\">June 29, 2025 | Trump says journalists will be forced to reveal sources in pursuit of Iran report leakers</h4><p data-block-key=\"497pl\">In an interview with Fox News aired on June 29, 2025, President Donald Trump said that journalists could and should be forced to reveal their sources so that those behind the leaks of classified intelligence on U.S. strikes on Iran could be prosecuted.</p><p data-block-key=\"d03h3\">Following the airstrikes earlier in June, several news outlets — including <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/politics/intel-assessment-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites\">CNN</a>, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/iran-nuclear-sites.html\">The New York Times</a> and <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/24/us-iran-bomb-assessment-nuclear-sites-not-destroyed/\">The Washington Post</a> — reported that a preliminary assessment found that the bombings had set Iran’s nuclear program back by months, not “obliterated” it as Trump had been asserting.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt7k9\">Trump doubled down on the claim <a href=\"https://youtu.be/YdqKZDJQoDw\">during his interview</a> with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on June 27, lamenting the coverage the strikes had received.</p><p data-block-key=\"bve19\">“They did obliterate it, it turned out. Then we had to suffer the fake news, where the fake news in CNN and The New York Times was saying, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t as good as Trump said. Maybe it wasn’t totally obliterated, but it was destroyed,’” Trump said. “You know, just horrible. And I could see it happening and they tried to build that into a story.”</p><p data-block-key=\"avqub\">Trump added that those behind the leak should be prosecuted and, when asked whether his administration would be able to identify them, indicated that he has no issue forcing journalists to identify their sources.</p><p data-block-key=\"837as\">“We can find out. If they wanted, they could find out easily. You know, you go up and tell the reporter, ‘National security: Who gave it?’ You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that,” Trump said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4g10a\">White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt discredited CNN’s reporting on the assessment in a <a href=\"https://x.com/PressSec/status/1937599769544982577\">post on the social platform X</a>, writing “FAKE NEWS CNN STRIKES AGAIN.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c8s10\">“This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” Leavitt continued.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5e4o\">In a <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/02/trump-journalists-source-leaked-iran-intelligence/\">statement to the Post</a>, Leavitt accused the newspaper of “helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9hfr8\">Trump’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_upper=2021-01-19&tags=Department+of+Justice&categories=Leak+Case\">administrations</a> have <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tulsi-gabbard-targets-press-leakers-as-national-intelligence-director/#March%2014\">routinely</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-targets-news-outlets-leakers-as-defense-secretary/\">sought</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kash-patel-targets-press-leakers-as-fbi-director/\">to punish</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kristi-noem-targets-press-leakers-as-homeland-security-secretary/\">leakers</a> and have <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pam-bondi-targets-journalists-leakers-as-us-attorney-general/\">demonstrated</a> a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_upper=2021-01-19&tags=Department+of+Justice&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">willingness</a> to disregard journalists’ First Amendment protections in order to do so.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"June 3\" name=\"June 3\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"mev26\">June 3, 2025 | White House asks Congress to repeal $1.1 billion in funding to public media</h4><p data-block-key=\"1a7qc\">The Trump White House budget office asked Congress on June 3, 2025, to cancel $1.1 billion in funding already approved for public broadcasting, multiple media outlets reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"cmc15\">The request, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#April%2014\">drafted in April</a>, calls for the elimination of two years’ worth of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn partially funds NPR and PBS. Only a simple majority vote is needed to approve the request.</p><p data-block-key=\"7tu6a\">The Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/03/trump-asks-congress-repeal-9-billion-npr-pbs-global-aid/\">reported</a> that Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, proposed the cuts in a letter to Trump, writing, “federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fvecm\">Trump, individuals in his administration and allies in Congress have repeatedly targeted public broadcasters since his return to office in January.</p><p data-block-key=\"3j4la\">Trump <a href=\"https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1904610620659687944\">said</a> during a March 25 meeting with U.S. ambassadors that he would “love” to eliminate funding for the public broadcasters. In April, he <a href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114264549657133828\">called on Republicans in Congress</a> to defund and disassociate themselves from “THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY,” and the White House <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/the-npr-pbs-grift-has-ripped-us-off-for-too-long/\">asserted in an official statement</a> that NPR and PBS are publishing “trash” and have engaged in a “grift.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e3e7g\">In April, Trump attempted to illegally fire three CPB board members and just days later, on May 1, signed an executive order instructing the private nonprofit corporation to cease federal funding for the outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"dve0t\">NPR <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/05/27/npr-lawsuit-trump-executive-order-funding-cuts/\">sued</a> to halt the order, calling it “textbook retaliation.” NPR CEO Katherine Maher <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/g-s1-69017/npr-and-katherine-maher-ceo-of-npr-statement\">wrote</a>, “The intent could not be more clear — the Executive Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"43olm\">Within Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-targets-press-as-doge-subcommittee-chair/\">has led a campaign</a> against the broadcasters and Rep. Ronny Jackson <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rep-ronny-jackson-targets-press-as-member-of-congress/#March%2027\">introduced a bill</a> to eliminate all direct and indirect government funding for NPR and PBS.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dfi1\">In a <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5352827/npr-pbs-public-media-trump-rescission-funding\">statement</a> published when the draft recision request became public, NPR said eliminating funding for CPB would have a devastating impact on communities that rely on public broadcasting each day.</p><p data-block-key=\"7hho\">“We serve the public interest,” the outlet wrote. “It’s not just in our name — it’s our mission.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"May 1\" name=\"May 1\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"8udpj\">May 1, 2025 | Trump signs executive order eliminating funding to NPR, PBS</h4><p data-block-key=\"4s8m1\">President Donald Trump signed an <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/\">executive order</a> on May 1, 2025, instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS, citing their alleged “biased and partisan news coverage.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3limi\">In a <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/05/president-trump-finally-ends-the-madness-of-npr-pbs/\">news release</a> the following day, the White House accused the news outlets of using “millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"a70ca\">Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, issued a <a href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/Corporation-Public-Broadcasting-Statement-Regarding-Executive-Order-Public-Media\">statement</a> pushing back against the executive order, citing provisions expressly forbidding government actors from attempting to direct the corporation’s work.</p><p data-block-key=\"d2077\">“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Harrison wrote. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eoev4\">Trump’s executive order came just days after he directed a staff member to email three of CPB’s five board members to alert them that they had been removed from their positions. The board as a whole and the targeted members — Diane Kaplan, Laura Ross and Thomas Rothman — <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.279991/gov.uscourts.dcd.279991.1.0.pdf\">sued</a> Trump on April 29, seeking a judicial declaration that the order is unenforceable, as the president has no power to remove them.</p><p data-block-key=\"edl4d\">“Put simply, Congress conceived CPB as a vehicle for infusing federal money into public broadcasting without the introduction of government direction or control,” the suit states. “Moreover, Congress protected the CPB from the executive branch by withholding from CPB any form, pure or quasi, of legislative, judicial, or regulatory power.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9mfat\">White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers dismissed CPB’s assertions in a <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/04/29/nx-s1-5381045/cpb-board-members-trump-lawsuit-npr-pbs\">statement to NPR</a>. “As numerous courts have repeatedly affirmed, the Constitution gives President Trump the power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority,” Rogers said. “The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”</p><p data-block-key=\"73dcs\">District Judge Randolph Moss has <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69966304/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-v-trump/\">ordered</a> both sides to file arguments on CPB’s motion, which seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent Trump’s order from taking effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"aqc9u\">Trump’s executive order and attempt to remove CPB board members were the latest attacks on public broadcasting by his administration or allies in Congress. Earlier, the White House <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#April%2014\">drafted a recision request</a> to revoke $1.1 billion in approved funding for the corporation, FCC Chair Brendan Carr <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brendan-carr-targets-news-outlets-as-chair-of-the-fcc/#Jan%2029\">launched investigations</a> into PBS and NPR over their advertising and sponsorship practices, and Reps. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rep-ronny-jackson-targets-press-as-member-of-congress/#March%2027\">Ronny Jackson</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-targets-press-as-doge-subcommittee-chair/\">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a> have demeaned the outlets and threatened their funding.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"April 14\" name=\"April 14\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"qezxr\">April 14, 2025 | White House plans to formally ask Congress to cut PBS, NPR funding</h4><p data-block-key=\"bfp4o\">The Trump White House plans to formally ask Congress to cancel $1.1 billion in funding already approved for public broadcasting, multiple news outlets reported on April 14, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"94l7i\"><a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5352827/npr-pbs-public-media-trump-rescission-funding\">According to NPR</a>, the White House has drafted a rescission request that calls for the elimination of two years’ worth of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn partially funds NPR and PBS.</p><p data-block-key=\"fnilc\">The administration intends to send it to Congress when lawmakers return from a two-week recess on April 28. Only a simple majority vote is needed to approve the request.</p><p data-block-key=\"2oum8\">In a <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/the-npr-pbs-grift-has-ripped-us-off-for-too-long/\">statement</a> published April 14, which did not mention the draft request, the White House asserted that NPR and PBS are publishing “trash” and have engaged in a “grift.”</p><p data-block-key=\"79mab\">“For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” the statement said. “As President Trump has stated, taxpayer funding of NPR’s and PBS’s biased content is a waste.”</p><p data-block-key=\"di1s6\">Trump <a href=\"https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1904610620659687944\">said</a> during a March 25 meeting with U.S. ambassadors that he would “love” to eliminate funding for the public broadcasters, and in an April 1 <a href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114264549657133828\">social media post</a> called on Republicans in Congress to “DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a2fle\">In a statement published by NPR, the outlet said, “Eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation that rely on public radio for trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts, and public safety information.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ri6t\">“We serve the public interest. It’s not just in our name — it’s our mission.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"March 14-2\" name=\"March 14-2\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"3ocum\">March 14, 2025 | Trump signs executive order gutting government-funded news outlets</h4><p data-block-key=\"8bsve\">In a late-night executive order, President Donald Trump eliminated all functions not required by law for the United States Agency for Global Media, along with a half-dozen other federal agencies, referring to them as “unnecessary governmental entities.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1cbav\">The USAGM oversees Voice of America and the office that manages Radio and TV Martí, as well as provides funding for private international broadcasters Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.</p><p data-block-key=\"2frfm\">Michael Abramowitz, director of Voice of America, confirmed in a March 15 <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/abramowitzmj/posts/pfbid02ocNQehfifbHeAAv5qDWW55BSkwEhB9L91UyxfsJBApKw38j2fzY4DdLkc7SorUJUl\">statement</a> on his personal Facebook page that he and nearly the entire staff of the news organization — more than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff — had been suspended.</p><p data-block-key=\"fn0a6\">“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” Abramowitz wrote. “VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9ji7j\">No articles have been published on the VOA website since around 2 p.m. on March 15. The Independent <a href=\"https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-media-voice-america-bloody-saturday-b2716583.html\">reported</a> that by the following night, many of the employees placed on leave had been fired, including <a href=\"https://x.com/liamjscott/status/1901416015352811693\">press freedom reporter Liam Scott</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5i1s\">NPR <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5329244/bloody-saturday-voiceofamerica-radio-free-asia-europe-trump-kari-lake\">reported</a> that USAGM also severed its contracts with the private international broadcasters it funds.</p><p data-block-key=\"8n9hf\">In a March 15 <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/the-voice-of-radical-america/\">news release</a>, the White House railed against “The Voice of Radical America,” and said Trump’s executive order “will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4pou4\">Elon Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, had <a href=\"https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888574212316582230?lang=en\">called</a> for the USAGM news outlets to be shut down in early February, writing, “It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5f0g7\">Grant Turner, a former senior executive at USAGM, called the cuts “Bloody Saturday” and told NPR, “It took decades to build this goodwill and an audience of hundreds of millions every week. Seeing arsonists just set fire to it all is awful.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cmu5k\">Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said in a statement shared with NPR, “The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"March 14-1\" name=\"March 14-1\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"3ocum\">March 14, 2025 | Trump says negative press coverage ‘illegal’ during speech at DOJ</h4><p data-block-key=\"5mqt4\">President Donald Trump called the critical news coverage of his administration “illegal” and “corrupt” during a speech at the Department of Justice on March 14, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"5d8fd\">Amid his <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i41Av4eYO8\">nearly hourlong remarks</a>, Trump said that many judges, including those on the Supreme Court, “take tremendous abuse” from news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and broadcast networks, likening the coverage to judicial interference. “It’s truly interference in my opinion and it should be illegal and it probably is illegal in some form,” Trump said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecl8u\">He went on to claim that CNN and MSNBC are “political arms of the Democrat Party.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vpnv\">“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative and it has to stop, it has to be illegal,” Trump said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d5tm7\">As Trump decried his perceived enemies in the media, justice system and nonprofit sector, he advanced the DOJ as a tool to exact his personal vengeance. He asserted that he is the chief law enforcement officer — which The Associated Press <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-bondi-patel-justice-fbi-retribution-ec275e730c6e75f2d6ee29eeec30fa07\">reported</a> is technically Attorney General Pam Bondi — and as such will demand “full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2025-03-15T003457Z_176944555_RC29.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7bspe\">President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One as he departs from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 14, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [
"CNN",
"Media",
"Middle East Broadcasting Networks",
"National Public Radio",
"PBS News",
"Radio Free Asia",
"Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty",
"Radio y Televisión Martí",
"The New York Times",
"Voice of America"
],
"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Chilling Statement"
],
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{
"title": "New York Times Building vandalized with pro-Palestinian protest message",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-times-building-vandalized-with-pro-palestinian-protest-message/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-12T21:16:04.104557Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-12T21:16:04.104557Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-12T21:15:56.996147Z",
"date": "2025-07-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nhrsc\">The New York Times Building in New York City was vandalized after unidentified individuals spray-painted the entrance and windows on July 30, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ptnb\">Red paint defaced the front entrance of the news organization’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, while white spray paint on its windows read: “NYT lies Gaza dies.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f378h\">The act followed the publication of an editor’s note correcting <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/gaza-starvation.html\">an article</a>, “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation,” which included a photograph of Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a Palestinian child in Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition.</p><p data-block-key=\"oues\">The note said the Times had since learned from the child’s doctor that he had preexisting health conditions, a detail the newspaper said would have been included in the caption if the information had been known before publication.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-video\">\n\n<figure class=\"inline-media full-width\">\n <div style=\"padding-bottom: 176.99115044247787%;\" class=\"responsive-object\">\n <iframe width=\"113\" height=\"200\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/uDZURV59kwQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"The New York Times building vandalized with red paint and the words 'NYT Lies Gaza Dies'\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n \n <p data-block-key=\"ce78e\">Images of vandalism at The New York Times Building in New York City on July 30, 2025.</p>\n \n \n <p>DAILY MAIL VIA YOUTUBE</p>\n \n </figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nhrsc\">Flyers left at the scene criticized the Times’ coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, accusing it of downplaying both the causes and the scale of the famine as the war with Israel continues, <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/new-york/manhattan/nyc-neighborhoods/midtown-manhattan/probe-new-york-times-midtown-headquarters-graffiti-vandalism/\">amNY reported.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"25uie\">In a statement shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Charlie Stadtlander, managing director of external communications, said the Israel-Gaza war has sparked intense global debate, and the Times often faces pressure from groups seeking to influence its coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"alrqh\">“While we support the right of groups and individuals to express their point of view, we will not let advocacy groups sway us from covering the conflict fully and fairly,” he wrote. “Nor do we condone acts of vandalism.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/combined_image_side_by_side.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jmjcp\">Screenshots show images of vandalism at The New York Times Building in New York City on July 30, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"actor": "private individual",
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "building"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"The New York Times"
],
"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Brendan Carr targets news outlets as chair of the FCC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brendan-carr-targets-news-outlets-as-chair-of-the-fcc/",
"first_published_at": "2025-04-03T15:59:35.542582Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-05T14:51:55.897581Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-05T14:51:55.790821Z",
"date": "2025-07-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"96x0e\">From the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Brendan Carr, chair and senior Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, has joined Trump in taking steps to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting Carr’s efforts in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"1fmn2\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sksi\"><i>This article was first published on Jan. 22, 2025.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"f2d5p\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#July 29\">July 29, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into NBC over relationship with local affiliates</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#April 16\">April 16, 2025 | FCC chair threatens Comcast licenses for alleged ‘news distortion’</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#March 27\">March 27, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into ABC, Disney over DEI policy</a> \r\n<p><a href=\"#Feb 11\">Feb. 11, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into NBC parent over DEI program</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#Feb 5\">Feb. 5, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into California radio station</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#Jan 29\">Jan. 29, 2025 | FCC opens investigations into NPR, PBS; calls on CBS to turn over interview transcript</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#Jan 22\">Jan. 22, 2025 | FCC chair reinstates complaints against three news outlets</a></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"96x0e\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"9mg5b\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"July 29\" name=\"July 29\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"2s7l8\">July 29, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into NBC over relationship with local affiliates</h4><p data-block-key=\"74vd5\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr informed NBC’s parent company on July 29, 2025, that the agency had opened an investigation into NBCUniversal and its relationship with its local broadcast affiliates.</p><p data-block-key=\"aj4m2\">In a <a href=\"https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Chairman-Carr-Letter-to-Comcast-FINAL-7.29.25.pdf\">letter</a> to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Carr said he is investigating “numerous” reports that NBC and other similarly situated networks are attempting to “extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations” during affiliate negotiations.</p><p data-block-key=\"doeko\">“The FCC has an interest in and the authority to promote the public interest and to ensure that local broadcast TV stations retain the economic and operational independence necessary to meet their public interest obligations,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"3iosd\">Comcast <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fcc-opens-probe-into-comcast-relationships-with-local-tv-affiliates-2025-07-30/\">told Reuters</a> that it had received the letter and plans to cooperate with the investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"99lu\">“We are proud that for many decades we have supported local broadcast TV stations with world-class sports and entertainment,” the statement said. “We will continue to invest heavily in this partnership to keep the broadcast business strong.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2560r\">The investigation is the latest in a series launched by Carr since he took over as chair in January under the Trump administration, including a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brendan-carr-targets-news-outlets-as-chair-of-the-fcc/#Feb%2011\">separate probe</a> into Comcast’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"April 16\" name=\"April 16\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"w1k1x\">April 16, 2025 | FCC chair threatens Comcast licenses for alleged ‘news distortion’</h4><p data-block-key=\"a2hc7\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr accused Comcast — the parent company of MSNBC and NBC News — of violating its broadcast licenses in a <a href=\"https://x.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1912641900558893377\">post</a> on the social platform X on April 16, 2025, citing the outlets’ reporting on the wrongful deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhm7c\">“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ When the truth comes out, they ignore it,” Carr wrote. “Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5pgs9\">According to the <a href=\"https://www.fcc.gov/broadcast-news-distortion\">FCC</a>, while broadcast stations like NBC News are subject to the agency’s jurisdiction, cable networks like MSNBC are not.</p><p data-block-key=\"e3d2h\">On April 21, the Center for American Rights filed a <a href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eP0vSwkhKjGetg9yw-PybuL7_aNL005/view\">complaint</a> with the FCC against NBC, ABC and CBS alleging the outlets provided “false or misleading information” during their coverage about Abrego Garcia. The outlets were already the subjects of investigations <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brendan-carr-targets-news-outlets-as-chair-of-the-fcc/#Jan%2022\">reopened</a> by Carr in February following complaints filed by the conservative group.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"March 27\" name=\"March 27\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"96x0e\">March 27, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into ABC, Disney over DEI policy</h4><p data-block-key=\"2phhf\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, in a March 27, 2025, <a href=\"https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/Carr-Letter-to-Disney-DEI-03252027.pdf\">letter</a> to ABC and its parent Disney, said the agency had launched an investigation into the company’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r95j\">“Numerous reports indicate that Disney’s leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company’s decisions,” Carr wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"5u0v6\">While Disney <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288947/trump-dei-disney-pepsi-diversity\">scaled back its diversity efforts</a> in November 2024, Carr indicated that the changes may not have gone far enough. “I want to ensure that Disney ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"4l21q\">Carr specified that the probe will apply to both past and current policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"a78he\">President Donald Trump has made eliminating DEI programs a pillar of his second term, signing a Jan. 22 <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-civil-rights-and-merit-based-opportunity-by-ending-illegal-dei/\">executive order</a> eliminating them in the federal government and pressuring private companies to follow suit.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ne57\">A Disney spokesperson told Reuters, “We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"17erv\">In an interview with Fox News on March 31, Carr suggested that the broadcaster’s license could be at risk, <a href=\"https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5224716-fcc-chair-abc-broadcast-license-disney-dei/\">The Hill reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1nbq6\">“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr said.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6hgg\">ABC News is also facing an FCC investigation into how the broadcaster moderated the debate between Trump and former President Joe Biden, which Carr <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brendan-carr-targets-news-outlets-as-chair-of-the-fcc/#Jan%2022\">reopened in January</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"Feb 11\" name=\"Feb 11\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"96x0e\">Feb. 11, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into NBC parent over DEI program</h4><p data-block-key=\"45d71\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, in a Feb. 11, 2025, <a href=\"https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/Chairman-Carr-Letter%20to-Comcast-02112025.pdf\">letter</a> to NBC News parent Comcast, said the agency would launch an investigation into the company’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.</p><p data-block-key=\"eeugk\">“The FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act,” Carr’s letter read, “including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2vs7s\">President Donald Trump has made eliminating DEI programs a pillar of his second term, signing an <a href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-civil-rights-and-merit-based-opportunity-by-ending-illegal-dei/\">executive order</a> eliminating such programs in the federal government on Jan. 22 and pressuring private companies to follow suit. PBS News <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/benmullin.bsky.social/post/3lhu6bpgyb22s\">told employees</a> on Feb. 11 that it was eliminating its DEI office to be in compliance with the administration’s policy.</p><p data-block-key=\"9id98\">Tom Wheeler, a former chair of the FCC, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/business/media/fcc-comcast-nbc-dei-discrimination.html\">told The New York Times</a> that this latest investigation fits a pattern of Carr using the commission’s authority to advance Trump’s political aims.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l42\">“It’s clear that what is going on here is — whether it be Comcast and DEI or NPR and PBS, or CBS and the ‘60 Minutes’ interview — is how can you use the coercive authority of regulation to accomplish the goals of your master and mentor, Donald Trump?” Wheeler said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"Feb 5\" name=\"Feb 5\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"96x0e\">Feb. 5, 2025 | FCC opens investigation into California radio station</h4><p data-block-key=\"fp4mb\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr launched an investigation into San Francisco, California, radio station KCBS on Feb. 5, 2025, after the station broadcast the locations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during operations in the San Jose area, Fox News <a href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/media/fcc-launches-probe-soros-backed-radio-station-revealed-live-locations-undercover-ice-agents\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"cvks\">Carr told Fox that he believes KCBS may have violated licensing rules requiring broadcasters to operate in the “public interest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aq9a2\">Carr had <a href=\"https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/09/30/soros-backed-group-wins-fcc-approval-for-us-radio-stations/\">previously opposed</a> the transfer of the station’s license, following Republican scrutiny of the ownership role of billionaire investor George Soros, a Democratic megadonor whose nonprofit now controls the broadcasting outlet.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"Jan 29\" name=\"Jan 29\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"96x0e\">Jan. 29, 2025 | FCC opens investigations into NPR, PBS; calls on CBS to turn over interview transcript</h4><p data-block-key=\"8fo81\">Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr informed public broadcasters NPR and PBS on Jan. 29, 2025, that he had initiated an investigation into the news outlets, <a href=\"https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/340343f285781674/6da3eb69-full.pdf\">suggesting</a> that they may have violated federal law by airing commercial advertisements. A copy of the letter was also shared with members of Congress, Carr wrote, because of its potential relevance to ongoing debates.</p><p data-block-key=\"4h3fp\">“In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming,” the letter read. “For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.”</p><p data-block-key=\"433k7\">That same day, the FCC sent a letter of inquiry to CBS News demanding that the outlet turn over the “full, unedited transcript and camera feeds” from a Kamala Harris interview on “60 Minutes” in October 2024, according to a <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-fcc-60-minutes/?intcid=CNR-02-0623\">statement</a> published by the broadcaster.</p><p data-block-key=\"ff5g4\">CBS said that it was working to comply with the inquiry, “as we are legally compelled to do.” The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was unable to obtain a copy of the inquiry as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"749v8\">A spokesperson for CBS <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cbs-turns-over-documents-fcc-probe-into-then-vp-harris-60-minutes-interview-2025-02-04/\">told Reuters</a> that the news organization submitted the documents to the FCC on Feb. 3. In an <a href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/video/6368206882112\">interview with Fox News</a>, Carr said he was “open minded as to potential consequences” and that he would consider releasing the transcript in the interest of transparency.</p><p data-block-key=\"avh2v\">CBS <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-publishes-transcripts-video-requested-by-fcc/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=738794635\">published</a> the transcripts and video that it turned over to Carr on Feb. 5. “They show — consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public — that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful,” the outlet wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"2kjf3\">The Harris interview was the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-filed-or-threatened-multiple-lawsuits-against-outlets-ahead-of-election/\">focus of a federal lawsuit</a> filed against CBS on behalf of President Donald Trump, which alleged the network had “doctored” the broadcast in an attempt to influence the presidential election. Trump had demanded the network release unedited tapes and transcripts. CBS has maintained the claims are false and the suit without merit.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"Jan 22\" name=\"Jan 22\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"96x0e\">Jan. 22, 2025 | FCC chair reinstates complaints against three news outlets</h4><p data-block-key=\"61dl2\">Brendan Carr, a Donald Trump appointee and the new chair of the Federal Communications Commission, reinstated complaints against multiple outlets that Trump targeted <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/all-the-presidents-invective/\">leading up to</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/media-in-the-courthouse/\">in the wake of</a> the election, alleging their reporting was biased and aimed at swaying favor toward his opponent.</p><p data-block-key=\"7c0di\">NPR <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/01/16/nx-s1-5262424/fcc-trump-tv-licenses-rosenworcel\">reported</a> that, shortly before leaving office, then-FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed complaints about appearances by Kamala Harris on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and about how ABC News moderated the debate between Trump and former President Joe Biden.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ae69\">“We don’t have the luxury of doing anything other than making very, very clear that this agency and its licensing authority should not be weaponized in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said. “This agency should not be the president’s speech police and this agency shouldn’t be journalism’s censor-in-chief.”</p><p data-block-key=\"efm03\">Rosenworcel also <a href=\"https://www.phillyvoice.com/fcc-dismisses-petition-fox-29-license-renewal-complaint-6abc/\">dismissed</a> a complaint against a Philadelphia Fox station for allegedly promoting lies about election fraud in the 2020 election.</p><p data-block-key=\"f55g8\">Carr took over as FCC chair on Jan. 20, and reinstated the complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC two days later. In a statement, the agency said that the complaints had been dismissed “prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record,” <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/22/fcc-reinstates-complaints-abc-cbs-nbc\">according to The Guardian</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7sdj0\">Carr had <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fcc-commissioner-accuses-media-ratings-provider-of-censorship/\">previously demonstrated</a> his willingness to target news outlets based on alleged bias, and he has supported Trump’s calls for NBC, CBS and ABC to lose their broadcast licenses over their alleged mistreatment of him, NPR<a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/11/17/nx-s1-5193064/fcc-chair-brendan-carr-trump\"> reported</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP23172686742019.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5mjqq\">The Federal Communications Commission’s Brendan Carr testifies during an oversight hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in June 2023.</p>",
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"ABC News",
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"Chilling Statement"
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{
"title": "Kari Lake targets press as senior adviser for U.S. Agency for Global Media",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kari-lake-targets-press-as-senior-adviser-for-us-agency-for-global-media/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-01T21:23:37.153234Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-04T20:18:50.120862Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-04T19:09:52.647761Z",
"date": "2025-07-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uwxu3\">After President Donald Trump began his second term, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting her efforts in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"44h40\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"end4j\"><i>This article was first published on July 1, 2025.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"91i6j\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#July 22\">July 22, 2025 | Lake ends visa program for VOA journalists, criticizes editorial independence</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#June 25\">June 25, 2025 | Kari Lake urges Congress to eliminate Voice of America, gut oversight agency</a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uwxu3\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"ethfe\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"July 22\" name=\"July 22\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"hrh4j\">July 22, 2025 | Lake ends visa program for VOA journalists, criticizes editorial independence</h4><p data-block-key=\"d4aa6\">Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced during an <a href=\"https://americasvoice.news/video/FlcmdsLXRHSZhcc/?related=playlist\">interview</a> with the conservative channel Real America’s Voice on July 22, 2025, that she was ending the visa program used to hire foreign journalists employed by Voice of America.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s9gb\">“Over the past couple of decades, especially the past 15 years, this agency has turned into telling anti-American story,” Lake said. “This agency started hiring non-Americans — people from foreign countries — many people, hundreds upon hundreds, from countries that are hostile to America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f090a\">Lake went on to say that she was ending the J-1 visa program and cutting the workforce of the agency by 85%. “Our goal is to shut the entire agency down, as per the instructions of President Trump.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b6fbn\">She <a href=\"https://x.com/KariLake/status/1948152474856276266\">asserted</a> on the social platform X that “foreign influence has infiltrated the Voice of America,” baselessly claiming that some staffers pose a security risk. But VOA has recruited journalists from all over the world for decades, The Atlantic <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/08/kari-lake-deports-voice-of-america-journalists/683832/\">reported</a>, who may now face persecution, imprisonment or worse in their home nations as a result of their work in the U.S.</p><p data-block-key=\"edm7p\">Lake also <a href=\"https://x.com/KariLake/status/1948385289841316350\">lamented</a> the news outlet’s editorial independence from the administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ru8g\">“With the editorial firewall at Voice of America, they could go completely rogue, and the President couldn’t pick up the phone and stop them. There are no guardrails. There’s no editorial control,” Lake wrote. “This is a rogue, taxpayer funded agency, and we need to ensure that it’s no longer doing damage to America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bu3ab\">During an Aug. 25 hearing over litigation concerning her efforts to dismantle the federally funded broadcaster, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/08/26/nx-s1-5506283/judge-order-kari-lake-sworn-deposition-voice-of-america-oath-usagm\">ordered</a> Lake to submit to questioning under oath by Sept. 15, saying that her repeated failure to provide requested information was “verging on contempt of court.”</p><p data-block-key=\"65tej\">Lake has persisted in her multipronged efforts to dismantle the international broadcaster, most recently by attempting to fire its director, Mike Abramowitz. Lamberth <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278809/gov.uscourts.dcd.278809.76.0.pdf\">ruled</a> Aug. 28 that the action was unlawful, citing statutes that require a majority vote from the bipartisan board tasked with limiting political influence on federally funded newsrooms.</p><p data-block-key=\"67r8\">“This dispute arises from yet another twist in the saga of the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s efforts to dial back the operations of Voice of America contrary to statutory requirements,” Lamberth wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba1di\">He also granted an injunction barring Abramowitz’s removal without approval from the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which has not had a quorum since President Donald Trump removed six of its members in January.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"June 25\" name=\"June 25\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"uwxu3\">June 25, 2025 | Kari Lake urges Congress to eliminate Voice of America, gut oversight agency</h4><p data-block-key=\"bsdgt\">Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 25, 2025, and urged Congress to gut Voice of America and the other federally-funded news organizations that she oversees.</p><p data-block-key=\"32g8o\">During the <a href=\"https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/spies-lies-and-mismanagement-examining-the-u-s-agency-for-global-medias-downfall/\">hearing</a>, which was titled “Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall,” Lake said in her opening statement that USAGM was unsalvageable, later referring to it as “a rotten piece of fish.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5l6bt\">“Within days in my role as senior adviser, it became increasingly clear that reform was nearly impossible,” Lake said. “The agency was incompetent and mismanaged and deeply corrupt, politically biased and, frankly, a serious threat to our national security.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3oclg\">Lake went on to defend proposed cuts to the agency and the global news organizations it funds, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio y Televisión Martí. She also called on members of Congress to amend the laws mandating VOA’s existence.</p><p data-block-key=\"e26rv\">“What is going out on VOA airwaves — it’s outrageous, and it has to stop,” she said, adding that much of the reporting being published by VOA and other USAGM-funded outlets is “biased” and “corrupt.”</p><p data-block-key=\"322dn\">Lake’s statements mirrored <a href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114746687764542304\">those</a> <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/c61b2e99f685/\">made</a> <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/58c3a55600e1/\">by</a> President Donald Trump since at least 2023. In a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/#March%2014-2\">late-night executive order</a> on March 14, 2025, Trump eliminated all USAGM functions not required by law. The following day, the White House posted a news release that railed against “the Voice of Radical America” and the director of VOA confirmed that nearly the entire staff of the news organization had been suspended.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uduq\">A federal judge <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-america-trump-a1ed0ad37917055a1565da5325bd4fd8\">ordered</a> the administration to halt efforts to fire or furlough employees at the news agency at the end of March, and another judge <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/judge-trump-voice-of-america.html\">reversed</a> VOA’s closure April 22, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3m0g0\">Lake <a href=\"https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2025/04/25/kari-lakes-agency-appeals-voa-restart-ruling/83257698007/\">appealed</a> the ruling two days later, blocking operations at the outlet from restarting and, days before the June Congressional hearing, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/us/politics/voice-america-layoffs.html\">issued hundreds of termination notices</a> to VOA and USAGM staff.</p><p data-block-key=\"6pf2e\">The layoffs were rescinded June 27 after errors were discovered that could have derailed efforts to dismantle the organization, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/trump-voa-layoffs-errors.html\">according to The New York Times</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"cocac\">No news has been published on <a href=\"https://www.voanews.com/\">VOA’s website</a> since March.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25063688411091.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lf2ic\">Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"Alhurra",
"Alhurra-Iraq",
"Radio Free Asia",
"Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty",
"Radio y Televisión Martí",
"Sawa Iraq",
"Sawa Levant",
"Voice of America"
],
"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Chilling Statement"
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"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Illinois community journalist says fee for library meeting space is retaliatory",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/illinois-community-journalist-says-fee-for-library-meeting-space-is-retaliatory/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-12T20:27:43.743088Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-08-12T20:27:43.743088Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-08-12T20:18:54.796114Z",
"date": "2025-07-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Elmwood Park",
"longitude": -87.80923,
"latitude": 41.92114,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6sv5g\">In a move a community news editor called retaliation for his reporting, journalist Kevin Gosztola was notified on July 22, 2025, that he must now pay for previously free community meeting space at a public library in Elmwood Park, Illinois.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r9co\">Gosztola runs the <a href=\"https://www.elmwoodparkadvocate.org/\">Elmwood Park Advocate</a>, a Substack newsletter that covers local news in the Chicago suburb. (Full disclosure: Gosztola has also previously worked as a contractor for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project.)</p><p data-block-key=\"fcu7i\">In June and July, Gosztola hosted meetings with community members at the Elmwood Park Public Library to discuss local issues, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"4idbl\">When he first reserved the room to host the meeting, he said he filled out a form that asked him to check whether his organization was a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Gosztola described the Advocate as a nonprofit, but conceded it is not officially registered as such, and so he checked “no” on the form.</p><p data-block-key=\"29p03\">For the first two meetings, Gosztola said he was not asked to pay a fee to reserve the library rooms to host his meetings.</p><p data-block-key=\"8evcr\">But when Gosztola tried to reserve the same room for an August meeting, he said the library director, Michael Consiglio, notified him via email July 22 that he would need to pay $100.</p><p data-block-key=\"5g1ju\">“I would like to inform you that I am waiving any previous charges that may have been incurred during past reservations but were not invoiced. This gesture is being extended as a courtesy,” Consiglio said in the email, which was reviewed by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"atk42\">Gosztola said he believes the change is in retaliation for the newsletter’s perceived alignment with local opposition political candidates and the mistaken belief that it will focus on electing them in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"clpu5\">“They’re infringing upon my access to the meeting room as a journalist, which I’ve been using to further my newsgathering activities,” Gosztola told the Tracker. “They think that this newsletter is some kind of a threat to them politically, that it will be used to help furnish and support opposition candidates when elections come around in the town.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8lnka\">Consiglio disputed Gosztola’s characterization. “I want to state unequivocally that these claims are entirely unfounded and without merit,” he wrote the Tracker. “The decision to enforce the policy had nothing to do with the content of Mr. Gosztola’s reporting or his political views. It was prompted solely by community concerns and my duty to apply Library policies fairly and without exception.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oj5b\">Gosztola said he met on July 28 with Consiglio, who told him that a group of people, including library board President Chris Pesko, had pressured Consiglio to begin charging Gosztola for using the room. Pesko did not reply to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2h7u6\">Consiglio acknowledged to the Tracker that “several concerned residents” contacted him in mid-July, questioning why Gosztola and the Advocate were allowed to use the library’s meeting space without paying a fee.</p><p data-block-key=\"uief\">“After reviewing the Library’s publicly posted Meeting Room Policy, I concluded that the standard fee must be applied consistently to all individuals and organizations that do not meet the definition of a community-based nonprofit,” Consiglio said.</p><p data-block-key=\"93mgi\">Gosztola was asked to pay the fee, Consiglio said, because the Advocate is not a recognized nonprofit.</p><p data-block-key=\"c9qgn\">The library policy, last updated in 2024, <a href=\"https://elmwoodparklibrary.org/sitemedia/documents/about-eppl/library-policies/operating/EPPL_Meeting_Room_Policy_2024.pdf\">says</a> that while Elmwood Park government agencies and nonprofit community groups do not have to pay to reserve rooms, “for-profit organizations” must pay $100 per hour to use the space.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqatf\">Gosztola said that although the Advocate is not an officially registered nonprofit, it also isn’t accurate to call it a for-profit organization. The newsletter is free to subscribers, he said, and it has received less than $100 in donations. “I don’t make a lot as a journalist,” he added.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sr8jt\">The Elmwood Park Advocate, a Substack newsletter for the Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park, Illinois, was notified on July 22, 2025, that it will be charged for use of the local library’s meeting space, a move it believes is retaliatory.</p>",
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{
"title": "WSJ reporter pulled from press pool in retaliation for Epstein article",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wsj-reporter-pulled-from-press-pool-in-retaliation-for-epstein-article/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-23T15:48:54.623220Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-23T15:48:54.623220Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-23T15:30:53.528801Z",
"date": "2025-07-21",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i1434\">The Wall Street Journal was removed from the White House press pool on July 21, 2025, in retaliation for the paper’s exclusive reporting on a letter allegedly written in 2003 by President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier charged with sex trafficking of minors.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ssnp\">A July 17 Journal <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=hp_lead_pos7\">article</a> described entries in a leatherbound book compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, including a letter allegedly from Trump that was typed within the drawn outline of a woman and included the sign-off, “may every day be another wonderful secret.” No copy of the letter was included in the article.</p><p data-block-key=\"fptlm\">Trump immediately took to his social platform, Truth Social, to <a href=\"https://taps.pressfreedomtracker.us/post/e47d09a0c23b/\">refute</a> the reporting and condemn the newspaper and the editor behind the article. On July 18, the president followed through on threats to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/media-in-the-courthouse/#July-18-2025-WSJ\">sue the Journal</a> and News Corp — the paper’s parent company — as well as its founder Rupert Murdoch and its CEO Robert Thomson.</p><p data-block-key=\"d34i8\">A spokesperson for the paper’s publisher, Dow Jones, <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/business/media/trump-sues-wall-street-journal-publisher-dow-jones-over-jeffrey-epstein-article-0257afee\">told the Journal</a>, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2aju6\">The Wall Street Journal’s White House correspondent, Tarini Parti, was then booted from the press pool for Trump’s planned trip to Scotland from July 25-29. Politico <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/journal-removed-white-house-pool-epstein-00465548?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR5jfP1b7JBtBEvtH0zaLtR0UiZRzdtR3VySq3zh-lj6QTGGKKtgqrumM4n1yA_aem_jXROFLRL1lzfwtwGlhXZ4w\">reported</a> that Parti was set to serve as the print pooler for the final two days of the trip and was removed even though she was not an author on the Epstein article.</p><p data-block-key=\"efnjr\">The White House had previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/white-house-wrests-control-of-presidential-press-pool-from-correspondents/\">wrested control</a> of the presidential press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association in February, breaking with more than a century of practice.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tvfn\">In a statement to Politico, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that no news outlets are guaranteed special access to the president in his private workspaces.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cu7c\">“Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,” Leavitt said. “Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eriih\">A White House spokesperson declined to comment to Politico concerning whether the Journal would be barred from further press pools as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ro1q\">Dow Jones declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Parti did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"au28p\">The WHCA criticized the move in a statement, saying it is a clear attempt to punish a news outlet for coverage it doesn’t like.</p><p data-block-key=\"25rlj\">“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media,” wrote Weijia Jiang, CBS News correspondent and the association’s president. “We strongly urge the White House to restore the Wall Street Journal to its previous position in the pool and aboard Air Force One for the President’s upcoming trip to Scotland.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45d5j\">Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, also condemned the decision. “It’s highly disturbing that a U.S. president has so little respect for the First Amendment that he’s willing to punish news outlets that don’t toe the line,” Seth Stern, FPF’s advocacy director, said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25202732291699.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djcwu\">White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2025. She announced that day that The Wall Street Journal had been pulled from the press pool for the president’s trip to Scotland.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"border_point": null,
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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},
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"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: White House"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
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"Tarini Parti (The Wall Street Journal)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Celebrity commentator subpoenaed by Blake Lively for communications",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/celebrity-commentator-subpoenaed-by-blake-lively-for-communications/",
"first_published_at": "2025-08-08T15:25:44.799231Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-15T16:20:25.342232Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-15T16:20:25.155293Z",
"date": "2025-07-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"irb89\">Commentator and gossip columnist Perez Hilton was subpoenaed on July 19, 2025, in a federal district court in New York, New York, by actor Blake Lively for communications with actor Justin Baldoni and his production company.</p><p data-block-key=\"bevb1\">In December 2024, Lively <a href=\"https://lawandcrime.com/analysis/off-screen-legal-drama-continues-for-it-ends-with-us-stars-despite-judge-dismissing-justin-baldonis-case-against-blake-lively/\">sued</a> Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios and various associates for sexual harassment, retaliation and breach of contract. She alleges that the defendants launched a retaliatory publicity campaign during the release of the movie “It Ends With Us,” in which the two actors costarred and which Baldoni directed.</p><p data-block-key=\"h96d\">The campaign’s goal, according to the <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/1/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">complaint</a>, was to prevent Lively from speaking out about harassment and other misconduct by Baldoni and the CEO of Wayfarer on the set of the film.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mkfg\">In January, Baldoni filed his own claims against Lively, <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69550325/1/wayfarer-studios-llc-v-lively/\">accusing her</a> of extortion and defamation. Those claims were <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/296/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">dismissed</a> in June.</p><p data-block-key=\"d16i1\">Hilton has posted extensive coverage, on both his site PerezHilton.com and <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@PerezHilton\">on YouTube</a>, about the legal fight between Lively and Baldoni.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ta1q\">On July 19, Lively <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/565/1/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">subpoenaed</a> Hilton under his legal name Mario Lavandeira, demanding any communications with Baldoni and his associates about Lively and the film and any evidence of an agreement with the defendants about related coverage on his social media channels.</p><p data-block-key=\"flp4g\">Lively <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/521/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">argues</a> that the defendants coordinated with content creators to distribute “negative and derogatory content about Ms. Lively and her family.”</p><p data-block-key=\"af06\">Hilton filed a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70982970/1/in-re-mario-lavandeira-jr/\">motion to quash</a> the subpoena on July 28, arguing that he is protected by both the First Amendment and, as a Nevada resident, the state’s reporter’s shield law.</p><p data-block-key=\"1u5rc\">In his filing, Hilton called the subpoena “a fishing expedition that chills journalistic freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dsgpl\">“I anticipate that the subpoenaing party may attempt to characterize me as merely a ‘content creator’ or social media personality,” Hilton wrote. “That framing is inaccurate and misleading. I am a journalist — a globally recognized one — with a decades-long track record of reporting on matters of public interest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c7ecl\">“For the record, I have not been paid by Justin Baldoni. I have not been paid by any of the Wayfarer defendants. I have not been paid by anyone to cover this litigation,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"ch9jd\">Hilton also <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/510/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/\">requested</a> that the court enter a protective order requiring Lively to request permission before issuing any more subpoenas to third parties. Lively has also subpoenaed at least one other <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/youtuber-subpoenaed-by-blake-lively-for-communications-with-justin-baldoni/\">online commentator</a> directly, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/blake-lively-subpoenas-google-for-journalists-account-information\">subpoenaed Google</a> for 16 content creators’ account information.</p><p data-block-key=\"8rh9l\">“I will not be deterred from doing my job by her harassment,” Hilton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"ekasb\">Lively’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Hilton_subpoena.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"amg30\">A portion of a July 19, 2025, subpoena to commentator Perez Hilton under his legal name, Mario Lavandeira, from actor Blake Lively for communications with actor Justin Baldoni and his production company.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"updates": [
"(2025-09-12 16:01:00+00:00) Blake Lively drops subpoena of celebrity commentator"
],
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
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"Perez Hilton (PerezHilton.com)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Cincinnati photojournalist arrested as protest spills across bridge to Kentucky",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-photojournalist-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-25T14:24:36.477289Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-31T14:01:18.342529Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-31T14:01:18.192600Z",
"date": "2025-07-17",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Covington",
"longitude": -84.50855,
"latitude": 39.08367,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x51dd\">Two journalists for the Cincinnati alternative newsweekly CityBeat were arrested while documenting a protest across the bridge connecting the Ohio city with Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"db2vr\">Demonstrators had gathered at a vigil in Cincinnati in support of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/egyptian-former-journalist-jailed-in-ohio-after-us-revokes-asylum/\">Ayman Soliman</a>, an Egyptian immigrant and imam who was detained by immigration authorities July 9, <a href=\"https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-07-18/covington-police-arrest-at-anti-ice-march-across-roebling-bridge\">according to local NPR affiliate WVXU</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b9eq\">After the rally, dozens of protesters marched to the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, crossing from Ohio to Kentucky. Within minutes, they were confronted by Covington police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"4iumc\">CityBeat photo intern Lucas Griffith and investigative reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-reporter-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky\">Madeline Fening</a> were documenting the protest and were among the first individuals detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"5is84\">In <a href=\"https://x.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303\">footage</a> captured by WVXU reporter Nick Swartsell, multiple Covington Police Department vehicles can be seen driving toward the advancing line of protesters. In <a href=\"https://youtu.be/bmLyJOvYNBQ?t=958\">body-camera footage</a> released by the department, officers are heard ordering protesters to move off the roadway and onto the sidewalk multiple times over approximately 90 seconds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx\">https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx</a></p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 2025</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x51dd\">In Swartsell’s footage, protesters are seen beginning to comply while officers advance toward the crowd. After one individual is seen being led away in handcuffs, an officer moves toward a woman in a white shirt who is filming on her cellphone, confirmed to be Fening. As an officer pulls her hands behind her back, she can be heard identifying herself as a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"efu2r\">“Hey! She’s press! She’s press! She’s a reporter!” Swartsell calls out to the officer as he moves toward them. A second officer tells him to get back while Fening is seen being pulled backward toward the police vehicles with her arms behind her back.</p><p data-block-key=\"eg8nk\">Moments later, a man carrying multiple professional cameras — believed to be Griffith — is seen being led down the bridge with his arms held behind his back by a third officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"40dkn\">Fening and Griffith were each charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse, obstructing a highway, obstructing emergency responders, disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, as well as rioting, a felony. Griffith was additionally charged with resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"b1ep9\">Both journalists were arraigned July 18 and released on a $2,500 bond, the Cincinnati Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/18/reporters-at-roebling-bridge-protest-should-get-no-charges-experts-say/85279815007/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1ka5\">NBC television affiliate WLWT <a href=\"https://www.wlwt.com/article/journalists-facing-charges-after-covering-roebling-protests/65454195\">reported</a> that, when pressed by the station, Kenton County prosecutor Rob Sanders said he views Fening and Griffith’s role as journalists as irrelevant to the charges against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"2i6vu\">“We’ll be evaluating it like we would any other civilian, no matter what their line of work, or what profession they are engaged in, it doesn’t matter to us when we evaluate the evidence,” Sanders said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4o28s\">During a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bmLyJOvYNBQ\">news conference</a> about the Covington Police Department’s response to the protest, Mayor Ron Washington described it as a “high-tension and chaotic environment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"37ull\">“We fully support the right to peacefully assemble. At the same time, we support our police officers who are often placed in incredible, difficult, fast-moving situations,” Washington said. “But any use of force must be lawful and measured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bu2n\">When asked during the conference about the arrests of the CityBeat journalists, Police Chief Brian Valenti alleged that Fening did not have press credentials or an ID on her when she was taken into custody. He added that he didn’t have any additional information on Griffith’s arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8f4u\">CityBeat defended its journalists in a <a href=\"https://x.com/CityBeatCincy/status/1946328445954265330\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X on July 18.</p><p data-block-key=\"7d8aa\">“CityBeat is fully supportive of its two staff members who were arrested in the course of their reporting on the Roebling Bridge protest,” the statement read. “Their commitment to journalistic integrity and professionalism is emblematic of the press freedoms the First Amendment is designed to protect, and we fully anticipate a complete vindication of their rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4vu90\">Editor-in-chief Ashley Moor declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, stating that she — along with Fening and Griffith — was advised not to speak further about the incident while the charges against them are pending.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjjl4\">During a July 23 hearing, the Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/23/prosecutors-drop-felonies-against-journalists-arrested-at-ice-protest/85337197007/\">reported</a>, prosecutors withdrew the felony rioting charges against Fening and Griffith. The journalists, who <a href=\"https://x.com/madeline_fening/status/1947772894517264650/photo/1\">are being represented</a> by attorneys with the ACLU of Kentucky, are next due in court Aug. 14.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ir59j\">Anti-deportation protesters marched across the Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025. Two CityBeat journalists were arrested by Covington police while covering the demonstration.</p>",
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"name": "Kentucky",
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{
"title": "Cincinnati reporter arrested as protest spills across bridge to Kentucky",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-reporter-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky/",
"first_published_at": "2025-07-25T14:19:28.537209Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-07-25T14:19:28.537209Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-07-25T14:10:45.721260Z",
"date": "2025-07-17",
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"city": "Covington",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0uzww\">Two journalists for the Cincinnati alternative newsweekly CityBeat were arrested while documenting a protest across the bridge connecting the Ohio city with Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"g57b\">Demonstrators had gathered at a vigil in Cincinnati in support of Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant and imam who was detained by immigration authorities July 9, <a href=\"https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-07-18/covington-police-arrest-at-anti-ice-march-across-roebling-bridge\">according to local NPR affiliate WVXU</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vlkb\">After the rally, dozens of protesters marched to the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, crossing from Ohio to Kentucky. Within minutes, they were confronted by Covington police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"cpgsr\">CityBeat investigative reporter Madeline Fening and photo intern <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cincinnati-photojournalist-arrested-as-protest-spills-across-bridge-to-kentucky\">Lucas Griffith</a> were documenting the protest and were among the first individuals detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnq5\">In <a href=\"https://x.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303\">footage</a> captured by WVXU reporter Nick Swartsell, multiple Covington Police Department vehicles can be seen driving toward the advancing line of protesters. In <a href=\"https://youtu.be/bmLyJOvYNBQ?t=958\">body-camera footage</a> released by the department, officers are heard ordering protesters to move off the roadway and onto the sidewalk multiple times over approximately 90 seconds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx\">https://t.co/3kQfsAt8Jx</a></p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1945998758619058303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 2025</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0uzww\">In Swartsell’s footage, protesters are seen beginning to comply while officers advance toward the crowd. After one individual is seen being led away in handcuffs, an officer moves toward a woman in a white shirt who is filming on her cellphone, confirmed to be Fening. As an officer pulls her hands behind her back, she can be heard identifying herself as a reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"p16v\">“Hey! She’s press! She’s press! She’s a reporter!” Swartsell calls out to the officer as he moves toward them. A second officer tells him to get back while Fening is seen being pulled backward toward the police vehicles with her arms behind her back.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tlfn\">Moments later, a man carrying multiple professional cameras — believed to be Griffith — is seen being led down the bridge with his arms held behind his back by a third officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"63g78\">Fening and Griffith were each charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse, obstructing a highway, obstructing emergency responders, disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, as well as rioting, a felony. Griffith was additionally charged with resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"34kmc\">Both journalists were arraigned July 18 and released on a $2,500 bond, the Cincinnati Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/18/reporters-at-roebling-bridge-protest-should-get-no-charges-experts-say/85279815007/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fj89q\">NBC television affiliate WLWT <a href=\"https://www.wlwt.com/article/journalists-facing-charges-after-covering-roebling-protests/65454195\">reported</a> that, when pressed by the station, Kenton County prosecutor Rob Sanders said he views Fening and Griffith’s role as journalists as irrelevant to the charges against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"79df3\">“We’ll be evaluating it like we would any other civilian, no matter what their line of work, or what profession they are engaged in, it doesn’t matter to us when we evaluate the evidence,” Sanders said.</p><p data-block-key=\"80cpc\">During a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bmLyJOvYNBQ\">news conference</a> about the Covington Police Department’s response to the protest, Mayor Ron Washington described it as a “high-tension and chaotic environment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2nsos\">“We fully support the right to peacefully assemble. At the same time, we support our police officers who are often placed in incredible, difficult, fast-moving situations,” Washington said. “But any use of force must be lawful and measured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bv8hu\">When asked during the conference about the arrests of the CityBeat journalists, Police Chief Brian Valenti alleged that Fening did not have press credentials or an ID on her when she was taken into custody. He added that he didn’t have any additional information on Griffith’s arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rc1c\">CityBeat defended its journalists in a <a href=\"https://x.com/CityBeatCincy/status/1946328445954265330\">statement</a> posted to the social platform X on July 18.</p><p data-block-key=\"beun0\">“CityBeat is fully supportive of its two staff members who were arrested in the course of their reporting on the Roebling Bridge protest,” the statement read. “Their commitment to journalistic integrity and professionalism is emblematic of the press freedoms the First Amendment is designed to protect, and we fully anticipate a complete vindication of their rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3gqlo\">Editor-in-chief Ashley Moor declined to comment when reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, stating that she — along with Fening and Griffith — was advised not to speak further about the incident while the charges against them are pending.</p><p data-block-key=\"1q61l\">During a July 23 hearing, the Enquirer <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/07/23/prosecutors-drop-felonies-against-journalists-arrested-at-ice-protest/85337197007/\">reported</a>, prosecutors withdrew the felony rioting charges against Fening and Griffith. The journalists, who <a href=\"https://x.com/madeline_fening/status/1947772894517264650/photo/1\">are being represented</a> by attorneys with the ACLU of Kentucky, are next due in court Aug. 14.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"feh01\">Anti-deportation protesters marched across the Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, on July 17, 2025. Two CityBeat journalists were arrested by Covington police while covering the demonstration.</p>",
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