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{
"title": "Photojournalist detained while documenting NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T18:41:50.952263Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:37:35.834835Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-18T19:37:35.732200Z",
"date": "2024-04-15",
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"city": "New York",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5n9v\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was repeatedly shoved and briefly detained by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"4j211\">Fedorova told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was on assignment for FreedomNews TV covering a protest that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u7od\">Protesters and police were engaged in what Fedorova described as a game of cat and mouse, as officers attempted to prevent the demonstration from moving onto the bridge. Fedorova said officers repeatedly pushed her as she was filming while walking backward, nearly knocking her over.</p><p data-block-key=\"7kphh\">As a group of protesters made their way onto the bridge at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic, Fedorova told the Tracker she and fellow photojournalists <a href=\"/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/\">Jon Farina</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-nyc/\">Neil Constantine</a> followed in order to continue their coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nqu2\">“The protesters were being chased by cops on bicycles, and a group of them climbed over to the pedestrian side in order to evade the bicycle unit,” Fedorova said.</p><p data-block-key=\"624ea\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000\">footage</a> captured by Farina, he and Fedorova can be heard identifying themselves as press. An officer responds that he understands but orders them to keep moving across the bridge.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">🚨NYPD officers temporarily detain Status Coup cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonFarinaPhoto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonFarinaPhoto</a>, who has covered over 40 Ceasefire protests in NYC and D.C for Status Coup. "I can't climb over [the fence], I've got too much equipment on," Jon told officers. They eventually un-cuffed him/let him go... <a href=\"https://t.co/gSIzB5mWuc\">pic.twitter.com/gSIzB5mWuc</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5n9v\">After most of the protesters had climbed the fence or been arrested, Fedorova said she decided to climb over the fence as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"br17c\">“As I approached the fence and had my back turned to the cops — on my backpack I have a patch that says ‘PRESS’ — one of them grabbed me and pulled me by the hair backwards,” Fedorova said. “I identified myself as press and showed him my press badge, but they cuffed me and then cuffed Jon Farina.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dv5he\">Fedorova said both she and Farina identified as press multiple times, but were detained in zip-tie cuffs for approximately 10 minutes. The officers called the department’s Legal Bureau, she said, which advised them to release the journalists without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkjjg\">“There’s a pattern of what seems to be ignorance or lack of understanding of what the press does or the rights of the press,” Fedorova said. “Sometimes it’s like some of the officers have never seen a press badge before or haven’t been educated as to what that is.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e9fp8\">She told the Tracker she plans to file a complaint with the deputy commissioner of public information. The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Fedorova_arrest.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"65gr4\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova, right, was briefly detained and handcuffed by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge on April 15, 2024. She was released without charges.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"status_of_charges": "not charged",
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"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in NYC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-nyc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:29:20.681998Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:36:11.390695Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-18T19:36:11.287020Z",
"date": "2024-04-15",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7fq8e\">Neil Constantine, a photojournalist for the monthly newspaper The Indypendent, was arrested by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"41lbh\">Constantine told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived to document the protest as demonstrators gathered in front of the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan at around 2 p.m. Protesters then made their way toward City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b3o1f\">Police had blocked most entrances to the bridge, Constantine said, but a group of at least 100 protesters found a way onto the roadway at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic. Constantine said he followed the demonstrators to continue his coverage and was toward the back of the group.</p><p data-block-key=\"3rua1\">Bicycle officers with the Strategic Response Group followed the protesters as they marched across the bridge, and when protesters began running to evade arrest, Constantine said he remained behind.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ood8\">“Two officers on bikes pulled up and told me to stop and that I was under arrest,” Constantine said. “I wasn’t given an order to get off the bridge or disperse or anything, I was just arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aumi5\">Constantine told the Tracker that he identified himself as a journalist to the officers and that both his city-issued and National Press Photographers Association credentials were visible. One of the officers told him that he didn’t care and that he was trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"9f3e0\">The photojournalist was placed in zip-tie cuffs and loaded into a van with eight demonstrators. Two other photojournalists, <a href=\"/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/\">Jon Farina</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">Olga Fedorova</a>, were briefly detained by police after the majority of protesters had been arrested or had successfully climbed over a fence to the bike lane.</p><p data-block-key=\"7964v\">Constantine said he was then taken to police headquarters in Manhattan for processing. Throughout his booking process, he identified himself as a member of the press, which he said seemed to surprise some of the officers, one of whom asked, “Wait, really? Was your pass visible?”</p><p data-block-key=\"b8u73\">“I ended up being let out first, or close to first, even though I wasn’t the first one in,” Constantine told the Tracker. “At the summons desk, when they were trying to get my paperwork in order, one of the officers told a higher-up, ‘Oh, he’s the one.’ And the other said, ‘He’s that one? He needs to go. You need to get him out of here now.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"21bih\">The photojournalist was released at approximately 7:30 p.m. with a summons for walking on the roadway. His initial appearance hearing is scheduled for May 3. Constantine said he was able to resume his coverage, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheIndypendent/status/1780039621700636862\">filming</a> as demonstrators were released and began protesting again.</p><p data-block-key=\"49a7e\">Constantine told the Tracker that police aggression toward protests and the journalists covering them has ramped up in recent months.</p><p data-block-key=\"665k6\">“Since January, they’ve started cracking down on many aspects of protesting. They’ve started going after you if you don’t have a permit and start using a microphone and now also for being in the street,” Constantine told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"d2v19\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nkuaw\">Demonstrators attend a protest in New York City on April 12, 2024, demanding a cease-fire and the end of Israeli attacks on Gaza. Neil Constantine, a photojournalist for The Indypendent, was arrested while covering a related protest a few days later.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"status_of_charges": "charges pending",
"release_date": "2024-04-15",
"detention_date": "2024-04-15",
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"name": "New York",
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"protest"
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"blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways"
],
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Status Coup photojournalist briefly detained while covering NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/status-coup-photojournalist-briefly-detained-while-covering-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:13:42.934365Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:35:22.812948Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-18T19:35:22.681943Z",
"date": "2024-04-15",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nd69a\">Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina was briefly detained by New York Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on April 15, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"cn3pi\">Farina told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he documented the protest as demonstrators made their way from Wall Street in Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge, shutting it down. The demonstration was part of a national campaign to block roads on Tax Day to disrupt economies and pressure leaders into advocating for a cease-fire, The New York Times <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-palestine-gaza-protest.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"71nd\">Police had blocked most entrances to the bridge, Farina said, but a group of approximately 100 protesters found a way onto the roadway at around 3:30 p.m., blocking vehicular traffic. Farina said he and freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova followed the demonstrators to continue their coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"aonpn\">Bicycle officers with the Strategic Response Group followed the protesters as they marched across the bridge, then began to arrest them one by one.</p><p data-block-key=\"67tbl\">“I stayed behind with Olga to document as the rest of the protest continued forward,” Farina said. “The officers started telling us to move along, and they were in Olga’s face trying to prevent her from documenting the arrests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ap9g2\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000\">footage</a> captured by Farina, he and Fedorova can be heard identifying themselves as press, and an officer responds that he understands but orders them to keep moving across the bridge. A few moments later, another officer orders Farina to climb over the fence to the pedestrian side.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">🚨NYPD officers temporarily detain Status Coup cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonFarinaPhoto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonFarinaPhoto</a>, who has covered over 40 Ceasefire protests in NYC and D.C for Status Coup. "I can't climb over [the fence], I've got too much equipment on," Jon told officers. They eventually un-cuffed him/let him go... <a href=\"https://t.co/gSIzB5mWuc\">pic.twitter.com/gSIzB5mWuc</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1779966316100604000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nd69a\">Farina said he responded that he had too much equipment and that he didn’t want to risk damaging it, so he told the officer that he’d walk to the end of the bridge. When Fedorova saw that he wasn’t climbing over she also stayed to walk with him, Farina told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mb9g\">As they neared the end of the bridge, officers boxed in <a href=\"/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">Fedorova</a> and handcuffed her, despite her protestations that she was a member of the press documenting the demonstration. Moments later, Farina was detained and cuffed with zip ties as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"d56sp\">“We’re in the street documenting because there’s action happening — officers are making arrests or protesters are marching. We’re not there for no reason,” Farina told the Tracker. “If we can’t be there to properly document the arrests, then people aren’t going to see the truth of what’s happening on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c386t\">In an interview with the Tracker, Fedorova said the two of them were detained for approximately 10 minutes. The officers called the department’s Legal Bureau, she said, which advised them to release the journalists without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"892ch\">Farina contended that the lack of charges shows that they shouldn’t have been detained in the first place and that such actions are part of a larger problem with the NYPD’s response to demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0ld1\">“This is an issue and it’s been growing each week, every protest. The police, the violence and the chaos they cause, and the assaulting of journalists and the detaining of journalists, it’s just been getting worse,” Farina said. “I’m hoping we can fight back against this because it’s getting out of control.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bnpe0\">Farina told the Tracker he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-police-twice-while-documenting-nyc-protest/\">assaulted</a> while covering a separate pro-Palestinian protest on March 28. The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Farina2x.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3t529\">In screenshots of footage captured by a bystander, New York Police Department officers detain Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina while he was covering a pro-Palestinian protest. He was released without charges after approximately 10 minutes.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist shoved by police twice while documenting NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-police-twice-while-documenting-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:08:47.444038Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-18T19:34:52.283123Z",
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"date": "2024-03-28",
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"city": "New York",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yqwbi\">Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina was shoved multiple times by a police officer while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on March 28, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"2p95u\">Farina told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10owcIuZ2mo&t=6400s\">reporting live</a> on the demonstration held outside Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, where Democrats were holding a reelection <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/democrats-election-2024-fundraiser-new-york-ebfbc81d3b70f38745ae00c7ce6a382d\">campaign fundraiser</a> for President Joe Biden.</p><p data-block-key=\"6d5fc\">Demonstrators were marching in the street and blocking traffic, Farina said, when police began making arrests, targeting one of the organizers.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ng9d\">“I’m in the street documenting, my credentials are out and I’m obviously filming,” Farina told the Tracker. “A cop grabs me by my jacket and shoves me back. I tell him that I’m press and that I can be here to document. And he just kept screaming in my face, ‘Get on the sidewalk!’”</p><p data-block-key=\"as99t\">As the march continued, Farina said he looked for the officer in order to obtain his name and badge number. Once he saw him, the photojournalist said he walked into a crosswalk that the officer was nearing and filmed his badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"eft8b\">“He grabbed me again by my shirt, by my jacket, and lifted me up off the street and pushed me all the way back onto the sidewalk,” Farina said. “He bruised up my arm from that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3uh42\">In Farina’s <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/10owcIuZ2mo?feature=shared&t=6480\">footage of the second encounter</a>, the officer can be heard threatening the photojournalist with arrest the next time he steps foot in the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"78sge\">Farina told the Tracker that the incident was symptomatic of a police crackdown on protests and the press that covers them.</p><p data-block-key=\"ac7ud\">“This is just getting worse. NYPD is getting worse. Attacks on journalists are getting worse,” he said. “It’s the same strategy to eliminate the witness so that there’s no documentation, no proof of crimes being committed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"esd9r\">At a protest a few days later, Farina said he approached a police captain to identify himself as a journalist and “set some ground rules” for covering the protest, telling the officer that he had been assaulted a few days prior.</p><p data-block-key=\"7r8m6\">“He kind of just said, ‘Oh, when things are getting crazy and chaotic, we don’t know who’s who, and we can’t distinguish who’s press and who’s not,’” Farina recounted. “I said, ‘Well that’s why we have our credentials out. Once you see these and our cameras, you should know we’re there documenting and just leave us alone.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"b61uo\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0v7jf\">A New York Police Department officer yells at Status Coup photojournalist Jon Farina moments before grabbing and shoving the journalist backward during a protest on March 28, 2024. The same officer grabbed Farina a second time that day, bruising his arm.</p>",
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
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{
"title": "Tennessee reporter arrested while covering student protest against Israel-Gaza war",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-reporter-arrested-while-covering-student-protest-against-israel-gaza-war/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-28T18:33:43.195920Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-29T16:09:55.698142Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-29T16:09:55.547208Z",
"date": "2024-03-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Nashville",
"longitude": -86.78444,
"latitude": 36.16589,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v3guo\">Eli Motycka, a reporter for the alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene, was arrested while covering a student protest at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee on March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against the journalist was dropped after a few hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"bn98v\">Motycka told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived on campus around noon to report on an ongoing sit-in student protesters were holding at the Kirkland Hall administrative building in opposition to the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"bshej\">The Vanderbilt Hustler, the university’s student-run newspaper, <a href=\"https://vanderbilthustler.com/2024/03/26/inside-kirkland-hall-vanderbilt-divest-coalition-protestors-report-inhumane-treatment-amid-student-suspensions-and-arrest-of-reporter/\">reported</a> that the demonstrators were calling on the administration to allow the student government to vote on participating in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"d03k6\">After calling and texting his press contacts at the university for comment, Motycka told the Tracker he went to one of the doors of the hall and spoke with a Vanderbilt University Police Department officer standing guard there.</p><p data-block-key=\"bv4b7\">“I asked if I could go inside, after identifying myself as a journalist. He told me that he was under orders not to let anyone in and that he wished he could let me in but he couldn’t,” Motycka said. “I went to other doors and talked to at least four officers and each of them told me different things: Some told me there was construction going on, some told me that the building was closed, some told me that they might be able to let me in later.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1dke9\">After his colleague, photographer Hamilton Matthew Masters, arrived on campus, Motycka said he spoke to a final VUPD officer through a door and asked who he should contact for comment or about being granted access to the building. He said that at no point was he told to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"43l1p\">At approximately 1:30 p.m., two officers approached the journalists, ordered Motycka to put his hands behind his back and told him he was under arrest for criminal trespassing.</p><p data-block-key=\"d7rmv\">In footage of the arrest captured by Masters, an officer can be heard telling Motycka that he had previously been told to leave under threat of arrest, which Motycka disputed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Scene reporter Eli Motycka (<a href=\"https://twitter.com/ejmotycka?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ejmotycka</a>) was arrested by Vanderbilt police while reporting on student protests. <a href=\"https://t.co/5HPcRHtI7H\">pic.twitter.com/5HPcRHtI7H</a></p>— Nashville Scene (@NashvilleScene) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NashvilleScene/status/1772700392058454389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v3guo\">“No, I haven’t been warned,” Motycka says. “I am here doing my job and I will happily leave, if someone warns me that I’m in danger of trespassing, to avoid all of this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ui3v\">The officers allowed Masters to take all of Motycka’s belongings before escorting him to a VUPD vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mp6a\">“I’m a credentialed member of the media. I’m a reporter for the Nashville Scene. I wasn’t warned today that I’d be taken off of this campus in handcuffs,” Motycka says in Masters’ footage. “I was here interviewing students. I was here witnessing a protest. And now it’s about me, I guess.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3jitb\">Motycka told the Tracker that he was taken to the Downtown Detention Center, where he was processed and fingerprinted. He was released shortly after 4 p.m. after a public defender informed him that Judicial Magistrate Timothy Lee had determined there was no probable cause and dropped the charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ftoe\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/scene-reporter-arrested/article_522c14b8-eba6-11ee-b344-ebb6b5f6f03e.html\">statement to the Scene</a>, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said, “This office will not prosecute a journalist for peacefully doing his or her job.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b1h7e\">Motycka’s arresting officer drove him back to campus soon after, Motycka said. The officer said he believed the arrest was justified and told Motycka that he would risk further arrest if he returned to campus without a legitimate purpose and authorization from the administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"4e7cp\">A different VUPD officer began following Motycka once he was returned to campus, he told the Tracker. Unclear whether Motycka could be rearrested, his editor advised him to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uorp\">In a written statement to the Tracker, a Vanderbilt University spokesperson said that Kirkland Hall was on lockdown and police were on “high alert” when Motycka repeatedly attempted to enter the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"9d6r8\">“It has long been the practice of Vanderbilt University to grant access to members of the media who request and receive clearance to be on campus,” the statement said. “In yesterday’s case, though the reporter made his presence known, he did not have permission to access locked administrative buildings, which are on private property.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a8614\">Motycka told the Tracker that he had never been told he needed clearance to be on campus. He added that while there are no pending charges, he is concerned about his ability to continue reporting on the university and the broader chilling effect of his arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"3cdkr\">“I definitely feel intimidated to go back to campus, because I’m not sure of whether and where I can and can’t be to do my job,” he told the Tracker. “I think it functions as an act of intimidation against the press and has a cooling effect on all reporters in Nashville who may want to report on Vanderbilt, who now feel that they could be arrested without warning.”</p><p data-block-key=\"97ggu\">D. Patrick Rodgers, the editor-in-chief of the Scene, expressed his dismay over Motycka’s arrest and his support for Motycka, Masters and Scene reporter Kelsey Beyeler for their coverage of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3euaa\">“It's alarming and disappointing that Vanderbilt University — with so many eyes on them as a result of ongoing student protests — would arrest a reporter in the process of doing his job,” Rodgers said. “We’ll have more coverage in the days to come.”</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tte6x\">Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka was arrested by Vanderbilt University Police while reporting on a student sit-in at the Tennessee campus on March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against him was dropped later that day.</p>",
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{
"title": "Missouri attorney general subpoenas Media Matters after report on X",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-18T16:37:53.784895Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sr2vu\">Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a civil investigative demand, a form of subpoena, to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Media Matters for America on March 25, 2024, for documents related to its reporting about the social platform X. A day later, Bailey filed a lawsuit in Missouri circuit court seeking to enforce his demand, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"aid31\">On Nov. 16, 2023, Media Matters published a <a href=\"https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle\">report</a> written by its investigative reporter Eric Hananoki that found advertisements for major brands appeared next to pro-Nazi posts on X. Following the report’s publication and a post on X by owner Elon Musk that appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-x-advertisers.html\">several</a> major companies <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/17/23965928/apple-x-ads-elon-musk-antisemitic-posts\">paused</a> their advertising on the platform.</p><p data-block-key=\"cp5lg\">The report touched off a <a href=\"https://www.mediaite.com/news/missouri-attorney-general-promises-elon-musk-hes-investigating-media-matters-over-nazi-report/\">firestorm</a> of response from X and from Republican politicians across the country. X filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454.1.0_1.pdf\">lawsuit</a> on Nov. 20 against both Media Matters and Hananoki, alleging that they had manipulated the platform’s algorithms to produce the report’s findings in order to harm X’s relationship with advertisers. (Media Matters filed a motion to dismiss X’s suit in March 2024.)</p><p data-block-key=\"drg8p\">Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also cited allegations of algorithm manipulation in a probe he initiated into “potential fraudulent activity,” issuing his own <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/\">civil investigative demand</a> on Dec. 1, 2023, that Media Matters turn over documents related to its reporting on X. Media Matters <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/media-matters-elon-musk-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-rcna129402\">sued</a> to block that demand and was granted a preliminary injunction against Paxton in April 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"cnk7i\">Bailey opened his investigation into Media Matters on Dec. 11, 2023, <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023.12.11-Notice-of-Investigation-MMFA-Final.pdf\">alleging</a> that it appeared to have used the “coordinated, inauthentic activity” described in X’s lawsuit “to solicit charitable donations from consumers.” He said that his office would look into whether this violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws, “including laws that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.” Bailey instructed the nonprofit to preserve all records related to the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"37psd\">Three days later, Bailey <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/attorney-general-bailey-directs-letter-to-advertisers-amidst-media-matters-investigation/\">announced</a> that he and then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (now serving as governor) had sent letters to several major companies that paused their advertising on X, including Apple, Disney, IBM and Sony, informing them of the investigation into Media Matters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4kd17\">Bailey then issued a civil investigative demand similar to Paxton’s and <a href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/ago.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55bd24fd8f5e7d3dc227d1072&id=db4680359b&e=5061322ab3__;!!EErPFA7f--AJOw!ETYd6-r89czF7zE17gLE1hiQGpb-d6nFvURvBmLd5C5hnpNE48q4-5B7kDa_RWdG0trenZqszeKvVFdR6_JbXWk$\">petitioned</a> a state court to enforce it, arguing that given Media Matters’ response to Paxton, it was unlikely to comply by his April 15 deadline.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nckc\">Bailey’s <a href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/ago.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55bd24fd8f5e7d3dc227d1072&id=b6ed931e46&e=5061322ab3__;!!EErPFA7f--AJOw!ETYd6-r89czF7zE17gLE1hiQGpb-d6nFvURvBmLd5C5hnpNE48q4-5B7kDa_RWdG0trenZqszeKvVFdRm4ayoAE$\">demand</a> included requests for Media Matters’ 2023 and 2024 donation records, documents associated with Hananoki’s reporting and materials “related to generating stories or content intended to cancel, deplatform, demonetize, or otherwise interfere with businesses located in Missouri, or utilized by Missouri residents,” among other records.</p><p data-block-key=\"1meec\">“My office has reason to believe Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers into pulling out of X, the last social media platform dedicated to free speech in America,” Bailey said in a <a href=\"https://ago.mo.gov/attorney-general-bailey-files-suit-against-media-matters-for-refusal-to-cooperate-with-investigation/\">news release</a>. “If there has been any attempt to defraud Missourians in order to trample on their free speech rights, I will root it out and hold bad actors accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9srir\">The organization has objected to Bailey’s demand in full. Media Matters President Angelo Carusone <a href=\"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/missouri-ag-sues-media-matters-in-lawsuit-echoing-elon-musks-complaints/\">told Ars Technica</a>, “This Missouri investigation is the latest in a transparent endeavor to squelch the First Amendment rights of researchers and reporters; it will have a chilling effect on news reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9p00r\">In a response to Bailey’s announcement of the suit on X, Elon Musk <a href=\"https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1772339333673972131\">wrote</a>: “Much appreciated! Media Matters is doing everything it can to undermine the First Amendment. Truly an evil organization.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dclkv\">Carusone, in the Ars Technica article, countered: “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Elon Musk has actually intensified his efforts to undermine free speech by enlisting Republican attorneys general across the country to initiate meritless, expensive, and harassing investigations against Media Matters in an attempt to punish critics.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hynhn\">Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in Washington, D.C., in March 2024. That month, he demanded documents from nonprofit Media Matters related to its reporting about the social platform X and accused it of manipulating X’s algorithms.</p>",
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{
"title": "Colorado council member sends threatening note to local weekly over reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-council-member-sends-threatening-note-to-local-weekly-over-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:59:39.596726Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-27T18:00:40.097763Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-27T18:00:39.999468Z",
"date": "2024-03-20",
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"city": "Ouray",
"longitude": -107.67145,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2vg5k\">Council member Peggy Lindsey of Ouray County, Colorado, mailed a threatening note to the Ouray County Plaindealer mid-March 2024, several weeks after the paper published a story detailing her texts about a high-profile sexual assault case.</p><p data-block-key=\"skea\">“What comes around goes around, and you haven’t seen yours yet, but it is coming,” Lindsey wrote in the note from a personalized notepad. “May your days be numbered.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fget0\">The story, written by Plaindealer co-Publisher Mike Wiggins, reported on city officials’ responses to the sexual assault, which allegedly occurred inside the home of the Ouray County police chief.</p><p data-block-key=\"2julm\">The note is the latest in an ongoing saga following the Plaindealer’s coverage of the case. On Jan. 18, 2024, a Colorado resident <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-resident-swipes-issues-of-local-weekly-covering-sexual-assault-case/\">stole</a> more than 200 copies of the paper after it published its first article on the allegations.</p><p data-block-key=\"5taui\">In an <a href=\"https://www.ouraynews.com/2024/03/20/councilors-threat-wont-work/\">account of the most recent incident</a>, the paper wrote that for his Feb. 21 story, Wiggins filed an open records request for communications by officials, including about the police chief before he was placed on paid administrative leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"6uivd\">The records Wiggins obtained revealed that Lindsey first sent the chief a text message following the allegations, in which she wrote, “And this 2 shall pass. I’ve been in the hot seat many times for many reasons. You will be ok.”</p><p data-block-key=\"duijv\">She then texted a friend questioning the chief’s ability to keep his job, writing “I doubt you’ll ever see him in uniform again. … It’s too small of a town to overcome this, I think.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qdjb\">Wiggins later wrote in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mikewiggins76/status/1770877492091298022\">thread</a> on X, formerly Twitter, that Lindsey had reached out to him before the records request was fulfilled, and asked him not to include the conversation with her friend, saying that it was a private conversation.</p><p data-block-key=\"9eg47\">“The text concerned public business and therefore was a matter of public record,” Wiggins said in a <a href=\"https://x.com/mikewiggins76/status/1770886377288151509?s=20\">tweet</a>. “The city wouldn’t have provided it to us otherwise. Lindsey was angry and said she would pull her advertising, which she did.”</p><p data-block-key=\"831s7\">Plaindealer co-Publisher Erin McIntyre, in her <a href=\"https://www.ouraynews.com/2024/03/20/councilors-threat-wont-work/\">explanation to readers</a>, wrote, “Our job requires us to act independently. That means when someone threatens us to try to affect the outcome of our reporting and prevent a story from being published, we need to move forward and do the job, because the priority is the public’s right to know. No matter how uncomfortable that may be sometimes, especially in a small community, it’s what we’re charged to do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4rjs1\">McIntyre and Wiggins were not able to comment at the time of publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"ajpc4\">Lindsey declined to answer questions about the note.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hi11s\">Screenshot of an editorial published by the Ouray County Plaindealer on March 20, 2024, with an accompanying photograph of what it described as an “ominous” note sent by a local council member to the Colorado paper.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
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{
"title": "Sacramento Bee columnist detained at pro-Palestinian protest at City Hall",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-columnist-detained-at-pro-palestinian-protest-at-city-hall/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-25T21:17:02.052277Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:14:44.142305Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:14:44.013744Z",
"date": "2024-03-19",
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"city": "Sacramento",
"longitude": -121.4944,
"latitude": 38.58157,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"keydz\">Robin Epley, an opinion columnist for The Sacramento Bee, was briefly detained while documenting a protest that disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting March 19, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1u7p\">In an <a href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article286982055.html\">account of the incident</a> published by the Bee, Epley wrote that a pro-Palestinian protest in the City Council chambers began after Mayor Darrell Steinberg introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Steinberg recessed the meeting and ordered the chambers to be cleared, but many people initially refused to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"4phti\">After about 90 minutes, by 10:37 p.m., Epley wrote, only a few dozen people remained and she noticed that she was the only journalist still observing the protest. “From experience, I know that’s a rare and potentially important position; I’d never relinquish it unless absolutely necessary,” Epley wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"54som\">Epley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that more than 50 police officers then entered the chambers, gave a final warning and began arresting the last 12 stragglers. Shortly after 10:50 p.m., Epley saw the officer who was overseeing the arrests point at her.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ndun\">“Surely, I thought, he was motioning to someone behind me?” Epley wrote. “By the time I realized no one was there, a couple of officers had already descended on my back, ripping my cellphone from my hand and locking me in a pair of black metal cuffs.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sac PD just tried to arrest me <a href=\"https://t.co/GvzRQi6fmw\">pic.twitter.com/GvzRQi6fmw</a></p>— Robin Epley (@ByRobinEpley) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobinEpley/status/1770328803564511274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"keydz\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobinEpley/status/1771211911842935192\">footage</a> Epley shared on social media, she can be heard asking the officers, “Are you really arresting me right now?”</p><p data-block-key=\"5bc\">Epley told the Tracker that she was wearing press credentials issued by the Bee and that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. After approximately 25 seconds, the officers uncuffed her and checked her press pass before allowing her to resume documenting the other arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"auppe\">“There is no reason, no action I took, nothing I said nor did that provoked these officers of the Sacramento Police Department to handcuff me,” Epley wrote. “Their actions alone resulted in the illegal detainment of a working and visibly credentialed journalist, no matter how short the duration of my time in their custody.”</p><p data-block-key=\"egavn\">David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the Bee that police have no business arresting members of the press, even if only for a few seconds.</p><p data-block-key=\"a6k6s\">“There is a disturbing trend around the country of journalists being arrested and prosecuted simply for being journalists,” Loy said. “Whether the arrest just happened for just a few minutes or someone is prosecuted, these are clear threats to press freedom and the First Amendment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dt6nd\">Epley told the Tracker that she is undaunted by the experience.</p><p data-block-key=\"8lod7\">“I feel fired up,” Epley said. “I try to remind myself that when informed of their mistake they let me out of the cuffs pretty immediately. Ultimately I’m fine, but it’s the meaning of it that is making me upset, what it means to have handcuffed a journalist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"erg7p\">She said that the Sacramento Police Department has reached out to the Bee to set up a meeting with editors.</p><p data-block-key=\"8me62\">The Sacramento Police Department said in an emailed statement that when the chambers were cleared they advised members of the press to stage in the lobby and that officers were instructed to look for city-issued press credentials, which it asserts Epley was not wearing.</p><p data-block-key=\"9kcfi\">Epley said that she wasn’t told the credentials were mandatory and that, when the lightweight pass broke, she stopped wearing it. She also refuted the police’s assertion that media were told to stage in the lobby, saying that no officers spoke with her after the meeting was recessed.</p><p data-block-key=\"78h7c\">In a statement shared with the Tracker, Mayor Steinberg said that there was “some confusion” concerning Epley’s credentials and that she was immediately released once it was cleared up.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gdhk\">“I do not support the arrest of journalists in chambers,” Steinberg said. “It is essential that we uphold and protect the important role that the press plays in our society.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"74br4\">Sacramento Bee columnist Robin Epley was briefly detained while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down a City Council meeting at Sacramento City Hall on March 19, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Sacramento Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"status_of_charges": "not charged",
"release_date": null,
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"tags": [
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"protest"
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{
"title": "Court blocks Trump subpoena over Stormy Daniels documentary on NBC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/court-blocks-trump-subpoena-over-stormy-daniels-documentary-on-nbc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-11T15:29:20.595654Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T15:29:20.595654Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T14:44:57.602954Z",
"date": "2024-03-11",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ctteu\">The justice overseeing the hush money criminal trial of former President Donald Trump quashed a subpoena April 5, 2024, that sought material from a recent NBCUniversal documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels.</p><p data-block-key=\"16jcg\">The subpoena, first issued March 11, was part of an effort by Trump to prove that NBCUniversal and Daniels conspired to release the documentary close to his trial date, according to <a href=\"https://nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/pdfs/DecisionOnMotion-Quash4-5-24.pdf\">legal documents</a> reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The documentary was released March 18, a week before the original trial date.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rsbh\">The subpoena requested access to all materials related to the making, promotion, premiere and release of the documentary. But Justice Juan Merchan wrote in the court order that granting the subpoena would give Trump and his legal team “unfettered access to the notes and materials of a media organization,” in violation of New York’s <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/privilege-compendium/new-york/#reporters-privilege-compendium\">shield law</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9lr43\">Trump’s claims were unsupported, he ruled, adding that, “His subpoena and the demands therein are the very definition of a fishing expedition.”</p><p data-block-key=\"al2d3\">In the underlying criminal case, Trump is accused of covering up hush money payments made by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to Daniels after she said she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records after allegedly misidentifying payments to Cohen, marking them as for legal services when he was repaying him for the hush money given to Daniels.</p><p data-block-key=\"6cd9u\">Trump is currently expected to go on trial for the charges April 15, despite multiple efforts to stall the proceedings.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4soqw\">Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 2024. The judge overseeing Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York quashed a subpoena April 5 that sought material from an NBCUniversal documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"NBCUniversal"
],
"tags": [
"Donald Trump"
],
"current_charges": [],
"dropped_charges": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Freelancer forcibly removed, press badge taken at Israeli conference in NYC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelancer-forcibly-removed-press-badge-taken-at-israeli-conference-in-nyc/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-13T15:50:29.887146Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:15:22.472950Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:15:22.356382Z",
"date": "2024-03-04",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ceral\">Freelance reporter Caroline Haskins was asked by a security guard to leave shortly after recording pro-Palestinian protests at an Israeli tech conference in New York City on March 4, 2024, and was then shoved out, her press badge yanked from her neck, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckc7m\">Haskins, who described the encounter at a midtown Manhattan conference center to the Tracker and in <a href=\"https://hellgatenyc.com/pro-palestine-protest-eric-adams-israeli-tech-conference\">an article</a> for the independent New York outlet Hell Gate, said that the guard came up to her while she was tweeting about the protests. He asked who she was and when Haskins identified herself as a freelance reporter, he told her to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"fjqd3\">After Haskins asked the security guard why she was being removed, she said the guard responded, “I don’t know, management just told me to remove you,” and advised her to reach out to the event organizers for an explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"24k57\">She then started filming the encounter, but said that the security guard grabbed her phone out of her hands. Haskins immediately took it back, and he then clutched both of her arms, brought them behind her back, and pushed her out of the conference hall from behind. As he did, she said he reached for her conference pass lanyard, which was caught in the cords of her headphone cord, and yanked it off before shoving her out the door.</p><p data-block-key=\"fp8dr\">Haskins later contacted conference organizers to ask about her ejection. She <a href=\"https://twitter.com/car0linehaskins/status/1767649498803630091?s=42\">tweeted</a> March 12 that she received a response from a spokesman, who said: “I understand there was turmoil during the TED Talk of Google’s CEO, and security took those people out. I guess that they took out everyone who filmed it and thought they might be a part of this.” She wrote that the spokesman apologized for the delay in response and for her experience, and added that he had “asked for details about what really happened.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jzj28\">New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaking March 4, 2024, at a New York City conference on the Israeli high-tech industry. Reporter Caroline Haskins was forcibly removed from the event after tweeting about interruptions by protesters.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"actor": "private security",
"border_point": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "private security",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "press identification"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"current_charges": [],
"dropped_charges": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Caroline Haskins (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Former Fox News reporter held in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoena",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-fox-news-reporter-held-in-contempt-for-refusing-to-comply-with-subpoena/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-01T18:16:56.949951Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:16:21.134149Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:16:21.026791Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qeihw\">Journalist Catherine Herridge was held in civil contempt Feb. 29, 2024, for refusing to comply with a subpoena compelling her to reveal a confidential source, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6q0mt\">The ruling stemmed from a series of Fox News investigative online articles and broadcast reports by then-correspondent Herridge published in early 2017 about a federal investigation into the possible foreign military ties of a Chinese American scientist, Yanping Chen.</p><p data-block-key=\"7q9g1\">The articles cited, and included excerpts of, materials from the investigation, such as FBI interviews, Chen’s immigration forms and photos of her in a Chinese military uniform. The six-year investigation was concluded in 2016.</p><p data-block-key=\"5anlr\">No charges were brought against Chen, and in December 2018 she sued the FBI and the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, arguing that investigators violated her rights under the Privacy Act when her personal information was leaked to Herridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"a0vun\">Chen <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-fox-news-journalist-subpoenaed-to-reveal-confidential-source/\">subpoenaed Herridge</a> in June 2022, seeking documents, communications and testimony concerning the federal investigation as well as sufficient information to identify her source. Fox News and producers Pamela K. Browne and Cyd Upson — who were also bylined on the articles — received similar subpoenas for documents and testimony. The Tracker has documented each of the subpoenas <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2022-05-19&date_upper=2022-06-16&city=washington&state=District+of+Columbia&targeted_institutions=Fox+News&categories=Subpoena%2FLegal+Order\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7pbuu\">While U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper quashed the requests for documents, he ruled in August 2023 that the identity of the confidential source was central to the lawsuit’s claim and ordered Herridge to testify about her reporting and any sources. “Chen’s need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ab32\">Herridge sat for a deposition in September, but refused to answer any questions about the identity or intent of her sources, according to court filings.</p><p data-block-key=\"1kl2r\">Herridge attempted to appeal the ruling, but <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.163.1.pdf\">was instructed</a> by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals that the proper procedure required her to refuse to comply and then appeal the resulting contempt order. In November 2023, Chen <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.161.1_1.pdf\">asked the court</a> to hold Herridge in contempt and proposed a graduated fine of $500 a day for the first seven days, $1,000 a day the following week and $5,000 for each day after.</p><p data-block-key=\"53uu7\">The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.177.1.pdf\">amicus brief</a> in support of Herridge, arguing that holding her in contempt would have a significant chilling effect on national security reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"eoilh\">“The ability of journalists to assure sources that their identities will remain confidential is central to preserving the press’s structural role as a check on government, particularly in the national security sphere,” RCFP wrote. “When sources stop talking to journalists because they fear that their identities cannot be protected, that loss impairs the electorate’s ability to make informed political, social, and economic decisions, and to hold elected officials and others in power accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q01i\">Cooper <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751/gov.uscourts.dcd.202751.193.0_3.pdf\">held Herridge in contempt</a> in February 2024. “The Court does not reach this result lightly,” Cooper wrote in his decision. “Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity.”</p><p data-block-key=\"auook\">He ordered that Herridge be fined $800 a day until she complies with the subpoena, but stayed the fine for 30 days or until an appeal of the ruling is completed, whichever comes later.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0j0l\">Neither Herridge nor her attorney were immediately available to comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Herridge_contempt.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"pm11h\">A portion of the order holding former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Feb. 29, 2024, for her refusal to comply with a subpoena seeking testimony about a confidential source.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia",
"arrest_status": "charged without arrest",
"status_of_charges": "convicted",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
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"contempt of court"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Catherine Herridge (Fox News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Florida paper says sheriff disinvited it from news conference for second time",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-paper-says-sheriff-disinvited-it-from-news-conference-for-second-time/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-25T21:14:56.544103Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-28T19:17:45.183272Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-28T19:17:45.083841Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "DeLand",
"longitude": -81.30312,
"latitude": 29.02832,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"17gfu\">The Daytona Beach News-Journal was purposefully not invited to a news conference held by Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Feb. 29, 2024, according to the Florida news outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"dh7mi\">The Sheriff’s Office had announced via social media on Feb. 28, 2024, that Chitwood would be holding a news conference the following day about a break in a 20-year-old missing persons investigation. But <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">the newspaper said</a> Chitwood’s media staff did not send it an announcement with details about the briefing, nor did they reply to emails and texts from reporters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ca6a\">Two other Florida TV stations, WESH and WOFL, had news crews present at the briefing, but the paper said it was unclear how Chitwood communicated to them the time and place of the event.</p><p data-block-key=\"9o1ok\">It was the second time the News-Journal has been left off the invitation list for a news conference held by Chitwood, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">according to the news outlet</a>. The first time was for a news conference <a href=\"/all-incidents/florida-daily-newspaper-said-feud-led-sheriff-to-disinvite-it-from-news-conference/\">Oct. 2, 2023</a>, where <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/10/03/sheriff-mike-chitwood-bans-news-journal-from-press-conferences/71041359007/\">the paper said</a> it was not invited although there was a “contingent of media” present.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ecp\">The paper says the missing invitations are the result of a long-standing conflict between the daily paper and Chitwood that has also resulted in the Sheriff’s Office refusing to comment on any News-Journal stories.</p><p data-block-key=\"3oc0g\">After the October news conference, for instance, News-Journal reporter Frank Fernandez <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">wrote</a> that when the paper contacted Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Andrew Gant to ask about the oversight, Gant replied, “No oversight, sorry. The Sheriff is no longer inviting the NJ to his news conference or commenting for stories.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5bk8l\">Chitwood, in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/profile/100044203642856/search/?q=news-journal\">series of Facebook posts</a> going back to September, has been highly critical of News-Journal coverage of several high-profile criminal investigations.</p><p data-block-key=\"1otdp\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0xTg2xH8jFYSMwHKBAhEBYPmaDWE6g15e1XEMrrytKqTZTup2aQVKrPyVoTh915WSl\">Sept. 21 post</a>, Chitwood wrote, “I don’t take Frank Fernandez’s calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore,” then added on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0mNY8oGZDV9TKcAHrXksh5kfsqfrVHVUSU3wGrHUSP6EpVDoHbZ2G2kca5bw5oVkpl\">Sept. 26</a>, “This is nothing personal, strictly business, but the only real recourse I have is to unsubscribe from the News-Journal and quit commenting in it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1r3nh\">News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar, in an opinion piece after the Sept. 21 Chitwood post, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/09/25/chitwood-feeds-reporter-to-the-social-media-wolves-for-doing-his-job/70953403007/\">wrote</a>, “The sheriff’s reaction is disturbing for a number of reasons. First, he’s falsely accusing an enormously dedicated and hard-working reporter of being one-sided and unprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second, his bullying behavior can lead to a chilling effect on anyone who dares to write something he doesn’t like. And third, he’s creating a scapegoat and invoking his followers to tell him ‘what they think.’ What happens if they respond with more than words?”</p><p data-block-key=\"6be9c\">Chitwood’s derogatory comments continued, however. In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/sheriffchitwood/posts/pfbid0J6r6Co6C53CWSdBhvgbnueyNdeLKJ13AN8gwmhAfKE9FAVuMm6yoX8AZ3HwWJ4dzl\">March 5 post regarding</a> the Feb. 29 news conference, the sheriff wrote, “The Irrelevant Daytona Beach News-Journal smears my deputies, insults the law enforcement community, misleads the 5 readers it has left, and then cries foul when I quit responding. The News-Journal knew exactly when and where this press conference was, and they chose not to show up. If they did, I’d exercise my right to ignore their BS questions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f9ctc\">The same day, <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">Fernandez reported</a> that Chitwood opted not to include The News-Journal in the news conference even though Gant <a href=\"https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/10/11/editorial-sheriffs-screed-against-reporter-hurts-everyone-including-himself/\">told the Orlando Sentinel</a> that if a News-Journal reporter shows up to a news event, they won’t be turned away. “The News-Journal has the same access to that as anybody else,” Gant said. “They just don’t have exclusive access.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5cijq\">The sheriff’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fuvu\">Grace Nezkwesi, legal fellow at the First Amendment Foundation, was reported as saying she did not believe that Chitwood could exclude one media outlet while allowing others to attend the briefings. “It does sound like a chilling effect and a restraint on your organization’s First Amendment Rights,” <a href=\"https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/sheriff-chitwood-doesnt-invite-news-journal-to-press-conference/72810435007/?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=18e7519c4a-03062024+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-03a789e9c7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D\">she told the News-Journal</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"e2b92\">“It’s a form of intimidation. I mean, he’s the sheriff. He’s a very powerful man and very popular in the county,” Dunbar told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"bupk7\">Dunbar added that he was concerned that the decision could impact the News-Journal’s access to information regarding the upcoming hurricane season. “This is really an issue of public safety because we’re the newspaper of record,” Dunbar said. “We can’t be at odds.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5fkej\"><i>Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i1d8k\">Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida, during a Feb. 29, 2024 news conference. The Daytona Beach News-Journal said it was purposefully not invited to the event.</p>",
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{
"title": "Police agree to pay Las Vegas paper’s legal fees in public records lawsuits",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-agree-to-pay-las-vegas-papers-legal-fees-in-public-records-lawsuits/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-18T13:34:46.932438Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-18T13:39:45.689888Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-18T13:39:45.607965Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Las Vegas",
"longitude": -115.13722,
"latitude": 36.17497,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7dfc1\">The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department agreed on Feb. 29, 2024, to pay the Las Vegas Review-Journal a total of $620,000 to cover the paper’s legal fees, settling two lawsuits against the department for violations of the state’s public records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"67bp9\">The settlement stemmed from two incidents in which the department repeatedly denied the newspaper’s requests for documents or provided heavily redacted files, the Review-Journal <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/metro-approves-600k-in-settlement-payments-to-the-review-journal-3009319/\">reported</a>. The first request sought the case file of a 2018 police investigation into a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper who had allegedly asked a confidential informant to harm or kill his wife. The second sought information about a deadly fire at the city’s Alpine Motel Apartments in 2019.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g561\">The newspaper filed lawsuits challenging both of the public records denials in February 2020. Immediately after the Review-Journal filed its suit concerning the fire, the department released some records, including a small portion of the body-camera footage, 911 calls and radio traffic records, according to court filings reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"29fb0\">After years of litigation, both lawsuits were appealed to the state Supreme Court, which determined in two <a href=\"https://caseinfo.nvsupremecourt.us/document/view.do?csNameID=60895&csIID=60895&deLinkID=894987&onBaseDocumentNumber=23-09679\">separate</a> <a href=\"https://caseinfo.nvsupremecourt.us/document/view.do?csNameID=61493&csIID=61493&deLinkID=913002&onBaseDocumentNumber=23-26983\">rulings</a> in March and August of 2023 that the police department had violated the Nevada Public Records Act when failing to comply with the Review-Journal’s requests. The court ordered that the records be released with limited redactions and awarded the newspaper attorneys’ fees and costs under the NPRA’s fee-shifting mandate.</p><p data-block-key=\"80scv\">During a public meeting at police headquarters on Feb. 29, 2024, the Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs — which oversees the department’s finances — approved payments of $325,000 and $295,000, the Review-Journal <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/metro-approves-600k-in-settlement-payments-to-the-review-journal-3009319/\">reported</a>. </p><p data-block-key=\"8d205\">An attorney for the Review-Journal told the newspaper that such reimbursements for legal fees are vital after taking the government to court, but lamented the impact they have on the public.</p><p data-block-key=\"eqtmu\">“It is a shame that governmental entities so often spend public money to fight against transparency when in the end it is taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill,” Review-Journal Chief Legal Officer Ben Lipman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mepr\">Since January 2023, the Review-Journal has been awarded just under $1 million in attorneys fees following successful public records lawsuits. In addition to the recent settlements, the newspaper received <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/what-are-they-hiding-taxpayers-foot-legal-bills-to-hide-public-records-2933105/\">$337,000</a> in connection with a lawsuit over denied requests for child autopsy reports as part of the Review-Journal’s investigation into how child protective services handled cases in which children died.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mnci\">Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook <a href=\"https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/huge-win-for-public-supreme-court-finds-metro-violated-records-law-2753650/\">told the outlet</a> after the March 2023 ruling that he hopes it will lead to increased police transparency and compliance with the state public records law.</p><p data-block-key=\"9spes\">“The Nevada Supreme Court has very clearly upheld the public’s right to know again and again,” Cook said. “If Metro would stop withholding public records, it would improve public trust, save taxpayer money and spare the courts a lot of wasted time and resources.”</p><p data-block-key=\"duj02\"></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2024-03-14_at_14-22-02.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"aj197\">A portion of a 2023 Nevada Supreme Court ruling finding that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department wrongfully withheld records. The department agreed to pay the Las Vegas Review-Journal legal fees in connection with two suits on Feb. 29, 2024.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"status_of_charges": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "A-20-811063 & A-20-809924",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
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"settled"
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"public records"
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"categories": [
"Other Incident"
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{
"title": "Independent journalist arrested at Wall Street protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-arrested-at-wall-street-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-26T14:30:14.786465Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T20:04:38.809528Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T20:04:38.673762Z",
"date": "2024-02-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t9n3k\">Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was shoved to the ground and arrested by police officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"ed9hs\">Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators initially gathered at Union Square in Manhattan before taking the subway downtown en masse to the Financial District to attempt to disrupt Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned remarks at a Wall Street restaurant. An organizer with the protest group Within Our Lifetime <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/nyregion/wall-street-gaza-protest-hochul.html\">told The New York Times</a> that they targeted Hochul over statements she made that month about the Israel-Gaza war.</p><p data-block-key=\"3onhn\">Police closed down the block around the restaurant, Jegroo said, and protesters tried to march around the block before ultimately making their way up to the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street. As he crossed the street and neared the sidewalk, Jegroo said a bicycle officer suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the street.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pro-Palestine protesters in NYC gave NYPD the slip, got on a train to Wall Street where NY Governor Kathy Hochul was speaking at an event, & then marched in Lower Manhattan last nite. NYPD repressed the protest & made multiple arrests (including me). Here’s my video of my arrest: <a href=\"https://t.co/Es0Iy0UMTc\">pic.twitter.com/Es0Iy0UMTc</a></p>— Ash J (@AshAgony) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AshAgony/status/1763628081556697541?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 1, 2024</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t9n3k\">“When they grabbed me there were people and other journalists yelling, ‘He’s press! He’s press!’” he told the Tracker. “Even though I wasn’t resisting at all, they pulled both of my arms behind my back aggressively and almost pushed me face-first onto the ground where they'd thrown their bikes.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7aa6c\">Jegroo said that he was able to position himself so he landed on the bicycles on his knees, which caused a gash across his shin. Three or four other people at the demonstration were also arrested, at least two of whom were also injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ronv\">Upon arriving at One Police Plaza, Jegroo said he was the last of the arrestees to be processed because of confusion over who his arresting officer was. He was released later that night and charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway when a sidewalk was available. It was his <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-pushed-arrested-at-nyc-pro-palestinian-march/\">second arrest</a> in recent months while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City.</p><p data-block-key=\"fqbcl\">The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bcr3m\">Gideon Oliver, an attorney representing Jegroo, told the Tracker that a judge dismissed the walking on the roadway charge during a preliminary hearing on March 20. For the disorderly conduct charge, Jegroo accepted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which proceedings are put on hold for six months. After that, the charge is dismissed if there have been no further arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3h2c6\">“Obviously I have to be a little bit more cautious now: I can’t take as many risks,” Jegroo told the Tracker. “I can’t get as close to the action as I’d like to, but I’m not going to stop. I’m still going to go out there. That’s the only ‘chill’ there will be on my reporting.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ddcm7\">When reached via email, a press officer for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they could not provide further information because the case was sealed, but noted that accepting an ACD is one of the reasons a case may be sealed.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Mar_21_2024_8_03_07.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lgqq9\">Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024. He was charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"status_of_charges": "charges pending",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2024-02-29",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"tags": [
"Israel-Gaza war",
"protest"
],
"current_charges": [
"obstruction: disorderly conduct"
],
"dropped_charges": [
"blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ashoka Jegroo (Independent)"
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},
{
"title": "Student journalists, adviser sue school, alleging intimidation",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalists-adviser-sue-school-alleging-intimidation/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-29T16:19:57.942906Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-29T16:45:12.335647Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-29T16:45:12.210026Z",
"date": "2024-02-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Mountain View",
"longitude": -122.11746,
"latitude": 38.00881,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n8x06\">Student journalists and the former adviser of a high school newspaper in California filed a lawsuit against the school district and administrators on Feb. 22, 2024, alleging intimidation and retaliation in violation of the state’s student press freedom law.</p><p data-block-key=\"88vku\">According to the <a href=\"https://splc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Mountain-View-Complaint-Feb2024.pdf\">complaint</a>, the Oracle newspaper at Mountain View High School is entirely student-run, with the young journalists choosing, writing and editing their own articles. Former faculty adviser Carla Gomez would review articles before publication and provide guidance on journalistic standards and techniques.</p><p data-block-key=\"5tll4\">In early 2023, students on the newspaper’s In-Depth team — which produces long-form investigative articles — began reporting on allegations of student-on-student sexual harassment at the school. Administrators learned of the article when students contacted them for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"79pep\">Principal Kip Glazer spoke to the students on March 27, telling them that the planned article would lead to “catastrophic consequences” if published and that the newspaper should only present the school in a “positive light,” according to the suit. She also asserted that she could censor the article, but that she did not want to, and asked to review the piece before publication.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jdjd\">The students <a href=\"https://lahstalon.org/editor-and-former-adviser-of-mvhs-newspaper-threaten-to-sue-over-alleged-censorship/\">told reporters for The Talon</a>, a student newspaper at a nearby high school, that following Glazer’s review they made some changes for journalistic reasons, but made many more because they were afraid of upsetting her.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ei8s\">“We were kind of confused and kind of scared of what her implications were,” Assistant In-Depth Editor Renuka Mungee said of Glazer’s mandate. “Was the entire Oracle going to get in trouble? Were we individually going to get in trouble for publishing it? I think we felt compelled to remove certain details because we were scared of what her reaction would be or what the consequences would be.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ps73\">Mungee and In-Depth Editor Myesha Phukan told the Talon that though they had followed journalistic and ethical best practices when reporting the piece, they ultimately self-censored: a decision they said they’ve come to regret</p><p data-block-key=\"k2bh\">A <a href=\"https://mvhsoracle.com/32614/features/i-just-felt-like-nobody-cared-students-open-up-about-their-experiences-with-sexual-harassment/\">modified version of the article</a> was published on March 31, but without descriptions of some of the harassment, details of one of the accused harasser’s participation in the choir program or other contextual information, according to the suit. Less than a month later, Glazer announced that the school’s Introduction to Journalism course was being cut and that Gomez was being replaced as the newspaper’s adviser.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4aki\">Glazer, who did not respond to requests for comment, <a href=\"https://lahstalon.org/mvhs-journalism-program-to-undergo-major-changes-next-school-year/\">told the Talon</a> in May that she is a staunch supporter of the First Amendment and student journalism.</p><p data-block-key=\"30ufl\">“I believe that the purpose of public education is to create an educated populace for the protection of democracy, and I believe that the role of the press is extremely important,” Glazer said. “Democracy doesn’t exist without a robust and free press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b80lk\">Attorney Jean-Paul Jassy <a href=\"https://splc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Jassy-Letter-to-MVHS-09-27-23.pdf\">sent a letter</a> on behalf of Gomez and Hanna Olson, co-editor-in-chief, to the superintendent, board of trustees and Glazer on Sept. 27 detailing the alleged intimidation and retaliation, and requested the release of communications surrounding the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"7nd9b\">The letter also asked for a written acknowledgement that Glazer’s actions amounted to censorship in violation of <a href=\"https://splc.org/1977/02/california-student-free-expression-law-includes-adviser-protection-provision/\">California Education Code 48907</a>, a reinstatement of the introductory course with Gomez as the adviser and a written commitment that there would be no further attempts at censorship.</p><p data-block-key=\"831mt\">When those requests were not met, Jassy filed the lawsuit making similar requests on behalf of Gomez, Olson and Hayes Duenow, one of the authors of the article.</p><p data-block-key=\"5uhjh\">“The ideas and the principles that underlie the First Amendment are first experienced and first taught to students when they’re in high school or college,” Jassy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “So it’s really important that they have the liberty to do investigative journalism, to do research and to report on issues in their communities, just like the professional or mainstream media do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5533f\">Gomez told the Tracker that she hopes the lawsuit will ensure the independence of the Oracle and that students have a voice in the direction the newspaper takes. “If you don’t have the student-run aspect and the independence, it’s very hard to have a strong journalism program. If they’re worried about writing a story that offends somebody in power, that it’s going to affect the program, then it’s going to have a chilling effect,” Gomez said.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7crd\">In a <a href=\"https://splc.org/2024/02/lawsuit-alleges-california-principal-bullied-retaliated-against-student-newspaper/\">statement</a> to the Student Press Law Center, Olson said that she joined the lawsuit to ensure the spirit of the Oracle carries on.</p><p data-block-key=\"3bl8\">“This case matters to me because I want to ensure the long term stability and prosperity of my school’s journalism program,” Olson said, “and I want student journalists at my school to be empowered to stand by their rights to publish stories that need to be told.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hkwcz\">Two student journalists and the former adviser for a California high school sued the district and administrators on Feb. 22, 2024, alleging that the principal intimidated and retaliated against them over an article on sexual harassment at the school.</p>",
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"Hanna Olson (Mountain View High School Oracle)",
"Hayes Duenow (Mountain View High School Oracle)"
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{
"title": "New York courts grant, then overturn prior restraint on documentary release",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-courts-grant-then-overturn-prior-restraint-on-documentary-release/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:34.182479Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:34.182479Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-27T17:50:29.738541Z",
"date": "2024-02-22",
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"city": "New York",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xddzx\">A&E Television Networks was briefly barred from distributing its new documentary, “Where Is Wendy Williams?”, after a New York justice granted a temporary restraining order against the company on Feb. 22, 2024. The order was reversed the following day.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ckl3\">According to <a href=\"https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Morrissey-v.-AETN-AETN-Appeal-Papers111.pdf\">court filings</a> reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, A&E worked with former TV host Williams and her family to chronicle her life for nearly two years following the end of her talk show, including her subsequent health issues and placement under guardianship. Williams is credited as an executive producer on the documentary.</p><p data-block-key=\"m71d\">A <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjJDhf5ll70\">trailer</a> for the four-episode documentary aired on Feb. 2. Nearly three weeks later, Williams’ court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit against A&E seeking a temporary restraining order to halt its planned release and requesting that the case proceed under seal. A New York Supreme Court justice granted both requests on Feb. 22 without providing A&E the opportunity to argue against them.</p><p data-block-key=\"fl3np\">Morrissey argued that Williams — who has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia — was not competent to sign a talent agreement with producer Entertainment One and that the documentary was exploitative and could permanently damage Williams’ reputation.</p><p data-block-key=\"9a4rf\">The order forbade A&E from releasing the documentary or any further footage, trailers, dialogue or communications to anyone other than Morrissey or their respective attorneys without court approval.</p><p data-block-key=\"ek75a\">An attorney representing A&E filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the court the following day, arguing that the restraining order constituted a prior restraint and that Morrissey sought to prevent the airing of criticisms of her and the guardianship process.</p><p data-block-key=\"fuuj9\">“At a time when guardianship proceedings are being debated in our own State legislature and through headlines across the nation, the Order impermissibly gags Defendants from publishing speech that is unquestionably a matter of public concern,” attorney Rachel Strom wrote. She added that the restraint also deprived Williams and her family of “their right to speak out about her experiences, including and especially to criticize her care and treatment under a guardianship regime—the same regime which seeks to silence her now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"br71b\">Strom argued that Williams, her family and her manager were actively involved in the production of the documentary and that Morrissey had been aware of the documentary for more than a year. She also noted that, without an emergency reversal, A&E would be unable to proceed with the documentary’s planned release on Feb. 24, at great financial and reputational cost.</p><p data-block-key=\"7m7ja\">Appellate Justice Peter Moulton lifted the restraining order on Feb. 23, writing in a decision that was <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20240224010943/https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=p35y9WMvbEcX7iHDEWmN5A==\">briefly made public</a> that the restraining order was “an impermissible prior restraint on speech that violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” Moulton, however, upheld the decision to keep the court proceedings under seal.</p><p data-block-key=\"1b3qd\">The documentary was released on A&E’s Lifetime channel as planned on Feb. 24 and 25, but the lawsuit remains ongoing.</p><p data-block-key=\"elnie\">Attorneys for Morrissey and A&E did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1trfn\">A new A&E Television Networks documentary about former TV host Wendy Williams, pictured above at a premiere in 2019, was briefly barred from airing after a New York judge granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 22, 2024.</p>",
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"name": "New York",
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"A&E Television Networks"
],
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"Prior Restraint"
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{
"title": "Florida photojournalist struck by rock thrown by rapper",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-photojournalist-struck-by-rock-thrown-by-rapper/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-28T19:55:13.516818Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-28T21:56:44.977399Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-28T21:56:44.897023Z",
"date": "2024-02-21",
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"city": "Fort Lauderdale",
"longitude": -80.14338,
"latitude": 26.12231,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a05ka\">Photojournalist Bryan Murphy of Florida television station WPLG was struck in the ribs with a rock thrown by rapper Kodak Black in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 21, 2024, the broadcast outlet reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"dco4d\">WPLG reporter Rosh Lowe <a href=\"/all-incidents/florida-reporter-threatened-after-questioning-rapper-kodak-black/\">was also threatened</a> by the rapper, who was being questioned by the news crew following his release from a Broward County jail.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7oho\">WPLG <a href=\"https://www.local10.com/news/local/2024/02/23/kodak-black-fans-defend-him-for-throwing-rocks-at-photojournalist-outside-broward-jail/\">said</a> that a police report was filed but that Murphy decided not to press charges. Murphy and Lowe did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"cae3v\">In <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qM748M9BPg\">video</a> captured by Murphy, the rapper begins throwing rocks at the crew, as Murphy tells Lowe to “call the cops.” The rapper’s threat to punch Lowe was not shown on camera, but he acknowledged it later in the video. “You threatened to punch me,” Lowe said on camera. “I did,” replied the rapper.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o4nh\">Lowe reported later that some of the rapper’s fans have since come to his defense and issued threats, including one posted on Instagram that read “next rock to ya Head big Z.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3nvp2\">But in Lowe’s earlier account, the reporter noted: “It is very usual in our profession to interview people coming out of jail, especially noteworthy people. What is unusual is what happened here today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"95gcc\">The legal representative for Kodak Black did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"an0ki\">Frame from a WPLG video showing rapper Kodak Black throwing rocks at photojournalist Bryan Murphy, hitting him in the ribs.</p>",
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"assailant": "public figure",
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
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},
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"categories": [
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],
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"Bryan Murphy (WPLG)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Florida journalist indicted on allegations of conspiracy, computer fraud, wiretapping",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-journalist-indicted-on-allegations-of-conspiracy-computer-fraud-wiretapping/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-22T22:14:33.633823Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-22T22:17:50.549030Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-22T22:17:50.336689Z",
"date": "2024-02-21",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Tampa",
"longitude": -82.45843,
"latitude": 27.94752,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"id0tz\">Florida-based independent journalist Tim Burke was charged by the Justice Department with 14 felony counts alleging conspiracy, wiretapping and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in an indictment unsealed on Feb. 21, 2024.</p><p data-block-key=\"3l3sc\">FBI agents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fbi-raids-home-office-of-independent-journalist-on-hacking-allegations/\">raided Burke’s home and office</a> in May 2023 in connection to a criminal probe into “alleged computer intrusions and intercepted communications at the Fox News Network,” according to reports at the time.</p><p data-block-key=\"83qlb\">In total, federal agents seized nine computers, seven hard drives, four cellphones and four notebooks from Burke’s home and the guesthouse that serves as his office. More than nine months after the raid, only a small portion of the electronic devices and files seized by law enforcement has been returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"39d6q\">The <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24438752-burke-indictment\">indictment</a>, which was filed on Feb. 15 but unsealed just under a week later, alleges that Burke and an unnamed co-conspirator used “compromised credentials” to gain access to websites with the live feeds of two New York City-based media companies, and to download files and disseminate them.</p><p data-block-key=\"29r32\">Burke is charged with:</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"rqbu\">One count of conspiracy;</li><li data-block-key=\"adui7\">Six counts of accessing a protected computer without authorization;</li><li data-block-key=\"3ervs\">Five counts of wiretapping; and</li><li data-block-key=\"5ihdb\">Two counts of disclosing communications obtained through illegal wiretapping.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"fkkjc\">Attorney Mark Rasch, who is representing Burke and who <a href=\"https://kjk.com/professionals/mark-rasch/\">created</a> the Justice Department’s Computer Crime Unit, denied any criminal behavior by Burke and warned that the charges could set a precedent that could make routine investigative journalism techniques a felony.</p><p data-block-key=\"cnpkd\">“Timothy Burke committed the crime of journalism, and that’s it. He didn’t hack anything, he didn’t steal anything, he simply reported,” Rasch told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “The analogies that the government uses about breaking in fundamentally misunderstand how the internet works and what the norms of behavior are on the internet.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f4n93\">Rasch said that Burke appeared at a courthouse in Tampa on Feb. 22 for an initial hearing on the charges, and that first the raid and now the indictment have had a serious impact on the journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"5hoah\">“He’s financially ruined and professionally devastated, and it has taken an emotional toll as well,” Rasch said.</p><p data-block-key=\"frni6\">Burke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q7was\">A portion of the indictment charging Florida-based independent journalist Tim Burke on Feb. 21, 2024, with 14 counts for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, wiretapping and conspiracy.</p>",
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{
"title": "Florida reporter threatened after questioning rapper Kodak Black",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-reporter-threatened-after-questioning-rapper-kodak-black/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-28T19:53:09.403797Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-28T21:58:38.522457Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-28T21:58:38.436303Z",
"date": "2024-02-21",
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"city": "Fort Lauderdale",
"longitude": -80.14338,
"latitude": 26.12231,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pnkin\">Reporter Rosh Lowe of Florida television station WPLG was threatened by rapper Kodak Black in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 21, 2024, the broadcast outlet reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"g2nf\">Photojournalist Bryan Murphy, also of WPLG, <a href=\"/all-incidents/florida-photojournalist-struck-by-rock-thrown-by-rapper/\">was struck in the ribs</a> with a rock thrown by the rapper. Murphy and Lowe were questioning the rapper following his release from a Broward County jail.</p><p data-block-key=\"apm42\">WPLG <a href=\"https://www.local10.com/news/local/2024/02/23/kodak-black-fans-defend-him-for-throwing-rocks-at-photojournalist-outside-broward-jail/\">said</a> that a police report was filed but that Murphy decided not to press charges. Murphy and Lowe did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"8r1ib\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qM748M9BPg\">video</a> captured by Murphy, the rapper begins throwing rocks at the crew, as Murphy tells Lowe to “call the cops.” The rapper’s threat to punch Lowe was not shown on camera, but he acknowledged it later in the video. “You threatened to punch me,” Lowe said on camera. “I did,” replied the rapper.</p><p data-block-key=\"babf2\">Lowe reported later that some of the rapper’s fans have since come to his defense and issued threats, including one posted on Instagram that read “next rock to ya Head big Z.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4s2rr\">But in Lowe’s earlier account, the reporter noted: “It is very usual in our profession to interview people coming out of jail, especially noteworthy people. What is unusual is what happened here today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eimmt\">The legal representative for Kodak Black did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gjnb7\">WPLG reporter Rosh Lowe was threatened by rapper Kodak Black when Lowe and a WPLG photojournalist questioned the rapper following his release from jail.</p>",
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"assailant": "public figure",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
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"Rosh Lowe (WPLG)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Two journalists in different states say police called on them while reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-journalists-in-different-states-say-police-called-on-them-while-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-15T18:24:05.055521Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-15T18:34:59.781042Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-15T18:34:59.694217Z",
"date": "2024-02-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zetvc\">In February and March 2024, two reporters in separate states said they had the police called on them while they were conducting everyday reporting duties.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i73j\">Tampa Bay Times reporter Justin Garcia had the police called on him on Feb. 20, 2024, by the city’s fire chief after he showed up at the Tampa Fire Rescue department headquarters, looking for documents about a firefighter who had recently been fired, according to Garcia, who spoke to the U.S Press Freedom Tracker, and the <a href=\"https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2024/03/07/tampa-fire-chief-ordered-police-called-local-journalist-asking-records/\">newspaper</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"161cd\">Garcia told the Tracker that he was informed that he needed to submit the request through an online portal, which he had already done. According to Garcia, he also cited Florida's <a href=\"http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0119/0119.html\">Chapter 119</a>, which states that “all state, county and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ohfi\">After going back and forth with Personnel Chief Robbie Northrop, who is not a public records custodian, the police were called, even though Garcia was acting within his capacity as a reporter, he told the Tracker. Garcia left before police arrived and was not arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipva\">According to records obtained by the Times, Northrop first asked a lower-level employee to call the police, who said she did not have time to make the call. Fire Chief Barbara Tripp eventually called the police on Garcia, the Times reported, adding that it was unknown who asked Tripp to call the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"78pio\">“No one ever should call the police on a reporter even if that reporter is being belligerent, obnoxious and aggressive,” Adam Smith, spokesperson for Mayor Jane Castor, told the Times. Both the Times and Garcia maintain that he never raised his voice or was disruptive in any way.</p><p data-block-key=\"e3ufc\">In the second incident, WTIC-TV news reporter Matt Caron said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mattcarontv/status/1766304329370067012\">tweet</a> on March 8 that Connecticut public school officials had called police while he was reporting live about “racism and bullying” that his outlet’s reporting had exposed.</p><p data-block-key=\"96jtm\">“I was standing on public property,” Caron wrote. He added that he would use the Freedom of Information Act to request the bodycam footage “to see what was said.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dqq77\">Caron did not reply to a request for comment.</p></div>",
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"Media"
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},
{
"title": "NC blogger issued no-contact, no-trespass orders after confronting county attorney",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nc-blogger-issued-no-contact-no-trespass-orders-after-confronting-county-attorney/",
"first_published_at": "2024-04-19T12:52:27.513091Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-19T12:52:27.513091Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-19T12:51:03.473219Z",
"date": "2024-02-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Currituck",
"longitude": -76.01548,
"latitude": 36.44988,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ols2e\">Independent blogger Thom Roddy was issued no-contact and no-trespassing orders in Currituck County, North Carolina, on Feb. 16, 2024, after approaching the county attorney to question her following a County Board of Commissioners meeting.</p><p data-block-key=\"40ghi\">Roddy, who runs the investigative blog Blackwater Reports, said the orders were imposed following a Feb. 15 encounter in which he attempted to question County Attorney Megan Morgan in a parking lot outside the county courthouse about her role in the censure of one of the elected commissioners.</p><p data-block-key=\"2rbfi\">The next day, Morgan filed a complaint saying that Roddy had pinned her between two vehicles, and was pointing and yelling at her inches from her face. “I was trapped,” Morgan alleged in the complaint. She also said that leading up to the incident, Roddy had made daily posts on his website about her, “with false statements, emails, calls.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6fs2o\">In a statement, Roddy said he had “approached the county attorney in a well-lit parking lot outside the county seat, with many others present, and attempted to ask questions about her involvement” in the censure. A video taken by Roddy after the start of the dispute shows him standing at least several feet away from Morgan.</p><p data-block-key=\"82jah\">“While I stood at a considerable distance from Morgan, as corroborated by video evidence, it’s customary for members of the press to position microphones and cell phones inches away from public officials’ lips in the pursuit of eliciting a response,” Roddy said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dtf7n\">“Morgan’s apprehension wasn’t triggered by my mere physical proximity,” Roddy wrote to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “but rather by the nature of the questions I sought to ask. Subsequently, she mobilized the government’s resources, enlisted a colleague’s assistance, involved the Sheriff’s Office, and manipulated the justice system. … The no-contact and no-trespass orders amounted to little more than Prior Restraint.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e9rh\">The no-contact order, issued by the district court, restricts Roddy from visiting Morgan at her work or residence, or contacting her by phone, in writing or electronically. The order was made permanent by the court after a Feb. 23 hearing, Roddy said.</p><p data-block-key=\"aeso5\">The no-trespassing order, signed by the county manager, restricts Roddy indefinitely from being on the property of the county courthouse or entering the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"1o8kn\">In April, after an email was sent to Morgan from a Blackwater Reports account, she filed a new motion asking that Roddy be held in contempt for violating the no-contact order. A hearing has been scheduled for May 9.</p><p data-block-key=\"cqr2u\">Morgan did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"souy9\">A portion of the temporary no-contact order issued to independent blogger Thom Roddy on Feb. 16, 2024, by a North Carolina county court, limiting access to a county attorney. It was later made permanent.</p>",
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"status_of_prior_restraint": "upheld",
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"state": {
"name": "North Carolina",
"abbreviation": "NC"
},
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"categories": [
"Prior Restraint"
],
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"Thom Roddy (Blackwater Reports)"
],
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},
{
"title": "New Yorker reporter subpoenaed by federal government in criminal trial",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-yorker-reporter-subpoenaed-by-federal-government-in-criminal-trial/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-27T15:46:15.298362Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-07T18:05:39.206859Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-07T18:05:39.093973Z",
"date": "2024-02-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k3noa\">Eric Lach, a staff writer for The New Yorker, was subpoenaed by a federal prosecutor on Feb. 15, 2024, to testify about his reporting on a man accused of fraud, extortion and lying to federal law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"1in4u\">Lach began reporting on Brooklyn preacher Lamor Whitehead in 2022, according to an <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215.147.2.pdf\">affidavit</a>. Whitehead stands accused of stealing a parishioner’s savings and defrauding a businessman with claims that he could leverage his ties to Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials for financial gain, The Associated Press <a href=\"https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-preacher-lamor-miller-whitehead-fraud-trial-7818c32afad40817aad29fdacf534bed\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fuqoj\">Lach spoke with the preacher several times that December and published an <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/how-eric-adams-started-mentoring-a-con-man\">article</a> about Whitehead and his relationship with Adams in January 2023.</p><p data-block-key=\"9occ2\">The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed Lach just over a week before the criminal trial was scheduled to begin on Feb. 26. The <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215.147.1.pdf\">subpoena</a> orders Lach to testify during the trial to authenticate on-the-record statements from Whitehead in the published article.</p><p data-block-key=\"c9m2v\">Attorneys representing Lach filed a <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215/gov.uscourts.nysd.591215.147.0.pdf\">motion to quash</a> the request on Feb. 19. In his accompanying affidavit, Lach voiced concerns that being forced to testify could impair not only his ability to report on Whitehead’s trial but his journalistic work generally.</p><p data-block-key=\"1gjde\">“The prospect of being forced to testify in court about my news reporting is, frankly, chilling,” Lach said in his affidavit. “I often speak to criminal defendants as part of my reporting, and I am confident that criminal defendants — and other sources — will be less willing to speak to me as part of my reporting if they understand that I may be called to testify against them in their trial.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45alv\">The motion to quash argued that the subpoena is also highly invasive and would subject Lach to a cross-examination that could jeopardize his confidential reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"5dnkd\">“In violation of the Department of Justice’s own guidelines, the Government seeks to compel the testimony of a journalist to authenticate a generic, run-of-the mill denial,” the motion said, noting that the statements were made after Whitehead knew he was the target of a government investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"baf7m\">The day before the subpoena was issued, the Justice Department <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-13000-obtaining-evidence#9-13.400\">released new guidelines</a> for federal prosecutors limiting when they can seek journalists’ records: when the information is crucial for the prevention of a serious crime, when the journalist is the target of the investigation and when the records involve information that is already public.</p><p data-block-key=\"8niuj\">To address concerns around the potential breadth of the cross-examination, Lach and his attorneys agreed to appear for a private interview with District Judge Lorna G. Schofield on Feb. 26.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Lach.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q846r\">A portion of a subpoena issued to New Yorker reporter Eric Lach on Feb. 15, 2024, by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, ordering him to testify about his reporting on a criminal defendant with ties to New York City’s mayor.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"(2024-03-04 00:00:00+00:00) New Yorker reporter does not have to testify, judge rules"
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Reporter, public barred from Illinois township board meeting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-public-barred-from-illinois-township-board-meeting/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-05T19:47:04.995937Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-05T19:47:04.995937Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-05T19:21:19.759006Z",
"date": "2024-02-13",
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"city": "South Holland",
"longitude": -87.60699,
"latitude": 41.60087,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6j3qb\">Josh Bootsma, the managing editor at The Lansing Journal, was prevented from attending a Thornton Township Board of Trustees meeting, along with members of the public, on Feb. 13, 2024, in apparent violation of Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.</p><p data-block-key=\"ei1lv\">He <a href=\"https://thelansingjournal.com/2024/02/14/public-denied-access-to-thornton-township-board-meeting/\">reported</a> that upon arriving at the township headquarters, located in the suburban Chicago village of South Holland, they were directed into the basement of the building, though the meeting was being held in the upstairs boardroom.</p><p data-block-key=\"dti8s\">Bootsma told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that an audio feed of the meeting was streaming from the speakers downstairs, but it was too faint to follow what was being said and lasted no longer than 30 seconds before cutting out entirely. He also noted that, while attendees were told someone would collect public comment, the meeting ended after just four minutes without anyone doing so.</p><p data-block-key=\"bu8d6\">Board meetings had previously been held in the larger downstairs room, which can comfortably fit more than 100 people, Bootsma explained. But after the last township supervisor died in 2021, Supervisor Tiffany Henyard has held meetings in an upstairs boardroom that can only seat 10 to 15 members of the public, he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqflm\">“There are 17 municipalities represented by Thornton Township. So, if one person from each of those municipalities came to the meeting it would be challenging for all of them to have a seat, and that’s just the normal M.O. for the Henyard administration,” Bootsma said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3q59i\">One of the township trustees, Christopher Gonzalez, told the Tracker that he was also informed he couldn't enter the boardroom until the Feb. 13 meeting was scheduled to begin. When he asked why, Gonzalez was told it was because other trustees were afraid he’d bring members of the press in with him.</p><p data-block-key=\"8sts9\">“It was out of nowhere. I’ve given interviews to the media but never once have I tried to coordinate or march in with the media,” Gonzalez said. “I am asking questions and being vocal, so I’m viewed as an enemy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4i1mu\">At the following board meeting on Feb. 27, Bootsma told the Tracker that he and members of the public were initially informed that they would again only be permitted to observe the meeting via a stream in the basement.</p><p data-block-key=\"784es\">Shortly before the meeting was set to begin, a security guard informed Bootsma, other media and the two members of the public in attendance that they could go up to the main boardroom.</p><p data-block-key=\"d24rl\">Gonzalez told the Tracker that there was a lot of chatter from the other trustees ahead of the announcement and that he heard someone say, “What’s the big deal, just let them in. We’re going to get in trouble and for what? She’s not here, nobody could ask her any questions anyways.”</p><p data-block-key=\"98r1j\">Bootsma <a href=\"https://thelansingjournal.com/2024/02/28/public-eventually-allowed-into-thornton-township-meeting-supervisor-henyard-absent/\">reported</a> that Trustee Gerald “Jerry” Jones, who oversaw the meeting in Henyard’s absence, declined to comment about the decision to allow the press and public into the room and said he did not know why access was denied during the prior meeting.</p><p data-block-key=\"fcci5\">Bootsma told the Tracker: “At this most recent meeting, on the video stream all we could see was empty chairs, so why are we being told that we can’t go up? It’s clearly not for overflow. There’s no good reason that I can see why this is happening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f4ii9\">While members of the press have not previously been barred from public meetings, Bootsma said that Henyard has a “general hostility” toward the media and <a href=\"https://thelansingjournal.com/2023/08/18/thornton-township-passes-walk-of-hope-expenses-as-some-residents-prevented-from-accessing-public-meeting/\">has repeatedly said</a> that the media only covers negative stories. Bootsma noted that a reporter for the Journal was <a href=\"https://thelansingjournal.com/2024/02/26/journal-reporter-denied-entrance-to-thornton-township-black-history-event-told-nda-was-needed/\">told she could not attend</a> a Black History Month event on Feb. 24, for instance, because she had not signed a nondisclosure agreement before the event.</p><p data-block-key=\"25r5l\">Neither Henyard nor Township Special Advisor Keith Freeman responded to requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nye8q\">Lansing Journal Managing Editor Josh Bootsma and local residents were barred without explanation from a board of trustees meeting at Thornton Township headquarters, above, in South Holland, Illinois, on Feb. 13, 2024.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"Local government: Legislature"
],
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"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
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"Josh Bootsma (The Lansing Journal)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Podcaster arrested, assaulted at NYC protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/podcaster-arrested-assaulted-at-nyc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-14T19:15:58.370624Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-14T16:11:57.370802Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-14T16:11:57.248975Z",
"date": "2024-02-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": null,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6wwqc\">Journalist Reed Dunlea was tackled and arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Police officers threw Dunlea to the ground, damaging his equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"cn5dl\">“It was a 1 p.m. protest. I arrived by 1:30 p.m. and I was in a police van by 2:15 p.m.,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2li1t\">Dunlea said that he was at the protest outside the Brooklyn Museum, which had been planned by the Palestinian-led community organization Within Our Lifetime, to record audio for his podcast, Scene Report. Shortly after arriving, Dunlea saw a small group of protesters in a shouting match with a white-shirted supervisory police officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"detm6\">When he approached to record the interaction, Dunlea said the officer screamed at him to get on the sidewalk. “I showed him my press pass in that moment and he was still bugging out, so I stepped away from that pretty quickly,” Dunlea told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkst1\">As New York Police Department officers conducted multiple rounds of arrests — going into the crowd, extracting individuals and handcuffing them — Dunlea said he tried to stay on the edge of the police line.</p><p data-block-key=\"c3v20\">“And then I was somehow in the middle of it,” Dunlea said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I had a group of officers throwing me to the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8bmdc\">In footage <a href=\"https://twitter.com/isabelle_leyva/status/1756395017495621977\">captured</a> <a href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@peterhvideo/video/7334379645686631711?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7335246087470990890\">by bystanders</a> and posted to social media, at least three officers can be seen dragging Dunlea into the middle of the street before pinning him on his stomach. Dunlea told the Tracker he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist and told the officers he was wearing a city-issued press credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"5i3s9\">Both Dunlea’s Zoom H6 recorder and Apple headphones were damaged in the course of the arrest, and he said he hadn’t checked whether his microphone was broken as well. He also noted that the audio he was recording during the arrest is missing, but he is unsure whether it was deleted or if it failed to save when the recorder was damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"16qu7\">Dunlea was transferred to One Police Plaza alongside the other individuals detained at the protest and was held until shortly after midnight, when he was released on a charge of resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"2c6im\">“In the last month, NYPD has started to crack down in serious ways on any Palestine protests, because the NYPD was humiliated by the protests on January 8,” Dunlea said, referring to the <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/pro-palestinian-protesters-block-new-york-city-bridges-tunnel-2024-01-08/\">successful blockading</a> of the Holland Tunnel and multiple bridges into Manhattan by pro-Palestinian protesters. “I’m seeing the mayor of New York City and the NYPD making a decision that they no longer accept protests happening, so they are choosing to violently suppress them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"53qbi\">The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the police response to the protest in a statement <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NYCLU/status/1756466707130925538\">posted to social media</a>. “Flooding peaceful protests with police,” it noted, “seems designed to create tension and provoke arrests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6mg71\">The New York Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9aok0\">Dunlea was ordered to appear for a preliminary hearing on March 1.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"uulm5\">Journalist Reed Dunlea was arrested while recording for his podcast, Scene Report, at a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Officers threw him to the ground, breaking his recording equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York Police Department",
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"release_date": "2024-02-11",
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"updates": [
"(2024-03-04 16:42:00+00:00) Charge dropped against podcaster following arrest at NYC protest"
],
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{
"title": "Kansas state senator calls for slashing local PBS funding",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kansas-state-senator-calls-for-slashing-local-pbs-funding/",
"first_published_at": "2024-02-21T20:13:59.432709Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-02-21T20:13:59.432709Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-02-21T20:10:42.733261Z",
"date": "2024-02-08",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Topeka",
"longitude": -95.67804,
"latitude": 39.04833,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s18to\">A Kansas state senator called on Feb. 8, 2024, for the legislature to eliminate all funding to Kansas PBS stations in retaliation for a documentary broadcast by Topeka’s public TV channel, KTWU. The proposed budget cut was initially reduced and then overturned by another legislative committee.</p><p data-block-key=\"87h2a\">Sen. Caryn Tyson, during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Commerce, sought to have it strike the $500,000 typically allocated for the state’s six PBS stations, citing her outrage over a program that included criticism of the committee’s chairperson, Sen. Renee Erickson. While Tyson did not name the program, the <a href=\"https://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/12/state-senator-threatened-pbs-funding-over-program-turns-out-it-was-a-film-about-lgbtq-kansans/\">Kansas Reflector identified it</a> as “No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate in Kansas,” a documentary about the plight of LGBTQ+ Kansans.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c097\">“I just don’t think we can tolerate it and the way we get the message to them is by impacting their purse,” Tyson <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/V9rYlvnOps4?si=b9xJRayidPmHH7aw&t=1834\">said during the meeting</a>. “That’s what the legislature does. We have the hammer, and I’m going to swing this hammer in a large way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4d4f7\">The committee settled on a 10% reduction. Erickson cast the deciding vote in favor, while stating, “I have not asked for this. I do not make my policy decisions based on personal attacks on me or otherwise.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dfshn\">Maxwell Kautsch, president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the budget reduction appeared to be textbook governmental retaliation, which was particularly alarming as it came less than six months after a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newsroom-personal-equipment-seized-in-kansas-raid/\">police raid on a newsroom</a> in the state.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ir0l\">“What it comes down to is we have these laws, which are well-known in First Amendment circles and clearly established, yet we have people in positions of power or law enforcement that either don’t know or don’t care to know about them,” Kautsch said. “It’s hard to quantify the chilling effect that this kind of request has had.”</p><p data-block-key=\"26n6p\">KTWU General Manager Val VanDerSluis told the Tracker that she took the budget proposal as an opportunity.</p><p data-block-key=\"55ipc\">“I saw it as: I have someone who needs to be educated a bit more on how we program, how we operate, the audiences we serve,” VanDerSluis said. “For me, it wasn’t a threat. I will continue to program our station for our viewing community. I can’t operate off of fear, and it just shows that there are more conversations that need to be had with those that are making decisions about funding.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5i5vi\">VanDerSluis said that she spoke with Tyson after the proposal and, following their meeting, Tyson told VanDerSluis that she would no longer be pursuing cuts to the public broadcasting budget. Tyson did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"a9oju\">Later, when the proposal went before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 14, committee member Sen. Carolyn McGinn said that she would hate to see the budget cut because of hearsay, the <a href=\"https://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/15/kansas-senators-cut-pbs-funds-after-lgbtq-documentary-offended-the-money-has-been-put-back/\">Reflector reported</a>. McGinn proposed that that committee not only restore the $50,000 but also increase the overall funding to $700,000. The committee ultimately voted against the budget cut and tabled discussions of an increase.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX5ZFNA.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7z19l\">Kansas State Sen. Caryn Tyson, pictured in the state capital in Topeka in 2018, called for the elimination of state funding for Kansas PBS stations on Feb. 8, 2024, citing her outrage over a program broadcast by KTWU that criticized a fellow senator.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"status_of_charges": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Kansas",
"abbreviation": "KS"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"KTWU"
],
"tags": [
"LGBTQ+ rights"
],
"current_charges": [],
"dropped_charges": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Chilling Statement"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
