Photojournalist assaulted while covering Andrew Yang mayoral campaign

February 26, 2021
According to news reports, Getty photojournalist Spencer Platt was assaulted by a man while covering New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang’s campaign on Feb. 26, 2021.The New York Post reported that the alleged assault occurred as Yang and company traveled by ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island. Platt was reportedly on the ferry’s upper deck and talking to a friend over the phone when a man approached him. “I said something like, ‘What’s up?’” Platt told the Post. “He immediately …

NYPD arrests, assaults photojournalist during protest

November 1, 2020
New York City police tackled and arrested photojournalist Chae Kihn as she covered protests in the New York borough of Manhattan on Nov. 1, 2020, according to a video of the incident and the general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association.Kihn was covering a Make America Great Again demonstration near 10th Avenue and W. 24th Street when officers in New York City Police Department uniforms tackled Kihn to the ground, handcuffed and then arrested her. Some of the police …

Independent filmmaker arrested while covering anti-ICE protest in New York City

September 19, 2020
Ronald Weaver II, an independent filmmaker, was arrested while covering a protest against immigration policy and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City on Sept. 19, 2020.The protest, which began in Times Square, was prompted by a whistleblower’s allegation that immigrant women held at a privately run detention center in Georgia were forced to undergo hysterectomies. Weaver, a New York-based filmmaker, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the protest was part of a broad protest movement against racial …

Man charged with throwing rocks at WABC studios in Manhattan during broadcast, damaging WPIX equipment

September 9, 2020
New York City police arrested a man on criminal mischief charges for damaging a WPIX-11 crew’s equipment and throwing rocks marked with profanities at the windows of the WABC Eyewitness News studio. Both incidents occurred on Sept. 9, 2020.The criminal charges allege that Jerry Velez, 41, pushed over a light pole that TV station WPIX set up outside Manhattan’s Hudson Yards at about 10 a.m. on Sept. 9, causing it to crash into a set of LED lights and a …

Independent journalist shoved by NYPD officer

July 25, 2020
Independent journalist Janet Burns said she was shoved by a police officer while covering a protest in New York City on July 25, 2020.Burns said she was covering a demonstration that night in Lower Manhattan, at the corner of Delancey and Ludlow streets, for NYC Protest Updates 2020, a Twitter account set up by a group of young journalists after the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests. The Twitter account has over 40,000 followers and provides …

NYPD subpoenas journalist’s phone records in leak investigation

July 14, 2020
The New York City Police Department subpoenaed a journalist’s cellphone records as part of a leak investigation, according to the reporter, who asked that their name not be disclosed, citing fear of harming relationships with sources, and a report by the New York Daily News.On July 14, 2020, the New York-based freelancer who works for the Daily Mail received a letter stating that their phone records had been subpoenaed and used to question a police officer about his alleged contact …
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