Border Report correspondent detained photographing outside Texas Air Force base

September 19, 2021
Border Report correspondent Sandra Sanchez was detained for 45 minutes and threatened with arrest by Laughlin Air Force Base military police in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021.Sanchez was photographing Laughlin Air Force Base signs outside the base’s gates while reporting on the Del Rio encampment, where more than 12,000 Haitian migrants seeking asylum had settled along the banks of the Rio Grande while waiting to cross into the United States from Mexico.The day before, Department of Homeland Security …

San Antonio TV reporter shot at while covering suspicious fire

July 5, 2021
Reporter Dillon Collier was shot at from close range by a man with two handguns as he covered a story about a house fire in San Antonio, Texas, on July 5, 2021.Collier, who is an investigative reporter for KSAT News 12 in San Antonio, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and video journalist Joshua Saunders were assigned to cover a fire that took place overnight Sunday into Monday, after shell casings had been found at the scene and …

San Antonio TV video journalist shot at while covering suspicious house fire

July 5, 2021
Television video journalist Joshua Saunders was shot at while he covered a story about a house fire in San Antonio, Texas, on July 5, 2021.A man with two handguns fired on Saunders and reporter Dillon Collier from less than 10 feet away as they spoke to the owner of the fire-damaged home. Saunders, an Emmy Award winner, and Collier work for KSAT News 12 in San Antonio. Collier’s assault is documented here.Collier told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he …

Media prevented from reporting on Texas execution for first time for decades

May 19, 2021
For the first time in decades the Texas Department of Criminal Justice failed to let journalists cover an execution, even though two reporters had been cleared to do so and were waiting nearby to be called into the state penitentiary in Huntsville on May 19, 2021.A database maintained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed that there had been media in attendance at each of the state’s previous 570 executions. Prison officials said “miscommunication” had kept media from witnessing …

Videojournalist assaulted, equipment broken during Austin demonstration

October 24, 2020
Austin-based independent videojournalist Hiram Gilberto Garcia was assaulted and had his equipment damaged while covering a protest in Texas’ capital city on Oct. 24, 2020, according to social media posts.At approximately 6:40 p.m., Garcia — who posts his livestreams and interviews on Facebook and his website — was documenting a march against police brutality organized to mark the six-month anniversary of the death of Mike Ramos, an unarmed Black and Hispanic man who’d been fatally shot by an Austin police …

Videojournalist arrested, equipment seized and damaged during Austin protests

July 17, 2020
Independent videojournalist Hiram Gilberto Garcia was arrested and his equipment seized while covering protests in Austin, Texas, on July 17, 2020.Garcia, who posts his livestreams and interviews on Facebook and his website, was documenting protests against police brutality in front of the Austin Police Department Headquarters downtown when officers tackled him to the ground and punched him, KXAN News reported. Garcia’s livestream from that evening can be seen here.According to an affidavit obtained by KXAN, Austin Police Department officers were …

San Antonio Express-News reporter hit by projectiles while covering protests

June 2, 2020
San Antonio Express-News reporter Mark Dunphy was hit by a crowd-control munition fired by law enforcement officers who were attempting to disperse protesters in downtown San Antonio, Texas, on the evening of June 2, 2020.Protesters had gathered in San Antonio and in cities across the U.S. to denounce the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.In San Antonio, demonstrators were marching towards the Alamo, a symbolic site where …
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