first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2024-03-25 21:14:56.544103+00:00,2024-03-28 19:17:45.183272+00:00,Florida paper says sheriff disinvited it from news conference for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-paper-says-sheriff-disinvited-it-from-news-conference-for-second-time/,2024-03-28 19:17:45.083841+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2024-02-29,False,DeLand,Florida (FL),29.02832,-81.30312,"
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.
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 the newspaper said 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.
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.
It was the second time the News-Journal has been left off the invitation list for a news conference held by Chitwood, according to the news outlet. The first time was for a news conference Oct. 2, 2023, where the paper said it was not invited although there was a “contingent of media” present.
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.
After the October news conference, for instance, News-Journal reporter Frank Fernandez wrote 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.”
Chitwood, in a series of Facebook posts going back to September, has been highly critical of News-Journal coverage of several high-profile criminal investigations.
In a Sept. 21 post, Chitwood wrote, “I don’t take Frank Fernandez’s calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore,” then added on Sept. 26, “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.”
News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar, in an opinion piece after the Sept. 21 Chitwood post, wrote, “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?”
Chitwood’s derogatory comments continued, however. In a March 5 post regarding 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.”
The same day, Fernandez reported that Chitwood opted not to include The News-Journal in the news conference even though Gant told the Orlando Sentinel 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.”
The sheriff’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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,” she told the News-Journal.
“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.
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.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar.
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.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS', 'PRESS_CREDENTIAL']",The Daytona Beach News-Journal,,,,Law enforcement: Local 2024-03-05 19:47:04.995937+00:00,2024-03-05 19:47:04.995937+00:00,"Reporter, public barred from Illinois township board meeting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-public-barred-from-illinois-township-board-meeting/,2024-03-05 19:21:19.759006+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Josh Bootsma (The Lansing Journal),,2024-02-13,False,South Holland,Illinois (IL),41.60087,-87.60699,"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.
He reported 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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.”
Bootsma reported 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.
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.”
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 has repeatedly said that the media only covers negative stories. Bootsma noted that a reporter for the Journal was told she could not attend a Black History Month event on Feb. 24, for instance, because she had not signed a nondisclosure agreement before the event.
Neither Henyard nor Township Special Advisor Keith Freeman responded to requests for comment.
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.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Local government: Legislature 2023-12-13 22:28:17.348484+00:00,2023-12-14 18:55:39.462192+00:00,California journalist barred from press conference with district attorney,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-journalist-barred-from-press-conference-with-district-attorney/,2023-12-14 18:55:39.301641+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Emilie Raguso (The Berkeley Scanner),,2023-11-29,False,Berkeley,California (CA),37.87159,-122.27275,"Journalist Emilie Raguso, who operates the crime and safety news site The Berkeley Scanner, was barred from attending a press conference on Nov. 29, 2023, with Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Three days later, the DA’s office announced that Raguso’s exclusion from the media list was an “oversight” and that she was “welcome” at future press events.
Raguso told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that though she launched The Scanner in 2022, she has covered crime and courts for more than a decade. But after she published an article in January including criticisms of Price, her office made it clear that it was displeased with Raguso’s coverage.
Raguso said that she was one of the few journalists who attended Price’s first press conference in March, and that everything had seemed to go normally.
“Afterward, people started getting in touch with me, saying, ‘She wanted to throw you out of that press conference,’” Raguso said, adding that she believed it was because of her prior reporting. “Fortunately some people who worked for her at the time were able to convince her that that was not appropriate.”
Throughout the summer, Raguso said she was removed from the DA’s media list multiple times, but was readded when she raised the issue. In October, she was told that the list — and her request to be included — was under review.
When Raguso learned from other journalists that Price was to hold a press conference on the morning of Nov. 29, she planned to attend.
“I thought there was a possibility they wouldn’t let me in, but I didn’t think it was a strong possibility because they don’t have a legal reason to do that,” Raguso said.
When Raguso arrived at the press conference, she was barred at the door due to unspecified “safety issues.” Raguso said that two individuals from the DA’s office recognized her as press but said that her credentials provided by the Oakland Police Department were insufficient. She added that nearly half a dozen other journalists were allowed in that day without being asked to show their credentials, and some without even signing a check-in sheet.
I was just turned away from an announced press conference with elected @AlamedaCountyDA Pamela Price. Every other member of the media who came was let in without any checking of credentials. @FACoalition @rcfp @SPJ_NorCal pic.twitter.com/GInIcGHlpM
— The Berkeley Scanner (@BerkeleyScanner) November 29, 2023
When Raguso saw Price exiting an elevator, she petitioned the district attorney directly to intervene and allow her to attend the press conference, but Price declined to do so.
A statement released by Price’s office the following day referred to Raguso as an “uninvited person” and The Scanner as simply a “blog.” It also asserted that the employees were enforcing credentialing standards that are “long-standing and predate the election of District Attorney Pamela Price.”
Following public outcry — including a letter penned by the First Amendment Coalition — Price’s office on Dec. 2 released a statement that Raguso would be added back to the media list and allowed to attend future press conferences. It said that Raguso’s removal from the media list, as well as that of local news website the Bay City News, had been an “oversight.”
The statement also noted that Price would be leading an effort to establish new media guidelines, saying that “this critical work is long overdue.” Price’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Raguso told the Tracker that the main concern now is how the DA’s office will handle other reporters’ access moving forward. “Will people need to provide a credential? Or will people need to be on your email list to come to your press events? I asked that and they haven’t answered,” Raguso said.
She added that she thinks the DA’s office could retaliate against her in this way because the Scanner is a one-person operation.
“But they didn’t realize that there are so many people in the journalism world and in the First Amendment world and in the broader community who believe strongly in the First Amendment,” Raguso said, “and who understand that the government does not get to define and decide who gets to report the news.”
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price's office barred journalist Emilie Raguso from her Nov. 29, 2023, press conference citing “security concerns.” Price later announced that Raguso could attend future press events.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Law enforcement: Prosecutors 2023-12-13 22:29:27.018536+00:00,2023-12-14 18:55:28.254595+00:00,California journalist restored to district attorney’s media list,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-journalist-restored-to-district-attorneys-media-list/,2023-12-14 18:55:28.158715+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Emilie Raguso (The Berkeley Scanner),,2023-10-20,False,Berkeley,California (CA),37.87159,-122.27275,"Journalist Emilie Raguso, who operates the crime and safety news site The Berkeley Scanner, was removed from the media list of the Alameda County, California, district attorney multiple times in 2023 in alleged retaliation for her coverage. Raguso was reinstated after the office came under public scrutiny for barring her from a November press conference.
Raguso told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that though she launched The Scanner in 2022, she has covered crime and courts for more than a decade. But since she published an article in January that included criticisms of DA Pamela Price’s administration, Raguso said Price has declined all of her requests for comment or interviews and otherwise attempted to obstruct her coverage.
“From then on, they were really uninterested in talking with me and were pretty antagonistic about some things,” Raguso said. “So I’ve continued to try to get interviews and include their perspective, but it’s been challenging.”
Raguso added that when she attended Price’s first press conference in March, she thought everything had proceeded normally. She said she later learned from multiple individuals that Price had wanted to remove her, but some of her employees were able to convince Price not to.
In emails shared with the Tracker, an employee at the DA’s office told Raguso in June that her removal from the media list was a simple error, part of a general effort to remove out-of-date recipients, and that she had been added back. By October, however, Raguso realized that she had once again stopped receiving notice of upcoming press events.
Raguso told the Tracker that she emailed the DA’s office on Oct. 20 to be readded to the mailing list and to clarify why she kept being removed. She received a response to her inquiry on Nov. 1, when Communications Director Haaziq Madyun wrote to her that the mailing list was “under review.”
When Raguso attempted to attend Price’s Nov. 29 press conference, however, she was barred at the door due to unspecified “safety issues.” Following public outcry — including a letter penned by the First Amendment Coalition — Price’s office released a statement that Raguso would be added back to the media list and allowed to attend the DA’s press conferences.
“During several transitions of the DAO communications staff over the summer, the DAO media list was modified and reduced to a limited number of news outlets,” the statement said. “Miss Raguso, among others, including the Bay City News Service, was not included in the updated media list, an oversight now being corrected.”
Bay City News Service Managing Editor Dan McMenamin told the Tracker that it was not aware it had stopped receiving emails from the DA’s office until Raguso was barred from the press conference. When contacted by the news outlet, the DA’s office initially said it had an incorrect — and nonexistent — email address for it on record, McMenamin said.
The DA’s statement also noted that Price would be leading an effort to establish “clear and transparent media credentials guidelines that balance the need for public safety alongside accommodating today’s journalists. This critical work is long overdue.” Price’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Raguso told the Tracker that apparent hostility from Price’s office and supporters has affected her reporting.
“I have worked hard to be professional and careful in all my dealings with the DA's office,” Raguso said, “and have taken pains to skip quite a few stories that were absolutely newsworthy — solely because of the complaints by her supporters that the coverage has been unfair or overly critical.”
The office of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who is pictured above, repeatedly removed journalist Emilie Raguso from its media list in 2023 in alleged retaliation for critical coverage.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['PRESS_CREDENTIAL'],,,,,Law enforcement: Prosecutors 2024-03-25 21:15:04.579057+00:00,2024-03-26 15:37:47.386266+00:00,Florida daily newspaper said feud led sheriff to disinvite it from news conference,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-daily-newspaper-said-feud-led-sheriff-to-disinvite-it-from-news-conference/,2024-03-26 15:37:47.268879+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2023-10-02,False,DeLand,Florida (FL),29.02832,-81.30312,"The Daytona Beach News-Journal was purposely not invited to a news conference held by Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Oct. 2, 2023, according to the Florida news outlet.
The press conference announced the arrest of a 17-year-old alleged to have sold a fatal dose of fentanyl to a minor. When News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar emailed Chitwood’s media staff about it, they explained the lack of invitation was deliberate.
“No oversight, sorry,” Chitwood’s Director of Public Affairs Andrew Gant replied. “The Sheriff is no longer inviting the NJ to his news conference or commenting for stories.”
According to an article by the News-Journal, a “contingent of media” was present at the conference.
The News-Journal was later left off the invite list for another conference on Feb. 29, 2024. The sheriff’s office had announced via social media that Chitwood would be holding a news conference the following day about a break in a 20-year-old missing persons investigation. But the newspaper said 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.
Two other Florida TV stations, WESH and WOFL, had news crews present at that briefing, but the paper said it was unclear how Chitwood communicated to them the time and place of the event.
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.
Chitwood, in a series of Facebook posts going back to September, has been highly critical of News-Journal coverage of several high-profile criminal investigations.
In a Sept. 21 post, Chitwood wrote, “I don’t take Frank Fernandez’s calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore,” then added on Sept. 26, “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.”
News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar, in an opinion piece after the Sept. 21 Chitwood post, wrote, “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?”
Chitwood’s derogatory comments continued, however. In a March 5 post regarding 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.”
The same day, Fernandez reported that Chitwood opted not to include The News-Journal in the news conference even though Gant told the Orlando Sentinel 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.”
The sheriff’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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,” she told the News-Journal.
“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.
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.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from News-Journal Executive Editor John Dunbar.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida, during an Oct. 2, 2023, news conference. The Daytona Beach News-Journal said it was purposefully not invited to the event.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS', 'PRESS_CREDENTIAL']",The Daytona Beach News-Journal,,,,Law enforcement: Local 2024-01-08 19:44:01.377724+00:00,2024-01-08 19:44:01.377724+00:00,New York congressman lifts press ban for public town hall meetings,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-congressman-lifts-press-ban-for-public-town-hall-meetings/,2024-01-08 19:44:01.144411+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2023-08-12,False,Carmel,New York (NY),41.43009,-73.68013,"A New York congressman for several months in 2023 enforced a policy of restricting press access at his town hall events to journalists who live in his district, prohibiting reporters in attendance from recording the events, using cameras and asking questions.
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., ultimately reversed the policy on Jan. 5, 2024, announcing that his office will now grant access to all credentialed media and allow cameras. Lawler said he will also take reporters’ questions after each event.
Lawler’s press crackdown was first reported after an Aug. 22, 2023, meeting when his staff only allowed a reporter for The Highland Current to enter a Carmel, New York, town hall with restrictions on her newsgathering methods.
“On entering, with my ticket, I had my camera around my neck. Lawler’s staff members said that I could not take photos or otherwise record the event and had to immediately either put the camera back in my car or surrender it until the town hall ended,” Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Armstrong added: “When I explained that I was with the press, the staff answered that the town hall was not open to news media coverage. I expressed my surprise and questioned how a House member and his staff, all paid by taxpayers, could forbid press coverage of a public forum held in a public, local government building. The staff appeared confused and a long discussion ensued between me and one of Rep. Lawler’s senior staff members.”
Armstrong said she was finally able to gain entry to the town hall using a ticket issued to one of Lawler’s constituents.
Similar press restrictions were imposed throughout the fall of 2023. Lawler’s staff, for instance, barred journalists from attending a Sept. 25 town hall event in East Fishkill, New York, Kayla Guo of The New York Times reported. Guo interviewed town hall attendees outside the venue.
Lawler also barred the press from a Nov. 19 town hall event at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, where attendees were threatened with expulsion if they recorded the event, reported David McKay Wilson of The Journal News. Wilson gained access to the sold-out town hall by obtaining a friend’s ticket to the event. He published an account and a photo of the event in The Journal News.
The Rockland Daily reported that its request for a press pass to the Nov. 19 event was denied, but that one of its photographers was allowed to attend the town hall in his capacity as a private citizen and a constituent of Lawler’s, and was permitted to take photos with his cellphone.
Lawler’s Dec. 17 town hall at a high school in Thornwood, New York, was also closed to the press, according to the Eventbrite page for the event. A Journal News photographer and a News 12 Westchester camera crew were barred from entering the venue.
The Journal News’ Wilson said he was allowed to attend that event as a constituent but not as a member of the press — he reported that attendees were again threatened with expulsion if they recorded Lawler’s exchanges or took photos.
“This was an event of a member of Congress, in his official capacity as member of Congress,” Wilson told the Tracker. “It’s the first time I was barred from a public congressional event.”
The New York Times and News 12 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lawler, in his Jan. 5 statement, said his office had imposed the policy to make the town halls “as hospitable and welcoming as possible. … The goal was to prevent these town halls from being hijacked by out-of-district political grandstanders desperately searching for a viral video clip, and instead geared towards hearing directly from constituents with serious questions or concerns.”
Lawler’s statement added: “Upon reflection, while well-intentioned, these rules could have been explained and implemented in a better way.”
Placard displayed at an Aug. 22 town hall event hosted by U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-NY.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],"Media, News 12 Westchester, The Highland Current, The Journal News, The New York Times, The Rockland Daily",,,,Federal government: Legislature 2023-10-06 15:43:35.974288+00:00,2023-12-20 20:36:29.642546+00:00,Cannabis commission restricts reporter’s access,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cannabis-commission-restricts-reporters-access/,2023-12-20 20:36:29.561609+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Grant Smith-Ellis (Independent),,2023-08-04,False,Worcester,Massachusetts (MA),42.26259,-71.80229,"Independent journalist Grant Smith-Ellis was barred on Aug. 4, 2023, from attending future press scrums or otherwise engaging in a professional capacity with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, after the state body decided he was not a member of the press.
Smith-Ellis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that he has reported on the commission for more than four years, broadcasting its monthly public meeting and publishing articles about it on his personal website and with outlets such as DigBoston. But at the beginning of August, the commission emailed to notify him that he would only be permitted to interact with the commission and seek information through the same channels available to the general public.
The email, which Smith-Ellis provided to the Tracker, claimed that Smith-Ellis had voiced his personal opinions during legislative hearings and it questioned his “general code of conduct as a purported member of the press.”
“On multiple occasions in recent months, the information you have disseminated as journalism on your social media channels has not been conveyed accurately or fairly, and blended rumor and conjecture with fact,” the commission wrote. “[The] information you rush to post is often riddled with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims.”
When asked about the commission’s characterization of him as an advocate rather than a journalist, Smith-Ellis rejected the idea that reporters must maintain objectivity.
“Journalists are not dispassionate robots, nor should our government ever be in a position to demand such a thing from those in the Fourth Estate,” he said. “Journalists are human beings who tell human stories through human mediums.”
Smith-Ellis maintains that the target of the ban was his watchdog reporting and was an “attempt to silence critical coverage about internal agency dynamics.”
Smith-Ellis said he had asked the commission to review the decision, as it has no policy dictating press behavior or stipulations for inclusion on press lists. He was told on Aug. 7 that no review would be provided. A subsequent petition to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest appellate court, was denied without a hearing, Smith-Ellis added.
“As things stand, I am no longer permitted to send press inquiries to [Cannabis Control Commission] press staff or attend press conferences after each monthly public CCC hearing,” Smith-Ellis told the Tracker. “Over the past month, this punitive ban has prevented me from being able to ask the CCC questions on a number of pressing issues in the public interest.”
When asked via email about the commission’s media policies, a spokesperson said that the commission's public meetings are open to reporters, in person or online, and that journalists can question commissioners afterwards during a staff-led media availability. The spokesperson did not offer a further statement on why Smith-Ellis’ access was restricted.
Smith-Ellis told the Tracker he is considering next steps to address what he characterizes as a chilling overreach by a government agency.
“The government has a right to dislike my reporting. The government has a right to seek corrections (which I have always issued when asked). The government does not have a right to silence critical journalism, without even basic due process, on the basis of its content,” Smith-Ellis said.
Los Angeles Times photographer Kent Nishimura said press access to Sen. Dianne Feinstein at the U.S. Capitol was restricted twice in May 2023.
In a May 24 article titled, “As staff shield Feinstein from the press, a picture really is worth a thousand words,” Washington, D.C.-based Nishimura said he was told Feinstein couldn’t be photographed on two consecutive days as she arrived at the Capitol. The 89-year-old Democratic senator from California had been on an extended absence since early March recuperating from illness and hospitalization, and returned to the Senate on May 10.
In an announcement the day of her return, Feinstein’s office alerted the press that the senator may be using a wheelchair “to travel around the Capitol,” and that she may have a lighter schedule, as per her doctors’ recommendation.
Nishimura, a staff photographer with the LA Times since 2017, has covered the senior senator for years. He said his article documents an atypical yet alarming denial of access at the nation’s capital.
“Restricting press access in this manner sets a dangerous precedent for the future — the severe erosion of press freedoms,” Nishimura said in a May 26 email response to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
According to Nishimura, he and other members of the press were restricted from accessing the senator on public grounds, effectively limiting the public’s right to information, especially important during a time when the senator’s ability to do her job amid her illness has come into question.
Nishimura wrote that on May 17 and 18, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms office restricted press access during Feinstein’s arrival, “shutting doors and using the Capitol police to chase journalists out of hallways and public spaces.”
The Office of the Sergeant at Arms did not respond to phone or email requests for comment. The sergeant-at-arms, elected by U.S. senators and serving as chief law enforcement of the Senate, handles security in the Capitol and at all Senate buildings, according to its website. The office can also direct the U.S. Capitol Police.
Capitol Police Communications Director Tim Barber provided the Tracker with the following statement via email: “The United States Capitol Police works to ensure everyone is able to safely follow the rules of the press galleries.”
The Radio-TV Correspondents Galleries provide press credentials and guidelines for press access on Capitol Hill, including determining locations where photographers can place their cameras and where reporters can assemble.
According to Feinstein spokesman Adam Russell, at no time on these dates was press denied access to the senator by Feinstein’s office. He referred the Tracker to his statement in Nishimura’s article where he was quoted as saying, “Our office has not asked photographers to not take pictures of her in her wheelchair. We did ask, and continue to ask for safety reasons, that photographers and reporters give her space, particularly when entering and exiting her vehicle.”
Nishimura told the Tracker he received no further comment or explanation on press access at the U.S. Capitol.
After a prolonged absence, Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to the U.S. Capitol on May 10, 2023. In the following days, media access to the California senator was twice restricted, wrote a D.C.-based photojournalist.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],Media,,,,Federal government: Legislature 2023-05-23 17:05:42.778926+00:00,2024-02-13 18:49:56.303006+00:00,Media outlets sue Denver Public Schools for records from closed meeting,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/media-outlets-sue-denver-public-schools-for-records-from-closed-meeting/,2024-02-13 18:49:56.210654+00:00,,,(2023-07-23 14:08:00+00:00) News outlets win release of school board meeting recording,Denial of Access,,,,,,2023-03-23,False,Denver,Colorado (CO),39.73915,-104.9847,"Seven news outlets in Denver, Colorado, have taken the city’s public school district to court after the Board of Education held a closed-door session on March 23, 2023.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed the lawsuit on April 28 on behalf of seven local news outlets: Chalkbeat Colorado, Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics, The Denver Gazette, The Denver Post, KDVR-TV and KUSA-TV.
According to the suit, the Denver Public Schools Board held a closed, five-hour session on March 23 to discuss security policies following a shooting of two administrators at East High School the day before. Following the meeting, board members unanimously voted to redeploy armed officers in every district high school for the remainder of the year, going against the district’s written policy.
“No public discussion, whatsoever, preceded the Board’s historic about-face concerning its policy of preventing armed ‘School Resource Officers’ inside the District’s high schools. None,” the lawsuit said. “It is clear and irrefutable that the Board had already decided, behind closed doors, to adopt the position or resolution in the Memorandum that they then unanimously voted to approve in public without discussion — a mere ‘rubber stamping’ of their earlier decision.”
Between March 23 and 30, each of the media outlets party to the lawsuit filed requests under Colorado’s Open Records Act and Open Meetings Law seeking the meeting’s minutes and the recording of the session. Each of the requests was denied on the basis that the records are not subject to the open government laws.
The lawsuit requests that the court direct the school district to release the recording from the meeting in its entirety, or — if sections are exempt from disclosure — that those sections be redacted and the remainder released.
A hearing on the case is scheduled for June 1.
A Virginia Circuit Court judge ruled on Jan. 11, 2024, that the Augusta County Board of Supervisors violated state code when it entered a closed session on March 20, 2023, and so must share a recording of the session with the media.
The ruling came in response to two lawsuits filed by news organizations and journalists after the county refused to comply with their Freedom of Information Act requests for the recording. The county has voted to appeal the ruling.
According to Dec. 21, 2023, testimony in the case, described in media reports, the March 20 closed session of the Board of Supervisors concerned member Steven Morelli, who had submitted his resignation shortly before the meeting. The motion to close the session cited an exemption for discussions of personnel matters, but did not give any other reason for closing it to the public.
Another board member, Scott Seaton, made a recording of the session without the knowledge of his colleagues; he had also secretly recorded several other closed sessions since he took office on Jan. 1, 2020.
When the board found out about the secret recordings, it demanded that Seaton turn them over, citing Virginia’s FOIA. Seaton voluntarily turned the recordings over to the board on Aug. 9, but the board did not make the recordings available to the public.
Breaking Through Media and its editor, Samuel Orlando, and Augusta Free Press managing editor and founder, Chris Graham, subsequently filed two separate FOIA requests in August for the recording of the March 20 session. The parties also requested recordings of the other closed sessions that had been secretly recorded by Seaton. When the county failed to comply, both news organizations separately sued.
The Augusta Free Press reported that Judge Thomas Wilson IV, in his Jan. 11 ruling, agreed with Graham’s contention that the recordings, “having been turned over to the County, are now County public records.” Because they were not Seaton’s private property, the recordings were subject to FOIA, the judge ruled.
In a separate but related ruling on Breaking Through Media’s suit, Wilson wrote that under Virginia state code a body seeking to move into closed session must first satisfy three requirements, including specifically identifying the subject matter of the session.
Wilson wrote that the Augusta board claimed a personnel exemption for the closed session, and simply listed “Board of Supervisors” as the subject. That subject, Wilson agreed with Breaking Through Media, was “too cryptic, is merely a general reference to the subject matter, and does not contain the particularity I believe the statute requires.”
Wilson therefore found that the portion of the meeting discussing Morelli’s resignation was not exempt from Virginia’s FOIA, and ordered the county to provide the portion of the recording involving Morelli to the petitioners.
However, Wilson denied Breaking Through Media’s request for Seaton’s other recordings, agreeing with the county that none of the sessions “discussed the specific topics identified in the FOIA request.” He also rejected Graham’s argument that the personnel exemption did not apply to the meeting because Morelli had resigned. Wilson agreed with the county’s argument that under Virginia law, officials have until midnight to rescind their resignations and therefore, Morelli remained a supervisor at the meeting.
The Board of Supervisors voted Jan. 24 to authorize an appeal of Wilson’s order, the Augusta Free Press reported.
A representative of the board told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that once Wilson’s final order is entered, the county will seek a stay of the order until the case can be decided by an appellate court.
Graham of the Augusta Free Press, in an email to the Tracker, said, “We're still waiting for the wheels of justice to grind on this.”
Portion of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Breaking Through Media, one of two suits that forced the release of a closed meeting by a Virginia county’s board of supervisors.
",None,None,None,None,False,CL23002339-00,['APPEALED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],Breaking Through Media,public records,,,Local government: Legislature 2023-05-10 19:48:29.478523+00:00,2023-12-20 20:40:06.834777+00:00,MinnPost reporter reinstated to press list after coalition backing,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minnpostcom-reporter-reinstated-to-press-list-after-coalition-defends-media-access/,2023-12-20 20:40:06.706072+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Peter Callaghan (MinnPost),,2023-02-09,False,St. Paul,Minnesota (MN),None,None,"MinnPost reporter Peter Callaghan was removed on Feb. 10, 2023, from the Minnesota House DFL Caucus media distribution list in apparent retaliation and reinstated a few weeks later after a coalition of news media defended the reporter and media access.
According to MinnPost editor Elizabeth Dunbar, Callaghan is back on the media list receiving emails and correspondence “just like other members of the press.”
The reporter’s removal stemmed from an incident on Feb. 9 between Callaghan and Matt Roznowski, the Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the House Democratic-Farmer-Labor Caucus. The DFL party currently holds five of the state’s offices including governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor and state attorney general.
Following a verbal exchange between the two during a press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Callaghan was removed from the House press list that provides updates to reporters with access to press releases and press conferences.
The MinnPost subsequently sent a letter to the House DFL Caucus objecting to Callaghan’s treatment and defending the media’s right to access public officials.
By Feb. 27, Callaghan had his media access restored, however in a back-and-forth exchange of correspondence between the House DFL Caucus and the MinnPost, the House DFL Caucus accused Callaghan of discrimination and harassment based on comments the reporter had made at the press conference.
In an April 12 letter, Leita Walker, an attorney with Ballard Spahr LLP, notified the House DFL Caucus that she represented a coalition of national and local news organizations that were banding together to defend Callaghan and the media’s right to access. The coalition included: Axios, Fox affiliate KMSP-TV, NBC affiliate KARE-TV, the Mankato Free Press, the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Minnesota Public Radio, The Minnesota Reformer, the MinnPost.com, the (St. Paul) Pioneer Press and The Star Tribune.
“Excluding a member of the media from government communications after that member made a pointed but justifiable comment during a press conference smacks of retaliation and raises serious constitutional concerns,” Walker wrote.
In response, Speaker of the House Rep. Melissa Hortman made a public statement on April 14 explaining that a 2018 policy requires the House to investigate “an allegation of conduct that violates the House Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment.” Hortman said the House had taken action following Callaghan’s alleged behavior at the February press conference.
A few days later, on April 17, Hortman wrote again — this time acknowledging the media coalition letter. Hortman said the February press conference led to “flared tempers and misunderstandings” and suggested mending fences.
“I would be happy to meet with the media to discuss how we can rebuild trust and improve relationships going forward,” she stated in the letter.
As of May 9, members of the coalition are “discussing a follow-up meeting” with the Speaker of the House but nothing had been scheduled, MinnPost editor Dunbar said in an email with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. There have been no new concerns about retaliation against Callaghan, she said.
When reached for comment, Ted Modrich, Minnesota House DFL Press Secretary who serves as Senior Advisor to the Speaker of the House and who responded for Melissa Hortman, said in an email: “The Speaker doesn’t have any comment beyond what she has already said publicly.”
Rules regarding media conduct passed by city officials in Winter Garden, Florida, on Feb. 9, 2023 — called unconstitutional by press freedom advocates — were cited in a June letter sanctioning the editor-in-chief of a local publication.
The new rules were part of a resolution that stipulates that journalists are not to ask officials questions before or after city commission meetings or during the meetings’ public comment periods. The rules also direct members of the press to contact the city-designated public information officer with requests for comment or interviews, though no such appointee exists, according to the First Amendment Foundation.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that City Manager Jon Williams proposed the resolution in direct response to VoxPopuli Editor-in-Chief Norine Dworkin’s use of the public comment portion of commission meetings to ask questions. Williams, in response to emailed questions from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, declined to state the motivation behind the resolution.
Dworkin told the Tracker that she is often one of the few members of the media present at the City Commission meetings, and that she asks questions during the public comment period only when her calls and emails go unanswered.
“When I want to make a point or when I haven’t gotten a response, I would go and use the public comment forum and ask publicly because it’s harder to dodge the question in front of your constituents,” Dworkin said.
After the media rules were passed, Dworkin said she kept asking questions without issue. “I continued to just do my job and do all the things I normally do,” Dworkin said, “until I asked about the neo-Nazis.”
It was during the City Commission meeting on June 22 that Dworkin asked Mayor John Rees whether he condemned the neo-Nazis who distributed antisemitic pamphlets in neighborhoods in Winter Garden and the nearby town of Oakland. The following day, Dworkin received an official notice of violation, which stated that she would be banned from the meetings if she continued to defy the resolution.
Williams defended the resolution in an email to the Tracker, stating that the guidelines were intended to ensure the meetings are “courteous and orderly” and that citizens can raise concerns for consideration by the commission.
“City Commission meetings are not an open public forum (like a public sidewalk), but are a limited public forum,” Williams wrote. “The public comment portion of the meetings are not offered as a platform to address matters that are not city business.”
The First Amendment Foundation sent a letter to Rees and Williams on July 25 challenging the constitutionality of the resolution and encouraging them to rework the resolution to comply with state and federal law.
“Denying [journalists] access to officials during public comment periods or forbidding them from asking them questions when the officials enter or leave meetings can only be seen as a violation of the journalist’s First Amendment rights,” wrote Executive Director Bobby Block.
Williams told the Tracker that city management had a “productive” meeting with representatives from the First Amendment Foundation on Aug. 3 to discuss the organization’s concerns. The city is now awaiting the foundation’s specific proposed revisions to the resolution.
Dworkin said that though this issue started with her, it’s not really about her or VoxPopuli.
“This is really about the First Amendment, it’s about press freedom and it’s about having access to the elected officials and being able to ask them questions and to hold them accountable,” Dworkin said. “That’s all this has ever been about.”
Limitations on press access inside the New York State Assembly implemented during the pandemic will continue this legislative session, a spokesman for the Speaker confirmed on Jan. 23, 2023.
In an email to Zach Williams, president of the New York State Legislative Correspondents Association, Press Secretary Michael Whyland said that the rules for the lower house of the legislature were not changing.
During the first months of the pandemic, sweeping health and safety measures were put in place limiting how many people — including lawmakers — could enter the statehouse and where they could go. Journalists covering the Assembly were limited to a few chairs in the well of the chamber and at the back of the room, and were barred from directly approaching lawmakers at their desks. Reporters were also no longer permitted in the area behind the dias to access the speaker’s office, conference rooms and a lounge.
Whyland wrote that the area behind the dias is still by appointment only.
Williams, who is also the New York Post’s Albany bureau chief, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when COVID-19 restrictions for the statehouse began to expire, the LCA initiated conversations about lifting the media access limitations as well.
“Once they stopped having the mask restriction and capacity restrictions, reporters like myself started raising questions about why we could not enter and move around the chamber and adjacent areas like we did before coronavirus struck New York,” Williams said.
Tom Precious, who covered the New York State legislature for more than 30 years before retiring in 2022, told the Tracker via email that in the years before the pandemic, members of the press were able to move around the chamber with relative ease.
“It used to be that reporters could walk down onto the floor during session and go right up to a lawmaker’s desk to ask them a question,” Precious said. “I spent many, many hours of my time at the Capitol walking that back hallway in order to grab lawmakers for comments or background perspectives on an issue.”
After receiving the email confirming that limits on media access would continue, Williams sent a letter on Feb. 2 on behalf of the LCA calling on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to restore the pre-pandemic policies.
“Decades of experience proved that order can be maintained in the chamber while Capitol reporters do their jobs of informing the public,” Williams wrote. “The Assembly now aims to bar the press in your name from anywhere except the back of the chamber and a few chairs in the well of the floor. Only favored reporters would be allowed anywhere behind the chamber. The LCA has voted to reject such conditions. We need more than that to do our jobs.”
Williams confirmed to the Tracker on Feb. 9 that he had not received an official response to his letter.
Whyland, the press secretary, did not respond to requests for comment from the Tracker. He wrote on Twitter that press access to the Assembly is both the same as it was pre-pandemic and is the same as access to the Senate.
Reporter Keshia Clukey, an LCA member who has covered the statehouse for seven years, told the Tracker that press access has never been the same in both chambers due to differences in size and formality.
“The Senate and Assembly have always had very different rules. The Senate hasn’t been quite as accessible as the Assembly,” Clukey said. “But the Assembly has always been the ‘People’s House.’”
She added that she’s particularly concerned about the strict access heading into the budgeting process in March, when many decisions are made behind the scenes.
“That lack of transparency in the budget process makes this fight to have the access that we've always had even more important,” Clukey said.
Press access is so important, especially in Albany during budget season where negotiations and policymaking are already done behind closed doors.
— Keshia Clukey (@KeshiaClukey) February 7, 2023
Bring it back, please! https://t.co/xnxjToZVe1
In early 2022, the Tracker reported how Iowa, Kansas and Utah senates enacted similar policies or changes to practice restricting reporter access. In January 2023, the Texas Senate also confirmed that pandemic restrictions on the press would remain in place.
The New York State Legislative Assembly in session at the Capitol in Albany, New York.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],Media,,,,State government: Legislature 2023-01-11 21:02:18.365294+00:00,2023-12-20 20:42:20.289095+00:00,Texas Senate extends barring reporters from floor,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-upholds-covid-era-policy-barring-reporters-from-senate-floor/,2023-12-20 20:42:20.202123+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2023-01-06,False,Austin,Texas (TX),30.26715,-97.74306,"The Texas Senate secretary confirmed to a reporter that a COVID-19 policy implemented two years ago barring reporters from the chamber floor will continue into the new legislative session.
On Jan. 6, 2023, Dallas Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy tweeted a portion of an email from Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw stating to her that the policy was still in effect.
Member of the press will not be allowed onto the Texas Senate floor during the upcoming session, the secretary of the senate confirm to me.
— 🌟 Lauren McGaughy (@lmcgaughy) January 6, 2023
The policy was implemented during COVID and is not being lifted even though most other pandemic restrictions are gone. #txlege pic.twitter.com/Z9RLFCCc6P
“There is no floor seating for the press,” Spaw wrote. “The reserved area for the press was moved to the Senate Gallery in the southwest corner. The press is not restricted to that area, but may sit in any open seat in the gallery.”
Spaw did not respond to a request for further comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The Texas Tribune reported that media members were moved to the third floor of the Senate gallery in 2021 to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, while senators occupied the second floor. Donnis Baggett, executive vice president of the Texas Press Association, told the Tracker via email that the decision to continue the policy was a disservice to both reporters and senators.
“Many legislative procedures were changed during the height of COVID restrictions, but most of those have been dissolved since. Unfortunately, this rule was left in place. The result: reporters are still restricted to the Senate gallery, which is a floor above the senators themselves. That works to the detriment of timely and mutually beneficial conversations between senators and reporters.”
Baggett said that he hopes Senate leadership will reconsider the decision for the benefit of voters.
Press freedom advocacy groups said the decision was concerning, and lacked sufficient explanation.
“The Texas Senate is not even claiming any legitimate justification to limit press access,” said Seth Stern, advocacy director for Freedom of the Press Foundation. “Officials hope that press restrictions will fly under the radar when they quietly make temporary COVID policies permanent. Hopefully Texas won’t fall for it.” FPF co-founded and maintains the Tracker.
In early 2022, the Tracker reported how Iowa, Kansas and Utah senates enacted similar policies or changes to practice restricting reporter access.
Editor's note: The article was updated to include comment from Texas Press Association Executive Vice President Donnis Baggett.
The Texas state capitol building in downtown Austin.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],Media,,,,State government: Legislature 2022-10-14 16:21:32.547749+00:00,2023-12-20 20:43:01.646919+00:00,Two Occupy Democrats journalists barred from DeSantis press conference,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-occupy-democrats-journalists-barred-from-desantis-press-conference/,2023-12-20 20:43:01.567674+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,"Grant Stern (Occupy Democrats), Thomas Kennedy (Occupy Democrats)",,2022-09-22,False,Miami,Florida (FL),25.77427,-80.19366,"Two journalists with the news arm of progressive political organization Occupy Democrats were barred from attending a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis in Miami, Florida, on Sept. 22, 2022.
Editor-at-Large Grant Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Reported Opinion Columnist Thomas Kennedy learned about the press conference after DeSantis put it on his public agenda. The pair was ultimately stopped before they could enter the venue at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus.
Was just denied entrance to DeSantis’ press event. Police put their hands on me and forcibly removed me from this publicly funded event despite me not raising my voice and police acknowledging we are not violent. We wanted to ask why DeSantis is using migrants as political props.
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) September 22, 2022
In a video Kennedy posted on Twitter of the interaction, a person he identifies as a Miami police detective says he and Grant have already been advised they are not welcome. “You’re not invited. You’re not press.”
Officer Roberto Heredia Rubio subsequently told the journalists that it was a private event and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement instructed the officers to prevent them from entering.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, DeSantis signed two bills into law that day aimed at combating foreign influence in Florida’s universities and increasing the penalties for selling trade secrets, particularly to foreign governments.
Stern told the Tracker that during the interaction, another officer at the venue refused to identify himself and then began filming them on a cellphone. Stern requested that the officer send him a copy of the recording in compliance with the state’s public records law. The officer refused and forced them to exit the building under threat of arrest.
“This is the second time that an officer from the City of Miami has responded to me making an on-the-spot records request with retaliatory conduct,” Stern said. “There’s a pattern and practice of civil rights violations in Miami.”
The governor’s office has barred press from covering press conferences or bill signings on at least four other occasions since March 2020, including an incident in April when both Stern and Kennedy were forcefully removed from a press conference with DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñes. The Tracker documented that incident here.
Independent reporter Ralph Cipriano says he was “stonewalled” by the Philadelphia district attorney for writing critical articles, eventually culminating in his physical removal from an Aug. 8, 2022, press conference in Pennsylvania.
Cipriano, a former Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who publishes the Big Trial blog, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he first started attending District Attorney Larry Krasner’s weekly press conferences in July after three years of no response from his requests for comment. Cipriano said that at every press conference, Krasner refused to take questions or call on him.
The district attorney’s office, which did not respond to requests for comment, holds weekly conferences to brief the media on local issues and events.
During an Aug. 8 press conference, the DA issued Cipriano a warning for not waiting until he was called to ask a question.
“That is not how we proceed,” Krasner said during the media event, which was live streamed and posted on Facebook. “Anyone who cannot observe those rules can leave and can leave now or be escorted out.”
According to Cipriano, he tried asking questions two more times and was warned by the DA a second time then asked to leave. After being escorted out of the venue, Cipriano wrote on his blog that the treatment was personal.
“After four years of presiding over free-for-all press conferences, the D.A. now maintains that reporters no longer have the right to speak up and ask him a question.”
Paula Knudsen Burke, a staff attorney for the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press, requested written policies and rules that govern the DA’s office interaction with the press during media events as part of a Right-to-Know Law filing. In a letter to Krasner on behalf of Cipriano, Knudsen Burke highlighted that his office could not locate any written policies or guidelines for interactions with the media.
“It is clear that there are no ‘rules’ or procedures governing access to press conferences held by your office,” Knudsen Burke wrote.
She also objected to Cipriano’s removal from the press conference as unconstitutional under the First Amendment: “Government officials cannot make media access decisions based on the content of news coverage, media organizations’ interaction with government officials, or the agency’s perception thereof.”
Cipriano continued attending the DA’s weekly press conferences and reported that Krasner called on him to ask a question during a Sept. 12 conference.
On June 20, 2022, journalists were told to leave a committee hearing in Uvalde, Texas, where Texas House legislators were scheduled to discuss the law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May.
According to The Washington Post, Fire Marshal Juan Hernandez asked reporters to leave the meeting and wait outside City Hall. Hernandez said people were intimidated by the presence of the reporters at the meetings.
CNN correspondent Shimon Prokupecz posted a video on Twitter of journalists gathering equipment before exiting the building while law enforcement officers looked on. In the video, Prokupecz questions Hernandez, asking why reporters needed to leave.
Here is the full video
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 20, 2022
You can see the parent and chaplain.
More of the fire marshal telling us to leave. pic.twitter.com/U1wKYnav2e
Hernandez tells Prokupecz reporters were allowed to “hang around outside, but not inside the building.”
“But this is a city-building, right?” Prokupecz said. Hernandez replied that if he wasn’t going to pay the building’s water bill, he had to wait outside.
Reporters covering the aftermath of the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the emerging details of the response by law enforcement say they continue to report facing harassment and stonewalling as they try to gather information.
The City of Uvalde did not respond to requests for comment.
The executive editor of a Chicago-based news publication filed a federal lawsuit against the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts on June 13, 2022, over access to a meeting of the Tennessee Judicial Conference.
According to the Tennessean, Dan McCaleb, executive editor of The Center Square, learned on June 6 of a new policy put forth by Michelle Long, the Director of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, preventing the public and members of the media from attending the annual meetings.
The annual conference comprises the state’s active and retired judges who meet to consider laws, draft legislation and make recommendations to the state’s general assembly. Court documents obtained by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker shows that Long, named in the lawsuit in her official capacity, approved the policy on Feb. 1, to “ensure the safety and security of conference attendees, staff, and invited speakers during AOC conferences.”
In the lawsuit, McCaleb argues that the policy violates his First Amendment right to assign reporters to cover “future Tennessee Judicial Conference meetings either virtually or in person,” and “limits necessary transparency around the state court rulemaking process.” McCaleb added that the yearly meetings “played a significant and positive role in the rulemaking process regarding federal court policy.”
During an emergency hearing on June 15, two days after McCaleb filed the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw declined to order this year’s Tennessee Judicial Conference to be opened to the public and media. Instead, according to the Tennessean, Crenshaw sided with the state’s Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter, who testified during the hearing that the conference meetings would be “entirely educational” for the attendees. While the conference will not be open to the public, McCaleb’s lawsuit will continue in federal court and can argue for future meetings to be open if the meetings discuss public policy.
In response to a request for comment, Barbara Peck, the Director of Communications for the Tennessee State Courts, directed the Tracker to the state’s filing opposing the temporary restraining order filed by McCaleb. In it, Long argues that “while the First Amendment right of access covers certain judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings and records filed in those proceedings, neither the Sixth Circuit nor the Supreme Court has ever recognized a First Amendment right of access to meetings of a state judiciary such as the TJC.”
McCaleb did not respond to requests for comment.
Journalists from four news companies were blocked from attending a school board meeting in Bettendorf, Iowa, on May 25, 2022, according to a lawsuit the outlets filed against the school district.
The meeting — which was held the day after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas — was about school violence and was attended by more than 300 parents.
KCRG News reported that school employees were stationed at the doors of the Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center to prevent members of the press from entering a meeting, including journalists from the Quad-City Times, KWQC-TV, WQAD-TV and WHBF-TV.
KQAD reporter Josh Lamberty posted to Facebook that he was outside the convention center but that he wasn’t being allowed to attend the meeting. Lamberty also shared a photo of a sign on the door which reads: “Out of respect for an open honest work session for our Middle School parents and staff, we ask for no recording, live streaming or media at tonight’s work session.”
The news outlets, joined by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, filed a lawsuit against the Bettendorf school board and other officials on Aug. 1.
The lawsuit asks the Scott County District Court to rule that the school district violated Iowa’s open meeting law, issue an injunction prohibiting such actions in the future and fine the school board members who took part in the meeting.
Iowa FOI Executive Director Randy Evans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that while they weren’t eager to resort to pursuing a legal remedy, they couldn’t let the closed meeting go unchallenged.
“We don’t want government boards and councils in Iowa to believe that the open meetings law is something they only have to follow when it’s convenient,” Evans said. “Cutting journalists off is really cutting the information chain to citizens in two pieces.”
In a letter to the school board president and superintendent dated June 3, the media organizations and nonprofit expressed “profound disappointment” with the school officials’ decision to keep journalists out of the meeting.
“The topic discussed on the evening of Wednesday, May 25, was one of the fundamental responsibilities of the Bettendorf Community School District — ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the district’s 4,700 students during each school day,” the letter stated. “Barring both journalists and other interested people from the meeting on May 25 is a direct violation of the statute of the Iowa Legislature clearly articulated in the first paragraph of the open meetings law.”
Evans told the Tracker they did not receive a response from the school district.
When reached for comment, Bettendorf School District Director of Communications Celeste Miller said in a statement that school officials do not believe the outlets’ claims have any merit.
“The May 25 Work Session was to provide a forum for parents, staff and interested community members to come together to discuss with each other the District’s strengths, weaknesses, solutions, and barriers,” the statement reads. “The District has presented the information obtained at the Work Session to the School Board at its open meetings and will continue to do so.”
The news outlets did not respond to requests for comment.
A still frame of coverage by Iowa station WHBF-TV of a school board meeting in Bettendorf on May 25, 2022, which banned media from attending. The station, three other news outlets and a nonprofit later sued the school board in connection with the ban.
",None,None,None,None,False,07821 EQCE135211,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],"KWQC-TV, Quad-City Times, WHBF-TV, WQAD-TV",,,,Local government: Public school district 2022-11-16 19:31:19.911544+00:00,2023-12-20 20:52:05.483457+00:00,AZ Republic denied multiple requests to witness executions,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arizona-republic-repeatedly-denied-access-to-witness-executions/,2023-12-20 20:52:05.399275+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2022-05-11,False,Florence,Arizona (AZ),33.03145,-111.38734,"The Arizona Department of Corrections denied a request from The Arizona Republic to serve as a media witness to a prisoner execution on May 11, 2022. Over the next six months, the Republic was barred from attending two additional executions.
The Republic, Arizona’s largest newspaper by circulation, historically was granted access to witness executions and has widely reported on the state’s death penalty. In 2014, a Republic reporter was a media witness and wrote about the prolonged and difficult execution of Joseph Wood. That execution was cited in the then-governor’s decision to order a review of the death penalty process, which led to the state halting executions for eight years. More recently, the Republic reported on the state’s beleaguered prison health care system and investigated the effectiveness of the lethal injections used by the department.
Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker his requests to serve as a media witness, beginning with the May execution of Clarence Dixon, were denied by the department. Executive Editor Greg Burton contacted Gov. Doug Ducey’s office, which oversees ADOC, regarding the newspaper’s May exclusion. According to the Republic, Ducey’s chief of staff told Burton the news organization might be treated differently if it did not print “false information.”
Since then, the Republic’s requests to witness the June execution of Frank Atwood and Nov. 16 execution of Murray Hopper were also denied by the ADOC. Other media organizations were allowed to witness the executions.
We're waiting on the press conference. The Arizona Republic was denied a request to serve as media witness to the execution for a 3rd time. There were once again only 3 media witnesses chosen by DOC to view the execution when they can accommodate up to 5 https://t.co/0x6DLFjaLk
— Jimmy Jenkins (@JimmyJenkins) November 16, 2022
The ADOC did not directly respond to emailed questions from the Tracker. Instead, an official shared a copy of the department’s manual citing guidelines on selecting media witnesses to executions.
Attorney David Bodney, who represents Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., the publisher of the Republic and azcentral.com, told the Tracker in an email that the denials were retaliatory and in violation of state law.
“The Department’s continued and unreasonable denial of The Republic’s requests seems nothing short of retribution for the newspaper’s detailed yet fair reporting on Arizona’s prisons,” Bodney said. “The law does not permit the government to deny access on this basis.”
Two journalists with the news arm of progressive political organization Occupy Democrats were forcibly removed from a press conference at Miami Dade College in downtown Miami, Florida, on April 12, 2022.
Executive Editor Grant Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Reported Opinion Columnist Thomas Kennedy were alerted to a press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñes via email from the governor’s press office. Stern said both he and Kennedy sent emails confirming that they would attend the press conference, but received no response. Stern told the Tracker that due to Kennedy’s activist activities prior to his work for Occupy Democrats, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement compiled a dossier on Kennedy and his known associates in 2020 and functionally blacklisted him from attending the governor’s press conferences.
When reached for comment, Kennedy said that politicians in Florida too often pick and choose which press to engage with, and that his emails to RSVP for press conferences are routinely ignored.
“Then, when we get [to the press conference] they tell us we’re not on the list or we haven’t gone through the proper credentialing. They could say ‘no,’ which I think is unfair and selective, especially when it’s not a campaign event, but they don’t even bother to do that,” Kennedy said.
When the pair arrived on April 12, they were directed to the media area at the back of the room alongside other members of the press.
Before the event began, DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, approached the press area with other staff members and multiple law enforcement officers. In footage shared on Twitter by NBC reporter Marc Caputo, another woman can be seen approaching Kennedy and asking him whether he is a member of the press; Kennedy responds that he is.
As with other Miami pressers, @GovRonDeSantis kicks his off with the customary removal of @tomaskenn & @grantstern
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) April 12, 2022
Here’s Tomas
1/2 pic.twitter.com/v8cjHQK2ml
The woman says that Kennedy isn’t on their RSVP list and that because he did not go through their screening process he must step out of the room. At least three police officers then roughly guide Kennedy out of the room as he voices a question for DeSantis.
In footage posted by Miami Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio, Pushaw can be seen pointing out Stern to a man who appears to also be acting as security for the event as Kennedy is led away. Moments later Stern is directed to leave the press conference as well.
“Do you suspect me of committing a crime?” Stern can be heard asking an officer before walking out of the room. “I sent an RSVP, I am a member of the press: I am an editor of a national publication called Occupy Democrats.”
Stern told the Tracker he asked the officers for the names and badge numbers before the pair left to report on their removal.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The governor’s office has barred press from covering press conferences or bill signings on at least three other occasions since March 2020, including an incident in August 2021 when Stern was forcefully removed from a press conference with DeSantis and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The Tracker documented that incident here.
“Miami Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio captured footage of police escorting two Occupy Democrats journalists out of a gubernatorial press conference at Miami Dade College on April 12, 2022.”
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,State government: Governor 2022-02-28 17:57:10.334323+00:00,2023-12-20 21:01:48.303268+00:00,Utah Senate becomes third state legislature this year to limit journalists’ access,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/utah-senate-becomes-third-state-legislature-this-year-to-limit-journalists-access/,2023-12-20 21:01:48.210256+00:00,,,(2022-02-28 15:22:00+00:00) Utah House revises procedures around media access,Denial of Access,,,,,,2022-02-15,False,Salt Lake City,Utah (UT),40.76078,-111.89105,"Republican leaders in the Utah State Senate pushed through a rule change limiting press access to the chamber, halls, lounge and committee rooms on Feb. 15, 2022, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The rule change requires that journalists receive permission from a “Senate media designee” in order to have access to the Senate floor and adjacent hallways to conduct a specific interview and be escorted out of the area when it is completed. Journalists also must ask permission from the committee chair to film or take pictures from behind the dias. The resolution passed 17 to 5, the Tribune reported.
Traditionally, members of the press were allowed on the floor of both the House and Senate, as well as in some areas that are not open to the public, according to Deseret News. The policies changed during the coronavirus pandemic and the Senate vote made some of the restrictions permanent.
FOX 13 reporter Ben Winslow told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that there had been some rumblings that lawmakers were upset with one or more reporters for eavesdropping on conversations and “skulking” around the chamber.
“Looking back over the years, this may have been building with a few complaints about reporters going into areas lawmakers felt they shouldn’t be in, and it’s not the first time we’ve had to challenge rules limiting press access,” Winslow wrote. “In COVID, access to the chambers unescorted was completely cut off and I don’t see it coming back.”
Sen. Mike McKell, the sponsor of the measure, cited security concerns as the primary concern behind the policy shift, according to the Tribune, though members of the press are required to submit to yearly background checks as part of the credentialing process.
McKell also dismissed concerns that the change limits the media’s access, citing the Senate’s daily media availability.
“The Senate has a long-standing tradition of holding media availability. That’s not going to change. That happens every single day after floor time,” McKell told the Tribune. According to the newspaper, senators have spent an average of about 13 minutes taking questions during such sessions during the 2022 legislative session.
McKell did not respond to requests for further comment.
According to the Tribune, other Senate Republicans noted that committee meetings and floor debates are now routinely livestreamed, a measure put in place during the pandemic.
The policy change was met with criticism from local journalists and national press freedom organizations, particularly as Republican legislators in both Iowa and Kansas announced similar policy shifts limiting press access to the senate floor in 2022.
“Given that it can be difficult to locate any particular member of the Senate, rushing as they are between the floor, committee hearings and offices, this access has been crucial to journalists in their efforts to give their audience a full picture of what’s happening,” the Tribune’s Editorial Board wrote. “Removing it can only serve to help senators avoid public scrutiny.”
Winslow told the Tracker he spoke against the bill during the public comment period, highlighting that often he needs only 30 seconds to get clarification on a bill and that the rule is impractical.
“We sometimes roll into a committee hearing mid-way through a bill and how do I get the permission of the committee chair without interrupting everything?” Winslow wrote. “One senator said there was a logic to my argument there. They still voted to pass the rule.”
Winslow did note that, despite the new rules, none of his station’s photographers have been prevented from filming from locations they have used in the past.
“One committee chair saw us walk into his hearing mid-meeting and he stood up and walked over to motion the photographer up, which is a really nice sign that they still want us there,” Winslow wrote. He added that the policy change has built up momentum for formalizing a Capitol press corps that may ultimately lead to improved access and credentialing.
Bridger Beal-Cvetko, a reporter at Salt Lake City-based newspaper The Deseret News, said he also hasn’t experienced any changes to access, but that he is concerned that the new rule paves a path for blocking access down the line.
“The worry that a lot of people have is that it’s great that they allow access most of the time, but if there’s a controversial bill or an unpopular discussion that’s happening they could decide not to give the same level of access, and that’s concerning to a lot of people,” Beal-Cvetko told the Tracker.
The Associated Press reported that the rule changes are now advancing through the Utah House.
Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate issued new rules moving reporters off the Senate floor and into a gallery upstairs, overturning a longstanding practice, the Des Moines Register reported on Jan. 7, 2022.
According to the Register, for more than a century journalists have been permitted to work at press benches along the front wall of the chamber which allow a clear view of debate and access to the senators. When the new session begins on Jan. 10, journalists will be seated in a public gallery on an upper level without access to the Senate floor.
Senate Republican spokesperson Caleb Hunter said in an email to statehouse reporters that the Senate struggled with the changing definition of “media” when considering journalists’ access to the chamber, according to the Register.
"As non-traditional media outlets proliferate, it creates an increasingly difficult scenario for the Senate, as a governmental entity, to define the criteria of a media outlet," Hunter wrote. Hunter did not respond to an email requesting further comment.
Iowa Capitol Press Association President Erin Murphy, Vice President Kathie Obradovich and Secretary Katarina Sostaric criticized the move in a statement published by the association.
“Media access to the people who make laws is a critical component of representative government. Primarily for this reason, the Iowa Capitol Press Association is extremely disappointed in th Iowa Senate’s decision,” the statement said. “In moving reporters off the floor, the Iowa Senate becomes one of only a handful of state legislative chambers across the country to limit access in this way, according to information from the National Conference on State Legislatures.”
The Iowa House has pledged to maintain press work stations on the chamber floor. The Washington Post reported that, unlike the Washington press corps covering Congress and the White House, space for journalists at the Iowa Capitol is allocated by the party controlling each chamber. Both the Iowa House and Senate, as well as the governor’s office, are controlled by Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls told the Post that Senate Democrats oppose the change and will introduce a measure to overturn it, but that it will be an uphill battle.
Republican leaders in the Kansas Senate issued new rules moving journalists off the Senate floor and into a gallery, overturning a longstanding practice.
Mike Pirner, the director of communications for Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, sent the new media rules to reporters on Jan. 4, 2022. A copy of the guidelines, which asks reporters to only use the specific designated section of the gallery, was shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The email also stated that when the public gallery is full they will provide floor access to journalists, and that photographers and videographers may seek permission for floor access during a session.
Kansas Reflector reporter Tim Carpenter, who has covered the statehouse for 15 years, said he was covering the second day of the new session from the Senate gallery when he saw the rules enacted. Pirner approached a pair of journalists working on the floor on Jan. 11 and told them they had to leave.
Carpenter said Pirner informed journalists that while they can come down to the floor when the Senate isn’t in session to take pictures or ask questions, they are not to disrupt senators completing their work and not to “loiter.”
Steve Morris, a Republican Kansas senator from 1993 to 2013, criticized the change in an op-ed for the Reflector, noting that reporters have had a place on the Senate floor for decades.
“There is no compelling reason to change the time-honored policy of allowing their close access to debates and other public workings of the Senate,” Morris wrote. “Senate leadership’s decision to move Kansas Statehouse reporters farther away from the action sends the wrong message and won’t help the people of Kansas better understand the discussions and votes.”
In its editorial, The Kansas City Star’s Editorial Board called the move “the latest front in GOP’s war on the press,” writing that journalists’ access to legislators in order to ask follow-up questions and fact-check is vital for accuracy and transparency.
When reached for comment via email, Pirner rejected claims that the shift limits journalists’ access to senators, noting that the only change is where reporters can be seated while the Senate is in session.
“Immediately when the gavel comes down, reporters may come on the floor and talk to any Senator they wish — and do so,” Pirner told the Tracker. “Any report that we are denying access or banning reporters from accessing Senators is completely inaccurate.”
According to Pirner, the Senate president moved the designated area for reporters due to spacing concerns and the rise in digital publications. The Iowa Senate Republicans offered similar reasoning when they moved journalists from the Senate floor to a gallery above this legislative session.
In the Kansas Senate, Pirner said, there are six seats for journalists in the designated gallery; the floor held five.
Carpenter dismissed Pirner’s arguments of overcrowding as “laughable,” noting that in the heyday of the Star and Wichita Eagle each had three or four journalists covering the statehouse; nowadays, he said, a single reporter represents both news outlets.
“There’s nothing that they can do that stops me from covering the statehouse as I see fit,” Carpenter said. But, he worries about the possible escalation of restrictions that bar public scrutiny and enable corruption.
“That’s the danger of taking this ‘stay off the Senate floor’ thing to the next level and the next level and the next level,” Carpenter said. “Then you have a very serious problem because bad public policy is going to be made.”
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, editor and publisher of the online news site IndyPolitics.org, said he was singled out and barred from attending a press conference with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Oct. 14, 2021. Since then, according to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana against Rokita on Shabazz’s behalf on Feb. 7, 2022, he has been barred from attending any of the attorney general’s subsequent press conferences.
Shabazz, who is also an attorney, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had a friendly relationship with Rokita until 2018, when he moderated a Republican Senate primary debate in which Rokita was a candidate. Rokita objected to Shabazz’s involvement, saying that the debate shouldn’t be led by “liberal media figures.” According to NPR-affiliate WFYI, Shabazz is widely considered to have a conservative leaning.
While Rokita lost that race, he was elected to Indiana Attorney General in 2020. Following Rokita’s inauguration in January 2021, Shabazz said he reached out to Rokita’s office to reestablish a professional relationship but didn’t receive a response.
In October, Rokita’s office announced that he would hold one of his first press conferences, specifying that it was for credentialed media and that press had to RSVP to attend; Shabazz said he followed the instructions, believing it was a newsworthy event.
When he arrived at the Indiana Statehouse for the Oct. 14 press conference, Shabazz said he was told he had been denied credentials for that event and would not be allowed to attend. He told the Tracker he had his press pass issued by the Indiana Department of Administration, but that it made no difference.
In the wake of the incident, Shabazz said he emailed the attorney general’s press secretary asking for the criteria it uses for issuing media credentials and, when he received no response, attempted to access the same information through a public records request. Shabazz said received a response confirming that the request was received, but as of February 2022 has not received any additional information.
The attorney general’s office disparaged Shabazz and his credentials in a statement issued after the press conference, WTHR reported.
“Our press conferences are meant for actual journalists reporting on real issues, instead of gossip columnists… Therefore, an OAG press conference concerning a serious investigation is not an appropriate venue for Shabazz,” the statement reads. It also asserts that the attorney general’s press conferences are livestreamed on Facebook, and Shabazz can view them like any member of the public.
“Shabazz has not been denied any public records or been prevented from attending any official public-noticed meetings.”
Shabazz told the Tracker that while he does publish a newsletter called Cheat Sheet that involves statehouse gossip, it is only one facet of the reporting work he does. In addition to his work with IndyPolitics.org, Shabazz is the host of a program on WIBC-FM and is a frequent contributor with Fox 59, WISH TV and the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The ACLU of Indiana’s lawsuit, filed in February 2022, said Rokita’s decision to ban Shabazz is not “viewpoint neutral”:
“The Attorney General’s decision to ban Mr. Shabazz is based on either personal antipathy of the Attorney General towards Mr. Shabazz or on the Attorney General’s opinion that Mr. Shabazz’s reporting is too ‘liberal,’ or perhaps based on both,” the lawsuit states.
Rokita’s press secretary, Kelly Stevenson, said in a statement to FOX59 that the office is considering filing a counterclaim and will “aggressively” defend its actions. The Tracker reached out to the Attorney General’s office via email and did not receive a response as of publication.
“We are confident that our actions are legally sound and needed to protect staff against professional harassment,” the statement said. “As one of the most accessible and highly covered elected officials in the state, it’s clear that Hoosiers know what our Attorney General is doing on their behalf, and they appreciate it.”
Shabazz told the Tracker that not being allowed in the room hampers his ability to observe body language and prevents him from asking questions in real time. His hope with the lawsuit is to regain that access.
“I want to make sure every elected official knows that you cannot tear up the First Amendment,” Shabazz said. “It was a government conference in a government building and I had every right to be there.”
Erica Chiang, editor-in-chief for The Southland Journal, was told to stop filming and ordered to leave a city council meeting in Country Club Hills, Illinois, on Sept. 13, 2021.
Chiang told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she covered the city council meeting without incident until the public comments portion of the meeting. In an account for the Journal, Chiang wrote that when an alderman attempted to respond to an attendee’s comment, Mayor James Ford interrupted.
“That caused the crowd to get a little upset, and maybe two or three people were like, ‘Let him speak, let him speak,’” Chiang said. “So that prompted the mayor to try to shut down the meeting to the public.”
Ford ordered the room to be emptied, but Chiang said she remained seated and continued filming; when the mayor noticed her, he said she needed his permission to record and ordered that she be removed as well.
“I’m a member of the press,” Chiang can be heard saying in her recording of the incident. “This is a public meeting, I have every right to record a public meeting. I don’t need permission; it is a public meeting.”
According to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, “Any person may record the proceedings at meetings required to be open by this Act by tape, film or other means. The authority holding the meeting shall prescribe reasonable rules to govern the right to make such recordings.”
“It was a surprise that he would say I couldn’t record without his permission, considering the Open Meetings Act clearly spells out what I can and cannot do,” Chiang told the Tracker. “I was not obstructing, I was seated and I was just recording with my phone out as I had been.”
Chiang said she has been in contact with an attorney about the incident and is considering next steps.
Ford did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Mississippi State Department of Health removed freelance journalists from its media distribution lists in 2021, restricting their ability to attend press conferences and receive other announcements.
Kamesha Laurry, a legal fellow for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the group, which provides pro bono representation and other legal resources for journalists, became aware of the change in policy after a freelance journalist called the RCFP legal hotline in September 2021. According to Laurry, the journalist said the policy was limiting her access to the health department’s press conferences. RCFP is a member of the Tracker’s advisory board.
According to RCFP, the policy change bans freelance journalists from live press conferences, including about the ongoing pandemic, and other timely announcements. RCFP attorneys sent the State Department of Health a letter on June 24, 2022, objecting to the policy, saying it was revised without explanation and in violation of the First Amendment.
“No public justification was given for the change,” RCFP wrote. “Instead, members of the MSDH communications team told freelance journalists that they could, instead, stream press conference recordings via MSDH’s website hours after the live event occurs.”
The RCFP letter also argues that the policy is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides equal protection and due process.
“Indeed, freelance journalists are members of the press just like their ‘affiliated media’ peers and should not be placed at a disadvantage simply because they are not working full-time for a single media outlet or newsroom,” RCFP wrote.
The Mississippi State Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Reporters Katherine Revello of The Maine Wire and Evan Popp of the Beacon were barred from Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly livestreams after the agency changed its media policy on Aug. 25, 2021, to exclude those it deemed to be “advocacy journalists.”
The agency reversed the policy on Oct. 6. Earlier that day, the Maine Policy Institute, a policy and lobbying organization and parent company to The Maine Wire, had publicized the initial policy change in a series of tweets.
1/4 @MEPublicHealth is not allowing our journalist at @TheMaineWire to participate in Maine CDC press briefings because the agency "can no longer accommodate 'advocacy journalists'".
— Maine Policy Institute (@MainePolicy) October 6, 2021
First off, @polisciwrites is not an advocacy journalist. Second, how does a govt agency determine
Lauren McCauley, editor of the Maine People’s Alliance-affiliated Beacon, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Popp was notified by email on Aug. 25 that he could no longer attend the weekly news briefings.
In that email, CDC Communications Director Robert Long wrote that the agency could “no longer accommodate advocacy journalists,” and asked that any questions be directed to him.
Long did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.
McCauley told the Tracker that Long later explained the change in policy during a phone call, saying it was done because the briefings had gotten too long and the agency needed to “preserve the CDC director’s time.”
According to McCauley, Beacon reporters had regularly attended the briefing without issues throughout the spring and summer.
McCauley told Maine’s Bangor Daily News that the decision to exclude Beacon reporters, “harms the public interest and is especially damaging for folks who too often are left out of the conversation already.”
Jacob Posik, the editor of The Maine Wire, said Revello was hired in late May as a news reporter to cover the regular briefings and had attended one held on July 28 after requesting a link from the Maine CDC to attend.
The once-daily briefings were halted by the agency during the summer as cases decreased, but weekly briefings began in early September as the Delta variant spread throughout the state, Posik told the Tracker.
But, according to Posik, The Maine Wire had stopped receiving media advisories about the briefings in early September.
Posik said the outlet has been highly critical of the state’s CDC data in their reporting of the pandemic and believes that the policy changed only after the outlet asked to attend the news briefings.
“Once we hired a full time news reporter to hold the administration accountable, they kicked us out and called us advocacy journalists,” he said.
Posik said that he contacted CDC communications director Long in September after not receiving an invitation to attend two consecutive briefings. After almost three weeks of messaging and calling state officials, Posik said he got an answer to his original inquiry from Long on Oct. 6 that stated “We are no longer able to accommodate advocacy journalists during the media briefings.”
“I responded to him by saying ‘Respectfully, that’s not how the First Amendment works — please show me a copy of the policy that you’re using to bar the attendance of my journalist to these briefings,’” Posik said.
Posik has filed Freedom Of Access Act requests for a copy of the state CDC’s media policy and for the agency’s internal emails and messages that could explain the policy change but said he has not yet received any documents.
During the Oct. 6 briefing, a reporter attending the livestream asked Maine’s Health asked Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah how the CDC determines which outlets are allowed to ask questions during the briefings and how the policy agrees with the First Amendment.
Both Lambrew and Shah defended the agency’s policy to restrict the briefings by saying they were reserved for officials to “answer questions in the space of an hour from a set of credentialed reporters.”
McCauley and Posik confirmed to the Tracker that following the Oct. 6 briefing the agency sent an email to the outlets reinviting them to attend future briefings.
Grant Stern, executive editor of the news arm of the progressive political organization Occupy Democrats, said he was forcefully removed from a press conference at the Hialeah Gardens Museum in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on Aug. 5, 2021.
Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was alerted to a press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers via email from the governor’s press office. The email noted that the press conference was open to all and did not require an RSVP. When he arrived, Stern said, he identified himself as a reporter for Occupy Democrats and was granted entry.
“I went into the press conference like anybody else and I was there recording with my audio recorder,” Stern said, “and everything else I did with a cellphone or hand-held camera, recording all of these speeches.”
Approximately 30 minutes into the press conference, Stern said, a congressional staffer approached him and asked him to identify himself and who he worked for. Stern said he identified himself again and offered to show them his Twitter profile and author bio, as he does not carry press credentials with him. When the staffer asked him to leave, Stern said he had complied with the procedure to enter and would leave only if asked to do so by a museum employee.
During the Q&A session at the end of the press conference 15 minutes later, he said, Stern began to ask a question about the House’s proposed Jan. 6 commission. In his footage of the incident, Stern’s camera suddenly begins shaking and moving backward as he attempts to finish his question. Stern said four officers dragged him out of the room on his heels and ordered that he leave the museum.
I tried to ask @GOPLeader McCarthy a question after he decried Cuban police pickup up people in the streets.
— Grant Stern is fully vaccinated (@grantstern) August 5, 2021
Why does he oppose the bipartisan #January6thCommission?
A Congressional staffer had four cops pick me up and drag me from the room.
I still asked the question. pic.twitter.com/HDqrhvARaC
“I start asking a question and I feel a hand on the small of my back through my backpack,” Stern said. “My first thought was whether someone was trying to steal my journalistic equipment and then I realized that they were searching me for weapons.”
Stern said the officers then grabbed him, pulled him out of the room and turned off his phone recording with such force they scratched the face of his cellphone in multiple places; he said he intends to replace the screen as a result of the damage.
“They dragged me clear out of the room, told me to go away, involuntarily turned off my camera and pushed me out of the front door,” Stern said. “They did not make any attempt to identify me, to arrest or detain me further, to ask me any other questions.”
A spokesperson for McCarthy told The Independent that “congressional staff had nothing to do [with Stern’s] removal.” McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Stern told the Tracker his left knee capsule was ruptured as the officers pushed and dragged him, and he will need occupational therapy to restore full mobility.
The Hialeah Gardens Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Independent journalist Justin Pulliam was barred from attending an open-air press conference by Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan in Richmond, Texas, on July 12, 2021. Pulliam subsequently filed a civil rights suit against the county and members of the sheriff’s office over the barring and a later arrest.
Pulliam lives in Fort Bend County near Houston and independently reports on local government and law enforcement for his social media channels, including on YouTube and Facebook. According to the lawsuit, he arrived at Jones Creek Ranch Park to film as officers responded to reports of a submerged vehicle connected to a missing persons case.
Sheriff’s deputies closed the park, directing Pulliam and other media to a designated area at its entrance for a press conference with a representative of the sheriff's office. Afterward, Pulliam went to his vehicle but returned when Fagan approached the designated area, according to his footage from that day.
Fagan was then filmed gesturing in Pulliam’s direction and saying, in part, “... if he don’t do it, arrest him. He’s not a part of the local media so he has to go back.” Moments later, two officers — identified in the lawsuit as Robert Hartfield and Jonathan Garcia — approached Pulliam, saying, “You are not media, so at the sheriff’s request could you step back this way with us please.”
Hartfield then gestured in the direction of Pulliam’s vehicle and escorted him approximately 85 feet away, where Pulliam said he could not hear what was being said by Fagan or the other journalists, according to the lawsuit.
Public interest law firm Institute for Justice filed the lawsuit on Pulliam’s behalf on Dec. 5, 2022, against the county, Fagan and four others. The suit alleges violations of his First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by barring him from the July 2021 press conference, as well as by arresting him and seizing his equipment during a subsequent incident in December 2021.
“The Defendants did not have a compelling, or even legitimate, governmental interest in removing Justin from the open-air press conference, which occurred at a public park,” the lawsuit stated. “Instead, the Defendants removed Justin because they did not deem him a member of the media, disagreed with his viewpoint, and disliked that he was critical of the police both earlier that day and in his work generally.”
Pulliam told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the experience has significantly chilled his willingness to cover incidents involving the sheriff’s office or to attend its press conferences.
“I basically don’t film Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office anymore; I’ve greatly reduced my direct coverage of filming live police incidents,” Pulliam said.
On June 29, 2023, District Judge David Hittner denied the county’s motion to dismiss the majority of Pulliam’s claims. Hittner ruled that Pulliam had sufficiently argued that he had been singled out for exercising his First Amendment rights and that the officers are not protected by qualified immunity at this time.
The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when reached in July 2023, citing the ongoing litigation.
Christie Hebert, one of the attorneys at the Institute for Justice representing Pulliam, said in a statement following the ruling that Hittner recognized the gravity of Pulliam’s claims.
“The heart of the First Amendment is the right to speak out about government, and Fort Bend County does not get to pick and choose who will cover their activities,” Hebert said.
Hebert told the Tracker that the case is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in early 2024.
Independent journalist Justin Pulliam reviews footage from a law enforcement investigation in Richmond, Texas, on July 12, 2021. A local sheriff ordered officers to bar Pulliam from attending a press conference about the investigation that day.
",None,None,None,None,False,4:22-cv-04210,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Law enforcement: Local 2024-01-10 21:01:18.198096+00:00,2024-01-10 21:01:18.198096+00:00,"Jersey City Times sues mayor, city after removal from press list",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/jersey-city-times-sues-mayor-city-after-removal-from-press-list/,2024-01-10 19:52:06.174286+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2021-05-20,False,Jersey City,New Jersey (NJ),40.72816,-74.07764,"The Jersey City Times was removed from Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s press list after publishing a May 20, 2021, story critical of Fulop’s claims that his administration had reduced crime in the city. As a result, the local news site stopped receiving media advisories, news releases and invitations to news conferences and other official events, the outlet said.
The Times and its publisher and editor-in-chief, Aaron Morrill, subsequently sued the city, Fulop and his press secretary, Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, in federal court on Dec. 18, 2023, alleging that the outlet had been denied access in retaliation for the 2021 report.
Morrill told the Times, which has been covering Jersey City news since he founded the site in 2019, that the outlet had a “relatively good relationship” with the mayor’s office until May 2021. “After the story, it was radio silence. We received no media advisories, press releases, nothing.”
The Times noted in its suit that in 2019, Wallace-Scalcione had offered to meet with the outlet and said its reporters “are fantastic to work with.” However, after the May 2021 article, both the mayor and his press secretary were critical of the Times’ coverage. Citing emails obtained via public records requests, the suit quoted Fulop describing the Times as “not a real news outlet,” and Wallace-Scalcione alleging that the outlet had a “political agenda against the Mayor.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to Morrill’s emails asking that the Times be restored to the press list, according to the suit. This continued until Jennifer Borg, a lawyer with Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic who is representing the outlet, sent a protest letter to the city’s attorneys on April 7, 2022.
In the months after that letter was sent, the Times said it began to receive news releases again — often about events after they occurred — but still failed to receive media advisories and invitations to official events such as news conferences.
Attorneys for the Times sent a follow-up letter on July 25, 2023, stating that the city’s actions violated the outlet’s constitutional rights and asking again for it to be restored to the press list. It did not receive a response.
The Times’ attorneys sent another letter to the city on Nov. 24, 2023. Then, on Dec. 14, the city’s attorneys responded, stating that the Times “is already added to the press list for the City of Jersey City and will receive future press releases and media advisories.” However, according to the suit, the Times did not receive an emailed invitation to a news conference that was sent to other news organizations the next day.
The Times said it continued to receive “only sporadic and belated notices of local events” and did not receive “a single invitation to a press conference or event to which other members of the press have been invited.”
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, accused the defendants of violating the First and 14th Amendment rights of both the Times and of Morrill, who wrote the May 2021 story, and of violating their due process rights and their rights under New Jersey’s constitution.
It alleges that the defendants treated the Times differently than other news organizations that retained access to the mayor’s office and that it retaliated against the outlet based on its critical reporting. It also noted that the city did not publish criteria for the press list.
The suit asks for the plaintiffs to be restored to the press list and that they be provided with the same “information and access” as other news organizations and journalists.
Wallace-Scalcione, in a statement emailed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the Times “was notified before the lawsuit that they were on the email list to receive all press releases and have been.”
Morrill told the Tracker in an email that two days after the suit was filed he received his first media advisory from the mayor’s office since May 2021, but that it was “unclear” if this would continue.
Morrill also described the detrimental effects of the outlet’s removal from the press list, saying, “It’s impossible to know how many leads for stories might have come from attending the events we missed or how many contacts we might have made.”
He added, “Having to reconstruct a story about the opening of a new homeless shelter or what was said at a press conference from press reports isn’t the kind of journalism we want to do. Being hours and sometimes days behind because you weren’t there hurts us in the eyes of our readers and hurts our site traffic to boot.”
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop delivers the State of the City address on April 5, 2023. The Jersey City Times sued Fulop, his press secretary and the city on Dec. 18, 2023, after the outlet was removed from the press list in May 2021.
",None,None,None,None,False,2:23-cv-23197,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS', 'PRESS_CREDENTIAL']",Jersey City Times,,,,Local government: Mayor 2021-06-15 19:08:27.443444+00:00,2023-12-20 21:12:42.566773+00:00,Media prevented from reporting on Texas execution for first time for decades,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/media-prevented-from-reporting-on-texas-execution-for-first-time-for-decades/,2023-12-20 21:12:42.468919+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,"Joseph Brown (The Huntsville Item), Michael Graczyk (The Associated Press)",,2021-05-19,False,Huntsville,Texas (TX),30.72353,-95.55078,"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 the 571st execution, of Quintin Jones, who was convicted of the 1999 murder of his great-aunt Berthena Bryant, according to The New York Times.
Joseph Brown, editor of The Huntsville Item in Huntsville, Texas, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk had arrived at around 5 p.m., about an hour ahead of the scheduled time for the execution. The Huntsville Item is one of two news outlets regularly called to attend and report on executions in Texas, and Brown said that he is often the reporter on duty.
Brown said the two reporters were sequestered in an office across the street from the penitentiary and were waiting to be told by the prison’s communications director they could be taken over the road.
But according to Brown, the call never came.
Jones had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for clemency, but the court declined his appeal and the execution was set to go ahead at around 6:15 pm local time. According to Brown, reporters are usually called in to witness an execution about 10 minutes in advance. “We went 25-30 minutes and still hadn't heard the call. So we started asking questions,” Brown told the Tracker.
Brown said that when the communications director called to see what was happening, “he was informed that the warden was already in the room going through the process. It was already ongoing,” said Brown who then realized the reporters were locked out of witnessing the execution.
Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Tracker: “Normally, upon the final notifications that there is no action pending in any court or from the Office of the Governor of Texas, a phone call is made to the Director of Communications to escort the media witnesses into the unit. As a result of a miscommunication between officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, there was never a call made to summon the media witnesses into the unit.”
Desel said the department apologized “for this critical error. The agency is investigating to determine exactly what occurred to ensure it does not happen again.”
Editor Brown said he was skeptical about the department’s explanation, based on his experience covering previous executions.
The failure to call in reporters was an “egregious” error he said. “To me, it seems like a pretty big mess up to make. Because stuff like this is very methodical, it's very planned. It's very … to the book,” Brown said. If the department failed to tick one of the boxes in its normal routine this time, “what are the boxes that get missed that we don't know?” he said.
Coverage of executions is a longstanding media oversight tradition. Press advocates say it can be essential for making public issues such as a state’s use of faulty equipment or drugs. Jones was executed by lethal injection.
“It's the same reason why many members [of the media] cover your state legislature and your federal governments, your local councils,” said Brown. “If you don't have that public oversight, then they can almost willy nilly do whatever they want.”
Brown said there were a number of procedural changes that were in place for the first time in the execution of Jones, making it even more imperative to have eyewitness media reporting.
Graczyk, the AP reporter, did not respond to a request for a comment from the Tracker.
Journalists from multiple Florida news outlets said they were blocked from covering Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of a controversial election bill on May 6, 2021, in West Palm Beach.
Among those denied access to the bill signing event were journalists from The South Florida Sun Sentinel; West Palm Beach TV stations WPEC CBS12 and WPTV Newschannel 5; and WPLG Local 10 News, an ABC affiliate in Miami. The only news outlet allowed in to cover the event was the Fox News program Fox & Friends, according to multiple journalists.
Steve Bousquet, a columnist for The Sun Sentinel, posted on Twitter that a DeSantis spokesperson told him the signing was a “Fox exclusive.”
NEW: News media is barred from entry at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of controversial elections bill, SB 90. DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske says bill signing is a “Fox exclusive” pic.twitter.com/NAos6kmtQS
— Steve Bousquet (@stevebousquet) May 6, 2021
Bousquet told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had no advance notice that access to the event would be exclusive for Fox. He said that he and other reporters came to a Hilton Hotel near the West Palm Beach airport, where a public announcement had said the bill signing would take place.
Bousquet said the event, held in a hotel conference room, resembled a political rally. Reporters could see part of the event through a window, he said, while some watched on their phones as the Fox News broadcast carried the governor signing the bill.
Bill signings are not required to be held publicly, and sometimes governors sign legislation behind closed doors. However, Bousquet, a longtime Florida political journalist, said he had never encountered a similar situation for a bill signing, particularly on a piece of very high profile legislation.
“This was really astonishing because the amount of public interest and public and press attention on that elections bill was among the highest of any piece of legislation, you know, in decades in Tallahassee,” the capital of Florida, he said.
Anthony Man, a reporter for the Sun Sentinel, posted a series of photos from the hotel on Twitter showing a line of people waiting to enter the event where the “governor will sign new Florida election law on Fox News and demonstrate his conservative bona fides for national Republican audience.” The photos showed a banner and T-shirt supporting a 2024 presidential ticket of Donald Trump and Gov. DeSantis.
Almost an hour later, Man tweeted that while outside the venue, he could hear cheering and chants of “Four more years!” from the crowd inside.
From outside @GovRonDeSantis bill signing event, can hear him revving up crowd of supporters who will serve as audience for Fox News segment during which he’ll sign new election law. Hundreds of people on their feet, cheering and applauding. Now chanting “four more years!”
— Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) May 6, 2021
Madeline Montgomery, a reporter for CBS12, tweeted that she had been at the Hilton, where the DeSantis event was planned, since 4 a.m.
It’s an odd situation here in West Palm Beach. The governor is set to speak and sign a bill at the Hilton, but media are not being allowed in. @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/hcdsIHpKBM
— Madeline Montgomery (@MadelineTV) May 6, 2021
Another CBS12 reporter, Danielle Waugh DeRos tweeted a photograph of journalists waiting outside after the event.
Reporters waiting outside DeSantis event in West Palm. We are being told it’s a Fox News exclusive and private ticketed event. Expecting him to sign controversial elections law today but won’t be able to show you @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/z15QXAE5Cx
— Danielle Waugh DaRos (@DanielleCBS12) May 6, 2021
CBS12 reporter Jay O’Brien posted on Twitter at 1:58 p.m. to confirm that his channel’s news team would not be allowed in.
“We were a pool camera, assigned to feed this event to affiliates nationwide,” O’Brien tweeted.
“It’s not just us. Not a single reporter is being let in. This in a ‘sunshine’ state that prides itself on open government.”
The Tracker was not able to confirm whether O’Brien was among the journalists denied access to the event.
Confirmed: @CBS12 News is not allowed into the event where @GovRonDeSantis will sign a controversial elections bill into law, per @MadelineTV who is outside.
— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) May 6, 2021
We were a pool camera, assigned to feed this event to affiliates nationwide.
Now, the only camera will be Fox News
WPLG Local 10 News reporter Glenna Milberg was at the event as well, according to a story published by the outlet. Introducing Milberg for a segment on the bill signing, a Local 10 News anchor said DeSantis signed the bill live on Fox News while “locking out local media.”
WPTV journalists were also shut out of the event, according to the outlet. Reporter Matt Sczesny said in one report that local media was excluded from the event, and reporter Linnie Supall called the exclusive access given to Fox an “unprecedented move” by the governor.
In a WPTV video, DeSantis can be seen walking to his car after signing the bill.
“It was on national TV, it wasn’t secret,” DeSantis told reporters.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment.
Fox News told The Tampa Bay Times that the network “did not request or mandate that the May 6th event and interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis be exclusive to FOX News Media entities.”
According to Florida First Amendment Foundation staff attorney Virginia Hamrick, the state’s Sunshine Law, which requires meetings between certain officials to be public, does not apply to the bill signing. However, she said that restricting access to the event raises First Amendment issues. “We're concerned by it,” Hamrick told the Tracker.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen in this file photo, gave exclusive coverage of a bill signing to the Fox News program Fox & Friends on May 6, 2021, blocking all local journalists.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,State government: Governor 2021-04-14 18:50:35.472467+00:00,2024-02-29 19:24:55.043265+00:00,"The Daily Mail blocked from media center, trial exhibits in Chauvin trial",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/the-daily-mail-blocked-from-media-center-trial-exhibits-in-chauvin-trial/,2024-02-29 19:24:54.963210+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2021-03-24,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"A Minnesota judge on March 24, 2021, denied media credentials to the British newspaper the Daily Mail to cover the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Hennepin County Chief Judge Toddrick Barnette issued the order five days before the beginning of the trial, in which Chauvin is facing murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25, 2020.
The order denied journalists from the Daily Mail access to a media center set up in a building across the street from the courthouse for members of the press covering the trial, The Associated Press reported. Media outlets are sharing two pool seats in the courtroom, according to the AP.
Barnette’s order also barred the publication from directly accessing trial exhibits and “all media updates related to the trial.”
The judge wrote that his decision was based on the Daily Mail’s publication on Aug. 3 of footage from body cameras worn by two other Minneapolis police officers who were present at the time of Floyd’s arrest.
The footage was introduced in court in July 2020 as part of pre-trial litigation. Due to the massive amount of public attention on the case and the need “to minimize the effects of judicial pretrial publicity,” a judge had limited the distribution of the footage, Barnette wrote. Under rules set for the body camera footage, members of the media and the public could view it by appointment at a Hennepin County government building, but could not record it or republish it.
Barnette wrote in his order that an investigation determined the video footage was stolen around the time the public could view it. He said that though it was not clear that the Daily Mail stole the footage, it was the first outlet to publish it.
Though the media plays an important role in the criminal justice system, Barnette wrote, “in situations where a Court Order has been violated and a media outlet knowingly exploits the violation by publishing stolen records of court exhibits, the Court is required to pursue an equitable consequence.”
Barnette noted in the order that the Daily Mail could still access exhibits from other media outlets. He said he assumed that the publication paid for the body camera footage and that he was “confident” it would be able to pay for other material that came out during the trial.
“This is not a hardship for the Daily Mail, it is merely an inconvenience,” Barnette wrote.
The Daily Mail did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The Daily Mail appealed the order to the Minnesota Court of Appeals on March 26, arguing that the denial of credentials was a violation of the First Amendment, the AP reported.
Mark Anfinson, local counsel for the Daily Mail, wrote in the petition that the video was “almost certainly not ‘stolen’” and that the newspaper had no role in copying the video, according to the AP. The Daily Mail said it was “leaked a copy of the video from a third party source not associated with the court.”
On April 5, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a letter in support of the Daily Mail’s appeal. The ACLU argued that there is no evidence that the newspaper played a role in copying the video footage, and asserted that the decision in the case will have implications for others who cover court trials in Minnesota.
In an order issued April 6, the appeals court rejected the Daily Mail’s request to throw out Barnette’s order.
The court ruled that a writ of prohibition was not appropriate because the Daily Mail had not pursued all other options. The judges also wrote that the newspaper did not demonstrate injury, given that live video and audio of the proceedings are available online and trial materials are widely available.
Anfinson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on April 9 that the newspaper had not yet decided whether to take further steps.
He rejected the judges’ assertion that the Daily Mail did not pursue other avenues to resolve the issue before asking the appeals court to overturn Barnette’s order.
“It's ludicrous to suggest that we had other options here,” Anfinson said. “We didn't. He issued a formal court order, restricting public access to documents that are public to one news organization. It's a clear cut violation of the First Amendment.”
Hennepin County Government Center is the trial site of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder charges in the 2020 death of George Floyd.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['PRESS_CREDENTIAL', 'OTHER']",Daily Mail,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2021, protest",,,Judiciary: District Court 2021-03-24 19:39:27.055969+00:00,2023-12-20 21:27:57.056222+00:00,"Tennessee reporter told to leave, threatened with arrest at a town hall meeting with Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-tv-crew-told-to-leave-threatened-with-arrest-at-a-town-hall-meeting-with-rep-majorie-taylor-greene/,2023-12-20 21:27:56.964182+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Meredith Aldis (WRCB),,2021-01-27,False,Whitfield County,Georgia (GA),None,None,"A Tennessee-based journalist from Chattanooga’s WRCBtv was told to leave and threatened with arrest after trying to ask a question at a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Jan. 27, 2021.
WRCB reporter Meredith Aldis was among a group of journalists invited to Greene’s town hall in Whitfield County, Georgia, about 30 miles southeast of Chattanooga. Upon arrival at the event, journalists were told they could not ask questions or speak to anyone in attendance, WRCB News Director Callie Starnes told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“If WRCB knew that ahead of time, we would have opted not to cover the event,” Starnes said. “WRCB did not agree to those terms.”
Aldis and a WRCB photographer were ejected from the meeting after Aldis attempted to ask Greene, a Georgia Republican, about criticism of social media posts she had made before her election to Congress, including Facebook posts in which she advocated conspiracy theories and appeared to support execution of some Democratic political leaders. In other screenshots, posted by Media Matters for America, Greene agreed with a Facebook comment that the 2018 school killings in Parkland, Florida, were a “false flag,” or a staged event. A WRCB photographer, who was accompanying Aldis and asked not to be identified, was also asked to leave the meeting.
After she was sworn in to Congress in early 2021, the revelations prompted calls from other members to expel Greene; on Feb. 4 the House voted to strip Greene of her congressional committee assignments.
In a video clip of the Jan. 27 town hall, one of three that Greene hosted in her Georgia congressional district, WRCB reporter Aldis can be heard attempting to ask the representative a question, when Greene replies “I am talking to my constituents.”
The station reported that a member of Greene’s staff then approached Aldis and told her to leave the town hall. The staffer waved over a member of the Whitfield County (GA) Deputy Sheriff’s office, who threatened to arrest the journalists, according to the station’s report.
The station said that following the incident, a representative from Greene’s staff reached out to WRCB and said Aldis was told to leave because the town hall "was not a press conference" and her question had caused a “disruption.”
In an interview with the television station, Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood defended the actions of his deputies who had threatened Aldis with arrest. He said Greene's staff had instructed his deputies to remove any member of the media who attempted to talk to anyone or ask a question.
Greene’s office had not responded to a Tracker request for comment as of press time.
Two Tennessee-based reporters, including a photographer from Chattanooga’s WRCBtv who asked not to be identified, were told to leave and threatened with arrest after one of them tried to ask a question at a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Jan. 27, 2021.
The WRCB photographer, who was reporting with WRCB reporter Meredith Aldis, was among journalists invited to Greene’s town hall in Whitfield County, Georgia, about 30 miles southeast of Chattanooga. Upon arrival at the event, journalists were told they could not ask questions or speak to anyone in attendance, WRCB News Director Callie Starnes told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“If WRCB knew that ahead of time, we would have opted not to cover the event,” Starnes said. “WRCB did not agree to those terms.”
The photographer was ejected after Aldis attempted to ask Greene, a Georgia Republican, about criticism of social media posts she had made before her election to Congress, including Facebook posts in which she advocated conspiracy theories and appeared to support execution of some Democratic political leaders. In other screenshots, posted by Media Matters for America, Greene agreed with a Facebook comment that the 2018 school killings in Parkland, Florida, were a “false flag,” or a staged event.
After she was sworn in to Congress in early 2021, the revelations prompted calls from other members to expel Greene; on Feb. 4 the House voted to strip Greene of her congressional committee assignments.
In a video clip of the Jan. 27 town hall, WRCB reporter Aldis can be heard attempting to ask the representative a question, when Greene replies “I am talking to my constituents.”
The station reported that a member of Greene’s staff then approached Aldis and told her to leave the town hall. The staffer waved over a member of the Whitfield County (GA) Deputy Sheriff’s office, who threatened to arrest the journalists, according to the station’s report. Both the photographer and Aldis were escorted out of the town hall meeting.
The station said that following the incident, a representative from Greene’s staff reached out to WRCB and said the town hall "was not a press conference" and the question had caused a “disruption.”
In an interview with the television station, Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood defended the actions of his deputies who had threatened the reporters with arrest. He said Greene's staff had instructed his deputies to remove any member of the media who attempted to talk to anyone or ask a question.
Greene’s office had not responded to a Tracker request for comment as of press time.
Tom Boney Jr., the publisher of the Graham-based weekly Alamance News, was removed from a courtroom in handcuffs and threatened with contempt of court charges in Graham, North Carolina, on Dec. 8, 2020.
The incident with Boney came amid a dispute between a local judge and three media outlets seeking access to a trial. The Charlotte News & Observer reported that its journalists, and those from local alternative weekly Triad City Beat, were told earlier that week that members of the press would not be allowed to observe a trial in Alamance County’s Historic Courthouse, per a decision by Judge Fred Wilkins (the paper did not report whether Wilkins gave a reason for barring reporters).
Wilkins was presiding over the trial of Sandrea W. Brazee, a 52-year-old white woman accused of driving her car at two Black girls. The News & Observer reported that a week earlier Wilkins also prevented journalists from attending the trial of Rev. Greg Drumwright, who had organized an Oct. 31 march to the polls where police pepper sprayed the crowd and members of the press.
On the morning of the Brazee trial, Boney entered the courtroom to present Wilkins with a letter from attorney C. Amanda Martin on behalf of Alamance News, the News & Observer and Triad City Beat. The letter requested a hearing on Wilkins’s decision to close the court to the media. The same morning, Boney had also delivered letters to Senior Resident Superior Court Judge D. Thomas Lambeth and Chief District Court Judge Bradley Reid Allen Jr. — who oversee various courthouse administrative and official duties — urging that courtrooms remain open to the press during the COVID-19 pandemic, in compliance with the state’s constitution and the First Amendment.
The North Carolina state constitution maintains that “all courts shall be open,” with exceptions only in cases where there is a compelling reason, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
During the court proceeding, Wilkins noted the motion filed by the three news organizations calling for transparency and reconsideration of the judge’s exclusion of the press, the News & Observer reported. When Boney identified himself and attempted to explain the request, Wilkins cut him off and said he had already ruled on the matter, according to the paper.
The News & Observer reported that Wilkins then told Boney, “The courtroom is not closed,” gesturing to other people in the room, but, “It’s closed to you.”
“I’ve made my ruling,” Wilkins said. “The next ruling I will make is a contempt citation.”
The News & Observer reported that when Boney continued to object, Wilkins said, “You’re going to jail,” and had deputies remove the publisher from the courtroom in handcuffs. Boney told the News & Observer that Wilkins then said he would not pursue the contempt charge if the publisher agreed to leave the courthouse. Boney said he eventually agreed and was escorted from the building.
“They were really quite rough in handcuffing me and claiming that I’m resisting,” Boney said. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had broken my wrist.”
Boney later told The Washington Post Wilkins’s actions were a “heavy-handed and unreasonable reaction.”
“People need to know how decisions are arrived at — was the conclusion, the verdict, the pleading, fair? Was it reasonable?” Boney said. “The problem is I have no way to evaluate it, because I wasn’t there.”
Boney didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
“We realize it is appropriate for courts to undertake certain measures during these pandemic times to limit exposure but closing down access to the press entirely is not one of them and removing a newspaper publisher in handcuffs is certainly not appropriate and is quite discouraging,” Phil Lucey, president of the North Carolina Press Association, told the Times-News.
Lucey said that the court gave “no written ruling outlining the basis for the closing of the courtroom,” and thus “we cannot assume this was anything other than an effort to block access to the press from the court proceedings.”
The three newspapers filed an emergency petition with the North Carolina Court of Appeals on Dec. 10, The Associated Press reported.
“Even accepting that the COVID-19 pandemic creates a compelling need to safeguard public health by imposing some limits on access to courtrooms, the draconian restrictions imposed by Judge Wilkins were not necessary to serve that interest,” attorney Martin wrote in the emergency appeal.
A district judge in Pennsylvania barred reporters from two local newspapers from observing a preliminary arraignment at the York County District Court on Sept. 9, 2020.
Dylan Segelbaum, a reporter for the daily newspaper the York Daily Record/Sunday News, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Logan Hullinger, a reporter for the morning newspaper York Dispatch, were prevented from entering the courtroom to observe the arraignment of Mike Cleveland. Cleveland is accused of embezzling almost $23,000 while serving as general manager of the York Ice Arena.
Segelbaum declined to comment further and Hullinger did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time.
Segelbaum reported in an article for the Daily Record that preliminary arraignments are held by judges to inform the accused of charges and the right to counsel, as well as to set bail. Such proceedings are “presumptively public proceedings,” Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, told the Daily Record. That means the proceedings are always assumed to be open to the public unless it would jeopardize the defendant’s right to a free trial.
The Daily Record reported that County District Judge Linda Williams refused to unlock the door to the courtroom for the reporters, saying that it was a hearing, not an arraignment. Williams also cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as justification and said she had arraignments via video scheduled for after the Cleveland proceeding.
“You can have all the information when I’m finished,” Williams said, according to the Daily Record.
Melewsky told the Daily Record that district judges do not have the authority to seal a record or proceeding that is defined as “presumptively public.” She noted that ensuring public access is crucial to equal treatment under the justice system.
“Public access guarantees that everyone is treated equally by the justice system, because everyone is subject to the same process — and anyone who’s interested can view,” Melewsky said. “The press functions as the eyes and the ears of the community they serve.”
The New York Times said it was barred from attending a press briefing call organized by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Sept. 4, 2020, in apparent retaliation for an article published by the New York Times Magazine.
The Times reported that then-director John Ratcliffe organized an embargoed press briefing with his office’s chief privacy officer and officials from the FBI and NSA following a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling on the FBI’s warrantless surveillance programs. Such briefings are routine when the government declassifies technically or legally complex documents about surveillance programs, the outlet reported.
According to a letter sent by Times deputy general counsel David McCraw to the ODNI on Sept. 15, reporters from the Times were not told about the call, while reporters from the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other new organizations were invited.
According to the Times, someone familiar with internal deliberations at the ODNI said that Ratcliffe had ordered his communications staff not to speak to the outlet after the magazine published a piece in early August about pressure from the White House to downplay intelligence reports about Russian efforts to influence the 2020 election.
“This exclusion was unwarranted,” McCraw wrote. “To our knowledge, ODNI has invited New York Times reporters — along with reporters from the Post and Journal — to join every multi-agency briefing on newly declassified materials since it began doing the briefings in 2013.
“We ask that ODNI provide written assurance by September 30, 2020, that The Times will be put back on the list of news organizations invited to join briefing calls. If no assurance is forthcoming by then, we will explore our legal options.”
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the outlet received no official response from the ODNI.
When reached for comment, Amanda Schoch, Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Strategic Communications for the ODNI, said via email she could not comment on legal discussions.
“However, we have robust and ongoing engagements with the New York Times and its reporters,” Schoch wrote. “A free and fair press is a cornerstone to our democracy and the ODNI is committed to fostering productive relationships with reporters to inform the American people.”
A reporter for a weekly newspaper based in Española, New Mexico, filed a lawsuit against the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff James Lujan for alleged civil rights violations in retaliation for her reporting on the law enforcement agency in the summer of 2019.
On May 29, 2019, former Rio Grande Sun reporter Tabitha Clay published a piece about former Deputy Jeremy Barnes tasing a student multiple times in the chest, the outlet reported. Clay told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the piece garnered national attention, which is when the sheriff’s office began retaliating against her.
“Initially I had a great relationship with the Sheriff’s department until I wrote things that they didn’t like,” Clay said. “When the story got picked up in national news and the sheriff’s office got calls from across the country asking what was wrong with them, they got pretty upset with me for that. The sheriff basically said, ‘Look what you did, look what you caused.’”
According to a suit filed by the ACLU of New Mexico on Clay’s behalf: In June, Lujan directed department employees to stop providing records or comment to Clay. In July, Lujan told Barnes to order Clay to leave the scene of a car wreck and arrest her if she didn’t. In September, two department vehicles were parked outside of her apartment building in Santa Fe County in an apparent attempt to intimidate her, and deputies refused to allow her into the Rio Arriba County Courthouse in Tierra Amarilla with her reporting materials, including her laptop and camera.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Lorenzo Aguilar did not respond to multiple calls requesting comment.
“The Sheriff and his minions responded with frightening efforts to silence Ms. Clay, through obstruction and even intimidation. This case arises from those efforts and strikes at the very core of the First Amendment and our freedoms,” the suit says.
The suit also stipulated that as Clay continued to report on the “questionable conduct” of the sheriff’s office, the department changed its official policies on disclosing dispatch logs and what information is contained in them.
“These changes included dispatch logs that had been provided to the Rio Grande SUN every morning for approximately ten years and which had contained significant information related to RASO activities,” the suit alleges. “Following Ms. Clay’s reporting, Defendant Lujan pushed through policy changes to delay providing dispatch logs until after two weeks, and limiting the information provided in the dispatch logs.”
According to the SUN, the truncated logs were the subject of a separate legal fight between the newspaper and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety; the state settled and implemented a new records policy in October 2019.
The ACLU filed a tort claim notice — the first step in suing the department — in 2019, and filed a formal suit on May 26, 2021.
The suit seeks punitive damages from the Board of County Commissioners for Rio Arriba County, the sheriff’s office, Lujan and Barnes “in connection with their retaliation and intimidation arising from the exercise of [Clay’s] constitutionally protected First Amendment Rights.”
“I ended up leaving my job at the SUN because of this,” Clay told the Tracker. “It was a lot going on, and it didn’t really occur to me how much trauma it caused until we went back through it and did interviews for the brief. This was a lot. This was really scary stuff.”
A journalist for a Memphis-based nonprofit news site sued the city and its mayor and communications officer on May 13, 2020, for removing her from the city’s media email list and ignoring her repeated requests to be re-added.
In 2017, Wendi C. Thomas, a veteran of The Commercial Appeal, Indianapolis Star, Tennessean, and the Charlotte Observer, founded MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit news site “focused on poverty, power and public policy — issues about which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cared deeply.”
Filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Tennessee, the lawsuit alleges that sometime after Jan. 22, 2018, Thomas’ personal gmail address was dropped from Mayor Jim Strickland’s media advisory list without her knowledge.
Thomas later realized she was no longer receiving the emails and began requesting to be added back to the list beginning in May 2019.
“Can you please confirm that the following email addresses have been added to any and all media advisory/distribution lists sent by any and all city departments?” she wrote on Oct. 29, 2019, in her second email requesting that her email account and two others for her publication be added to the list, according to an exhibit. This email, like all her other messages on the matter, received no reply, according to the complaint.
She also made these requests in person at a October 2019 event, and in voicemails and text messages the following month. On Jan. 14, 2020, she sent her seventh email requesting to be returned to the list.
When asked for comment, Thomas referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to the website’s article about the lawsuit:
“I’m disappointed that it’s come to this, since the fix is so simple: Just treat me and MLK50 like you treat other journalists and news outlets,” Thomas wrote in the published statement.
Thomas’s attorney, Paul McAdoo, a Tennessee-based attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, argued in the lawsuit that the exclusion from the list interferes with Thomas’s ability to exercise her First Amendment rights.
“The exclusion of Ms. Thomas from the Media Advisory List substantially disrupts and interferes with her ability to gather news and report on the City and Mayor Strickland,” the complaint states.
Recently, Thomas’s exclusion from the email list has meant she has not been able to attend the city’s virtual COVID-19 briefings via Zoom.
The complaint alleges that Thomas was removed from the list due to her past coverage of the mayor and the city. When Thomas sought to interview Strickland in June 2017 about the one-year anniversary of a protest on Memphis’ Hernando De Soto Bridge, her request was denied.
In denying the request, Ursula Madden, the city’s chief communications officer, wrote to her that she had “demonstrated, particularly on social media, that you are not objective when it comes to Mayor Strickland,” according to the complaint.
Prior to filing the lawsuit, attorney McAdoo wrote two letters to the city’s chief legal officer, informing her of Thomas’s exclusion from the media advisory list and asking for this “infringing, discriminatory, and possibly retaliatory decision by the City” to be remedied.
“MLK50: Justice Through Journalism is doing important investigative reporting about issues affecting the residents of Memphis, and it is flatly unconstitutional for the city to disrupt and interfere with Ms. Thomas’s ability to gather and report the news because it doesn’t like the content of her reporting,” McAdoo said in a statement published by RCFP.
Through her lawsuit, Thomas is seeking to be added to the email distribution list, that “explicit and meaningful standards” for inclusion of a media organization or reporter on the list be established, and that her exclusion from the list be declared unconstitutional.
City spokesman Dan Springer did not return an emailed request for comment about the lawsuit, but told the Commercial Appeal that the city does not comment on ongoing legal matters.
A portion of the lawsuit filed by Wendi Thomas of MLK50 against Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and others seeking to be added to the mayor's media advisory email list.
",None,None,None,None,False,2:20-cv-02343,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['PRESS_CREDENTIAL'],,,,,Local government: Mayor 2021-02-04 20:21:25.903299+00:00,2024-02-22 15:12:09.184226+00:00,Knoxville News Sentinel says reporter barred from coronavirus Zoom press briefing in apparent retaliation,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/knoxville-news-sentinel-says-reporter-barred-from-coronavirus-zoom-press-briefing-in-apparent-retaliation/,2024-02-22 15:12:09.083717+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Vincent Gabrielle (Knoxville News Sentinel),,2020-05-08,False,Knoxville,Tennessee (TN),35.96064,-83.92074,"The Knoxville News Sentinel said its reporter was prevented from participating in a Knox County, Tennessee, health department press briefing about the county’s COVID-19 response on May 8, 2020, in apparent retaliation for his reporting.
Reporter Vincent Gabrielle had been attending the daily Zoom press briefings without incident, the Sentinel reported, recently pressing health officials to release more of the data informing the county’s reopening decisions following the lockdown to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The day before the briefing, the Sentinel published an article by Gabrielle stating that the county had repeatedly failed to explain the criteria used to evaluate the county’s reopening readiness.
On May 8, Gabrielle was unable to access the press briefing when he called in, according to the Sentinel. When he asked the health department’s media contact via text whether there had been a technical problem with the call, a representative referred him to county communications director Mike Donila.
Donila told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that Gabrielle had not been permitted to participate through the Zoom portal because of “his obnoxious, disrespectful and rude behavior” toward fellow reporters and health department members.
He maintained, however, that Gabrielle had not been barred from the press conference, as he could have still watched a livestream on Facebook or the health department website, and could have submitted questions through the social media platform or via email.
"The Zoom portal is a courtesy we offer — and one we can stop at any time — and not a right,” Donila said.
Donila also noted that other Sentinel reporters and executive editor Joel Christopher had been allowed into the Zoom meeting and had had the opportunity to ask questions.
Christopher denied Donila’s claim that other journalists from the outlet had been able to effectively participate.
He told the Tracker that when another Sentinel reporter had tried to access the Zoom meeting he was “locked out” without explanation. By the time Christopher was able to get into the call, he did not have time to get and submit Gabrielle’s questions before the briefing ended.
Christopher said that Donila’s assertions were “odd” and questioned why Donila would bother to ban Gabrielle if he didn’t believe it would have a practical effect on Gabrielle’s ability to participate in the briefing.
Donila denied Christopher’s claims, maintaining that not only had the outlet’s staff never lost their ability to ask questions, they had deliberately refused to submit any out of apparent solidarity with Gabrielle.
Donila had told the outlet that Gabrielle’s reporting — which he described to the paper as “constantly riddled with half-truths, missing facts and a constant false narrative" — was also a reason why he’d been denied access to the Zoom call.
Donila told the Tracker that he stands by his comments on Gabrielle’s reporting but indicated that Gabrielle’s reporting was not the reason behind barring him. He also rejected the Sentinel’s claims that Gabrielle was barred because of his tough questioning of the health department.
Christopher told the Tracker that he stands by Gabrielle’s conduct and reporting, but noted that the outlet takes any requests for corrections seriously. He said that he had arranged a meeting with the health department and county mayor’s office and hoped to resolve the situation amicably.
Gabrielle was allowed to participate in the county’s next health department press briefing, on May 11. Donila told the Tracker that the county mayor’s office felt a one-day restriction was adequate.
“We look forward to him continuing to ask questions and we look forward to answering them,” Donila said.
Scott Johnson, co-founder of the digital-only outlet Power Line, filed a lawsuit against the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health and the director of the department’s communications office after he said he’d been barred from accessing the department’s daily teleconference on April 28, 2020.
According to the suit, the MDH had started hosting daily press briefings in late February to field a rise in information requests concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and the department’s response. On April 9, Johnson, who did not reply to an email from the Tracker requesting comment, asked to be added to the MDH invite list for briefings and was granted access the following day. For the next couple of weeks, the suit states, Johnson was able to participate in the teleconference calls and submit follow-up questions over email.
The suit also claims that after responding to two of Johnson’s follow-up questions on April 27, communications director Michael Schommer forwarded the questions to members of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s office, stating, “Flagging as an FYI and for future discussion.”
The following day, allegedly under the direction and supervision of Commissioner Jan Malcolm, Schommer chose not to provide Johnson with access to the MDH Conference Line and his office did not respond to Johnson’s calls or emails, the suit claims.
According to the suit, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon emailed the department asking how participants in the press briefings were selected and why the MDH had ceased communications with Johnson. Schommer responded, in part: “We routinely have so many journalists on the daily briefing call that we cannot field questions from all of them each day. To ensure that the journalists have a reasonable opportunity to get a question in we need to limit call participation only to professional journalists.”
Schommer’s response did not include the criteria by which the department evaluates whether an individual reporter or outlet is deemed “professional.”
Johnson filed his suit on May 28, claiming that his access was revoked due to the conservative viewpoint of his questions and reporting. Schommer and Malcolm contest that claim, stating that Johnson never lost access to the information contained in the briefings, as they were broadcast in real time. They also argued in court that the department elected to exclude Johnson not because of his viewpoint but to prioritize questions from larger and more-established media organizations.
The MDH did not respond to an email from the Tracker requesting comment as of press time.
On June 4, Johnson filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to provide him immediate access to the MDH conference line and ask that he be granted the opportunity to pose questions during the briefings.
Judge Donovan Frank denied Johnson’s motion on June 26, but found that Johnson had successfully argued that his access had been revoked in response to his viewpoint or the context of his questions, and therefore was in violation of his First Amendment rights. Frank also denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case.
In his decision, Frank wrote, “It seems that the whole matter could be resolved if the Department simply provided Plaintiff access to the MDH Conference Line, particularly considering the fact that all parties agree the Department is under no obligation to allow Plaintiff to ask questions or to answer any submitted questions.”
The Free Beacon reported that the MDH agreed to a settlement on Nov. 13 and to reinstate Johnson’s access to the COVID-19 press briefings.
A reporter was barred from attending a press conference held by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the COVID-19 pandemic at the state capitol in Tallahassee on March 28, 2020.
Mary Ellen Klas — the Miami Herald's Tallahassee bureau chief, who also reports for the Tampa Bay Times — was denied entry to the capitol to attend DeSantis' news briefing, where Florida's lieutenant governor, director of emergency management and state surgeon general also appeared.
Outside of the capitol, Meredith Beatrice, a spokeswoman for DeSantis, told Klas she could not attend because she had previously requested "social distancing" at these briefings. Beatrice said the briefings were available to view on Florida Channel, a government access television network. Klas countered that this would not afford her the opportunity to ask questions.
Klas posted a video of her exchange with Beatrice to Twitter:
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) March 28, 2020
“I asked for social distancing. I didn’t ask to be excluded,” Klas said in a story about the incident by the Miami Herald's David Smiley.
A few days prior, Klas had requested that the governor's news briefings, in accordance with public health guidelines, be modified to allow for practicing social distancing. One option she suggested was moving them to a Zoom-style videoconference where reporters would have the opportunity to ask questions without having to meet in close quarters, according to the Herald’s story.
This request was repeated in writing in a March 20 letter signed by editors from the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times, el Nuevo Herald, Bradenton Herald, Palm Beach Post, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel.
"The briefing room at the Emergency Operations Center is typically packed with reporters in a room about 15-20 feet wide. Reporters are seated in chairs close together. At the Wednesday briefing, there were 22 reporters and photographers in the room," the letter stated. "We’d ask, respectfully, that the state move these briefings to a larger space to accommodate all reporters in person and at recommended distances. Alternatively, we would ask that the state set up a small pool of reporters for each briefing along with the ability for the governor and staff to take questions from press corps members outside the room through a live-stream. Either option, or a combination of both, would preserve access to these critical meetings and ensure a safer environment for all concerned."
That letter did not receive a reply, but briefings were subsequently moved to the governor’s office at the capitol, where a hand-selected group of reporters were invited to attend and everyone else could watch via livestream, Klas told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Klas and others were able to submit questions in writing, but did not have any of them answered. So Klas decided to attend the March 28 briefing in person, but was turned away.
But a television reporter waiting outside the capitol, Mike Vasilinda, was allowed in to the press conference after a Florida Department of Law Enforcement drove out to pick him up, Klas tweeted.
On Twitter, Klas posted the questions she had planned to ask DeSantis at the press conference:
Want to know the questions @GovRonDeSantis didn't want to get today, so he kept us out?
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) March 28, 2020
You are preparing four alternative hospitals to prepare for a surge in hospital capacity, please explain when Florida will reach its peak? What is the timeline?/thread
You said you were going to be transparent throughout this process, why have to refused to disclose the nursing homes that have had COVID positive cases, except the one you considered negligent? /
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) March 28, 2020
Health care workers are especially at risk; a 33-year Miami-Dade Nurse has died from #COVID19, what are you doing to assist them?
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) March 28, 2020
You are critical of the reckless behavior of people from NYC and NOLA. Are you fostering it by not imposing stricter restrictions across the state?
Helen Aguirre Ferré, DeSantis' main spokeswoman, told the Herald in an email that another reporter from the paper had been told about the press conference. “Every endeavor is made to ensure the public continues to have full access to information as the safety and security of Florida residents is our greatest concern,” Ferré wrote.
In an editorial, the Miami Herald dubbed the move "vindictive, petty — and illegal." DeSantis, the editorial board wrote, “should be ashamed because, in not allowing Klas to do her job and ask the serious questions that deserve his serious answers, he is really denying access to the Floridians who look to these media outlets for vital information.”
CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna also decried the move in a statement: “Authorities in Florida and throughout the United States must show they are taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, and should accommodate requests from journalists to follow guidance by public health experts,” he said. “Now is the time for the government to increase its transparency and access for the press, not limit it. Governor DeSantis should let Mary Ellen Klas and all other reporters cover his government freely.”
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis greets the U.S. president on March 9, the same day he declared a state of emergency due to the novel coronavirus. A reporter who requested social distancing measures for media was later barred from a COVID-19 briefing.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,coronavirus,,,State government: Governor 2020-02-27 16:50:35.363402+00:00,2023-12-21 16:40:49.310177+00:00,"Fresno Bee reporters barred from event with cabinet secretary, house representative",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fresno-bee-reporters-barred-event-cabinet-secretary-house-representative/,2023-12-21 16:40:49.197050+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2020-02-18,False,Tulare,California (CA),36.20773,-119.34734,"California newspaper The Fresno Bee says it was barred from attending an event with Rep. Devin Nunes and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s top official in Tulare County, California, on Feb. 18, 2020.
In an article about its exclusion, The Bee reported that it had registered and received tickets through an Eventbrite website to attend a water forum moderated by the Friant Water Authority, a public agency, and featuring David Bernhardt, secretary of the Interior Department, and Nunes. The Bee noted that the event was not a private fundraiser.
At 10 a.m. the day of the event, the outlet said a Nunes staffer contacted The Bee to make clear its reporters would not be allowed to cover the forum.
“I saw you registered for the event today,” Nunes’ staffer Crystal Ervin said in a voicemail to The Bee, “but I want to make it clear that it’s invited press only, and you’re not on the list and your ticket will not scan at the door.”
Journalists from other news outlets were allowed to cover the event, including local Fox affiliate KMPH and ABC30 News.
An Interior Department spokesperson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the agency was not responsible for press credentialing the event. The Friant Water Authority did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.
Spokespeople for Nunes did not respond to the Tracker’s questions about The Bee’s exclusion and whether the decision was connected to his pending lawsuit against the outlet’s parent company, Sacramento-based McClatchy Company.
Nunes filed the $150 million defamation lawsuit in April 2019, arguing that a 2018 Bee article on the congressman constituted “character assassination.”
In an editorial about the outlet’s exclusion, The Bee wrote, “Nunes’ decision to bar the region’s biggest newspaper from attending represents a new strategy in his war against the free press.”
“In barring The Bee from the water forum, Nunes unveiled a new tactic: excluding media outlets from public events as punishment for doing their jobs. He appears to be once again copying the behavior of Trump, who in the past has banned news outlets like Bloomberg News, Buzzfeed news and Politico from covering his events,” the editorial reads.
California newspaper The Fresno Bee was denied entrance to a water forum with its representative, Devin Nunes, here on Capitol Hill, and others. Nunes is also suing The Bee's parent company over the outlet's articles on the congressman.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],The Fresno Bee,,,,Federal government: Legislature 2020-03-06 16:52:19.258072+00:00,2023-12-21 16:42:11.591305+00:00,"Journalist barred from recording, removed from New Mexico Senate proceeding",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-barred-recording-removed-new-mexico-senate-proceeding/,2023-12-21 16:42:11.469931+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Rachel Knapp (KRQE),,2020-02-06,False,Santa Fe,New Mexico (NM),35.68698,-105.9378,"Rachel Knapp, a reporter for dual CBS/Fox-affiliate KRQE, was barred from recording and removed from a state Senate committee meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Feb. 6, 2020.
Knapp wrote an account of the incident for the outlet, describing the lawmakers’ behavior as “bizarre.”
According to Knapp, Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, vice chair of the Senate Conservation Committee, interrupted the chair to note that Knapp was filming and ask if she had received permission or would like to request it. While committee meetings are streamed through a webcast, Senate rules at the time barred anyone from photographing or recording audio or video without permission from the committee chair. KRQE reported that it never saw the rule enforced, and that a sign posted outside the room to notify the public of the policy noted that the news media was exempt.
“I figured, it was a public meeting,” Knapp said, identifying herself as a member of the press. A second senator then expressed opposition to her filming, according to KRQE.
“I just prefer this not to be spliced and edited to be used against someone and have someone not be totally truthful in their comments in a bill because they’re worried how something might be splashed and cut in a newscast,” Sen. Pat Woods said.
Seconds later, Sedillo Lopez said, “OK, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
KRQE reported that the sign noting media exemption was removed after its broadcast about the incident.
Bill Anderson, general manager of KRQE, told the Albuquerque Journal that the incident was unacceptable, adding that he assumed it was an “error in judgement.”
“Nothing good happens in government when these people close the door and want to talk when no one’s listening,” Anderson said.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Sedillo Lopez had overstepped the bounds of the policy by asking Knapp to leave.
“The rule doesn’t allow for that at all,” Steinborn said. “That incident was rightfully embarrassing to the institution: It shined a light on the problem and made it an imperative to fix it.”
In late January, Steinborn had proposed a resolution to change the rule and allow for both the public and media to record and photograph meetings. The resolution passed without opposition on Feb. 12, after the incident with Knapp.
The Roundhouse is one step closer to full transparency for the public. @jeff4nm Resolution 2 was passed in Senate Rules this morning- it will allow the public to record video and take photos during a Senate committee meeting WITHOUT asking for permission first @krqe pic.twitter.com/JA4203WePD
— Rachel Knapp (@RachelKnappNews) February 12, 2020
Steinborn told the Tracker that seeing a crowd of people pull out their phones to take pictures a few days after the resolution passed was heartening.
“It was the best endorsement that we could have that, of course, we had done the right thing,” Steinborn said. “It was a good thing for democracy and a good thing for the citizens of the state.”
The capitol building in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is referred to informally as the 'Roundhouse.'
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,State government: Legislature 2020-01-29 15:18:07.794241+00:00,2023-12-21 16:43:20.450702+00:00,State Department removes NPR reporter from official trip,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/state-department-removes-npr-reporter-official-trip/,2023-12-21 16:43:20.358908+00:00,,,,"Denial of Access, Chilling Statement",,,,,,2020-01-27,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"In apparent retaliation for an NPR reporter’s interview with Mike Pompeo, the State Department removed a different NPR reporter from accompanying the secretary on an official trip abroad.
During an interview on Jan. 24, Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and a former national security correspondent, asked Pompeo about U.S. policy and Iran and his role in the Ukrainian affair, particularly the dismissal of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
NPR reported that an aide cut off the interview immediately following Kelly’s questions on Ukraine. Pompeo then leaned in, glared silently at Kelly and left the room. A few moments later, the same aid asked Kelly to follow her into Pompeo’s private living room at the State Department without a recorder, not specifying that the conversation would be off the record.
“He shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the [9-minute] interview itself had lasted,” Kelly told her “All Things Considered” co-host Ari Shapiro. “He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine. He asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’ He used the f-word in that sentence and many others.”
“He asked if I could find Ukraine on a map. I said yes. He called out for his aides to bring him a map of the world with no writing, no countries marked. I pointed to Ukraine, he put the map away. He said, ‘People will hear about this.’ And then he turned and said he had things to do,” Kelly said.
The following day, Pompeo issued a rare official statement — a medium typically used for condemnations of human rights violations or announcing sanctions — denouncing Kelly and the media as a whole.
In the statement, Pompeo accuses Kelly of lying to him twice: both in setting up the interview and when agreeing to have their post-interview conversation off the record.
“It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency,” the statement reads. “This is another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration. It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity.”
NPR Senior Vice President for News Nancy Barnes and President and CEO John Lansing came to Kelly’s defense, citing her integrity and professionalism, and stood behind NPR’s reporting.
In an interview with “All Things Considered,” Lansing acknowledged that tensions can and do arise when journalists press officials on hard questions. “But this goes well beyond tension — this goes toward intimidation,” Lansing said. “And let me just say this: We will not be intimidated. Mary Louise Kelly won’t be intimidated, and NPR won’t be intimidated.”
Kelly also wrote about the incident in an opinion article for The New York Times, in which she recounted the interview and said, “Journalists don’t sit down with senior government officials in the service of scoring political points. We do it in the service of asking tough questions, on behalf of our fellow citizens.”
Five Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — ranking member Bob Menendez (NJ), Cory Booker (NJ), Ed Markey (MA), Jeff Merkley (OR) and Tim Kaine (VA) — wrote a letter castigating Pompeo’s statement, The Hill reported.
“At a time when journalists around the world are being jailed for their reporting — and as in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, killed — your insulting and contemptuous comments are beneath the office of the Secretary of State,” the letter reads.
At a time when journalists around the world are being jailed for their reporting, Sec Pompeo’s insulting and contemptuous comments to NPR’s @NPRKelly are beneath the office of the Secretary of State.
— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) January 25, 2020
Read our letter 👇 pic.twitter.com/x3qaRrUXTM
Pompeo was echoing language often used by President Donald Trump, who has previously referred to the press as “unhinged,” and blamed an absence of “journalistic standards, for waning public trust in the media. Trump has also affirmed critiques of NPR and praised Pompeo’s actions in regards to Kelly.
On Jan. 27, the State Department Correspondents’ Association released a statement in response to the department’s decision to remove NPR correspondent Michele Kelemen from Pompeo’s plane, asserting that the move was “retaliation” against the outlet and urging it to reconsider the decision.
“The removal of Michele, who was in rotation as the radio pool reporter, comes days after Secretary Pompeo harshly criticized the work of an NPR host. We can only conclude that the State Department is retaliating against National Public Radio as a result of this exchange,” said Shaun Tandon, the association’s president.
“The State Department press corps has a long tradition of accompanying secretaries of state on their travels and we find it unacceptable to punish an individual member of our association.”
NPR’s Lansing and Barnes wrote to the State Department on Jan. 28 asking for confirmation of Kelemen’s removal from Pompeo’s official trip and clarification around NPR access. The letter also asked for copies of policy and procedures regarding pool reporters, as well as correspondence regarding the Kelemen decision.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departs early on Jan. 29, 2020, from Maryland for an official trip to Europe. The State Department removed an NPR reporter from this trip in apparent retaliation to Pompeo’s dispute with another NPR reporter.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],National Public Radio,,,,Federal government: Agency 2020-01-22 17:58:37.394891+00:00,2023-12-21 16:44:25.292322+00:00,Media access restricted as historic impeachment trial begins,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/media-access-restricted-historic-impeachment-trial-begins/,2023-12-21 16:44:25.118572+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2020-01-16,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger implemented restrictions on media access in advance of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which began on Jan. 16, 2020.
Roll Call reported that the planned restrictions were announced following months of discussions between the Capitol’s chief security officials, including Stenger and the Capitol Police chief, Senate Rules Chairman Roy Blunt and the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which represents the interests of credentialed congressional reporters.
The new restrictions exceed those that were in place during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1998, Roll Call reported, in part spurred by the hundreds of protesters that flooded the Capitol during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Sarah D. Wire, a congressional reporter for the Los Angeles Times and chair of the Standing Committee of Correspondents tweeted that the Committee suggested changes to the restrictions prior to them being finalized. “Our suggestions were rejected,” Wire wrote, “without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.”
In a letter to Senate majority and minority leaders sent on Jan. 14, the Committee expressed its strong opposition to the planned restrictions, which it said failed to take into account the effective policies and practices that are currently in place.
The Committee listed the restrictions as:
When the formal procession to deliver of the articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate took place on Jan. 15, the restriction limiting coverage to a single pool camera was lifted, or at least not enforced.
Wire told CNN Business that when impeachment proceedings officially began the following day, several measures curtailing reporter access were implemented. Both a magnetometer — a type of metal detector — and a police officer were posted at the door of the Senate press gallery.
My view of the opening of the Senate impeachment trial. pic.twitter.com/nHuj60DhBb
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) January 21, 2020
According to Wire and reporting from Roll Call, no written guidance concerning media restrictions was provided ahead of proceedings beginning in the Senate.
“Reporters [are] learning about the restrictions in real time,” Wire said.
On Jan. 16, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, joined by 57 news and press freedom organizations — including 16 U.S. Press Freedom Tracker partners — sent a letter to the Senate condemning the restrictions.
The letter reads in part: “Absent an articulable security rationale, Senate leaders and the Sergeant at Arms have an obligation to preserve and promote the public’s right to know. Reporters must have the ability to respond quickly to rapid developments and need reasonable access to lawmakers as they deliberate. The proposed restrictions on the use of electronic devices and on the ability of reporters to question lawmakers as they move about the Capitol, as well as the additional security screening, will hinder reporting without an obvious benefit for Senate security.”
RCFP wrote that the U.S. District Court in D.C. found that the Capitol is not a “public forum” under the First Amendment, and therefore lawmakers and Capitol security have some discretion to “reasonably” limit or restrict press access to the building. It wrote that any such restrictions, however, cannot be based on vague or arbitrary standards and must be enforced consistently.
Tweets from correspondents instead revealed that instructions were often contradictory, and that officers told journalists that they couldn’t clarify or confirm the rules. Several reporters also tweeted that their interviews with willing senators were interrupted by Capitol Police.
Getting the latest guidance on press restrictions is like a game of telephone as reporters pass along to their colleagues & competitors what they’ve heard most recently.
— K Tully-McManus (@ktullymcmanus) January 16, 2020
Capitol Police officers can't clarify/confirm what reporters heard the rules are. https://t.co/R8kpZdU93g
The Associated Press reported that senators were given cards by Capitol Police with phrases to alert police that they need assistance and fend off protesters or reporters, including “You are preventing me from doing my job” and “Please move out of my way.”
JUST IN: @CBSNews /@caitlinconant obtain a flashcard being given to U.S. Senators ahead of the #ImpeachmentTrial on tips to avoid reporters. (One thing it doesn’t suggest is calling reporters a “liberal hack.”) pic.twitter.com/mAZpBP9Fv7
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) January 16, 2020
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaks to members of the press in a restricted area as President Donald Trump's impeachment trial begins in Washington, D.C.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],Media,,,,Federal government: Legislature 2022-02-03 16:23:00.225232+00:00,2023-12-21 16:45:53.034505+00:00,Independent prisons reporter removed from Alabama government press lists,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-prisons-reporter-removed-from-alabama-government-press-lists/,2023-12-21 16:45:52.948819+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Beth Shelburne (Independent),,2019-10-08,False,Birmingham,Alabama (AL),33.52066,-86.80249,"Independent reporter Beth Shelburne was notified of her removal from the Alabama Department of Corrections press distribution list on Oct. 8, 2019, on the basis that Shelburne did not work for an “accredited news organization." Shelburne alleged that it was in retaliation for her reporting and opinion pieces.
Birmingham-based Shelburne told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in January 2022 that she has been covering prisons in the state since 2012. After leaving her position at WBRC FOX6 News in July 2019, she said she was able to have her new email address added to the ADOC press distribution list.
That August, she wrote an op-ed criticizing the department’s funeral for a K-9 officer killed in a contraband raid. After the piece was published she stopped receiving regular press releases from the department.
Following the death of an inmate in early October, Shelburne said she tried to receive confirmation and comment from the department’s communication director, Linda Mays, who told her to check the ADOC website or submit a formal records request. When AL.com, the largest digital news site in the state, published a story about the death which included the information she had requested, Shelburne asked Mays why she had responded to questions from that outlet but not to hers.
“She responded that they had revised their media policy and the public affairs office would only respond to journalists with ‘accredited’ news organizations and those would be the only reporters on their press distribution list,” Shelburne told the Tracker. “I realized that this was retaliation for the critical op-ed I had published.”
The policy Mays cited went into effect in October 2004 and describes “news media” as almost exclusively traditional and legacy media outlets — namely broadcast, radio and print outlets — and does not include any reference to freelance journalists or digital media outlets. The policy and definitions do not appear to have been revised since 2004.
Mays and the ADOC press office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Shelburne tweeted about her removal on Oct. 9, 2019, and included a screenshot of the email from Mays, which asserted that she was a member of the public, not a journalist.
I asked ADOC why they answered another reporter's questions but not mine. Hours later, they informed me that my questions are no longer good enough to be answered. In more than 2 decades of reporting, this has never happened. Transparency as clear as a mountain of bullshit. pic.twitter.com/Bu3eyZPh8A
— Beth Shelburne (@bshelburne) October 10, 2019
“That was the tweet that kind of went viral and the next day I received a call from Gov. [Kay] Ivey’s press secretary and she told me that somebody from the Department of Corrections would be reaching out to me and that this would be remedied,” Shelburne said. “And in fact the commissioner of prisons called me and apologized.”
Then-ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn told her that she had been removed in error and would be readded to the press list, Shelburne told the Tracker, and offered to meet with her for coffee.
In a statement emailed to reporters on Oct. 10, Dunn reasserted the department’s commitment to transparency and said they were “resolving” Shelburne’s removal for the press list, WBRC reported at the time.
“The action of removing this person does not help us reach our ultimate goal of making Alabama safer and helping to cultivate an atmosphere within the system where both the inmates and correctional officers feel safe,” Dunn said. “The Alabama Department of Corrections is committed to working with all types of media and will continue working tirelessly to remain transparent and effective for the media and the public.”
Shelburne told the Tracker that while her access was restored for a time, communications with Mays and other ADOC press officers were sluggish and their responses hostile. In emails shared with the Tracker, they criticized her reporting tips from incarcerated individuals and accused her of “misinformation” and “cherry-picking” information to further an agenda. By June 2020, both the ADOC and governor’s office had removed her from their press distribution lists and stopped responding to her requests entirely, Shelburne said.
Shelburne said she’s now considering legal avenues for restoring her access.
“It feels like nothing is going to change unless I sue,” Shelburne said. “You can’t block people’s access just because you don’t like what they’re saying because they are an opinion journalist or an op-ed writer.
“And a government agency can’t decide who is a real journalist or not.”
BuzzFeed News immigration reporter Hamed Aleaziz was disinvited from a Department of Homeland Security tour of the border on Sept. 16, 2019, according to a letter obtained by CNN's Reliable Sources.
CNN reported that Aleaziz had originally been invited on the media tour with acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and had provided his personal information for security clearance purposes.
In the letter, BuzzFeed news director Tom Namako wrote to protest the agency’s treatment of Aleaziz. Namako said that while DHS spokesperson Andrew Meehan was visiting BuzzFeed’s offices in February, Meehan said he viewed Aleaziz as a “fair reporter” and repeatedly invited him to take a tour of the border with U.S. immigration authorities.
Namako wrote that Aleaziz had sought to take Meehan up on this offer when he was notified that he would be excluded from the tour.
“We are perplexed and disappointed by your apparent decision to specifically target Hamed, who has always sought your agency’s perspective in his coverage,” Namako wrote. “His exclusion serves only to prevent our audience and the American public from understanding the real situation at the border.”
Neither Aleaziz nor a spokesperson from DHS responded to request for comment.
A BuzzFeed news director protested a reporter's exclusion from a media tour of the border with DHS.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],BuzzFeed News,,,,Federal government: Agency 2019-09-23 19:49:25.720770+00:00,2024-01-24 18:02:37.859034+00:00,Journalists barred from asylum hearings held in tent courts at border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-barred-asylum-hearings-held-tent-courts-border/,2024-01-24 18:02:37.766991+00:00,,,(2019-12-29 00:00:00+00:00) Tent courts for asylum seekers at U.S.-Mexico border opened to journalists,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-09-11,False,Laredo,Texas (TX),27.50641,-99.50754,"Members of the media were barred from observing asylum hearings held in two tent complexes in the Texas border cities of Laredo and Brownsville. The first hearing in Laredo was held on Sept. 11, 2019, and hearings began at the Brownsville tent court the next day.
Asylum seekers processed under the Trump administration’s new Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, crossed the border to attend the hearings held in the tent facilities beginning on Sept. 11. But journalists and members of the public were not allowed inside the tents while the hearings were in session.
BuzzFeed reporter Adolfo Flores tweeted that he had not been permitted into the tents to observe the hearings on their first day:
I wasn’t allowed to observe the first MPP/“Remain in Mexico” hearings at the tents in Laredo, TX because they’re “not open to the public,” a DHS officer said. Was told the only people allowed inside the tents DHS built are law enforcement, attorneys with clients, and contractors. pic.twitter.com/c1aT3P4dPW
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) September 11, 2019
Typically, asylum hearings are open to the public and the media except when limited exceptions are invoked, including when “the respondent in an asylum case, which by regulation provides for additional privacy protections, requests that the hearing be closed,” or when such closure is in the “public interest,” according to established Executive Office for Immigration Review policies.
These exceptions can be invoked on a case-by-case basis, but the access in the tent courts is being restricted to all hearings.
In a statement emailed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson—who declined to be identified by name—wrote that because the tent courts are located within U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “secure port of entry property,” media access to them is limited. “Access to these temporary immigration hearing facilities will operate in accordance with practices for other secure CBP areas,” the statement said. “Requests for access by the media or by the public to the [immigration hearing facilities] will be assessed on a case-by-case basis when operationally feasible and in accordance with procedures for access to any CBP secure facility.”
Journalists can observe the hearings from San Antonio, Harlingen, and Port Isabel, Texas, where the immigration judges presiding over the hearings are located, the DHS spokesperson continued. The asylum seekers appear in the courtroom via teleconference.
This arrangement, however, means the journalists will be located at least 150 miles away from the migrants, rendering them unavailable for in-person interviews.
“Just as it’s hard for judges to catch emotion and body language from a video hearing, it’s going to be hard for reporters to accurately describe the scene in a hearing room if we only have access to it via video conference,” Flores said in a statement emailed to the Tracker. “If there are technical issues inside one of the tent hearings we won’t know what it was like for the asylum-seekers there. We’ll only be able to see what the hearing was like from the judge’s courtroom.”
Journalists need access to these hearings, Flores continued, to cover how the “Remain in Mexico” policy is affecting migrants. “Public hearings are supposed to be public,” Flores wrote.
Kennji Kizuka, a researcher at Human Rights First, decried the ban on journalists and outside observers in the tent courts in a statement. “By banning independent monitors and potential pro bono lawyers from tent courts, the Trump Administration is hiding information about the human rights abuses asylum seekers are suffering after being forced to return to Mexico,” the statement said. “It is just another attempt to cover up the flaws in this sham asylum process, a process created to block refugees from finding safety in the United States.”
Some 42,000 migrants are now waiting in Mexico for their asylum hearings under the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy that has been challenged in the courts. On Sept. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an injunction in the case, allowing the Trump administration to proceed in enforcing the new policy while court challenges proceed. According to reporting from The Washington Post, the Trump administration has budgeted $155 million to cover operation of five temporary MPP courts.
Migrants who returned voluntarily to Mexico from the U.S. under the Migrant Protection Protocol show documents to a U.S. border protection agent to attend their court hearing for asylum seekers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],Media,,,,Federal government: Agency 2019-12-04 15:24:30.557961+00:00,2023-12-21 16:48:29.094289+00:00,"Vermont Judiciary sets new rules on recording in courtrooms, registering as media",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vermont-judiciary-sets-new-rules-recording-courtrooms-registering-media/,2023-12-21 16:48:28.998227+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-09-03,False,Montpelier,Vermont (VT),44.26006,-72.57539,"The state court system of Vermont formalized rules on May 1, 2019, requiring members of the press to register in order to record or photograph in state courtrooms. According to VTDigger, the new rules, which also established who qualifies as a member of the press, took effect on Sept. 3.
The Vermont Judiciary’s rules state that members of the media, once registered or with a one-time waiver, can record audio, video or livestream within courtrooms, while trial participants can only record audio. The public is not allowed to record whatsoever.
Emily Wetherell, deputy clerk of the Vermont Supreme Court, told VTDigger that the new rules were made to modernize existing policies in the face of technological advances, particularly in regard to smartphones.
“The registration for media members, too, is a response to the power that cellphones give citizens in the courtroom,” Wetherell said. “That old rule was really just about media, because most people didn’t have the capability or the technology to record. But now most people can … and so in order to identify who media is, the committee decided that a registration process would be the most useful way of doing it.”
Mike Donoghue, executive director of the Vermont Press Association and vice president of the New England First Amendment Coalition, told VTDigger that while he understands the need to modernize the rules, he has concerns about how the judiciary will determine who is legitimately a member of the media.
According to The Manchester Journal, when the proposed rules went to the Vermont Supreme Court in January 2018, media was defined as "any individual or organization engaging in news gathering or reporting to the public, including free-lance reporter, newspaper, radio or television station or network, news service, magazine, trade paper, in-house publication, professional journal, or other news reporting or news-gathering agency, and any individual employed by such an organization."
Retired state Supreme Court Justice John Dooley, who chaired the procedural rules committee, told the Journal that they worked to adopt a “pretty broad” definition to avoid improperly denying applications for media registration. The registration system also established an appeals process by which a denied applicant can seek an “expeditious review” by the Supreme Court.
Shawn Cunningham, a reporter for The Chester Telegraph, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was reporting on a hearing at the Windsor Criminal Division court when he was pulled aside by one of the court officers. The officer told Cunningham that he couldn’t take pictures without being registered.
“Now, I had seen this up on the wall the previous time I had been to court, but it seemed as if they were talking about recording, video and audio recording. And they said no, it’s all,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said he was directed to the court clerk to register, but because approval would take several days he was able to receive a one-day registration waiver. In a matter of days Cunningham received his media registration, which appears to authorize him to take photos and recordings in Vermont courts in perpetuity.
“We have several things right now that affect our area that are going through the courts, and that’s both Vermont-run state courts and federal courts,” Cunningham told the Tracker. “So, I’m basically checking all the rules to make sure that whatever I’m going into at this point, that I’m good to go in there and do what I need to do.”
Above the entrance to the Vermont Supreme Court in Montpelier is the state's coat of arms. The Vermont Judiciary recently changed its rules for reporting in the courts.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],Media,,,,Judiciary: State Court 2019-09-09 20:31:37.164673+00:00,2024-02-29 19:51:01.274290+00:00,"Amid backlash, Department of Defense backs away from new press regulations at Guantánamo Bay",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/amid-backlash-department-of-defense-backs-away-from-new-press-regulations-at-guant%C3%A1namo-bay/,2024-02-29 19:51:01.201748+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-08-28,False,Guantánamo Bay,Cuba,None,None,"New press rules issued at U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Aug. 28, 2019, would have curtailed journalists' ability to report freely at the detention camp where 40 detainees are still held.
The new policies, which military officials asked journalists to sign within 48 hours in order to report on military commission hearings in September, would require journalists to be constantly escorted while working at the naval station, and would give public affairs officers the right to review and approve interview recordings "prior to upload into any laptop." The rule also gives Naval Station personnel the ability to seize “all materials and equipment” in a journalist’s possession, including cellphones.
“[Journalists] may not participate in any activity related to their work, including any news or information gathering activity, if they are not accompanied by a designated public affairs escort and have that escort’s explicit consent,” the policy reads, according to The Intercept. The policy also requires journalists to “submit all still imagery, video imagery, and audio recordings taken at [Naval Station Guantánamo Bay] to the appropriate security reviewer,” according to a letter written by a lawyer for The New York Times.
The Department of Defense's Office of Military Commissions created a separate policy in 2010 that applied to journalists inside military commission facilities at the naval station. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay public affairs officer J. Overton told The Intercept that the new rules covered the naval station generally, but not reporters at the Office of Military Commissions. (Emails sent by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to the Navy for comment were not returned.)
In a tweet, Guantánamo-based New York Times reporter Carol Rosenberg called the new rules “unprecedented.” “In all the years I’ve covered Guantanamo I have never been presented with these Navy base documents to sign. This week was the first time,” Rosenberg wrote in a separate tweet.
Deputy General Counsel for The New York Times, David McCraw, sent a letter to Paul Ney, the general counsel of the Department of Defense, on behalf of a media coalition including the Times, The Associated Press, NPR and First Look Media, decrying the new rules. McCraw provided a copy of the letter to the Tracker.
“[T]he Naval Station is attempting to exercise a level of control over journalists and their newsgathering activities that has no apparent security justification and interferes with the First Amendment rights of the news media,” McCraw wrote. The existing OMC policy, McCraw wrote, has been effective, “striking a serviceable balance between the need for operational security, the protection of national security and the First Amendment rights of reporters.”
On Sept. 6 the Department of Defense formally rescinded the new press regulations, after offering unofficial reassurance on Sept. 2 that the rules would not go into effect.
“It’s a good thing that they’re stepping back and looking at the issue on a more global basis,” said David Schulz, an attorney at Ballard Spahr who has been closely involved in the fight for press access at Guantanamo over the years. “The existing ground rules were the result of extensive discussions with all the relevant stakeholders in 2010.”
McCraw wrote in an email to the Tracker that he was glad the Department of Defense took seriously the concerns he voiced in his letter. “Guantanamo remains a vital story, and reporters need the freedom to report fully on the proceedings there,” he wrote. “We look forward to working with the Department of Defense to make sure that the rules in place take into account the needs of our news organizations.”
A soldier stands guard overlooking Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay naval base in 2009.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],Media,military,,,Federal government: Agency 2019-09-12 20:16:42.699416+00:00,2023-12-21 16:50:24.622202+00:00,Media barred from public lead water crisis meeting in New Jersey,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/media-barred-public-lead-water-crisis-meeting-new-jersey/,2023-12-21 16:50:24.506250+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-08-27,False,Newark,New Jersey (NJ),40.73566,-74.17237,"The news media was barred from attending a public meeting on Newark, New Jersey’s ongoing lead contamination crisis on Aug. 27, 2019, by Mayor Ras Baraka’s communications team.
The meeting was called to “enlist members of the public as volunteers to canvas city homeowners for their participation in the planned replacement of lead-tainted service lines leading to individual properties,” NJTV News reported.
Though the mayor’s office had issued a press release in advance of the meeting, when media representatives arrived at Newark City Hall, they were told the press was not invited and were asked to leave.
Mark Bonamo, editor of TAPinto Newark, told NJTV News, “When we showed up at the door, we were generally all shocked and surprised that we were not let in to what we believed was going to be a public meeting in the public’s house: City Hall.”
In a statement, Newark’s Director of Communications Frank Baraff said that the press was excluded in an effort to “encourag[e] an open dialogue with volunteers” and “so that residents will not shy away from helping us in these efforts.”
Media attorney and Rutgers law professor Bruce Rosen told NJTV News that the decision to exclude the press was unconstitutional: “Constitutionally, it’s a public forum. He invited the public and the media is part of the public. In fact, the media is a representative of the public.”
On Aug. 28, Baraka’s administration announced that in the future it would not block the press from meetings about the lead water crisis, TAPinto reported. The statement read, in part, “At future meetings, there will be media availability.”
As Rosen noted to TAPinto, uncertainty about the meaning of “media availability” remains.
The mayor’s office was not immediately available for comment.
Newark's mayor Ras Baraka addresses the media in this 2014 file photo.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],Media,,,,Local government: Mayor 2021-02-05 17:15:47.286707+00:00,2023-12-21 16:51:06.774673+00:00,Montgomery County Commission sued for ban on livestreaming chamber proceedings,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/montgomery-county-commission-sued-for-ban-on-livestreaming-chamber-proceedings/,2023-12-21 16:51:06.695010+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-08-12,False,Clarksville,Tennessee (TN),36.52977,-87.35945,"On Aug. 12, 2019, the Montgomery County Commission in Clarksville, Tennessee, passed a resolution banning live video streaming inside its chambers, stating: “No live broadcast from within the Commission Chambers of its proceedings in whole or in part is allowed. A simultaneous broadcast of the proceedings is available on the internet at ‘YouTube’ and the same is preserved there for an extended period.”
The resolution allowed livestreaming by news professionals, with the caveat that the media gave prior notice and had approval from the Montgomery County government.
Two days after the resolution passed, commissioner Jason Knight, along with two co-plaintiffs, one “whose sole employment is livestreaming local government meetings, including county commission meetings in Montgomery County,” filed a complaint alleging the resolution was a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The complaint read, in part, that, “the government apparently believes . . . that operating an ‘official’ YouTube obviates the need for citizen live streamers. This is the modern equivalent of insisting that a State-run newspaper obviates the need for local press.”
“The lawsuit was initiated because seemingly the First Amendment rights and the Tennessee Open Meetings Act were violated,” Knight told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
On Sept. 10, Montgomery County filed a motion to dismiss, which the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee denied on Jun. 30, 2020, holding that Knight’s First Amendment claim was valid.
On Jan. 4, 2021, the court held a discovery dispute conference with the parties involved. No further updates have been made publicly available.
The MacIver Institute for Public Policy, a Wisconsin-based think tank, sued Governor Tony Evers on Aug. 6, 2019, alleging that his office discriminated against MacIver’s News Service when excluding it from the administration’s media advisory list.
According to the complaint, the MacIver News Service and its reporters are credentialed by the Wisconsin State Legislature to work as part of the Capitol press corps, and regularly interview state legislators and public officials.
The News Service was on the previous administration’s media list, the institute’s lawyer Daniel Suhr told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. When Evers took office, News Director Bill Osmulski and his former colleague Matt Kittle asked to be added to the new list. According to the complaint, they received no response and were never added to the list of approximately 1,000 local, state and national reporters and outlets.
The complaint also details the barring of MacIver reporters from a press briefing on Feb. 28, 2019, to which 26 members of the Capitol press corps had been invited. Kittle and Osmulski attempted to RSVP and arrived at the designated time, but were not permitted to attend as they were not on the invitee list.
Suhr told the Tracker that on April 4 he sent a letter to Evers’ office stating that the administration had violated the News Service’s First Amendment Rights and asking for the reasoning behind excluding the outlet.
A few weeks later, the governor’s legal counsel responded that Evers’ communication’s office “invites some journalists to limited access events, such as exclusive interviews, on a case-by-case basis using neutral criteria, namely newspaper circulation, radio listenership, and TV viewership.”
The News Service subsequently filed a public records request, Suhr said, seeking any documentation outlining the “neutral criteria” used by Evers’ staff. According to the complaint, Evers’ staff denied the request based on attorney-client privilege.
The MacIver Institute then filed their lawsuit against Governor Evers in August, alleging he violated its staffers’ constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of the press and equal access. The Institute also motioned for a preliminary injunction from the court that would force Evers’ office to add the News Service to the media advisory list before a ruling is reached in the case.
In its write-up of the suit, The Associated Press reported that governors from both parties have held similar briefings in the past, and that such briefings have typically been open only to certain invited reporters, not the entire press corps.
The AP also published a statement by Evers’ spokeswoman, Melissa Baldauff, that Evers believes strongly in a “fair and unbiased press corps” and remains committed to openness and transparency.
In a brief in opposition to the injunction, Evers’ counsel argued that the existing media list is comprised of journalists and news organizations that “meet criteria which focus on whether the requestor is a bona fide press organization,” and that the MacIver News Service does not.
A memo dated June 26 from the governor’s Office of Legal Counsel was filed alongside the brief, outlining the criteria used to determine whether a journalist or outlet is “bona fide.” The factors listed are based on the standards used by the Wisconsin Capitol Correspondents Board and the US Congress, and include in part:
The brief asserts that the Governor’s office concluded that the MacIver News Service does not meet these criteria.
“The MacIver Institute is not principally a news organization. On its website, it characterizes itself as ‘a Wisconsin-based think tank that promotes free markets, individual freedom, personal responsibility and limited government,’” the brief reads. “The organization’s ‘news’ branch makes no effort to distinguish itself from the overall organization mission.”
In response to these claims, Suhr told the Tracker that the MacIver Institute is a 501(c)3 and therefore legally barred from engaging in political activity, and the Institute is not registered as a political lobbyist. Suhr asserted that news with a perspective has become commonplace in the new media environment, and doesn’t inherently delegitimize the reporting such outlets produce.
“When government sets up criteria for media, it’s easy to default to this old-school, traditional criteria, to impose requirements like ‘broadcast to a certain number of households,’ or to require that you be a print news outlet,” Shur said, referencing the case of Sam Toll in Nevada. “To some extent what the governor’s office has done here is they defaulted to criteria that were designed for an old media age, and I think they did that to justify their decision after the fact to exclude my client.”
According to the complaint, if the governor’s office had adopted the criteria set by the state legislature, MacIver’s journalists would have qualified as they are already credentialed for the Capitol press corps.
“The new neutral criteria are no salvation: they were not developed openly, are not applied equally, do not permit an opportunity for journalists to show their bona fides, exclude legitimate news outlets besides MacIver, and violate the Constitution,” the complaint states.
The Governor’s office did not respond to the Tracker’s calls or emailed requests for comment.
First Amendment experts told the AP that MacIver appears to have a strong case, drawing a parallel between MacIver’s exclusion and President Donald Trump’s attempt to bar CNN reporter Jim Acosta. Neither the attempt to ban Acosta in 2018 nor the White House’s attempt to suspend correspondentBrian Karem in 2019 were upheld.
Robert Dreschel, a media law expert and journalism professor at UW-Madison, said it appears Evers’ office had no standards or guidance in place when MacIver was denied access. “That’s very troublesome,” Dreschel said.
Shur told the Tracker that he and his clients are still awaiting a ruling on their motion for a preliminary injunction, and that a tentative trial date has been set for early 2021.
“This case isn’t just important to MacIver, it’s not just important to journalists: it’s important to all of us in America because we all have a stake in a healthy First Amendment and we all have an interest in ensuring an active, vigilant press corps that insists on the transparency and accountability we need from our government to make sure that our democracy functions.
Tony Evers speaks at a rally on the eve of his 2018 election as governor of Wisconsin. A think tank has sued the governor's office for leaving its news service off Evers' media advisory list.
",None,None,None,None,False,3:19-cv-00649,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['PRESS_CREDENTIAL'],"MacIver Institute for Public Policy, MacIver News Service",,,,State government: Governor 2019-08-08 16:20:40.033820+00:00,2023-12-21 16:53:10.911929+00:00,"White House suspends correspondent’s press pass, reporter alleges retaliation",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/white-house-suspends-correspondents-press-pass-reporter-alleges-retaliation/,2023-12-21 16:53:10.758773+00:00,,,"(2019-08-20 00:00:00+00:00) Reporter sues after his White House press pass was revoked, (2019-09-03 11:32:00+00:00) Judge rules White House must restore hard pass for journalist Brian Karem, (2022-05-10 13:11:00+00:00) Playboy correspondent reaches settlement in lawsuit against the White House, (2020-06-05 13:17:00+00:00) Federal appeals court upholds ruling reinstating reporter’s White House press pass",Denial of Access,,,,Brian Karem (Playboy),,2019-08-05,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Brian Karem, a White House correspondent for Playboy and political analyst for CNN, tweeted that beginning on Aug. 5, 2019, his press pass would be suspended for 30 days.
Karem received an email from White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham at around 5 p.m. the Friday before the suspension went into effect notifying him of the “preliminary decision,” citing his actions at President Donald Trump’s social media summit the previous month, The Washington Post reported. At a press event in the Rose Garden that day, Karem had a heated exchange with former White House aide and radio host Sebastian Gorka.
Gorka has had at least one other altercation with the media.
Karem wrote in an article for Playboy that the move to pull his press pass was actually in retaliation for him “rock[ing] the boat” and “ask[ing] hard questions” over the last several weeks.
“They’re claiming [the reason is] something that happened 21 days ago. I’m there every day. If this was an issue, it should’ve been brought to my attention long before now,” Karem told the Post.
Playboy and Karem have retained First Amendment attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr., who successfully represented CNN and Jim Acosta when Acosta’s credentials were suspended in November 2018.
In a response and appeal to Grisham dated Aug. 5, Boutrous noted that in the letter to Karem, Grisham acknowledged that the White House had not issued any “explicit rules… to govern behavior by members of the press at White House press events.” Citing multiple instances where other attendees at the press event in July engaged in similar behavior to Karem’s but were not censured, Boutrous argued that the suspension was “arbitrary and unfair.”
Boutrous additionally highlighted that Karem had reached out to the press office multiple times to discuss the incident, but the first meeting was canceled and subsequent emails ended without a meeting scheduled.
“Hard passes are not meant to be weaponized as a means of penalizing reporters for coverage with which the administration disagrees based on amorphous and subjective standards,” Boutrous wrote. “Such actions unconstitutionally chill the free press.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association published a statement in support of Karem on Aug. 4.
“We sincerely hope this White House does not again make the mistake of revoking a reporter’s hard pass,” WHCA President Jonathan Karl said in the statement. “The WHCA has stood up to violations of due process rights before and we stand ready to safeguard those rights for all reporters who work to hold our government accountable.”
Former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka walks away after yelling at Playboy writer and White House correspondent Brian Karem (center, in tie and blue suit) and members of the press corps during a summit in the Rose Garden.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-02514,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['PRESS_CREDENTIAL'],,,,,Federal government: White House 2019-08-06 14:36:05.332446+00:00,2024-02-29 18:51:02.865649+00:00,Little Rock recording ban reversed after outcry from media,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/little-rock-recording-ban-reversed-after-outcry-media/,2024-02-29 18:51:02.757474+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,"Ean Bordeaux (Independent), Rich Newman (KATV), Russ Racop (Independent)",,2019-07-23,False,Little Rock,Arkansas (AR),34.74648,-92.28959,"Two days after the Little Rock Civil Service Commission signed off on a rule allowing the commission to bar anyone from recording the body’s public hearings, the ban was overturned amid outcry and threatened legal action from local media.
The ban was approved just days before the commission was set to hold an appeal hearing for former Little Rock Police Officer Charles Starks. Starks, who is white, was fired from the force in May for fatally shooting Bradley Blackshire, a black man, during a February traffic stop. (In April, Pulaski County prosecutors announced that they would not charge Starks with a crime in Blackshire’s death.)
The new rule, which went into effect on July 24, 2019, gave the chairman of the Civil Service Commission discretion to bar all photography, video, and audio recording from the commission’s disciplinary appeal hearings. “The new language says the chairman ‘may’ allow broadcasting ‘provided that the participants will not be distracted, nor will the dignity of the proceedings be impaired,’” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Arkansas has robust Freedom of Information and open meetings laws, but the civil service commission was arguing that it could block recording from this meeting because it was an appeal and thus qualified as a judicial proceeding.
Robert Steinbuch, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the co-author of the state's Arkansas Freedom of Information Act textbook, disagreed with that interpretation of the civil service commission’s role in an interview with the Democrat-Gazette. Steinbuch told the newspaper that, although the commission performs some quasi-judicial roles, it is not actually a judiciary body.
“There’s not one, there’s a series of attorney general opinions that say it is well within the citizen's right to record and videotape," Steinbuch told the newspaper. "This is not new. This is well-established. If it's not an executive session, if it's otherwise an open meeting, a public meeting, then you can record."
On the morning of July 25, photographers and videographers were both ejected and barred from entering the hearing room at City Hall where the commission was meeting to consider Starks’ appeal. These included Rich Newman, a cameraman from KATV, Little Rock’s Sinclair-owned affiliate. Officers from the Little Rock Police Department also escorted two bloggers, Russ Racop of Bad Government In Arkansas and Ean Bordeaux of Corruption Sucks, out of the hearing room after they declined to stop recording, citing their rights under the state Freedom of Information law.
A reporter for the station, Marine Glisovic, raised her objection to the ban in the hearing. “As a media member for Channel Seven I’d like to make a statement on the record that this is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act,” Glisovic said. “I’d like to request that no business be conducted until our corporate attorney can challenge this in court.” Despite this objection, no recording was permitted in the room during the morning session.
MORE: Starks’ attorney requested to ban all recordings of this appeal. While I objected on the record and on behalf of @KATVNews the commission is allowing it—violating Arkansas FOI laws. #arnews #Arpx (photo taken prior to ban request) pic.twitter.com/2PTQ3W6K74
— Marine Glisovic KATV (@KATVMarine) July 25, 2019
The Arkansas chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement decrying the recording ban. “The new rule is bad news for news media and the local community. It also runs afoul of the Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act, which guarantees citizens access to public meetings and public records,” the SPJ statement read.
After consulting with the station’s corporate legal team, KATV hired a local attorney to draft an injunction against the ban. “We let the city know that we planned to file that injunction in the early afternoon if they didn’t rescind that ruling and allow us to be in the hearing,” Nick Genty, KATV’s news director, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
But before KATV filed its injunction, City Attorney Tom Carpenter announced around 3 p.m. that the city had decided to set aside the new rule. "We recommend at this juncture [that] the ban be withdrawn by the commission," Carpenter said, according to the Democrat-Gazette. The previously barred photographers and videographers quickly filed back into the room and began filming.
In an interview with the Tracker, Carpenter said while the rule was defensible under rules set out for trials by the Arkansas Supreme Court, it did not have the backing of city leadership. “Since the commission is appointed by the city, without the city’s approval it didn’t make sense to have the rule,” he said.
News Director Genty said he was glad the ban was lifted without KATV having to file the injunction. “We never want to be the story. We just want to cover the story, that’s all we were asking to do,” he said. “They were treating it as a court of law, but this wasn’t; this was a city civil service commission meeting.”
A man using a recording device is escorted from a Little Rock Civil Service Commission meeting after the commission instituted a ban on recording. The ban was lifted within days.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['CHANGE_IN_POLICY'],,,,,Local government: Legislature 2019-11-19 20:40:14.759634+00:00,2024-02-29 19:51:49.396098+00:00,An order limiting photography outside Arizona appellate courts gets scaled back after criticism,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/order-limiting-photography-outside-arizona-appellate-courts-gets-scaled-back-after-criticism/,2024-02-29 19:51:49.328978+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-06-28,False,Phoenix,Arizona (AZ),33.44838,-112.07404,"The court of appeals in Phoenix, Arizona, issued an order limiting recording and photography outside of the courthouse on June 28, 2019.
The order stipulated that, “All types of video recording, photography, including sharing video or live-streaming to social media sites, or other types of broadcasting… are prohibited in any facility during its use as for Court-connected purposes, including building entrances, exits, and adjacent restricted parking areas.”
It also added a provision by which individuals could receive permission to record in restricted areas by applying for approval two days in advance.
A few months later, on Oct. 16, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel issued an almost identical order that would apply to the appellate court buildings in both Phoenix and Tucson, The Associated Press reported. The order also expanded restrictions of photography and recording to include steps and stairways, patios, hallways and sidewalks, which were not in the original order.
Supreme Court spokesman Aaron Nash told the AP that the photography ban was intended to reduce disruptions and protect the privacy and security of individuals attending the court, not hinder journalists’ ability to do their jobs. The policy appears to have been issued to unify appellate court policies.
Brutinel’s order received backlash from reporters and attorneys, the Arizona Republic reported, who claimed the broad rule would hamper the media and the public’s access to newsworthy cases.
National Press Photographers Association lawyer Mickey Osterreicher told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “It goes far beyond what their authority, I believe, should be. It’s one thing to control what goes on inside the courtroom, but not necessarily what goes on in what is traditionally a public forum outside.”
The court issued a narrower order on Nov. 6, maintaining the restrictions of recording and livestreaming, but limiting the scope to within the appellate court buildings. The Republic reported that the revised order also removed wording allowing court officials to demand individuals delete photos or videos taken of them without their permission.
The order also revised stipulations from barring recording in outdoor areas to prohibiting “any activity that threatens any person, disrupts court operations, or compromises court security.”
Maria Polletta, state government and politics reporter for The Republic, told the Tracker that reporters on the beat were taken aback by the first order, and they’re waiting to see how the scaled back version is implemented.
“It’s obviously less sweeping than the first version,” Polletta said. “But as First Amendment attorneys have said, ‘disruptive’ is very subjective and it could still end up being applied to media while they’re just doing their jobs.”
Journalists were expelled from the Kansas Senate in Topeka after protesters disrupted a Medicaid expansion hearing on May 29, 2019. News reporters and photojournalists from multiple outlets were ordered to leave under threat of losing access to future Senate proceedings before the protesters were detained.
Senate President Susan Wagle attempted to return order to the Senate floor after nine Medicaid supporters began singing and chanting in the gallery above. After approximately 20 minutes, at which point many senators had left the chambers, Wagle chief of staff Harrison Hems and a Capitol police officer approached the assembled reporters and ordered them to leave the floor.
At least four journalists posted publicly about being asked to leave or had been recording in the Senate chambers until media were removed, including Alec Gartner of KSNT News, John Hanna of The Associated Press, Jonathan Shorman of The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle and Sherman Smith of The Topeka Capital-Journal. When reporters refused, Hems threatened them and said that they were giving an audience to the protesters, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
“I’m just telling you it’s a privilege to have a press pass, to be on the floor, to document,” Hems said. “When I’m trying to get people out to restore order to the chamber so we can conduct our business and you guys just sit there with a camera in their face and give them an audience, that makes my job incredibly difficult. I’m not trying to silence the press.”
Hems was reportedly acting at the direction of Wagle, and the journalists acquiesced to leaving the floor.
So we have been removed from the Senate. We don’t know what they’re doing in the chamber #ksleg
— Jonathan Shorman (@jonshorman) May 29, 2019
Once they were outside, the chamber doors were locked and police escorted protesters out of the gallery. At least one demonstrator received a summons to appear in court on a possible misdemeanor charge of illegally interfering with public business, Patrol Lt. Stephen Larow told WRAL News.
Journalists were allowed to reenter the chambers after approximately 45 minutes, and the gallery was reopened once Wagle received notice that the protesters had left the Capitol building.
The Kansas Association of Broadcasters, the Kansas Sunshine Coalition and the Kansas Press Association filed a formal complaint with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, arguing that the unprecedented removals of the journalists violated the Senate Chamber’s rules and the Kansas Open Meetings Act, which establishes that all committee and subcommittee meetings must be open, with few exceptions.
The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle sent a letter to Wagle on May 29, calling the implied threats unconstitutional.
In an email to The Kansas City Star editorial board, communications director Shannon Golden said that the press was never denied access to government proceedings as the hearing was halted when the protesters began their demonstration. “Removal was purely due to safety reasons, and any other account is an embellished story,” Golden wrote.
Golden also repeated the threat made by Hems, writing that a press pass is a privilege, not a right.
The Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,State government: Legislature 2019-05-23 17:56:08.310173+00:00,2024-02-29 18:55:34.527257+00:00,Hawaii reporter denied access to cover Army meeting,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/hawaii-reporter-denied-access-cover-army-meeting/,2024-02-29 18:55:34.438651+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Nancy Cook Lauer (West Hawaii Today),,2019-05-16,False,Hilo,Hawaii (HI),19.72991,-155.09073,"West Hawaii Today county and government reporter Nancy Cook Lauer was barred from attending a U.S. Army meeting that the newspaper contends was opened to the general public in Hilo, Hawaii, on May 16, 2019.
Lauer was attempting to cover a meeting that outlined the Army’s resource management plants at Pohakuloa Training Area and the Kawaihae Military Reservation outside an Aupuni Center meeting room.
Lauer wrote in a West Hawaii Today article that she was told “the participating parties might not feel comfortable expressing their opinions in the presence of the media,” and that the meeting was not a media event, despite the public being allowed to attend. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she pushed back, and asked for a citation of the legal authority that would allow the public to attend a meeting, but not the press.
“[The event] was originally set for those who had signed up as consulting parties to the process, but then members of the public insisted they be allowed in and I went in as well,” Lauer told the Tracker.
Pohakuloa Training Area Public Affairs Officer Mike Donnelly said that the event was not open to the public, and that some consulting parties and signatories to a training programmatic agreement that were present did not want the meeting recorded. However, he said that “to avoid conflict and to show good faith,” the meeting was opened to non-consulting attendees to fill open seats.
“Notably, only one journalist showed for the meeting in Hilo,” wrote Donnelly. “As a result, we did state that it was not open to the public, however, as a concession and out of respect for the journalist and 20+ years of working with media, I requested the reporter and our subject matter expert to move into a separate room where they could talk and have a Q & A session so the reporter gathered content and context for her story.”
Lauer said that any time she spent with an official focused on gaining access to the meeting rather than on gathering information for reporting.
“If it were an interview for a story, I would have asked them about the details of the project, not about the meeting,” she said.
Lauer said that she left after being told by both Donnelly and a cultural resource manager for U.S. Army Garrison Pohakuloa that she could not remain.
West Hawaii Today reported that an activist who attended the meeting said that attendance was initially to be limited to a list of consulting parties, but was later opened to the public altogether — before Lauer was told to leave.
Lauer told the Tracker that on the Monday following the incident the Army commander called her to apologize and claimed he was not aware that his staff had taken the action to ban her from the event. She said that the commander was present at the meeting, near the front of the room.
“In retrospect, the PTA Team could have certainly done things differently, however, we were following the established process and respecting those who are consulting parties and signatories,” wrote Donnelly, the public affairs officer. “We will continue to engage the media in an open and transparent manner.”
Although Lauer was not able to attend the meeting, she said she was later given video footage by one of the attendees, which she said could aid future reporting.
On May 19, West Hawaii Today published an opinion piece arguing that the Army was wrong to boot its reporter from the event. It expressed concern about how extreme press freedom violations — such as those by President Trump — can seep into the conscious of everyday people.
“Some of it, like booting the media from a public gathering, we cannot write off as simply silly,” the piece reads. “Kicking a reporter out of a public meeting is a serious issue. It cannot become the norm. The United States military is a first-rate operation. If it says it wanted to err on the side of privacy and caution, we can take that at face value this time around, but still disagree with its decision. The information inside that meeting is meant for the public and WHT will get it and share it, regardless.”
Lauer said this was the first time she had been denied access to an event open to the public.
“As a reporter with more than 25 years of experience, I am accustomed to various barriers being thrown up as I go about my job informing the public,” she told the Tracker. “This is the first time, however, I have been ousted from a meeting otherwise open to the public. It's sad that I, who have worked diligently to portray all sides and prevent bias in my coverage, now have to rely on a video from a source with a known point of view in order to write about government actions that our readers deserve to know about. The media is not the enemy.”
Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado denied the press access to cover a horse roundup and removal, a process that in the past has been open to the media.
Colorado-based newspaper The Cortez Journal sought access to cover the process, but Park Superintendent Cliff Spencer sent an email to The Journal on April 24 that banned media coverage of the roundup. Spencer stated that representatives of the horse roundup did not want any distractions present that “would negatively affect the behavior of the horses.”
According to The Journal, Tim McGaffic, a horse wrangler who will be part of the roundup, said the paper’s proposal to have a reporter and photographer document and observe the process “seems more or less fine.”
Despite this, Spencer’s email forbade public or media access altogether, on the grounds that the groups involved with the roundup were “adamant” that only those directly involved should be present.
Attorney Steve Zansberg represented The Journal in an April 26 letter to Spencer seeking access, emphasizing that the public access to government activities protected under the First Amendment includes operations on federal land — like horse roundups.
“Accommodating a single reporter and pool photographer for a limited period of time at a considerable distance from the wrangler-horse interactions is a constitutionally appropriate way to protect the public’s First Amendment right to access a National Park and to engage in protected newsgathering activities there,” the letter reads. “It is certainly a far ‘less restrictive means’ than a blanket ban on coverage of this federal operation.”
Zansberg also noted that other government agencies have allowed the press to cover roundups of horses on federal property.
The Journal reporter Jim Mimiaga told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on May 1 that the roundup has been approved, but has not yet taken place. Mimiaga said he was not aware of other news outlets that sought to cover the roundup.
Zansberg said that no substantive response from Spencer had been received as of May 1, and if the request continued to be denied, he would confer with the paper about next steps.
The National Park Service did not immediately reply to request for comment.
Wild horses run in Utah as they are gathered by the Bureau of Land Management in 2010. Unlike this roundup and others, Mesa Verde National Park has denied access to press seeking to cover an upcoming Colorado roundup.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],The Cortez Journal,,,,Federal government: Agency 2019-05-07 19:04:43.411411+00:00,2024-01-12 14:47:23.666106+00:00,Baltimore court denies reporters access to courtroom audio recordings,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/baltimore-court-denies-reporters-access-courtroom-audio-recordings/,2024-01-12 14:47:23.569671+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,"Justine Barron (Independent), Paul McGrew (WBFF)",,2019-04-24,False,Baltimore,Maryland (MD),39.29038,-76.61219,"The Baltimore City Circuit Court released an order dated April 24, 2019 that denies reporters the ability to obtain courtroom audio recordings. Independent journalist Justine Barron sued the judge that signed the order and Baltimore’s chief court reporter in response on May 2, alleging that it violates state law protections of public courtroom access.
Barron has covered numerous stories involving the city’s police department. She sought access to court audio recordings on April 17 as part of a case she is investigating.
Barron told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the circuit court was getting ready to fulfill her request, and told her she needed a check or money order. On April 23, Court Technologist Christopher Metcalf sent an email to Barron that she could pick up the record the next day.
The next day, Barron was abruptly informed that the court would restrict “access of court audio to parties from now on.” Now, she said, she’ll have to return the money order she obtained to the post office and hope it will be refunded.
Barron noted that in Maryland, only parties to the case can obtain courtroom video, but anyone can obtain audio or transcripts.
“I kept being told that I’d have to view it in the office,” she said. “But I was wondering if he [Metcalf] was confused, because I wasn’t looking to view anything. And then it was clarified that they aren’t letting anyone get audio recordings, but didn’t say anything about an order at first.”
Metcalf’s supervisor, Trish Trikeriotis, wrote to Barron on April 25 that the court had ordered that only parties or counsel representing a party were permitted to receive copies of recordings, although Barron could review the proceedings on site.
On April 29, Barron was sent a copy of a one-sentence order — dated April 24, the day she had originally been told she would be able to pick up the record — signed by Judge W. Michel Pierson:
“Pursuant to the terms of Maryland Rule 16-504(h)(1)(C), it is, this day of April 24, 2019, ORDERED, that no copies of audio recordings maintained by the Office of the Court Reporter shall be made available to persons other than parties to the relevant proceeding or counsel to the relevant proceeding.”
Although courts in Maryland have historically granted the public access to audio recordings, broadcasting these recordings is prohibited. Several podcast producers have done so anyway, and a local journalist that Barron has worked with in the past has challenged the legality of prohibiting broadcasting the recordings.
A litigator with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center told The Intercept that denial of access to these audio recordings was “trying to replace one unlawful policy with another.”
Barron said that although the order initially appeared to target her specifically, it has affected other Baltimore reporters.
“After I was denied, at least one other person was able to get his CD,” she said. “The next day, someone was able to get one. So it seemed to be about me at first, but now, they’re punishing everyone.”
Paul McGrew, a Fox45 investigative reporter in Baltimore, wrote on social media that he was also denied access to courtroom audio recordings under the new order.
We requested court audio from Balt. City Circuit Court and have been told Administrative Judge W. Michel Pierson is no longer allowing media to acquire court audio per the Recorders’ Office at Circuit Court.
— Paul McGrew (@McGrewFox45) April 29, 2019
Barron’s lawsuit alleges that Judge Pierson’s order violates Maryland state law, which makes audio recordings of all trial court proceedings open to the public.
“...[A] local administrative order cannot override a State Rule,” it states. “Moreover, the ‘order’ that the Court Reporter’s office cited remains shrouded in mystery: the Court has not identified its reasons or authority for issuing the ‘order,’ nor has it posted the order publicly. These events paint a disturbing picture—that of local court officials seeking to stymie the State’s goal of shining a light on the judiciary and, worse yet, seeking to do so in the dark.”
Terri Charles, Assistant Public Information Officer for the Government Relations and Public Affairs Division of the Maryland Judiciary, provided the Tracker with a statement:
“The Judiciary does not comment on pending litigation. The media and the public can still listen to the court proceedings at the courthouse. The order states that copies are no longer available.”
Barron told the Tracker that courtroom recordings are critical in shedding important context on a case so that the press and lawyers can better understand what happened — which a transcript of the audio could not provide.
“Transcripts are not always accurate,” she said. “They are often full of typos. And a transcript is a document that the court has decided we can see — so we have to trust that they haven’t made a decision to edit it in some way. And the nuance of what happens in courtrooms is very important — like if someone stalls before answering or laughs, these details are important.”
Journalist Justine Barron has sued in Baltimore for access to audio recordings of court proceedings.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['CHANGE_IN_POLICY', 'OTHER']",,,,,Judiciary: Circuit Court 2019-04-19 14:36:49.836010+00:00,2023-12-21 16:59:48.551065+00:00,"Tennessee Highway Patrol blocks reporters from covering protest, threaten with arrest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-highway-patrol-blocks-reporters-covering-protest-threaten-arrest/,2023-12-21 16:59:48.448991+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,"Joel Ebert (The Tennessean), Kyle Horan (WTVF), Natalie Allison (The Tennessean), Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (Nashville Public Radio)",,2019-04-16,False,Nashville,Tennessee (TN),36.16589,-86.78444,"The Tennessee Highway Patrol threatened several reporters with arrest and blocked them from continuing reporting while they were covering a sit-in protest outside Gov. Bill Lee’s office in Nashville on April 16, 2019.
According to The Tennessean, state troopers told the reporters present that they would be “arrested if they didn't immediately leave the building, despite remaining out of the way and identifying themselves as working members of the media attempting to cover the news unfolding.” The reporters ultimately complied with the order.
Four protesters remained from a larger demonstration in the Capitol building demanding a meeting with Lee to discuss Republican Rep. David Byrd, who has retained his office since sexual assault allegations became public.
The journalists were unable to continue their coverage of the protest, even though the protesters continued sitting outside of the office into the evening and spent the night. The remaining protesters were ultimately arrested.
The Tennessean/USA Today reporter Natalie Allison wrote on Twitter that she was one of numerous journalists — including fellow The Tennessean reporter Joel Ebert, Nashville Public Radio reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, and NewsChannel 5 reporter Kyle Horan — that were threatened with arrest and blocked from continuing to cover the news.
Reporters, including @joelebert29, @SergioMarBel, @KyleHoranNC5 and me, should not have faced threats of arrest today for trying to do our jobs in the Capitol. This was the second time this session troopers have attempted to block us from covering news. https://t.co/5kwkeR3Tdi
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 17, 2019
Allison’s colleague Ebert further noted that although the Capitol building does have hours of access, credential press historically have had access beyond that.
This is 100 percent wrong and is a break from all previous governors in recent memory. The building has hours of access but reporters have always had access beyond said hours. This is the second time this year that state troopers have stopped reporters from doing our jobs https://t.co/Wzwc6AXUaq
— Joel Ebert (@joelebert29) April 16, 2019
The Tennessean article quotes Gov. Lee’s communications director, Chris Walker, as defending the troopers’ actions as standard protocol. "However, we do not condone threatening of arrest to reporters while they are doing their jobs in trying to cover news," Walker said.
The state capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee, was the site of a sit-in protest that resulted in reporters being asked to leave and threatened with arrest.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,,,,Law enforcement: State 2019-04-04 20:20:59.122542+00:00,2024-01-11 18:02:53.184250+00:00,Judge limits media access to evidence in Minnesota police shooting trial,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-limits-media-access-evidence-minnesota-police-shooting-trial/,2024-01-11 18:02:53.101249+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-03-29,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"The judge presiding over the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor ruled on March 29, 2019, that media and members of the public will be restricted from viewing “graphic evidence”—including body cam footage and photographs from the crime scene and medical examiner’s office—in the case that will be displayed for the jury.
At a final pretrial hearing, Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn L. Quaintance said she was blocking this evidence from being seen by anyone aside from the jury and attorneys in the case because “there’s privacy interest involved,” according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. She called airing this evidence publicly “inflammatory, potentially” as it “shows the deceased in extremely compromising situations.”
Noor is accused of fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an Australian woman who had called police to alert them to a possible assault taking place in the alleyway behind her home. Noor allegedly shot and killed her when she approached his police cruiser. Jury selection in the case began on April 1.
A coalition of media representatives including the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio filed a motion on April 2 objecting to Quaintance’s ruling barring media from viewing evidence, arguing it amounts to a unconstitutional “de facto closure of the courtroom.”
“Excluding the press and public from viewing evidence presented to the jury and other trial participants violates the Constitutional and common law rights of press and public access to criminal proceedings,” wrote Leita Walker, an attorney for the media coalition, in a memorandum supporting the motion.
As of publication, the motion had not been scheduled for a hearing. Jury selection in the case is ongoing.
Courts have upheld the notion that media outlets and the public have a right to “contemporaneous access” to evidence during a trial, Walker argued, citing the Second Circuit case ABC v. Stewart, where the court found “[t]he ability to see and to hear a proceeding as it unfolds is a vital component of the First Amendment right of access—not . . . an incremental benefit.” Additionally, Quaintance’s argument is invalid, Walker wrote, as the state of Minnesota “does not recognize a posthumous right to privacy.”
The judge’s decision to limit access to evidence “clearly crossed a constitutional boundary,” Mark Anfinson, an attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
In an order issued on March 27, Quaintance wrote that to preserve “order and decorum” in the courtroom, space devoted to the media will be limited to eight seats, of which four will be available to local media outlets and four to national and international outlets. Four seats each will be reserved for the family members of the victim and defendant, one for a sketch artists, which leaves only 11 seats for the public, according to Joe Spear, the president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that other courtrooms in the building contain double the amount of seating.
The judge’s initial order stated that overflow seating will be available in another courtroom, where an audio feed of the proceedings will be played. But after media outcry, Quaintance issued an amended order the next day stating that a video feed would be available in that overflow courtroom as well.
Walker, the attorney for the media coalition, in a March 29 letter to Judge Ivy Bernhardson, the Chief Judge of Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District, asked that the trial be moved to a larger courtroom, or a second overflow room be reserved for media. “The Coalition is dismayed that, on the eve of trial, uncertainties remain about whether the press and public will be able to adequately monitor one of the highest profile trials the State of Minnesota has ever seen,” Walker wrote. In response, Judges Bernhardson and Quaintance on April 1 added seven more media seats to the existing courtroom, according to the Star Tribune.
Quaintance’s order also banned all electronic or recording devices, including cellphones, tablets, and laptops, from the entire floor of the courthouse where the trial was taking place.
Mohamed Noor, far right, enters the courthouse with his attorneys ahead of the murder trial against the former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer, charged in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['CHANGE_IN_POLICY', 'OTHER']","Media, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio",,,,Judiciary: District Court 2019-03-25 17:06:27.177663+00:00,2023-12-21 17:07:01.529386+00:00,"Department of State bars press pool from briefing call, allowing only “faith-based media”",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/department-state-bars-press-pool-briefing-call-allowing-only-faith-based-media/,2023-12-21 17:07:01.452197+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-03-18,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"The State Department barred the department’s press corps from a briefing call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 18, 2019, stating that only “faith-based media” were permitted to participate. The department also took the unusual step of refusing to release a full transcript or a list of attendees.
The phone briefing was to discuss “international religious freedom” ahead of the secretary’s five-day trip to Beirut, Jerusalem, and Kuwait City. CNN reported that one member of the department’s press corps was invited, but was un-invited after RSVPing. CNN also attempted to RSVP to the call, but received no reply from the department.
Despite repeated inquiries and complaints from members of the press corps, The State Department announced that it would not provide a transcript of the call, a list of the faith-based media outlets allowed to participate, the criteria used to determine which outlets would be invited nor answer if the media outlets invited included a range of faiths.
Religion News Service reported that it was invited to participate in the call, though it stated that the publication “is not a faith-based media organization, but rather a secular news service that covers religion, spirituality and ethics.”
RNS also included a list of publications that asked questions during the briefing call: the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Algemeiner (which covers Jewish and Israel news), World Magazine (which publicizes its content as “reporting the news from a Christian worldview”), America Magazine (“the Jesuit perspective on news, faith and culture”) and The Leaven, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. CNN reported that a reporter with EWTN Global Catholic Television said the outlet was not originally invited but asked permission to participate.
In a statement sent to CNN, a State Department spokesperson said that while some press engagements, including department press briefings, teleconferences, briefings and sprays are open to any interested domestic or international press, that is not always the case. “Other engagements are more targeted or designed for topic, region, or audience-specific media. This has always been the case,” they said.
Former State Department spokesperson John Kirby, now a global affairs analyst for CNN, told the outlet that he has “certainly seen times when particular journalists or columnists have been targeted for inclusion on given topics.” However, “to exclude beat reporters from something as universally relevant as religious freedom in the Middle East strikes me as not only self-defeating but incredibly small-minded.”
Kirby also tweeted in response to news that no transcript of the briefing would be released. “This is absolutely not OK. Cabinet officials are public servants. They work for us. When they speak to reporters on the record everything they say—in its entirety—needs to be released at the earliest appropriate time,” he wrote.
This is absolutely not OK. Cabinet officials are public servants. They work for us. When they speak to reporters on the record everything they say — in its entirety — needs to be released at the earliest appropriate time. That’s proper accountability. That’s what we deserve. https://t.co/OBJht2BaAK
— John Kirby (@johnfkirby63) March 19, 2019
Standard norms are that when it concerns Cabinet-level officials like Pompeo, the department is expected to provide a transcript of the meeting remarks and a list of who attended to any interested journalist.
The same day the State Department barred members of the press corps from an earlier briefing call with him, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media on his plane after departing for the Middle East.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],"CNN, Press Corps",,,,Federal government: Agency 2019-05-09 15:52:01.899747+00:00,2024-02-29 19:00:24.809537+00:00,"Ohio political reporter removed from Democratic Party mailing list, reinstated by chair",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ohio-political-reporter-removed-democratic-party-mailing-list-reinstated-chair/,2024-02-29 19:00:24.677359+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Seth Richardson (Cleveland.com),,2019-03-05,True,Cleveland,Ohio (OH),41.4995,-81.69541,"Cleveland political reporter Seth Richardson was removed from the Ohio Democratic Party press release mailing list by staff in March 2019.
Richardson posted a thread on Twitter that he had apparently been “frozen out” from covering the Ohio Democratic Party, and suggested he may have been removed from the press distribution list in response to his reporting.
So I normally hate threads like these, but I've tried solving this privately and it feels like it deserves to be out there in the open. @DavidPepper and @kirstinalv are apparently trying to freeze me out of covering the @OHDems 1/
— Seth A. Richardson (@SethARichardson) May 7, 2019
Richardson, who reports for Cleveland.com, noted that not receiving the press releases made it difficult for him to do his job.
Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper responded to Richardson on Twitter, and told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was not aware of the problem until he saw the tweets. Pepper confirmed that Richardson was added back to the press release list immediately.
Seth, I was not aware of this and have already made clear you should be on the press list.
— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) May 7, 2019
Take care.
“Any suggestion that I requested a reporter be removed from an email list because of a story, general coverage or any other reason is false,” he said.
“We pride ourselves on not only being open to the press, but in supporting the freedom of the press at all levels,” Pepper wrote to the Tracker. “This was a poor decision made at a staff level that I immediately reversed when it came to my attention."
Pepper said that while there is not a written policy for removing reporters from the distribution, he said that practically, “we do not remove people from our press list,” and would never ask anyone to be removed. Pepper emphasized that the Ohio Democratic Party welcomes press coverage.
One day into President Trump’s diplomatic trip to Vietnam, the White House banned four U.S. journalists traveling in the press pool from covering the president’s dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, The Washington Post reported.
On Feb. 27, 2019, shortly before the dinner was to take place in Hanoi, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the press pool that only the photographers and news camera crews would be allowed to cover the dinner. After boisterous protests, including from pool photojournalists, Sanders conceded that one print reporter would be permitted to attend: Vivian Salama of The Wall Street Journal.
The four pool reporters who were barred: Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press, Jeff Mason of Reuters, Justin Sink of Bloomberg News, and Eli Stokols of the Los Angeles Times.
The Washington Post reported that when Sanders was asked why the journalists representing the three largest wire services and a major newspaper were excluded, she said that it was because of “sensitivities over shouted questions in the previous sprays.”
During two brief photo opportunities on Wednesday night, American reporters—including Lemire and Mason—directed four questions at Trump; they asked Kim none. Trump and his aides have often complained about reporters asking the president questions during photo opportunities, particularly in the presence of foreign leaders.
In November, the White House issued new press conduct guidelines and has occasionally punished reporters for their questioning, most notably CNN reporters Jim Acosta and Kaitlan Collins, the latter of whom was banned from attending an event in retaliation for trying to ask President Trump a question during a photo-op.
Traditionally the White House has upheld the rights of journalists while a president is traveling overseas, particularly in instances where the president is meeting with leaders of a country where press freedom is limited or absent.
LA Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine said in a statement, “Previous administrations have often intervened to protect press access when foreign leaders have tried to limit coverage of presidential meetings abroad. The fact that this White House has done the opposite and excluded members of the press provides another sad example of its failure to uphold the American public’s right to see and be informed about President Trump’s activities.”
In a statement, Olivier Knox, White House Correspondents’ Association president, called the decision to exclude some of the journalists “capricious.” “This summit provides an opportunity for the American presidency to display its strength by facing vigorous questioning from a free and independent news media, not telegraph weakness by retreating behind arbitrary last-minute restrictions on coverage.”
Members of the press pool repeatedly asked Sanders whether North Korea was responsible for the restricted access, but she would not provide a direct answer. The ban came a day after the press pool was booted from the hotel where the White House had booked conference facilities to be used as a press workspace because Kim’s delegation had decided to stay at the same hotel.
In an emailed statement, Sanders said, “We are continuing to negotiate aspects of this historic summit and will always work to make sure the U.S. media has as much access as possible.”
The summit ended prematurely on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaks at a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam on Feb. 28. One day before, the White House barred four journalists from covering an event with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Federal government: White House 2019-01-23 19:24:36.281975+00:00,2023-12-21 17:09:32.846071+00:00,"Trump stops regular press briefings, citing unfair media treatment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-stops-regular-press-briefings-citing-unfair-media-treatment/,2023-12-21 17:09:32.764343+00:00,,,"(2019-04-23 13:19:00+00:00) Under Sanders' tenure, White House breaks record for longest stretch without press briefing",Denial of Access,,,,,,2019-01-23,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"President Trump revealed in a tweet on Jan. 22, 2019, that the lack of regular White House press briefings was the result of directions he gave to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway!” the tweet reads. “Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!”
The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Press briefings have become increasingly rare over the past year, The Hill reported, with only one each in November and December. With the last formal press briefing held by Sanders on Dec. 18, 2018, the National Journal reported that this is not only the longest period without a briefing since Trump took office, but the longest since broadcasting of the briefings began in 1955. Trump’s tweet exposes the decline in briefings as a retaliatory measure for press covering Sanders and his administration “rudely” and “inaccurately.”
Though the press briefing has become a tradition, it is not mandated by law. However, White House Correspondents’ Association President Oliver Knox said in a statement, “While other avenues exist to obtain information, the robust, public back-and-forth we’ve come to expect in the James A. Brady briefing room helps highlight that no one in a healthy republic is above being questioned.”
The Press Freedom Tracker is following this case as reporting continues.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a press briefing in October of 2018. The administration's last formal briefing was Dec. 18, 2018, marking a record lack of briefings since 1955.
A political blogger in Iowa has been denied press access to the Iowa Legislature two years in a row, despite the lack of a clear policy that would disqualify her.
Laura Belin, who runs the independent news site Bleeding Heartland, covers Iowa politics and has been critical of the Republican-led House and Senate. Belin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she first sought information about press credentials in the Iowa House of Representatives in early 2019. Since then, officials have denied her requests for credentials or access to press work areas multiple times, each time citing different reasons that did not align with written policies in place. Both the House and the Senate have also changed press qualification criteria since her first application.
When Belin first sought credentials in the House, the clerk at the time, Carmine Boal, told her by email on Jan. 3, 2019, that credentials “are not issued to members of the public.”
Boal referenced Iowa House rules, which did not elaborate on qualifications for the press. She also told Belin the House consulted U.S. congressional press gallery rules, which would not appear to disqualify Belin. Boal never responded to multiple requests for further explanation from Belin.
Boal stood by the denial of Belin’s credentials in a statement to The Associated Press but did not elaborate on why she did not meet the chamber’s rules that restricted access to the press box to “representatives of the press, radio, and television.”
After the Iowa Freedom of Information Council wrote to Boal expressing concerns about Belin’s rejection, Boal responded on Feb. 5 that House rules “do not offer a definition” of members of the media, and again pointed to congressional rules. In a copy of the response letter provided to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, she wrote that online outlets are not excluded and said that credentials are not denied based on content. However, she also said that the House has not “credentialed any ‘non-traditional media’ since 2015,” a policy that did not appear in writing.
Belin also applied for access to desks reserved for members of the press in the Iowa Senate in January 2019. She was initially told that she could access vacant spaces on day passes. However, Belin said she was never issued a day pass, even when the desks were not in use.
Both the House and the Senate updated their press policies after Belin’s initial inquiries, according to the AP. The House updated its policy in February 2019 to include requirements that credentialed press be “bona fide correspondents of repute” and a “paid correspondent.” Bleeding Heartland is editorially independent and a registered business. Belin, as its owner, is entitled to any proceeds.
Belin applied for press credentials for the 2020 legislative session. She was denied credentials from the House on Jan. 10, 2020. House Clerk Meghan Nelson told her in an email that the House does not credential “outlets that are nontraditional/independent in nature.” This requirement is not included in the Iowa House press policy.
The Senate abolished media credentials and adopted a new reserved work space policy, in place for the 2020 legislative session, which guides access to desks in the Senate chamber reserved for media and Senate staff.
On Jan. 10, Belin received an email from Secretary of the Senate Charlie Smithson notifying her that “it has been determined that you do not meet the criteria to be a ‘member of the media’” under the Senate’s work space policy. Correspondence provided by Belin shows that Smithson did not respond to her multiple requests for further explanation of what criteria she did not meet under the policy.
Belin told the Tracker that press freedom protections are not just for journalists pulling a full-time salary. She suspects she was denied access because her approach differs from the “traditional objectivity stance.”
“I don’t think it’s constitutional for them to exclude me because they don’t like the opinions on my website,” Belin said.
Iowa House and Senate officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Political blogger Laura Belin has been repeatedly denied press access to the Iowa Statehouse. "I don’t think it’s constitutional for them to exclude me because they don’t like the opinions on my website,” Belin said.
",None,None,None,None,False,4:24-cv-00021,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['CHANGE_IN_POLICY', 'PRESS_CREDENTIAL']",,,,,State government: Legislature 2018-11-08 17:31:51.317799+00:00,2023-12-21 17:12:19.563500+00:00,White House suspends CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press credentials and falsely accuses him of manhandling intern,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/white-house-suspends-cnn-reporter-jim-acostas-press-credentials-and-falsely-accuses-him-manhandling-intern/,2023-12-21 17:12:19.427566+00:00,,,"(2018-11-19 17:44:00+00:00) CNN ends lawsuit as White House restores Acosta's credentials, (2018-11-16 10:00:00+00:00) Judge orders Acosta's press pass reinstated, (2018-11-13 18:00:00+00:00) CNN sues Trump administration",Denial of Access,,,,Jim Acosta (CNN),,2018-11-07,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"On Nov. 7, 2018, the White House suspended CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass, banning him from setting foot on the White House grounds indefinitely.
The unprecedented move came a few hours after a tense presidential press conference, during which Trump repeatedly insulted Acosta (and other members of the White House press corps) and a White House intern tried to physically remove Acosta's microphone out of his hand. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later tried to justify the decision to suspend Acosta's press pass by false claiming that Acosta had inappropriately "placed his hands" on the White House intern. The press secretary also tweeted a video of the altercation that had been doctored to make it appear that Acosta had hit the White House intern.
On the morning of Nov. 7, the day after the 2018 midterm elections, Trump held a contentious press conference in the East Room of the White House. CNN's Jim Acosta, a member of the White House press corps who often verbally spars the president during press conferences, asked Trump about why he had stoked fears of a migrant "invasion" of the United States. After a bit of back-and-forth, Acosta tried to ask Trump a second question, about the Russia investigation.
As Trump tried to cut Acosta off and call on NBC News' Peter Alexander, a young woman — later identified as a White House intern — approached Acosta and tried to take the microphone out of his hands.
"Pardon me, ma'am," he told her. "I'm trying..."
"That's enough!" Trump said, cutting him off.
The intern grabbed the microphone that Acosta was holding, but Acosta would not let go of it, so the intern eventually gave up and sat back down.
Acosta continued to ask Trump about the Russia investigation, and Trump finally gave a cursory answer — "I'm not worried about the Russia investigation because it's a hoax" — and told Acosta to sit down.
"That's enough," Trump said, as Acosta tried to ask yet another follow-up question. "Put down the mic."
Trump started to walk away from the lectern, suggesting that he might end the press conference if Acosta did not stop asking questions. Acosta reluctantly let the White House intern take the microphone and then sat down. Trump returned to the lectern and the intern brought the microphone to Peter Alexander of NBC News. But before Alexander could ask a question, Trump went off on a rant about Acosta.
"I'll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them," the president said, pointing at Acosta. "You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. ... You're a very rude person. The way you treat [press secretary] Sarah Huckabee is horrible, and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn't treat other people that way."
Alexander stood up for Acosta.
"In Jim's defense, I've traveled with him and watched him," he said. "He's a diligent reporter."
"Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either, to be honest," Trump deadpanned, prompting scattered laughter.
Acosta stood back up and called out the president for continuing to demonize journalists as the "enemy of the American people," even after a Trump supporter had sent pipe bombs to the network.
"When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people," Trump response.
CNN condemned the president's response.
"This President’s ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far," the network said in a statement. "They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American. While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere."
Even as mainstream journalists came to Acosta's defense, far-right media and political figures began to adopt a different narrative — that Acosta had been violent toward the intern who tried to grab his microphone.
Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at far-right conspiracy news site Infowars, tweeted an altered video of the altercation between Acosta and the White House intern that appeared to show Acosta striking the intern, which did not actually happen. (In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Watson claimed that he did not deliberately alter the video.)
Although this narrative began on the far-right conspiratorial fringe, it soon moved into the mainstream.
At 7:46 p.m., Acosta tweeted that he had been denied access to the White House grounds and ordered to give up his permanent White House press pass, known as a "hard pass."
I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018
The US Secret Service just asked for my credential to enter the WH. As I told the officer, I don’t blame him. I know he’s just doing his job. (Sorry this video is not rightside up) pic.twitter.com/juQeuj3B9R
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018
Minutes later, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Twitter that the White House had decided to indefinitely suspend Acosta's White House press credentials.
To justify the suspension of Acosta's press credentials, Sanders falsely accused him of "placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern."
President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.
Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration.
As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders statement on Jim Acosta
"This is a lie," Acosta tweeted in response.
In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Acosta described what happened at the press conference.
"This intern came up to me — they're describing her as an intern, I don't really know who she is — and attempted to take the microphone away from me," he said. "All I can say at that point is I was trying to hang on to the microphone, so I could continue to ask the president questions. Obviously, you know, I didn't put my hands on her or touch her as they're alleging, and it's just unfortunate that the White House is saying this. You know, we all try to be professionals over there, and I think I handled myself professionally."
CNN released a statement reiterating its support for Acosta.
The White House announced tonight that it has revoked the press pass of CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. It was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today's press conference. In an explanation, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied. She provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a thread to our democracy and the country deserves better. Jim Acosta has our full support.
CNN statement
Oliver Knox, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, also released a statement criticizing the White House's decision.
The White House Correspondents Association strongly objects to the Trump Administration's decision to use US Secret Service security credentials as a tool to punish a reporter with whom it has a difficult relationship. Revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offense and is unacceptable.
Journalists may use a range of approaches to carry out their jobs and the WHCA does not police the tone or frequency of the questions its members ask of powerful senior government officials, including the President. Such interactions, however uncomfortable they may appear to be, help define the strength of our national institutions.
We urge the White House to immediately reverse this weak and misguided action.
We encourage anyone with doubts that this reaction was disproportionate to the perceived offense to view the video of the events from earlier today.
White House Correspondents Association statement
Later that night, Sanders tweeted out a copy of the doctored video that had previously been shared by Infowars. Journalists immediately pointed out that the video had been doctored, and CNN spokesman Matt Dornic Sanders of sharing "actual fake news."
We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018
this is literally edited and came from Infowars; here’s a quick clip from CSPAN’s own video: https://t.co/rGgywCbfqy https://t.co/8JqUHCAV82
— Claudia Koerner (@ClaudiaKoerner) November 8, 2018
This is a video that Infowars made. They sped it up so that it seems more violent than it is. https://t.co/FH1tsGSSaU
— Nicole Goodkind (@NicoleGoodkind) November 8, 2018
Absolutely shameful, @PressSec. You released a doctored video - actual fake news. History will not be kind to you. https://t.co/v1w9Lj9TlK
— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) November 8, 2018
A White House intern reaches for the microphone held by CNN's Jim Acosta as he questions U.S. President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House on November 7, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,"['CHANGE_IN_POLICY', 'PRESS_CREDENTIAL']",,Donald Trump,,,Federal government: White House 2021-04-22 20:17:40.753596+00:00,2023-12-21 17:13:59.051768+00:00,Defense One reporters left out of media briefing with Deputy Secretary of Defense in apparent retaliation for reporting,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/defense-one-reporters-left-out-of-media-briefing-with-deputy-secretary-of-defense-in-apparent-retaliation-for-reporting/,2023-12-21 17:13:58.963242+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2018-08-09,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Reporters from Defense One, a news site that covers global and U.S. national security issues, were not invited to a 2018 media roundtable with the deputy secretary of defense about the launch of the proposed Space Force military project in apparent retaliation for the outlet’s previous reporting.
According to an article published by Politico, the outlet was deliberately left out of the Aug. 9 event after Defense One reporter Marcus Weisgerber published an exclusive story divulging the plans to set up President Donald Trump’s Space Force, even though it had not yet been authorized by Congress.
Weisgerber could not be reached for comment.
Weisgerber’s July 31 story revealed the contents of a draft report prepared by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan for lawmakers. The report was not due for presentation until a week after the Defense One story, which noted that “Defense Department leaders plan to stand up three of the four components of the new Space Force: a new combatant command for space, a new joint agency to buy satellites for the military, and a new warfighting community that draws space operators from all service branches.”
According to the story those three components did not require congressional approval, but defense officials planned to draft a legislative proposal to create the fourth component — an entirely new branch of the military — which would require authorization from Congress.
Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, confirmed to Politico that none of the reporters from his team were invited to the media briefing. Baron said that Department of Defense spokesperson Dana White conceded to him in an email that the reason was the publication by Defense One of its story disclosing the roll out plans for Space Force.
“It seems Defense One was deliberately left out of a briefing in retaliation for our reporting,” Baron said. He added that White said she was unaware of the incident and assured him that the outlet would be included in future press meetings.
When reached for comment, Baron confirmed the information in the Politico article to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
In a statement to Politico, Pentagon spokesperson Charles Summers said, “We are guided by the principles of information and committed to ensuring the accessibility of timely and accurate information to the media, the Congress and the American people.” Summers later added, “There is no retaliation and the notion that someone doesn’t have access or someone is shut out, that’s absolutely not accurate.”
On July 25, 2018, the White House press office told CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins that she was not allowed to attend an event in the Rose Garden that was otherwise open to the press, CNN reports.
Collins said that Bill Shine, the White House deputy chief of staff for communications, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told her that she had been banned from the event in retaliation for trying to ask President Trump a question during a photo-op.
Earlier in the day, President Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had sat for a so-called "pool spray" — a photo opportunity attended by a small subset of the White House press corps. Collins was the designated TV pool reporter, which meant that she was responsible for reporting on what happened during the pool spray and then relaying that information to her colleagues in the White House press corps.
During the pool spray, Collins tried to ask Trump if he had any comment on two major news stories — the revelation that Trump's lawyer had secretly taped some of his phone conversations, and Trump's invitation to Russian president Vladimir Putin to have a meeting in Washington, D.C.
Trump ignored both questions.
It is standard practice for pool reporters like Collins to shout out questions to the president during photo opportunities. Trump often mostly ignores such questions, but occasionally provides off-the-cuff answers, which instantly make news.
"It wasn't anything different from any other pool spray," Collins told CNN.
But the White House press office, which in the past has criticized pool reporters for asking questions during pool sprays, decided to make an example out of Collins.
Later in the day, Trump and Juncker announced a surprise press conference in the Rose Garden. The event was open to all members of the press — at least, all members of the press except for Kaitlan Collins.
Shortly before the Rose Garden press conference began, Shine and Sanders pulled Collins aside and told her that she was not allowed to attend.
"They said 'You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,'" Collins recalled in an interview with CNN. "They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting."
"We're not banning your network," Collins recalled Shine and Sanders telling her. "Your photographers can still come. Your producers can still come. But you are not invited to the Rose Garden today."
In response, Collins said, she told Shine and Sanders, "You're banning me from an event because you didn't like the questions I asked."
CNN was quick to defend Collins.
"Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a question regarding the news of day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant and shouldn't be asked," CNN said in a statement. "This decision to bar a member of the press is retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press. We demand better."
Bill Shine, newly hired as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, talks with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and counselor Kellyanne Conway, in the East Room of the White House, on July 9, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Federal government: White House 2018-07-16 21:30:21.825251+00:00,2023-12-21 17:15:18.680733+00:00,The Nation reporter forcibly removed from Trump–Putin press conference,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nation-reporter-forcibly-removed-trumpputin-press-conference/,2023-12-21 17:15:18.582720+00:00,,,(2019-03-26 15:49:00+00:00) Letter sent to Husseini,"Assault, Denial of Access",,,,Sam Husseini (The Nation),,2018-07-16,False,Helsinki,Finland,None,None,"Sam Husseini, an op-ed reporter for The Nation, was forcibly removed from a press briefing between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018.
Husseini is the communications director of the nonprofit Institute for Public Accuracy, which connects reporters with progressive experts as alternative sources. He was attending the presser as an accredited member of the press, reporting on behalf of The Nation magazine.
NBC reports that two men approached Husseini just before the press conference began and asked him to leave the press room. He later returned to the press room to collect his things.
According to CNN, when Husseini returned to the press room, journalists asked him what had happened, and he said that he had been taken for questioning because he was carrying a piece of paper on which he’d written the words, “Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty” — an issue he planned to ask about during the press conference. The Russian authorities considered the sign a “malicious item.”
“I want to ask a question,” Husseini said, holding up the sign so other reporters could see it.
We have an incident. #TrumpPutinSummit #Helsinki2018 pic.twitter.com/ftOMfGipzH
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 16, 2018
As Husseini showed off the sign, a security official tried to grab it out of his hand. When Husseini did not hand the sign over, more security officers grabbed him and forcibly escorted him out of the press room. One security official removed his glasses, and others grabbed and forcibly removed him.
The Nation condemned Husseini’s removal from the press conference.
“At a time when this administration consistently denigrates the media, we’re troubled by reports that he was forcibly removed from the press conference before the two leaders began to take questions,” Caitlin Graf, The Nation’s vice president of communications, said in a statement.
Journalistic solidarity needed more than ever to confront a WH that considers media the enemy of the people, and relentlessly attacks accountability media in order to delegitimize checks on its abuses, corruption.
— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) July 16, 2018
Just got out of detention. I was held for a time by Finnish authorities at Presidential Palace and then manhandled and cuffed on hands and legs to detention facility. They wouldn’t call my family to tell them I was unharmed. Thanks for well wishes from many good folks. More soon. https://t.co/bEke39ZVb4
— Sam Husseini (@samhusseini) July 16, 2018
On May 22, 2018, security guards at the Environmental Protection Agency prevented a number of journalists from entering a building where EPA administrator Scott Pruitt was giving a speech. The Associated Press reporter Ellen Knickmeyer said that when she asked to speak with someone from the EPA’s press office about the denial of access, one of the security guards grabbed her shoulders and physically pushed her out of the building.
On May 22, Pruitt delivered opening remarks at a two-day summit to discuss a certain class of chemicals — known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — that have contaminated drinking water in many areas of the country. It was held at William Jefferson Clinton South, a building on the EPA’s campus in Washington, D.C. The plan was for the first hour of the summit, including Pruitt’s remarks, to be open to the press and livestreamed to the public, and for the rest of the summit to be closed to the press.
When Knickmeyer, an AP journalist who writes about the EPA, tried to enter the EPA building around 7:35 a.m. to report on the summit, security guards said that she was not on the invite list and refused to let her in.
The @AP, @CNN and E&E all showed up to cover this @EPA meeting on widespread, dangerous contaminants in many drinking water systems around the country. We were all turned away at the door of the EPA building. https://t.co/j8JthyiM3k
— Ellen Knickmeyer (@KnickmeyerEllen) May 22, 2018
Knickmeyer did not respond to a request for comment, but the AP's David Bauder reported on what happened to his colleague:
Knickmeyer said she called Monday about the event and was told by EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox that it was invitation-only and there was no room for her. She said she showed up anyway, and was told by a security guard that she couldn’t enter. She said she asked to speak to a representative from the press office, was refused and told to get out. Photos of the event showed several empty seats.
After security told her that “we can make you get out,” Knickmeyer said she took out her phone to record what was happening. Some of the security guards reached for it, and a woman grabbed her shoulders from behind and pushed her about five feet out the door.
EPA blocks some media from summit, then reverses course (AP)
At least two other journalists witnessed what happened to Knickmeyer.
Both Garret Ellison, of the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan, and Jonathan Salant, of NJ Advance Media, were invited to cover the summit, since PFAS contamination is an issue in both states. Ellison told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he has extensively covered PFAS issues in Michigan, and he worked with the EPA’s regional office in Chicago to attend and cover the summit.
Ellison told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he saw Knickmeyer standing off to the side of the entrance and then heard security guards yell at her and saw one push her out the door. Salant said that he tried to assist Knickmeyer, even giving her the number of an EPA press contact, but that the security guards refused to let her call anyone.
"The problem was the security guards did not allow her time to clear up what could have been a simple misunderstanding before physically evicting her," he said. "In fact, I gave the AP reporter the name and number of the press officer who were told to call in case we were accidentally not on the list."
Ellison said that after Knickmeyer was pushed out the door, EPA press secretary Michael Abboud, accompanied by EPA press officers, escorted him and Salant into the summit.
He said that when he asked the group of EPA officials about what had happened with Knickmeyer, one of the press officers shrugged and said, “They weren’t invited.”
Emily Holden, an environmental reporter at Politico who was also invited to the summit, entered shortly after Knickmeyer. She said on Twitter that she overheard one of the EPA security guards talk about how they threw Knickmeyer out of the building after she said that she would start filming.
As I was walked into the chemicals summit at EPA today, a security guard joked about how she warned @KnickmeyerEllen that she couldn't film as she was being told to leave the agency and barred from entering the event https://t.co/zCol0I7bCV
— Emily Holden (@emilyhholden) May 22, 2018
Knickmeyer was not the only reporter prevented from covering the summit.
Corbin Hiar, who covers chemical issues for E&E, told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he had emailed the EPA’s press office in advance of the summit to ask about covering it, but that he never heard back.
He said that he arrived at the designated press entrance to the summit around 7:50 a.m., he saw that the security guards were checking journalists’ names against a printed list. Since his name was not on the list, he was not admitted. After being denied access to the summit, he emailed an EPA press officer and said that security would not let him in. He received no response.
CNN's Rene Marsh was also barred from entering the summit.
“Today, CNN was turned away from covering the PFAS National Leadership Summit at the EPA after multiple attempts to attend,” the network said in a statement. “While several news organizations were permitted, the EPA selectively excluded CNN and other media outlets. We understand the importance of an open and free press and we hope the EPA does, too.”
Sharon Meyer, an environmental reporter for The Intercept, said on Twitter that the EPA refused to grant her access to cover the summit despite her asking months in advance.
I asked about attending this meeting months ago and was not granted access despite having written about #PFAS for 3 yrs https://t.co/eRODXafSUy @EPA: how did you choose which reporters got to attend? https://t.co/wauU36KN1b via @nbcnews
— Sharon Lerner (@fastlerner) May 22, 2018
The EPA, which did not respond to a request for comment from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, offered various justifications for its treatment of Knickmeyer and other reporters.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement that there was no room for Knickmeyer and other journalists to attend.
“This was simply an issue of the room reaching capacity, which reporters were aware of prior to the event,” he said. We were able to accommodate 10 news outlets and provided a livestream for those we could not accommodate.”
Meanwhile, EPA communications official Andrea Drinkard told Politico both that the meeting was already at capacity when Knickmeyer tried to enter and also that the meeting’s attendees did not feel comfortable with any press attending the summit.
It is not clear whether the room was actually at capacity. The Hill's Miranda Green, who was invited to cover the summit, reported that a number of the chairs reserved for members of the media remained empty.
Addressing the treatment of Knickmeyer, Wilcox initially told Axios that he was “unaware of the individual situation that has been reported” and later told NBC News that Knickmeyer had threatened “negative coverage” if she was not let in.
In a statement released late Tuesday evening, Wilcox claimed that Knickmeyer "pushed through the security entrance." After the AP objected to that characterization, he released another statement, which said that Knickmeyer "showed up at EPA but refused to leave the building after being asked to do so."
According to the AP, an aide to Pruitt eventually called Knickmeyer to personally apologize for the way that she was treated.
Following public outcry, the EPA reversed its earlier limitations on press access to the summit. Around 12 p.m. on May 22, the agency announced that the second part of the summit — which ran from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and was originally closed to the press and the public — would be open to all journalists.
This is a total 180 from the statement EPA gave earlier that space restraints limited attendance.
— Miranda Green (@mirandacgreen) May 22, 2018
Now appears any outlet who wants to attend the second half of the hearing can. (It was previously opened to no press) https://t.co/Vwp8RRhCqQ
The AP praised the new policy.
"We are pleased that the EPA has reconsidered its decision and will now allow AP to attend the remainder of today’s meeting," an AP spokeswoman said in a statement. "The AP looks forward to informing the public of the important discussions at the water contaminants summit."
But when Wilcox released a statement announcing the new press access policy, he blamed journalists for taking up seats at the summit that could otherwise have gone to other attendees.
"When we were made aware of the incident, we displaced stakeholders to the overflow room who flew to Washington for this meeting so that every member of the press could have a seat,” he said.
The summit was particularly newsworthy in light of recent reports that top EPA officials tried to block the release of a damaging report from the federal government’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. That report, which still has not been released to the public, reportedly concluded that four PFAS chemicals are more harmful than the EPA has publicly acknowledged.
This is not the first time that the EPA has excluded journalists from covering Pruitt's speeches.
On Dec. 1, 2017, InsideSources Iowa reporter Ethan Stoetzer was covering a Pruitt speech at the Couser Cattle Company, in Nevada, Iowa, when he was approached by a local sheriff's deputy and ordered to leave the premises.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Pruitt escorted Ellison and Salant into the summit. In fact, the two journalists were escorted by EPA press secretary Michael Abboud and two EPA press officers.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before a Senate hearing on an EPA budget proposal, on May 16, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,environmentalism,,,Federal government: Agency 2018-10-17 19:48:17.183875+00:00,2023-12-21 20:07:01.697016+00:00,Pentagon revokes embed opportunity for Washington Post reporter following critical coverage,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pentagon-revokes-embed-opportunity-washington-post-reporter-following-critical-coverage/,2023-12-21 20:07:01.586335+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,"Pentagon punishes reporters over tough coverage (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/16/pentagon-press-reporters-tough-coverage-779276) via Politico, Afghanistan is building up its commando force to fight the Taliban. But at what cost? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghanistan-is-building-up-its-commando-force-to-fight-the-taliban-but-at-what-cost/2018/04/27/dd1c0c1c-44cd-11e8-b2dc-b0a403e4720a_story.html) via Washington Post",,,Dan Lamothe (The Washington Post),,2018-05-01,True,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"After Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe wrote a critical piece about Afghan commandos in April 2018, the Pentagon revoked a previously-offered opportunity to embed with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan.
Lamothe wrote an article on April 28 about how the Afghan military was increasing its number of elite commando troops and decreasing the size of its conventional military troops. Politico reported that officials took issue to the tone and some of the quotations used, his opportunity to embed was revoked.
“During a reporting visit in April to cover U.S. troops in Afghanistan, I was offered a rare opportunity to embed with U.S. Special Forces fighting Islamic State militants in Afghanistan,” Lamothe told Politico. “While preparing for that assignment in May, I was told that the Special Forces embed offer was revoked. I traveled back to Afghanistan a short time later, and instead accepted offers to embed with the Army’s new security force adviser brigade and U.S. military advisers who train the Afghan air force. I stand by my reporting, and thank the units that allowed me to spend time alongside them.”
Some Pentagon reporters have said that press access is becoming increasingly limited, and that individual reporters and news organizations are targeted for retaliation for stories they write.
Lamothe said that he does not know whether there is any connection between the Pentagon’s retaliation against reporters and the withdrawal of his embed opportunity.
“Decisions like the revocation of my embed have happened under numerous administrations, and can be driven by a general officer or public affairs officer in theater,” he told Freedom of the Press Foundation. “I am unclear if recently reduced access at the Pentagon in any way contributed to my situation.”
The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., is seen from aboard Air Force One, on March 29, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,military,,,Federal government: Agency 2018-05-03 16:31:58.331601+00:00,2023-12-21 20:15:21.187793+00:00,Rhode Island judge orders journalists not to contact jurors after trial,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rhode-island-judge-orders-journalists-not-contact-jurors-after-trial/,2023-12-21 20:15:21.093716+00:00,,,(2018-05-07 18:00:00+00:00) Judge issues new order,Denial of Access,,,,Katie Mulvaney (Providence Journal),,2018-04-06,False,Providence,Rhode Island (RI),41.82399,-71.41283,"On April 6, 2018, Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel ordered members of the press and public not to contact jurors in the case State of Rhode Island v. Jorge DePina after the trial was over.
“No one, no spectator, no one in the spectator section of the courtroom, is permitted to contact my jurors,” Judge Vogel said, according to a court transcript. “If the jurors choose to contact anyone, that’s up to them. This is for their protection. ... If you see them at Walmart, do not acknowledge that you know them. In other words, I don’t allow people to contact jurors. They must be left alone to go on with their lives.”
Although no official injunction was entered on the docket, Providence Journal courts reporter Katie Mulvaney treated Judge Vogel’s statement as a court order and refrained from contacting jurors in the case.
After the trial was over, Mulvaney — who had extensively covered the trial for the Journal — requested a list of the jurors from the court. Although the identities of jurors are supposed to be public information, Judge Vogel denied her request.
On April 25, the Journal filed an emergency motion with the Superior Court, seeking to overturn both Judge Vogel’s order not to contact jurors and her denial of Mulvaney’s request for the list of jurors.
A memorandum of law filed in support of the Journal’s emergency motion argues that Judge Vogel’s order is unconstitutional and violates legal precedent:
The news media’s constitutional and common law rights of access to judicial proceedings and records, and to report to the fullest extent possible on what transpires in the courtroom, is longstanding and crucial in criminal cases. See Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 575 (1980). The public has an interest in all aspects of criminal proceedings − including the selection and composition of the jury that decided the fate of the defendant in this high-profile prosecution. See Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501, 507-13 (1984) (“Press-Enterprise I”) (voir dire presumptively open to public); United States v. Wecht, 537 F.3d 222, 229-30 (3d Cir. 2008) (public has a constitutional right of contemporaneous access to names of empaneled jurors).
According to established constitutional and common law principles, criminal trials are not to be decided by anonymous persons, absent extraordinary circumstances. See In re South Carolina Press Ass’n, 946 F.2d 1037, 1041 (4th Cir. 1991) (First Amendment compels public disclosure of jury questionnaires); People v. Flores, 153 A.D.3d 182, 189 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep’t 2017) (“Read together [N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law §§ 270.15(1)(a) and 270.15(1-a)] prohibit a trial court from withholding the names of prospective jurors.”). To the contrary, juror names and addresses are presumptively public and subject to a right of access under the First Amendment and common law.
...
Barring some compelling justification – articulated on the record – the press must be given the opportunity to exercise its First Amendment right to speak with the DePina jurors. Concomitantly, the DePina jurors must be permitted to exercise their First Amendment right to speak with the press if they so choose.
Journal's memorandum of law supporting emergency motion
A number of First Amendment organizations — including the New England First Amendment Coalition (a partner organization of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker), the New England Newspaper and Press Association, and the Rhode Island ACLU — have indicated to the court that they may intervene in the case in support of the Journal's emergency motion.
A hearing on the Journal’s motion is scheduled for May 14.
Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel speaks from the bench following the conclusion of a high-profile murder trial in Providence, Rhode Island, on April 6, 2018. Vogel ordered members of the media and public not to contact the jurors in the case.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,,,,Judiciary: State Court 2018-03-16 21:54:06.372743+00:00,2023-12-21 20:20:19.235857+00:00,Kentucky State Police spokesperson threatens media with denial of access,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kentucky-state-police-threatens-news-organizations-publish-official-press-release-sent-out/,2023-12-21 20:20:19.163402+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2018-03-02,False,Harlan,Kentucky (KY),36.84314,-83.32185,"On March 2, 2018, a Kentucky State Police Public Affairs Officer ordered radio station WRIL 106.3 FM and the Mountain Advocate newspaper to withhold publishing or airing any information on ongoing Kentucky State Police investigations until after the Kentucky State Police Public Affairs Office has issued an official statement.
KSP Trooper Shane Jacobs, who serves as public affairs officer for KSP Post 10, emailed the news organizations and threatened to cut off their press access if they did not comply.
From this point forward when KSP is working an investigation, you are to wait until OUR (KSP) press release is sent out before putting anything out on social media, radio, and newspaper. No more posting inaccurate information from Sheriff’s or anyone else. I don’t care to confirm something and then get a release out later.
Authority of my supervisors, if this continues, you will be taken off our media distribution list. Thanks Shane.
KSP email to Mountain Advocate and WRIL 106.3 FM
Representatives of both media organizations criticized the order. Editor Charles Myrick was both surprised and defiant.
“This demand has totally blindsided us," Mountain Advocate editor Charles Myrick told the paper. "However, we will continue to do our job and keep the public informed, regardless of the agency or agencies involved."
"The Kentucky State Police have a job to do and an obligation to the communities they cover and so do we," Brian O'Brien of WRIL 106.3 FM told local broadcaster LEX 18. "I believe that we both do our jobs to the best of our ability and are susceptible to open criticism from the public. At times that is also true from those we work with. I would hope that an open line of communication can continue with Kentucky State Police as well as any other law enforcement entity."
On March 6, Kentucky Press Association executive director David Thompson sent a letter to the Kentucky State Police criticizing the order. The letter was addressed to both KSP commissioner Richard Sanders and to KSP lieutenant Michael Webb, who is in charge of the KSP Public Affairs Office.
“It is not acceptable that anyone, a member of the public, a public agency, and including the Kentucky State Police, to tell the media it is not to publish (or perhaps, air) any information until or after a release is sent from KSP," Thompson wrote in the letter. "This is nothing less than an unconstitutional and illegal attempt to restrict access to KSP information because a media outlet has published information that has displease[d] the state police.”
“A state police officer simply has no authority to order the news media not to publish," he wrote. "To do so raises serious First Amendment and other legal issues and the officer’s threat is not acceptable.”
On March 8, KSP captain Ryan Catron — the commander of KSP Post 10 and Jacobs' superior officer — spoke to the Lexington Herald Leader about the controversial order.
“We want to work with all media outlets. … We’re not trying to withhold any information from them," he told the Lexington Herald Leader. "We’re asking that they wait until they get our press releases before they put anything out.”
When asked whether news organizations that disobeyed the order would be removed from KSP media distribution lists, Catron declined to comment, stating that he refused to “speculate on what would happen in the future.”
On March 12, Dan Shelley — the executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association (which is a partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker) — sent a letter to KSP commissioner Sanders, asking him to overturn the order.
I respectfully submit, Commissioner Sanders, that such an order is, on its face, in direct contravention of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. …
I, on behalf of the broadcast and digital journalists RTDNA represents, insist that you rescind this new policy forthwith. Any time the efforts of journalists are restricted it is not those journalists who are the victims. Rather, it is the public – in this case the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, whom you are sworn to protect and serve – that becomes the victim because it is being denied information to which it is constitutionally entitled.
RTDNA letter to KSP
The next day, KSP Sergeant Josh Lawson told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that the controversy over the order had been resolved. Lawson, the public affairs officer for KSP Post 5, said that he had spoken with the Kentucky Press Association to dispel any confusion over the order.
“I have spoken with Mr. Thompson with the Kentucky Press Association and I encourage you to speak with him as this entire misunderstanding was explained," he said.
In a statement to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Mountain Advocate publisher Jay Nolan said that Michael Webb (the KSP lieutenant in charge of the department's public affairs office) had personally called Mountain Advocate editor Charles Myrick to apologize for the confusion over the order.
Our editor, Charles Myrick, did get a telephone call from the KSP State headquarters. Specifically, the officer in charge of the Public Affairs Officers statewide. He called the Email a “regrettable” choice of words. He suggested that officer Jacobs should have come in person to express his concerns with us, and also explained we would not be removed from any notification list. He indicated that the KSP wanted to continue to maintain positive relations with us and all the media.
Based on the tone and content of his call, we consider this matter closed. The Mountain Advocate will continue to report the news as we have for over 110 years, and welcome the support of the KSP as we seek to keep our community informed.
On March 1, 2018, at a U.S. State Department Press Briefing, spokesperson Heather Nauert refused to take a question from a reporter after learning the reporter worked for Channel One in Russia.
The press briefing followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual state of the nation address, in which President Putin shared a video touting Russia’s new nuclear weapons capabilities. The video included an animation showing the launch of nuclear missiles. One of the missiles is shown flying over a piece of land resembling the outline of Florida.
Nauert was asked about the video at the press briefing.
At the press briefing, Russia 1 TV journalist Alexander Khristenko asked Nauert how Putin’s address could affect the United States’ attitude toward U.S.-Russian relations.
“Well, look, it’s certainly concerning to see your government, to see your country, put together that kind of video that shows the Russian Government attacking the United States,” she said.
That prompted a reporter from Channel One — a Russian TV network unrelated to Russia 1 TV — to ask why Nauert believed that the video showed the two missiles hitting the United States. Before the Channel One reporter could finish asking her question, Nauert interrupted her, dismissed her as being “from Russian TV” and refused to answer her question.
Other journalists in the room objected to Nauert’s treatment of the Channel One reporter.
“They’re not officials of the Russian government,” a CNN reporter said. “They're just asking a question about Russia.”
Nauert then said that Russian news organizations are funded and directed by the Russian government, with the implication being that Russian journalists are agents of the Russian government who lack editorial independence.
The State Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Read the full transcript of the exchange below:
QUESTION: Alexander Khristenko, Russian TV. Are you still considering negotiations with Russia on global security issues and nuclear arms issues after today’s announcement?
MS NAUERT: Would – are – so your question is would we cut off conversations and negotiations?
QUESTION: I mean do you change something in your attitude toward this?
MS NAUERT: Well, look, it’s certainly concerning to see your government, to see your country, put together that kind of video that shows the Russian Government attacking the United States. That’s certainly a concern of ours. I don’t think that that’s very constructive, nor is it responsible. I’ll leave it at that. Okay?
QUESTION: It was not attacking the United States. It was not attacking the United States. It was two missiles sent to different directions. So why do you say that they are --
MS NAUERT: Are you – oh, you’re --
QUESTION: Sorry. I’m from Russia. Channel One in Russia.
MS NAUERT: You’re from Russian TV, too.
QUESTION: Yes, yes.
MS NAUERT: Okay. So hey, enough said then. I’ll move on.
QUESTION: Wait, I’m sorry. What does that mean?
MS NAUERT: What does what mean?
QUESTION: I mean, it’s – they’re not – they’re not officials of the Russian Government. They’re just asking a question about Russia.
MS NAUERT: Oh. Oh, really? Okay. Well, we know that RT and other Russian news – so-called news organizations --
QUESTION: They’re a --
MS NAUERT: -- are funded and directed by the Russian Government. So if I don’t have a whole lot of tolerance --
Official transcript of press briefing
Virgil Dickinson, the Washington bureau chief for trade publication Modern Healthcare, was kicked off a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services services press call on Feb. 1, 2018. The denial of access came just a week after a spokesman for CMS threatened to cut off Modern Healthcare’s press access to CMS in retaliation for its coverage.
On Jan. 23, Modern Healthcare published a story by Dickson about the resignation of an official at the agency. According to the Association of Health Care Journalists, a spokesman representing CMS then emailed both Dickson and his editor, Matthew Weinstock, demanding that part of the article be removed. The spokesman, Brett O’Donnell, is a Republican consultant who was working on behalf of CMS but was not employed by the agency.
“Short of fully correcting the piece we will not be able to include your outlet in further press calls with CMS,” O’Donnell reportedly wrote in the email to Weinstock.
On Feb. 1, Dickson was kicked off a CMS press call.
Following a public outcry, CMS apologized to Dickson and Modern Healthcare.
Aurora Aguilar, the editor-in-chief of Modern Healthcare, told ACHJ that a representative of CMS called her on February 6 and promised that its reporters will continue to have access to press calls.
On Jan. 20, 2018, a California Highway Patrol officer stopped local radio host Marcus Victor, who was reporting on mudslides in the area, and seized his press pass. Victor and two of his colleagues were briefly detained and threatened with arrest for attempting to enter a “public exclusion zone.”
Victor, a program host for KZAA 96.5 FM, told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was driving to Montecito, California, where he planned to interview a local resident about the mudslides in the area, when his car was stopped by a CHP officer. Victor said that there were three other people in the car with him — two KZAA colleagues, who each had a press pass, and a local resident who knew the person that Victor planned to interview.
Victor said that he and his colleagues showed their press passes to the CHP officer, whom he identified as “T. Adrianse,” but the officer did not believe that the press passes were authentic.
Victor said that CHP officer Adrianse photographed him, as well as his drivers license and license plate, and then threatened to arrest him for being in an exclusionary zone and for possession of (what the officer believed to be) a fraudulent press pass.
Victor was released without being arrested, but he was unable to complete the interview (since he couldn’t get access to the exclusion zone) and his press pass was never returned to him.
On Jan. 10, Santa Barbara County declared a “public safety exclusion zone” near Montecito, California, due to dangerous mudslides. Under California law, authorities can prevent members of the public from accessing exclusion zones, but they are supposed to allow any “duly authorized representative of any news service, newspaper, or radio or television station” to enter the area.
The Santa Barbara California Highway Patrol told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that it has had issues in the past with non-journalists attempting to access exclusion zones.
“I will let you know we have an issue with people posing as press employees to gain access to the evacuation zone,” Santa Barbara CHP officer Jonathan Gutierrez said. “Every time there is a disaster there is always an issue of looters.”
Gutierrez said that Adrianse, the officer who stopped Victor, believed that the press pass looked to be homemade and therefore fraudulent.
“The press passes looked to be fake and could have easily been home made on a basic printer,” he said. “The officer obtained the alleged press pass and called the sergeant on duty, he took a picture and forwarded it to the sergeant who also agreed the passes looked to be fake.”
Gutierrez also said that officer Adrianse had other reasons to suspect that Victor was not a legitimate journalist covering the mudslides. He said that Adrianse had tried to verify that Victor was a real journalist by using his mobile phone to search online for KZAA’s coverage of the mudslides. When he found KZAA’s Facebook page and saw that it had not posted or shared any stories about the mudslides, he concluded that Victor was not really a journalist on assignment.
“The officer believed Mr. Lopez was not doing a story about the Montecito mudslide but abusing his position as an employee at a local radio station to travel freely in and out the Montecito Evacuation zone,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez added that Victor and other journalists seeking to access the exclusion zone should apply for official press passes from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Victor told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that the KZAA press passes were of “poor quality,” but he was still surprised to be stopped because CHP officers had previously accepted the passes.
“In this zone, there were several roadblocks/checkpoints which we got through, but this officer decided our passes were fraudulent,” he said.
CNN chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta said that White House aides shouted at him as he tried to ask questions of President Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 16, 2018.
Acosta, along with other members of the press, covered a meeting at the White House between Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. During the meeting, Acosta asked Trump, “Did you say you want more people to come into the country from Norway, Mr. President?”
Trump responded, “I want them to come in from everywhere … everywhere. Thank you very much, everybody.”
Acosta later tweeted that White House aides shouted in his face and drowned him out as he continued to ask the president questions.
At a photo opportunity in the Oval Office, Acosta again asked Trump if he preferred that only white immigrants come to the United States.
In response, Acosta said, Trump pointed at him and told him, “Out.”
On Jan. 17, Acosta participated in a panel discussion on press freedom at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. During the panel discussion, Acosta said that he considers being kicked out of the Oval Office for asking the president if he was a racist to be a badge of honor.
Acosta is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, and particularly its treatment of the press. Trump frequently criticizes Acosta on Twitter, often labeling both him and CNN as "fake news."
In Oval Office pool spray, I asked why Trump wants more people to come in from Norway. He said he wants people to come in from everywhere. Verbatim coming.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 16, 2018
As I attempted to ask questions in Roosevelt Room of Trump, WH press aides shouted in my face to drown out my questions. I have never encountered that before.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 16, 2018
When I tried to follow up on this in the Oval Office, Trump told me to get "out." We then went to the Roosevelt Room where WH aides obstructed us from asking questions. https://t.co/vuEIv1jvso
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 16, 2018
CNN’s @Acosta was kicked out of the Oval Office for asking the president if he was a racist - “and I consider that a badge of honor” #USPressFreedom
— Newseum (@Newseum) January 18, 2018
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer waits for CNN correspondent Jim Acosta to finish speaking on camera before he starts the daily press briefing at the White House, on March 9, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,Donald Trump,,,Federal government: White House 2017-12-19 20:59:09.019729+00:00,2023-12-21 20:46:19.178374+00:00,EPA removes reporter Ethan Stoetzer from Scott Pruitt event in Iowa,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/epa-removes-reporter-ethan-stoetzer-scott-pruitt-event-iowa/,2023-12-21 20:46:19.071996+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,Ethan Stoetzer (InsideSources),,2017-12-01,False,Nevada,Iowa (IA),42.02277,-93.45243,"Ethan Stoetzer, a reporter with InsideSources Iowa, was removed from and prevented from covering an event with Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in Nevada, Iowa.
On Dec. 1, 2017, Pruitt spoke at the Couser Cattle Company about the EPA and its commitment to renewable fuels. The invite-only event was open to the press and was livestreamed to the public by the Des Moines Register.
Stoetzer attended the event as press, and gave his name and the name of his outlet to an EPA press secretary at the event.
In an article for InsideSources about the incident, Stoetzer wrote that he was approached by a Story County Sheriff’s Deputy, along with staff from both the EPA and the Couser Cattle Company, about 10 minutes after he arrived at the event.
According to Stoetzer, the staffers and sheriff’s deputy refused to identify themselves when asked, but told him that he was not on the press list for the event and ordered him to leave the premises.
“They’re asking you to leave, you didn’t RSVP properly, and it’s too late to do it now,” Stoetzer recalled the sheriff’s deputy saying.
In his article about the incident, Stoetzer wrote that he had tried multiple times to RSVP for the event — calling and leaving voicemail messages for both a regional EPA press representative and the main EPA press office.
Stoetzer also reported that the EPA allowed journalists from other outlets who were not on the press list to remain and cover the event.
Barry Thomas, the Chief Deputy of the Story County Sheriff's Office, told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that the office was asked to assist in removing Stoetzer from the Couser Cattle Company premises.
“We were asked to do this by the person in charge of the private property and, because it was not a public event, we intervened to help keep the peace,” Thomas said in an email. “It is no different than what we would do for any private citizen.”
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],,,,,Federal government: Agency 2017-11-01 19:57:19.969056+00:00,2024-03-20 20:49:04.419913+00:00,Reporters’ access restricted on Capitol Hill,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-access-restricted-capitol-hill/,2024-03-20 20:49:04.334314+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2017-10-31,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Reporters’ access to Capitol Hill was restricted on Oct. 31, 2017 after a protester allegedly posed as a reporter at the Senate Building the week before, according to a report by the Washington Examiner.
Reporters were prevented from accessing most of the second floor of the Senate Building, where Vice President Mike Pence was attending a Senate Republicans’ weekly policy lunch. The presence of Capitol Hill Police was amplified, and officials checked the identification of all reporters walking through the hallways.
These security restrictions are unusual, and reporters typically have uninhibited access to Capitol Hill to speak with lawmakers.
According to Washington Examiner, communications director for Capitol Hill Police, Eva Malecki, said in a statement that, “The United States Capitol Police have not introduced any changes to the access that the media have within the U.S. Capitol. We are simply enforcing the current rules and protocols already in place to ensure the safety and security of elected officials, Members of Congress, staff, visitors, and members of the press.”
The week before on October 24, 2017, protester Ryan Clayton reportedly posed as a reporter to gain access to the Senate Building and threw Russian flags at President Donald Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a press conference on Oct. 31, that “reporters are some of the last people who should face unwarranted restrictions,” and that both his office and the Rules Committee would review the security restrictions and identify a remedy to the barred access.
A spokesman for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) told independent journalist Nick Turse that he did not consider him to be a “legitimate journalist” and refused to answer his calls or emails for months starting in late 2017.
Turse has written numerous articles, many for The Intercept, critical of the U.S. military’s activities in Africa.
On July 20, 2017, he wrote an article for The Intercept revealing that Cameroonian troops tortured detainees at a military base that the United States also used for drone surveillance.
In a January 2018 piece for The Intercept, Turse wrote about how AFRICOM’s Public Affairs Branch repeatedly refused to engage with him after that article was published:
“Nick, we’re not going to respond to any of your questions” Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, the head of U.S. Africa Command’s Public Affairs Branch, told me by phone last October. “We just don’t feel that we need to.”
I asked if Falvo believed AFRICOM didn’t need to address questions from the press in general, or just me in particular.
“No, just you,” he replied. “We don’t consider you a legitimate journalist, really.”
Then he hung up on me.
How I Got Blacklisted by the Pentagon's Africa Command (The Intercept)
Turse also detailed many instances in which representatives of AFRICOM consistently stonewalled him as early as 2012. On one day in 2014, he wrote, he called Benjamin Benson, then the chief of media engagement for AFRICOM, multiple times from a phone line that identified him by name and never had his calls answered. When he tried calling from another number, Benson picked up right away, only to hang up after Turse identified himself.
Turse wrote that just before his January 2018 piece was published, an AFRICOM spokesperson began responding to some of his questions, but refused to answer any questions about the agency’s treatment of him, including “if I was now considered legitimate, why the command finally decided to respond to me, and whether AFRICOM would regularly take my calls and answer my questions in the future.”
CQ Roll Call reporter John Donnelly was forcibly removed from the Federal Communications Commission headquarters on May 18, 2017, after trying to ask FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly a question as he was leaving a scheduled press conference.
Donnelly, who is also the chair of the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Committee, told the NPC that two of O’Rielly’s security guards pinned him up against a wall as O’Rielly walked past him and he attempted to ask the commissioner a question. Once O’Rielly had passed, one of the security guards asked Donnelly why he had not asked a question during the press conference and then forcibly escorted him from the building.
“I could not have been less threatening or more polite,” Donnelly told NPC. “There is no justification for using force in such a situation.”
The FCC later apologized for its treatment of Donnelly.
“We apologized to Mr. Donnelly more than once and let him know that the FCC was on heightened alert today based on several threats,” an FCC spokesperson said in a statement sent to Politico.
The FCC meeting room is seen empty following a security threat ahead of the vote on the repeal of so called net neutrality rules, on December 14, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private security,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,,,,Federal government: Agency 2017-08-02 06:32:01.411493+00:00,2023-12-21 21:02:49.211826+00:00,Appeals court says that hearing in murder case can be secret,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/appeals-court-says-hearing-murder-case-can-be-secret/,2023-12-21 21:02:49.078066+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2017-04-26,False,Miami,Florida (FL),25.77427,-80.19366,"The Third District Court of Appeal in Florida ruled on April 26, 2017, that a pre-trial hearing in a Florida murder case can be held in secret, siding with a Miami-Dade Circuit Judge’s ruling to close a bond hearing for two defendants, citing “pervasive publicity” as a threat to their right to fair trial.
Miami Herald and WPLG-ABC10 opposed the closure and, in a brief filed to the Third DCA, argued: “That hearings of such magnitude and public importance should be held in secret and outside the presence of the public is unconstitutional.”
The appellate court affirmed “evidence of extensive local, national and international print and broadcast media coverage of the instant case,” which jeopardized the defendants’ right to a fair trial.
“The speed of dissemination and the high percentage of likely jurors with access to social media and the internet also support the trial judge’s concern,” the opinion states. “The Closure Order is a temporary ruling subject to reconsideration as to subsequent hearings and the trial itself. Following our review of the petitioners’ requests, the records themselves, and the trial court’s analysis, we find no departure from the essential requirements of law.”
Scott Ponce, a lawyer for the Miami Herald, said, “The courtroom belongs to the public, and it’s difficult to accept that the public is being kicked out of a hearing during which the judge will consider whether two people indicted for first-degree murder should be released into public pending trial.”
Aides to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer barred 11 news outlets from attending an informal briefing known as a “gaggle” held in lieu of a daily press briefing on Feb. 24, 2017. When reporters tried to enter Spicer's office for the briefing, they were told that they were not on the list of attendees. The press pool was invited to attend along with several handpicked outlets.
CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Hill, the BBC, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and New York Daily News were excluded.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders claimed that the briefing had taken place in a smaller office and that the press pool had been invited.
“We invited the pool so everyone was represented. We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that," she said.
The pool consisted of Hearst Newspapers and CBS. NBC, ABC, Fox News, One America News Network, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Breitbart, McClatchy and The Washington Times were also invited and attended.
Reporters from The Associated Press, Time and USA Today declined to attend.
Journalists work in the briefing room at the White House on Feb. 24, 2017. Several major news organizations were excluded from an off camera "gaggle" meeting with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['GOVERNMENT_EVENTS'],"BBC News, BuzzFeed News, CNN, Daily Mail, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Politico, The Guardian, The Hill, The New York Times",,,,Federal government: White House 2017-07-17 00:41:58.889842+00:00,2023-12-21 21:07:53.116415+00:00,Marine Corps bans journalist and veteran James LaPorta from Camp Lejeune base,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/marine-corps-bans-journalist-camp-lejeune-base/,2023-12-21 21:07:53.021764+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,James LaPorta (Independent),,2017-02-10,False,Jacksonville,North Carolina (NC),34.75405,-77.43024,"James LaPorta, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and independent journalist, was indefinitely barred from accessing Camp Lejeune, a major Marine Corps base in North Carolina, on Feb. 10, 2017.
Camp Lejeune is not open to the general public, but military personnel have access to it and civilians can visit the base if they are sponsored by someone on the base. As a member of the Marine Corps' inactive reserves, LaPorta had free access to the base with his military ID.
LaPorta is a frequent contributor to The Daily Beast and has reported extensively on the Marine Corps, including sensitive subjects like revenge porn and sexual harassment among Marines.
On Feb. 5, 2017, LaPorta said, he visited Camp Lejeune to meet with a source who lives on the base. LaPorta said that his source — a woman who accused a high-ranking officer of sexually assaulting her — invited him into her home on the base so that he could interview her. LaPorta said that he did not notify Camp Lejeune's public affairs office before his visit, in part because his source specifically told him that she did not trust the public affairs office.
After interviewing the woman, LaPorta said, he went to Camp Lejeune's brig to visit the officer accused of sexual assault. Camp Lejeune's public affairs office prohibits journalists from interviewing detainees in the brig without permission, but LaPorta said that he only went to briefly visit the officer, not to formally interview him. (LaPorta said that he had already interviewed the officer twice before he was taken into custody and so had no reason to interview him again during the February visit.)
Five days later, Camp Lejeune deputy commander Col. Scalise sent a letter to LaPorta informing him that he had violated regulations by interviewing the woman and visiting the officer in the brig. The letter warned that he would be indefinitely "debarred" from entering the base:
On 5 February 2017, you participated in inappropriate and unethical activities by attempting to interview a victim of an alleged crime aboard Marine Corps base, Camp Lejeune, (MCB CAMLEJ); which is in violation of [a regulation], by gathering information/taking photographs/videotaping/exposing TV motion picture film within the Camp Lejeune area without prior approval of the Consolidated Public Affairs Office. Additionally, you violated [another regulation]; which states "Personal interviews and telephonic communications between prisoners and media representatives is not authorized, unless a determination is made that such an interview serves the legitimate public interest, or is in the best interest of the military.
Based upon the serious nature of your misconduct, you are being debarred from MCB CAMLEJ. I have determined that your presence aboard MCB CAMLEJ is detrimental to the security, good order and discipline of the Installation. Accordingly, you are hereby notified, upon the receipt of this letter, that you are ordered not to reenter, or be found within the limits of MCB CAMLEJ.
Lejeune is one of only three major Marine Corps bases — the other two are in southern California and Okinawa, Japan — and LaPorta said that being debarred from the North Carolina base will make it much more difficult to report on the Marine Corps.
"Being debarred from Camp Lejeune, it’s almost like losing 25 to 40 percent of your coverage area," he said.
LaPorta finished his service in the reserves in June 2017 and was honorably discharged. He remains debarred from Camp Lejeune, prohibited from entering the base even if explicitly invited by a resident of the base.
Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democratic congresswoman from California, has tried to intercede on LaPorta's behalf. She sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford asking them to explain why LaPorta was debarred from Camp Lejeune. The generals have not yet responded.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post stated that a major Marine Corps base is located in northern California. The base, Camp Pendleton, is actually located in southern California.
James LaPorta in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during his first combat deployment in 2009. LaPorta is now an independent journalist covering the U.S. Marine Corps.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,['OTHER'],,military,,,Law enforcement: Military