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 2019-02-22 16:52:02.978036+00:00,2023-05-08 14:14:01.583872+00:00,"Cameraman, other reporters attacked at Trump rally",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-other-reporters-attacked-trump-rally/,2023-05-08 14:14:01.399058+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Ron Skeans (BBC News),,2019-02-11,False,El Paso,Texas (TX),31.75872,-106.48693,"
A man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat attacked a group of reporters, including BBC News cameraman Ron Skeans, during a Trump rally in El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 11, 2019.
Video of the altercation shows the man, whose identity has not been released, running onto the press risers and then pushing journalists and cameras, while shouting, “Fuck the media!” After security restrains the man and begins escorting him out of the rally, the crowd begins chanting, “Let him go!”
Skeans told BBC News that the man gave him a “very hard shove” and tried to knock him and his camera over. BBC News later broadcast a report on the attack narrated by Gary O’Donoghue, the network’s Washington correspondent.
“At first, he pushes the camera from behind into my cameraman,” O’Donoghue said in the segment. “As he passes, he shoves violently once again, before being restrained.”
O’Donoghue reported that Trump appeared to notice the commotion in the press area and asked, “Everything OK?” but did not condemn the attack.
Although the man was forcibly escorted out of the rally, he was not arrested or charged with any crime.
“We have not reviewed any material from law enforcement for charges at this time,” an El Paso district attorney spokesperson told The Daily Beast. "No charges will be filed until we do."
After the White House Correspondents Association called on Trump to condemn attack, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement: “President Trump condemns all acts of violence against any individual or group of people — including members of the press. We ask that anyone attending an event do so in a peaceful and respectful manner."
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct year of the incident.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 11. During the rally, one of his supporters violently shoved members of the press. No charges have been filed.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,Donald Trump rally,,, 2019-12-17 18:42:55.406768+00:00,2022-08-22 20:24:54.854766+00:00,Public radio reporter stopped for secondary screening while crossing U.S.-Mexico border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/public-radio-reporter-stopped-secondary-screening-while-crossing-us-mexico-border/,2022-08-22 20:24:54.784348+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Latif Nasser (WNYC),,2017-12-01,True,El Paso,Texas (TX),31.75872,-106.48693,"Latif Nasser, a reporter for New York Public Radio WNYC, was stopped for additional screening while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a series about border patrol in December 2017.
Nasser, then a U.S. permanent resident, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was recording b-roll, or additional background sounds of him crossing the bridge from the U.S. to Mexico and back in El Paso, Texas. Nasser said that he was wearing his headphones and was holding his recorder with a mic on it as he was returning to the U.S.-side of the border.
Nasser noticed a sign posted at the U.S. facility which specified that cameras, video cameras and cellphones were not allowed — Nasser said he assumed that audio recording was fine. He told CPJ that he continued recording throughout handing over his passport and having “very normal” exchanges with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
When the officer saw his recorder, Nasser said the officer “freaked out.” Nasser said the officer asked what it was and whether he was currently recording, to which he responded yes. Nasser told CPJ that the officer then effectively shut down to entire line, ordered Nasser to stop recording and called for other officers to assist him.
The officers directed Nasser to a secondary screening room where they had him wait with another man, and placed his belongings — including his audio recorder, passport and green card — on a desk in his eyesight but out of his reach. While the officers examined his belongings, they did not play any files on the recorder.
Nasser waited in the screening room for approximately an hour, he said, with officers periodically approaching him and asking the same questions each time: Who was he, what was he doing, what was his reporting on, and why was he recording?
After the fourth or fifth time he was asked the same series of questions, Nasser said he told the officers that he needed to leave and that he knew the problem was with the minute-long recording of his interaction with the officer. Nasser told CPJ he offered to delete it, and after some awkward fumbling he did so.
At the end of the encounter, which Nasser said lasted around 2 to 2.5 hours, a final officer — who was wearing a kevlar vest with “DHS” printed on it — approached him and said that he hadn’t technically done anything wrong, but that his actions had been suspicious.
“We were just doing our jobs,” Nasser recalled the officer saying. While the first few officers were incredibly angry that he had been recording, Nasser said, when the final officer found out it was just audio recording, with no video, “he made it seem like it was no big deal.”
Martín Méndez Pineda, a Mexican journalist legally seeking asylum in the United States, was denied parole on March 28, 2017. Pineda arrived in the U.S. the previous month on February 5 and entered an asylum claim alleging that he received death threats in relation to his reporting on the federal police in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
On March 1, Pineda passed a “credible fear interview” to establish whether a real threat exists. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement refused to grant parole to Méndez, however, on the grounds that he was a “flight risk” and did not have substantial ties to the community.
Pineda spent almost four months in detention before returning to Mexico in May 2017.
Martín Méndez Pineda
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