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 2021-02-09 21:18:09.033278+00:00,2022-08-22 19:51:00.453537+00:00,CBC National correspondent denied entry into United States,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbc-national-correspondent-denied-entry-into-united-states/,2022-08-22 19:51:00.389806+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Carolyn Dunn (Canadian Broadcasting Company),,2019-08-25,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"
Carolyn Dunn, a national correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was denied entry into the United States on Aug. 25, 2019, according to her social media account.
The reporter was traveling to Washington, D.C., to fill in for a colleague when she was refused entry by a border agent, who cited her as “imported labor.”
“Guys, I’ve been refused entry into US. Sections 212 (a) (7) (A) (i) (I). Me going to DC is ‘entry into the labor’ market and I’d be ‘imported labor.’ I’ve never been pulled aside at a US border let alone refused entry,” Dunn tweeted.
Guys, I’ve been refused entry into US. Sections 212 (a) (7) (A) (i) (I). Me going to DC is “entry into the labor” market and I’d be “imported labor”. I’ve never been pulled aside at a US border let alone refused entry.
— carolyn dunn (@carolyndunncbc) August 25, 2019
Dunn also shared a screenshot on her feed of the Department of State’s website that read “Citizens for Canada and Bermuda do not generally require visas to enter the United States as members of the press or media working in the United States.”
Dunn was later allowed entry into the United States: She tweeted the following day, “Second time’s the charm. Will board for a US bound flight soon.”
Dunn did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment as of press time.
Customs and Border Protection also did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment as of press time, but a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement to the Washington Examiner in Aug. 2019, “All travelers to the U.S. must possess valid travel documents. For foreign nationals this includes a current passport and the appropriate visa for their intended purpose of travel. For example, if a Canadian reporter is seeking to enter the U.S. to engage in that profession, that reporter must apply for and be granted an I visa.”
The News Photographers Association of Canada expressed concern over the incident in a statement. “It’s a disturbing trend,” NPAC vice president Ryan McLeod said. “The members of the Canadian press have always had a mostly cordial relationship across borders. It doesn’t matter if it’s television/print/web, freelance or staff; citizens of Canada should not and do not require visas to enter the United States. While Ms. Carolyn Dunn was eventually allowed to board a flight into the United States, it speaks volumes about the current climate.”
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.”
A Russian documentary reporter was denied entry to the U.S. while trying to fly from Moscow's Shremetyevo airport to New York City on Jan. 15, 2017.
The journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, works for RTD — a documentary channel that's part of Russia's government-funded TV network RT — and has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship. As a citizen of Canada, she can visit the United States without a visa. She has visited the U.S. on multiple occasions and had never had any problems entering the country.
On Jan. 15, though, she attempted to check-in to her flight but was informed that her name had been flagged by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She said that Russian border officials told her that, because she was flagged, they had to check with U.S. border officials before allowing her on the flight.
She said that the Russians spoke on the phone with their American counterparts for over an hour and then asked her whether she had ever been to Iraq or Syria. She answered that her work for RTD had taken her to both countries. Following more discussions with American border officials, the Russians told her that the U.S. would not allow her to enter the country.
She later asked the U.S. Embassy why she was not allowed to travel to the U.S., but the embassy referred her to to the Department of Homeland Security. A few months later, she received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security stating that the department could neither confirm nor deny that she had been stopped for any reason.
The logo of Russian television network RT is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017.
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