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 2023-06-01 22:05:24.226428+00:00,2023-10-06 21:07:43.541243+00:00,"New York Post reporter threatened, kicked by woman wielding machete",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-post-reporter-threatened-kicked-by-woman-wielding-machete/,2023-10-06 21:07:42.998800+00:00,,,(2023-10-02 16:35:00+00:00) Woman who kicked New York reporter ordered into therapy,Assault,,,,Reuven Fenton (New York Post),,2023-05-23,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Two New York Post journalists were threatened and chased by an adjunct professor at Hunter College when attempting to interview her at her New York City apartment on May 23, 2023.
Post reporter Reuven Fenton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and photojournalist Robert Miller knocked on the door of Shellyne Rodriguez’s Bronx apartment to ask about a viral video of her confronting anti-abortion students at the college earlier in the month.
“It was a very routine type of assignment,” Fenton said. “I knocked on the door — it was a soft knock, not what they refer to as a police knock — because I really wanted her to talk and I thought she might.”
The Post reported that after Fenton identified himself as a Post reporter, Rodriguez shouted, “Get the f–k away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!”
In footage published by the outlet, Rodriguez then opens the door and holds a machete to Fenton’s neck, yelling at him to get away from her door before going back into the apartment.
The Post reported that the journalists immediately left the apartment building, but Rodriguez followed them outside while still carrying the machete. After chasing Miller down the sidewalk, Rodriguez allegedly threatened them again and kicked Fenton in the shin as he tried to get in his vehicle. Miller did not respond to a request for comment.
Fenton told the Tracker that he was shocked by the incident.
“You just can’t be doing this stuff, and she doesn’t know me,” Fenton said. “I work for the New York Post, which a lot of people recognize as a sort of conservative publication, but I don’t know if she even fully registered what I said. I could have said I worked for The New York Times and I don’t know if she would have done anything different.”
In a statement to the art and culture publication Hyperallergic, Rodriguez said she had received numerous threatening messages and voicemails following the incident with the anti-abortion group.
“All this has taken a toll on my mental health, robbing me of my sense of safety, and creating reasonable fear that they would show up at my home to cause me physical harm, as has happened with so many other women who have similarly had their personal info exposed as a form of politically motivated harassment,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez could not be reached for additional comment.
Hunter College fired Rodriguez within hours of the incident, according to the Post.
Hyperallergic reported that Rodriguez was charged with menacing and harassment in connection with the attack on Fenton, and turned herself into police custody on May 25. Neither the New York Police Department nor the Bronx District Attorney’s Office responded to emailed requests for additional information.
Two New York Post journalists were threatened and chased by an adjunct professor at Hunter College when attempting to interview her at her New York City apartment on May 23, 2023.
The Post reported that photojournalist Robert Miller and reporter Reuven Fenton knocked on the door of Shellyne Rodriguez’s Bronx apartment to ask about a viral video of her confronting anti-abortion students at the college earlier in the month.
“Get the f–k away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!” Rodriguez shouted after Fenton identified himself as a Post reporter.
In footage published by the outlet, Rodriguez then opens the door and holds a machete to Fenton’s neck, yelling at him to get away from her door before going back into the apartment.
The Post reported that the journalists immediately left the apartment building, but Rodriguez followed them outside while still carrying the machete. After chasing Miller down the sidewalk, Rodriguez allegedly threatened them again and kicked Fenton in the shin as he tried to get in his vehicle. Miller did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to the art and culture publication Hyperallergic, Rodriguez said she had received numerous threatening messages and voicemails following the incident with the anti-abortion group.
“All this has taken a toll on my mental health, robbing me of my sense of safety, and creating reasonable fear that they would show up at my home to cause me physical harm, as has happened with so many other women who have similarly had their personal info exposed as a form of politically motivated harassment,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez could not be reached for additional comment.
Hunter College fired Rodriguez within hours of the incident, according to the Post.
Hyperallergic reported that Rodriguez was charged with menacing and harassment in connection with the attack on Fenton, and turned herself into police custody on May 25. Neither the New York Police Department nor the Bronx District Attorney’s Office responded to emailed requests for additional information.
Kevin Sheehan, a reporter for the New York Post, was assaulted by a man who was being evicted from his makeshift dwelling in Riverbank State Park in New York City on March 28, 2022.
According to the Post, the man, Rewell Altunaga, has lived in the park for several months. His eviction came the day after city officials issued a "notice of clean up" in the area of the park where Altunaga was living. Sheehan, who was reporting on the New York Police Department eviction of the area with a colleague, captured the assault on video.
The video shows Altunaga climbing down from a tree and grabbing a tree branch before walking toward Sheehan. Altunaga then asks Sheehan, "Why are you taking pictures?" before hitting Sheehan twice with the tree branch, once on his head, and knocking his phone out of his hand. Sheehan did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and it is unclear if his phone was damaged.
In the video, Sheehan tells three police officers present about the assault. "This guy just hit me with a stick. You guys can't just let him walk away. That's assault," he said.
The video shows NYPD police officers arresting Altunaga after he hit another Post journalist, photographer G.N. Miller, with a garbage bag, causing Miller’s camera to smash to the ground. The Tracker has documented that assault and equipment damage here.
According to the Post, Altunaga was charged with second-degree assault and released without bail on March 30. A judge also ordered that he remain clear of journalists Sheehan and Miller. NYPD has acknowledged but not responded to a request for more details.
G.N. Miller, a photographer for the New York Post, was assaulted by a man who was being evicted from his makeshift dwelling in Riverbank State Park in New York City on March 28, 2022.
According to the New York Post, the man, Rewell Altunaga, has lived in the park for several months. His eviction came the day after city officials issued a "notice of clean up" in the area of the park where Altunaga was living. Miller, who was reporting on the New York Police Department eviction of the area with a colleague, captured the assault on video.
Miller did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Miller’s colleague, Post reporter Kevin Sheehan, was also assaulted by Altunaga. Sheehan filmed NYPD police officers arresting Altunaga after he hit Miller with a garbage bag, causing Miller’s camera to smash to the ground.
According to the Post, Altunaga was charged with second-degree assault and released without bail on March 30. A judge also ordered that he remain clear of journalists Miller and Sheehan. NYPD has acknowledged but not responded to a request for more details.
A man hit a New York Post reporter with a piece of lumber during a demonstration to cut police funding at New York’s City Hall on July 12, 2020, the Post reported. The man was later arrested and charged with assault, police said.
The weeks-long “Occupy City Hall” protests in June drew hundreds of people who pressed elected leaders to slash $1 billion from the New York City Police Department’s annual operating budget of around $6 billion. Dozens of people camped outside City Hall during the lengthy demonstration, one of many nationwide sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Post reporter Kevin Sheehan was using his smartphone to film the demonstration at about 11 a.m. on July 12 from a public street, standing on the opposite side of a metal barrier, when a man with a piece of wood in his hand approached the journalist, demanding he stop recording.
“Put the fucking camera down!” the man yelled while swinging the board, which Sheehan caught on video. The assailant knocked Sheehan’s phone out of his hand and struck him in the face, the Post reported.
The attack left Sheehan with a headache and a swollen lip. The reporter walked away from the barricade but his assailant began to follow him, according to the Post.
Sheehan, who was wearing NYPD-issued press credentials around his neck, walked over to a group of police officers assembled nearby to report the incident. An officer told him that the attack didn’t qualify as an assault because no physical marks were visible, the Post reported on July 12.
“It’s not assault, it’s harassment,” the officer reportedly told Sheehan. Police didn’t initially make any arrests related to the attack.
But a spokesperson for the NYPD told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Daniel Mayo, 32, of Queens, was arrested on July 14 in connection with the incident and charged with second-degree assault.
The spokesperson confirmed that the man portrayed in Sheehan’s video attacking the reporter with a piece of lumber matches Mayo’s mugshot. Attempts to reach Mayo and his attorney weren’t successful.
Sheehan declined to comment and the Post didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The New York City Council approved a budget deal on June 30 to cut about $1 billion from the NYPD, but some protesters continued camping at City Hall for weeks after the vote. By mid-July, the number of protesters there had dwindled to about 50, the Post reported, and the camp was cleared on July 22, according to The New York Times.
Activists in New York, Minneapolis and many other cities have called on lawmakers to “defund” law enforcement agencies following the deaths of Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police, such as Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Freelance photographer Stephen Yang was assaulted by an unknown individual and had his camera stolen while covering protests in New York City on June 1, 2020, for the New York Post.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during a May 25 arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
Yang told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that while covering June 1 protests in Manhattan he was taking photos of individuals looting stores near the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 39th Street.
He said that an unknown individual approached him from behind and began to yank on his camera strap. Yang said that the individual then punched him in the face and was able to get the camera free from his shoulder.
Yang said the blow left him with a bloody nose but that he did not seek medical attention. He also said he did not get a clear look at the individual who threw the punch and that he didn’t believe he was targeted for being a journalist.
Yang said that police officers at the scene did not directly witness the assault but that one officer approached him after it was over and encouraged him to report it.
He later reported the assault and the camera theft to the New York City Police Department. He said the stolen camera was valued at $2,500 and that his equipment is covered by insurance.
Fortunately, Yang was carrying a backup camera on the night of the assault and was able to keep covering protests for several more hours, he said.
Yang said he did not encounter any further violence while covering demonstrations in New York City, but that he took time off work after the June 1 assault to recuperate.
“I had to take a couple of days off after, I think, just for my mental health,” Yang said. “Overall I felt extremely lucky that this was the only incident I’ve experienced.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
A New York City police officer stands in front of a vandalized store following protests in the Manhattan borough of New York on June 1, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,no,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, robbery",,, 2020-02-24 20:25:41.440118+00:00,2020-02-25 15:57:11.426703+00:00,"Using obscure legal justification, NYPD subpoenas reporter's records",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/using-obscure-legal-justification-nypd-subpoenas-reporter/,2020-02-25 15:57:11.334009+00:00,,LegalOrder object (78),,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,,,2019-12-09,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"The New York Police Department subpoenaed Twitter for the account information of a New York Post journalist on Dec. 9, 2019, as part of a departmental leak investigation.
The Post reported that its police bureau chief Tina Moore tweeted out crime scene photos in mid-October that “appear to be at the center of the NYPD subpoena.”
The subpoena, published by the Post, commands Twitter to produce all device and contact information for Moore’s Twitter account, as well as her handle’s IP and internet connection history from Oct. 9 through Oct. 14.
Adam Scott Wandt, an assistant professor at John Jay College who specializes in digital forensics and cybersecurity, told the Post the subpoena appears to focus not on Moore’s communications but “where she is and what equipment was used.”
Wandt said the information requested could be used to create a “network trail,” geo-locating Moore’s movements over the requested days.
The subpoena claims legal authority under the city’s administrative code and the Patriot Act — a federal law passed following 9/11 which expanded law enforcement authorities. The provision of the act cited pertains to the digital transfer of information and metadata, which the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press noted is one of the most obscure sections.
NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Jessica McRorie confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the department has an open investigation into the source of the leaked photos.
“Tina Moore was never the focus of our investigation,” McRorie said in a statement. McRorie declined to answer further questions on the focus of the subpoena and why the Patriot Act was cited.
Courtney Radsch, advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement, “Using the Patriot Act to subpoena a journalist’s social media data is not only a gross overstep by the New York Police Department, it is reminiscent of how countries without democratic safeguards use anti-terrorism laws to dampen or retaliate against critical journalism.”
In early February 2020, Twitter notified Moore of the subpoena. The social media company confirmed to the Tracker that it did not comply with the subpoena.
The NYPD withdrew the request on Feb. 13, after attorneys for the Post contacted the department, the Post reported.
Moore declined to comment.
In a statement to The New York Times, Post spokeswoman Iva Benson said the police department’s actions were “antithetical to a free press.”
“The Patriot Act was passed to make it easier to prevent deadly terror attacks, not help the government crack down on people who speak to reporters,” Benson said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on NY1 show “Inside City Hall” that the subpoena was a mistake.
“I think the effort to ensure that information that is not public is kept confidential — that’s fair. But subpoenaing a reporter in that fashion? I’m not comfortable with that. Freedom of the press really matters,” de Blasio said.
A portion of the subpoena for New York Post reporter Tina Moore's Twitter information
,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,journalist communications or work product,['DROPPED'],Twitter,tech company,Institution,subpoena,State,None,False,None,New York Post,,,, 2019-11-22 20:05:22.458030+00:00,2024-01-24 16:20:38.207669+00:00,Judge quashes subpoena of New York Post reporter,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-quashes-subpoena-new-york-post-reporter/,2024-01-24 16:20:38.082005+00:00,,LegalOrder object (41),,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,Susan Edelman (New York Post),,2019-01-07,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Veteran New York Post reporter Susan Edelman was subpoenaed on Jan. 7, 2019, in an ongoing lawsuit between a former New York firefighter and the department. A federal magistrate judge quashed the subpoena on Aug. 9, and a federal district court judge affirmed that decision on Nov. 12.
Michael Johnson, the plaintiff, alleges in his civil lawsuit filed in November 2016 that he was discriminated against at FDNY due to his status as an African American “priority hire” who joined the department in 2014. He was hired following a court order to remedy historically discriminatory hiring practices at FDNY. Johnson alleges that he was the subject of strategic leaks to the media intended to portray him as a coward who refused to fight fires.
Edelman was the co-author of a May 2015 New York Post story titled “Firefighters fear colleague who routinely flees fires.” The piece began, “He's a firefighter in name only. Michael D. Johnson won’t fight fires. Instead, he stays on the sidelines as his Engine Company 257 colleagues rush into burning buildings, FDNY insiders told the Post.”
The 2019 subpoena was issued demanding Edelman appear at a Jan. 29 deposition at the New York office of one of Johnson’s attorneys. After negotiations with Johnson’s attorneys and several extensions granted by the court, Edelman’s attorneys filed a motion to quash the subpoena on June 4.
Edelman penned an affidavit in support of the motion, in which she argues the importance of keeping the identities of her sources confidential. “My reporting for the Post includes investigating corruption, waste, and misconduct within government agencies in New York City,” she writes. “The municipal government sources who provide me information on these and other issues could be subject to serious professional discipline—or even lose their job—for speaking with me. It is therefore absolutely critical that my sources trust that I will maintain their confidentiality.”
Lawyers for Johnson argued in court filings that Edelman had waived her reporter’s privilege because she, in a 2015 phone call with one of Johnson’s attorneys, mentioned she was getting a call on another line from Jake Lemonda, a FDNY battalion chief. Edelman’s attorney, Robert Balin, disagreed, writing in a filing, “Ms. Edelman said nothing about the substance of any conversations she had with Mr. Lemonda, whether he provided her with any information, or if he did, whether any information he provided was used in—or even connected to—the Article.”
Vera M. Scanlon, a federal magistrate judge, granted the order quashing the subpoena on Aug. 9. The plaintiff’s counsel filed an objection to Scanlon’s order, writing that the judge “erred when she found that all of Edelman’s discussions with her sources were confidential” and that the “standard for non-confidentiality ought to apply.”
On Nov. 12, U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto affirmed Scanlon’s order granting Edelman’s motion to quash the subpoena. “Judge Scanlon properly exercised her discretion when she held that Edelman's sources and other newsgathering information with respect to the Article were confidential and that plaintiff did not overcome his burden to compel disclosure of Edelman's information,” she found.
A portion of the 2019 subpoena seeking information on confidential sources from New York Post reporter Susan Edelman.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,testimony about confidential source,['QUASHED'],None,None,Journalist,subpoena,Federal,None,False,[],,,,, 2018-11-22 00:29:37.096823+00:00,2023-03-06 15:24:18.900909+00:00,New York Post reporter punched while interviewing homeless man,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-post-reporter-punched-while-interviewing-homeless-man/,2023-03-06 15:24:18.769901+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Dean Balsamini (New York Post),,2018-10-10,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"On Oct. 10, 2018, New York Post reporter Dean Balsamini was punched in the head by a homeless man he was trying to interview, local newspaper the Villager reports.
Balsamini mentioned the assault in an Oct. 13 article for the Post, titled “Post reporter investigating vagrants gets punched in the head.” Balsamini identifies the man who attacked him as “Zeke,” one of a number of young homeless people who congregate near a fenced-off vacant lot in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. In the article, Balsamini derisively refers to Zeke as a 25-year-old “traveler” from Kansas with “farm-animal musk” and “Charles Manson eyes.”
According to Balsamini, Zeke willingly answered a few of the reporter’s questions but then became upset after seeing Balsamini write his name down in a notebook.
“He screamed that he ‘wanted his name back,’” Balsamini wrote.
Balsamini reported that John O’Connell, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s ninth precinct, personally called him after the attack.
On Oct. 16, O'Connell spoke about the attack at a community council meeting. According to the Villager, O’Connell said that other homeless people in the area regarded Zeke as “emotionally disturbed” and did not want to be associated with him. O’Connell also said that Balsamini did not require medical attention after the attack and did not press charges.
After Balsamini wrote about the attack for the Post, police sweeps and crackdowns on homeless encampments in the East Village increased. The NYPD also installed a light tower next to the vacant lot where Balsamini was attacked.