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 2023-12-08 19:26:07.869950+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:44.573800+00:00,Top state legal officers warn outlets against giving ‘material support’ to Hamas,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/top-state-legal-officers-warn-outlets-against-giving-material-support-to-hamas/,2024-03-14 16:11:44.488501+00:00,,,,Chilling Statement,,,,,,2023-12-04,False,Multiple,None,None,None,"
Over a dozen Republican state attorneys general sent a letter on Dec. 4, 2023, to the heads of The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times and Reuters warning them that employing allegedly Hamas-affiliated freelancers would be a state and federal crime.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was joined by her counterparts in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
“We, the chief legal officers of our respective States, also remind you that providing material support to terrorists and terror organizations is a crime,” the letter read.
The letter cited “reports” alleging that the outlets had employed freelance journalists who had ties to the armed Palestinian militant group and prior knowledge of its Oct. 7 attack against Israel as the basis for the accusations, but only included a hyperlink to since-debunked claims pushed by pro-Israel watchdog group HonestReporting.
The attorneys general wrote that hiring stringers, correspondents, contractors or other employees with connections to Hamas is a means of funding terrorists, and asserted that the outlets have a “long record of paying terrorists and possible terrorists for their work.”
The letter also highlighted that “material support” for terrorist groups — both a federal and state crime — can include “writing and distributing publications supporting the organization.” It did not elaborate on what would be considered support, potentially chilling any reporting that does not unequivocally condemn Hamas or unilaterally support Israel.
The attorneys general urged the outlets to reevaluate hiring practices and warned that they would be watching.
“We will continue to follow your reporting to ensure that your organizations do not violate any federal or State laws by giving material support to terrorists abroad,” the letter stated. “Now your organizations are on notice. Follow the law.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, also alluded to HonestReporting’s claims in a Nov. 9 letter calling on the U.S. Justice Department to open a national security investigation into the news outlets.
Similarly, a group of a dozen House Republicans, joined by two Democrats, sent a letter to Reuters citing the claims on Nov. 21, and asked the outlet how its freelancers became aware of the Oct. 7 attack and whether the journalists or Reuters had prior knowledge of the planned assault.
On Dec. 7, a group of 15 House Republicans sent their own letter to the AP, CNN, the Times and Reuters citing the claims. The letter asked that the media organizations provide detailed information on each of the six journalists identified by HonestReporting — including their nationalities and employment status — as well as communications, phone logs and financial records between the freelancers and the outlets prior to and since Oct. 7.
The four news outlets previously denied having any prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack and defended their reporting. The Times stood by its decision to work with freelancer Yousef Masoud, stating that there was no basis for HonestReporting’s claims. However, CNN and the AP suspended their relationship with freelance photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah, according to the Times. Eslaiah told the outlet that he had no prior knowledge of the attack and had no ties to Hamas.
Freedom of the Press Foundation, which oversees the operation of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, characterized HonestReporting’s claims as a “malicious disinformation campaign” that endangers the lives of journalists covering the war.
“It’s a virtual certainty that, despite HonestReporting’s about-face, its nonsense report will be cited to justify past and future attacks against journalists in what’s already by far the deadliest war for the press in modern memory,” FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern wrote.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, center, led a coalition of state attorneys general in a Dec. 4, 2023, letter putting four news outlets “on notice” that employing allegedly Hamas-affiliated freelancers constitutes “material support” for terrorists.
",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,[],"CNN, Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times",Israel-Gaza war,,, 2023-11-13 20:28:18.796967+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:02.217229+00:00,Senator calls on Justice Department to investigate news outlets,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/senator-calls-on-justice-department-to-investigate-news-outlets/,2024-03-14 16:11:02.138311+00:00,,,,Chilling Statement,,,,,,2023-11-09,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Sen. Tom Cotton on Nov. 9, 2023, called for the Justice Department to investigate multiple news outlets for their alleged employment of Hamas-affiliated journalists in the Gaza Strip.
The Arkansas Republican, in a letter to the U.S. attorney general, alleged that The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times and Reuters had employed freelance journalists who had ties to the armed Palestinian militant group and prior knowledge of its Oct. 7 attack against Israel. The senator cited unspecified “reports” as the basis for his accusations, in apparent reference to since-debunked claims pushed by pro-Israel watchdog group HonestReporting.
“Providing material support or assistance, including funding, to a terrorist organization such as Hamas is a federal crime,” Cotton wrote. “The Department of Justice must immediately open a national security investigation into these four media outlets to determine whether they or their leadership committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists.”
In additional letters to each of the news outlets, Cotton asked how many journalists employed by the news organizations were embedded with Hamas on Oct. 7 and how many are currently embedded. He also asked the outlets for an itemized total of their “funding” to Hamas and affiliates in Gaza over the past five years.
The four news outlets categorically denied having any prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack and defended their reporting. The Times stood by its decision to work with freelancer Yousef Masoud, writing in a statement that there was no basis for HonestReporting’s claims.
“Our review of his work shows that he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded,” the statement read. “We are gravely concerned that unsupported accusations and threats to freelancers endangers them and undermines work that serves the public interest.”
Both CNN and AP said, however, they have suspended their relationship with freelance photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah, according to the Times. Eslaiah told the outlet that he had no prior knowledge of the attack and had no ties to Hamas.
Freedom of the Press Foundation, which oversees the operation of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, characterized HonestReporting’s claims as a “malicious disinformation campaign” that endangers the lives of journalists covering the war.
“It’s a virtual certainty that, despite HonestReporting’s about-face, its nonsense report will be cited to justify past and future attacks against journalists in what’s already by far the deadliest war for the press in modern memory,” FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern wrote.
Cotton’s office did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment as of press time.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, seen here ahead of a briefing in Washington, D.C., in April 2023, wrote a Nov. 9 letter to the U.S. attorney general calling for an investigation into four news outlets for allegedly employing Hamas-affiliated freelancers.
",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,[],"CNN, Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times",Israel-Gaza war,,, 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 2022-11-22 17:45:37.591568+00:00,2024-02-29 19:09:47.718860+00:00,"Armed man enters New York Times building, requests to speak with reporter",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-with-sword-ax-enters-times-building-requests-to-speak-with-reporter/,2024-02-29 19:09:47.648088+00:00,,,,Other Incident,,,,,,2022-11-17,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"A man with a sword and an ax entered the New York Times building in Manhattan on Nov. 17, 2022, authorities said.
According to The Associated Press, New York Police Department officers responded to a call about a man with a knife in the Times’ lobby shortly after noon. Danielle Rhoades Ha, the head of external communications for the Times, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the man asked to speak with “a reporter” at the front desk, but didn’t specify a particular reporter, desk or beat.
When building security barred the individual from entering, he calmly handed over the weapons and waited for police to arrive, the AP reported.
The man also had a bag containing a small folding knife and mace canister, according to The New York Post. The unidentified man was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.
Rhoades Ha told the Tracker that the incident was resolved quickly and peacefully.
The NYPD did not respond to requests for further comment.
As part of a trial involving a former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, a subpoena demanding testimony from a former New York Times reporter was submitted in April 2022 then withdrawn on May 24, legal counsel for the Times confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email.
According to the Times, the subpoena called for Eric Lichtblau to testify in the trial of Michael Sussmann, who was charged with making false statements to the FBI in 2016 in his role as a Clinton campaign attorney.
Prosecutors say that Sussmann met with former FBI General Counsel James Baker and shared information about data that allegedly linked the Trump Organization to Alfa Bank, a Russian bank affiliated with the Kremlin.
Prosecutors say Sussmann wanted to prompt an FBI investigation into the connection so that journalists could report on it. Sussmann’s defense team says he approached the FBI to notify them that an article was already underway.
Lichtblau, then a reporter for the Times, co-authored an article in October 2013, six weeks after Sussmann met with the FBI, noting that officials had not been able to confirm a clear link between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.
Fox News reported that before the defense lawyers withdrew the subpoena, Lichtblau had initially agreed to testify during the trial but then filed a protective order to limit testimony to only interactions between him and Sussmann and bar any questions about other sources.
According to the Times, Lichtblau’s testimony could have “shed light on what he told Mr. Sussmann regarding how soon an article might be published before he sought the F.B.I. meeting.”
As many as 20 journalists were investigated by a secretive U.S. Customs and Border Protection division beginning in 2017, according to a December 2021 report by Yahoo News.
The division, known as the Counter Network Division, would identify and vet individuals, including journalists, by pulling their email addresses, phone numbers and photos from their passport applications and running the information through multiple government databases.
Journalists known to have been investigated by the division include then-Politico reporter Ali Watkins, Associated Press reporter Martha Mendoza and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, according to the Yahoo News report.
In June 2017, a CBP agent named Jeffrey Rambo contacted Watkins as part of the division’s efforts to combat forced labor, but uncovered in the process that she had had a relationship with James Wolfe, then-director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Rambo told Yahoo News the vetting procedures were standard and he was not a “rogue agent,” as he was described in a 2018 Washington Post article about his interaction with and investigation into Watkins.
“All these things are standard practices that — let me rephrase that. All of the things that led up to my interest in Ali Watkins were standard practice of what we do and what we did and probably what’s still done to this day,” Rambo told Yahoo News.
Rambo said the division’s investigation into Wolfe, referred to as Operation Whistle Pig, was focused only on whether the security director was leaking classified information to Watkins or other journalists. (Wolfe was subsequently arrested and charged with lying to the FBI about his interactions with reporters.)
According to an FBI counterintelligence memo, 15 to 20 national security reporters were also swept up in the investigation, Yahoo News reported. A memo from the National Targeting Center disclosed that the division reached out to reporters at HuffPost, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the AP.
“I’m deeply troubled at the lengths CBP and DHS personnel apparently went to try and identify journalistic sources and dig into my personal life,” Watkins told Yahoo News. “It was chilling then, and it remains chilling now.”
Rambo, his supervisor Dan White and his co-worker were ultimately investigated by the inspector general, which referred its findings to a federal prosecutor for possible charges of misusing government databases and lying to investigators, the AP reported. The Justice Department declined to prosecute them.
AP Executive Editor Julie Pace sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Dec. 13 urging the agency to explain why investigative reporter Mendoza was vetted through the government databases and identified as a potential confidential informant, the outlet reported.
“This is a flagrant example of a federal agency using its power to examine the contacts of journalists,” Pace wrote. “While the actions detailed in the inspector general’s report occurred under a previous administration, the practices were described as routine.”
Following Yahoo News’s initial report, Sen. Ron Wyden issued a statement to Yahoo News demanding that the DHS turn over the inspector general’s inquiry into the division’s operation. Wyden, a democrat, is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees CBP.
“If multiple government agencies were aware of this conduct and took no action to stop it, there needs to be serious consequences for every official involved, and DHS and the Justice Department must explain what actions they are taking to prevent this unacceptable conduct in the future,” Wyden said.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, democratic chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, issued a statement calling for DHS to release information about the unit.
“If true, this abuse of government surveillance powers to target journalists, elected officials and their staff is deeply disturbing,” Thompson said. “The Inspector General must provide this report to Congress to enable critical oversight work."
According to Yahoo News, Justice Department policies on acquiring information from journalists pertain to issuing subpoenas, not searching through information already in the government’s possession.
“CBP vetting and investigatory operations, including those conducted by the Counter Network Division, are strictly governed by well-established protocols and best practices,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a written statement to Yahoo News.
This is not the first report of CBP monitoring journalists: In 2019, NBC 7 reported that Department of Homeland Security officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan and had created dossiers on each individual.
In 2020, DHS compiled intelligence reports about the reporting and tweets of two journalists covering protests in Portland, Oregon, according to a Washington Post article. After the reports were made public, then-Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf ordered the office to cease all collection of information on journalists and announced an investigation into the reports.
A Westchester County Supreme Court judge issued an order on Nov. 18, 2021, barring The New York Times from soliciting, acquiring or further disseminating leaked internal documents from conservative group Project Veritas.
The prior restraint was issued as part of a pending libel suit Project Veritas filed against the Times in 2020, which accuses the newspaper of defaming the group in its reporting on a Project Veritas video that made unverified claims of voter fraud in Minnesota, the Times reported.
The judge’s order specifically references a Nov. 11, 2021 article about the Department of Justice’s investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley. The article also contained excerpts from memos prepared by a Project Veritas lawyer advising members of the group how to avoid breaking federal law while using questionable reporting methods.
In issuing the prior restraint, Justice Charles Wood ordered the Times to appear before the state’s Supreme Court on Nov. 23 to “show cause” — to explain or prove why the court shouldn’t grant Project Veritas’s motion for an order directing the newspaper to “remove all references to or descriptions of Plaintiff Project Veritas’s privileged attorney-client information” and “return and/or immediately delete all copies.” Until it does so, the order directs the newspaper to “cease further efforts to solicit or acquire” any materials prepared by the Project Veritas lawyer, effectively preventing the outlet from reporting on the group.
“This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the Times, wrote in a statement published by the outlet. “The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. That principle clearly applies here. We are seeking an immediate review of this decision.”
In a statement published by The Washington Post, Elizabeth Locke, an attorney representing Project Veritas in its suit against the Times, denied that the order amounted to a prior restraint, citing the fact that some of the materials had already been published.
Press freedom advocacy groups quickly refuted the assertion that the order was not prior restraint. Advocacy Director Parker Higgins of Freedom of the Press Foundation, where the Tracker is housed, noted the order not only restricts the Times from publishing further and requests that what has been published be pulled from circulation, but also bars the newspaper from engaging in routine newsgathering activities.
Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, also raised immediate concerns with the order.
“Prior restraints — which are orders not to publish — are among the most serious threats to press freedom,” Brown said in a statement. “The trial court should have never entered this order. If it doesn’t immediately vacate the prior restraint, an appellate court must step in and do so.”
A portion of the order granting a motion directing The New York Times to cease efforts to solicit, acquire or further disseminate leaked internal documents from conservative group Project Veritas.
",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,struck down,False,None,The New York Times,,,, 2021-08-02 17:28:23.685200+00:00,2023-07-13 19:58:12.686999+00:00,Former New York Times reporter’s phone records subpoenaed in defamation suit from ‘Unite the Right' rally,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-new-york-times-reporters-phone-records-subpoenaed-in-defamation-suit-from-unite-the-right-rally/,2023-07-13 19:58:12.553438+00:00,,LegalOrder object (140),(2021-08-18 00:00:00+00:00) Subpoena for former New York Times reporter’s phone records quashed,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,Jessica Bidgood (The New York Times),,2021-05-20,False,Charlottesville,Virginia (VA),38.02931,-78.47668,"Phone records belonging to former New York Times reporter Jessica Bidgood were subpoenaed on May 20, 2021, as part of an ongoing lawsuit stemming from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
Hundreds of white nationalists who had flocked to Charlottesville to protest plans to remove a Confederate statue were met by crowds of counterprotesters, Time Magazine reported in 2017, and the resulting violence led Virginia's governor to declare a state of emergency.
Plaintiff Brennan Gilmore alleged that after witnessing and filming the vehicular murder of anti-racism protester Heather Heyer during the Aug. 12 rally, he was subjected to a series of false articles and conspiracy theories and received numerous death threats against him and his family, The Daily Progress reported. He filed a defamation lawsuit against multiple defendants 一 including Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit, Alex Jones and his website InfoWars 一 in March 2018.
Hoft, as part of his defense, alleged that coverage of the rally was skewed by a vast conspiracy involving the press and government actors; he issued numerous subpoenas to non-party individuals and government and law enforcement agencies in an apparent effort to uncover the supposed conspiracy. Five additional journalists or media outlets were subpoenaed in the proceedings.
On May 20, 2021, Hoft subpoenaed Verizon, ordering the telecommunications company to produce “all phone records, documents, and/or logs, text message documents, phone contacts, phone photos, phone media, phone video, SUBSCRIBER INFORMATION, and CALL DETAILS for the period of March 1, 2017 through March 1, 2018.”
The subpoena, reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, listed multiple phone numbers of which at least one belongs or formerly belonged to Bidgood, and ordered Verizon to produce the requested documents by June 4.
Bidgood, who didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment, was working for the Times during the dates specified; she is now a reporter at the Boston Globe.
Charles Tobin, an attorney representing Bidgood, told the Tracker that the Times received word of the subpoena for Bidgood’s records on July 14. Tobin filed objections to the subpoena and a motion to quash the same day. According to that filing, by that date Verizon had already mailed records to Hoft’s attorney but Bidgood hoped that the company could take steps to stop their delivery.
The following day, however, Tobin filed a motion on Bidgood’s behalf requesting that the court order Hoft’s attorney to destroy the documents that had successfully been delivered.
“The subpoena did not mention Bidgood by name, however, and it did not otherwise alert Verizon that Bidgood is a journalist and that her telephone records are therefore privileged journalistic work product under the First Amendment,” the motion read.
“The court should therefore order Hoft’s counsel to treat Bidgood’s privileged phone records as ‘Recalled Information’ under the Protective Order and to immediately destroy them, which will preserve the status quo while the Court considers Bidgood’s motion to quash the subpoena and any response and reply thereto,” the motion said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Virginia Joel Hoppe granted the motion in part on July 16, directing Hoft’s counsel not to view the records and to secure the records in a sealed receptacle until the motion to quash is resolved.
Tobin told the Tracker that they were pleased with how quickly the judge acted to protect Bidgood’s records.
“The Attorney General of the United States just announced that the news media will no longer be subpoenaed for leaks investigations,” Tobin said, referencing recent revelations about Department of Justice subpoenas to multiple journalists and news organizations under the Trump administration. “It’s a giant step forward for the protection of reporters’ source materials and the protection of their relationships with sources. And examples like [Bigood’s] in civil litigation point out the need for greater protection under federal law by shield laws and by enforcement of First Amendment rights.”
Freelance photojournalist Joshua Rashaad McFadden, on assignment for The New York Times, said he was detained and hit by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.
The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.
McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other journalists stuck together as a group as police rushed the crowd.
“We're all literally huddled together in one area, and the police rushed in,” McFadden said. “They rushed the crowd and they detained us.”
The group included other photographers, TV news staff and reporters, McFadden said. He said the journalists were repeating “we’re press, we’re press!” Officers told the journalists “we don’t care” and ordered them to lie on the ground, he said.
McFadden said he was on the ground when one officer came over to him and ordered him to get up, then another officer came over and told him to get back down.
At that point, McFadden said, he was on his knees. He identified himself as a member of the press, he said, and asked the officers, “what do you want me to do?”
Then, McFadden said, another group of officers rushed and trampled over him, knocking him to the ground “like a football tackle.”
He said the officers started hitting him and hitting his camera. He said he was holding his phone in one hand, and felt an officer try to yank the device from him. McFadden said he didn’t want to appear to be confrontational, but he was concerned about losing his phone so he held onto it.
McFadden, who is Black, said a white photographer acquaintance came over and told the officers that McFadden was a journalist and that he worked with the Times.
After the other photographer identified him, he said, the officers allowed him to stand up. He showed them his press pass, which is issued by the National Press Photographers Association. McFadden said the officer told him, “anybody could have made that,” and asked to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car.
McFadden said it was clear that the officers weren’t going to allow him to go, but they were going to let the other photographer go. He said officers only allowed him to leave when the other photographer volunteered to escort him to his car.
He said he previously had similar experiences, including three days earlier in Brooklyn Center.
“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”
McFadden said the other photographer walked with him so she could help him navigate interaction with law enforcement.
“It's because she knew that at every kind of checkpoint they set up, they were going to either try to hold me or arrest or detain me, or I'll get a million questions if my credentials are real,” McFadden said. He said there was also a risk he could be shot at with rubber bullets while approaching officers from a distance. “If I'm with her I'm able to walk up to the group.”
As they were trying to leave the area, McFadden said, they came upon a checkpoint at a gas station where police had stopped a large number of journalists and were taking photographs of their credentials, IDs and faces. He said officers told the journalists the photographs would be entered into a database.
McFadden said law enforcement again asked him to see his license, and he told them it was in his car. He said that they were stopped at the gas station for about an hour.
McFadden said his shoulder was injured when he was tackled and hit. He also had bruises on his legs, adding to bruises he had gotten earlier in the week when he was hit with crowd-control munitions, and hit with sticks by law enforcement officers while in a car. McFadden said he sought medical attention for the injuries he accumulated through the week. He said he was told to take ibuprofen after he declined other medication, he said.
McFadden’s camera was damaged when he was tackled, he said. The body of the camera was scratched up and he said he needed to get some parts replaced. As a result of the two assaults, he also needed to get the lens repaired.
McFadden told the Tracker he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist.
He said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. MSP didn’t respond requests for comment by email and phone
McFadden was detained the same evening a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring MSP from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including the New York Times, sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
In response to the court order, MSP released a statement on April 17 that acknowledged troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
At least 15 journalists were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.
Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. According to state officials, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.
Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, was one of the journalists detained.
Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting the protest in the center of the intersection of Humboldt and 67th Avenues just after 9 p.m. when officers advanced on the crowd and ordered everyone to lie down on their stomachs.
“I did not get down. I kept photographing until finally an officer pepper sprayed me,” Nesheim said. “I was wearing a bulletproof vest, and eventually a State Patrol officer grabbed me by the front of the vest and used that to throw me on the ground.”
Nesheim said in addition to his body armor vest, which was labeled with “PRESS” on the front and back, he was wearing a helmet similarly labeled and press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.
“The [trooper] definitely understood I was a member of the press and was — I guess I would use the word ‘exasperated,’ with the fact I hadn’t just complied and gotten on the ground immediately before he threw me,” Nesheim said.
The force of his fall damaged the 70-200mm lens on one of his cameras, Nesheim said, causing the autofocus not to work properly and requiring repair. The officer ordered Nesheim to stay on his stomach, he said, which he did while continuing to take photos from that vantage point.
“I did stay on the ground, kind of on my side. I didn’t make any moves after that until another officer came in and got me up and started escorting me back to where they were processing the journalists,” Nesheim said.
Law enforcement had established a “media checkpoint” at a nearby Pump n’ Munch gas station, where members of the press had their faces, press credentials and IDs photographed before they were permitted to leave the area. Nesheim confirmed to the Tracker that he had to pass through the checkpoint before he could leave the area.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
“Journalists must be allowed to safely cover protests and civil unrest. I’ve directed our law enforcement partners to make changes that will help ensure journalists do not face barriers to doing their jobs,” the governor posted on Twitter after meeting with representatives of the media.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a statement from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The agency’s statement said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Joshua Rashaad McFadden, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for the New York Times, said law-enforcement officers hit him with batons as he covered a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11, 2021 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.
McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police got more aggressive with the crowd as the protest continued into the night, and that he heard law enforcement order press to leave the area. McFadden, who had been hit with projectiles the previous night, said he decided to leave.
He said he wasn’t able to go directly to his car because the street was blocked, so he walked in the opposite direction to a gas station up the street. He said he hesitated to walk to his car alone, and while he was at the gas station, he saw another photographer he recognized — freelance photojournalist Chris Tuite.
The two photographers saw someone with a car heading in their direction, McFadden said, and the driver offered to give them a ride to where McFadden’s car was parked.
Right after they got in the car, he said, a large number of law-enforcement officers started up the street. Police and National Guard vehicles also pulled into the area, he said.
Officers surrounded the car McFadden was in and beat on the windows with batons, he said.
“It almost seemed like the windows were going to break,” he told the Tracker.
He said the officers pointed their weapons at them. McFadden said he assumed they were loaded with rubber bullets, but that they looked like guns. McFadden, who was in the back seat with Tuite, said the officers were shouting at them to get out of the car, but it wasn’t possible because the vehicle was surrounded.
Officers dragged the driver of the car out, he said, and Tuite was pulled from the car. The Tracker has documented Tuite's assault here.
Then, McFadden said, two officers got into the vehicle — one into the driver’s seat and the other in the back next to him. He said the officers started hitting him with their clubs, striking him on his legs and hitting his camera, like they were trying to break it.
McFadden, who is Black, said he identified himself as a member of the press multiple times, but the officers didn’t stop.
When Tuite, who is white, then outside of the car, saw the officers in the car hitting McFadden, he told another officer that McFadden was a member of the press and a photographer for the New York Times.
McFadden said the officers then stopped and got out of the car. He said they tried to have him get out of the car on the opposite side from the other photographer, but McFadden objected because he saw police were making arrests on that side of the vehicle. He was able to exit the car next to Tuite.
McFadden said the officers checked his press credential, issued by the National Press Photographers Association. He said the troopers were skeptical, and said, “anybody could have made this.”
Officers told him they needed to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car because he didn’t want to lose it. He said the officers allowed him to leave when Tuite said he would walk McFadden to his car.
“I saw them hitting Josh with their batons, including his camera,” Tuite said. “He’s a Black male, and they trusted me more than him. It took me saying 10 times that he was media before they got off of him.”
In total, McFadden said, it was about 45 minutes from when officers began beating on the car windows until when he was let go.
McFadden said he believes he was targeted because he is a journalist. “It just seemed there was a certain amount of disdain for the journalists there.”
McFadden also said that in this April 13 incident, and when he was detained and hit again by law enforcement three days later, officers released him only after a white journalist vouched for him.
“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”
McFadden said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. He said officers from other law enforcement agencies were also present, though he wasn’t sure which ones. A coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota National Guard, were involved in the response to protests in Brooklyn Center.
The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment by email and phone.
McFadden said he had bruises on his legs from being hit. After he was tackled and hit by law enforcement again on Friday the 16th, he went to the hospital for treatment. He said he was given a tetanus shot because he had a cut on his hand.
The officers damaged his camera lens, which was “wiggly” and no longer fit correctly on the mount, McFadden said. He was able to continue using it through the week, but as a result of the damage sustained in the two incidents, he needed to get it fixed. He said he hadn’t decided whether he would file a complaint or take any other action related to the incident.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Joshua Rashaad McFadden, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for the New York Times, said he was hit with crowd-control munitions while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, early on the morning of April 12, 2021.
Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
As demonstrations continued late into the night, McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that law enforcement heavily used crowd-control munitions and chemical agents, like tear gas, on protesters and members of the press.
After midnight, in the early hours of April 12, he said he was standing with other journalists near the police station when a projectile hit him in his left thigh.
McFadden said the projectile burned a hole about four inches wide in his pants and left a powdery substance and brown singe marks on the fabric. He said his leg was badly bruised where the object hit him.
He didn’t know what type of projectile hit him. It may have been a flash-bang grenade or a tear-gas canister, because either can be hot, he said.
“It wasn't just a rubber bullet, I know that,” he said.
McFadden said he was hit with other projectiles on his legs as well, though none were as significant. He said he was wearing a helmet, and when he removed it later, he saw there was a mark on it that he believes came from some sort of projectile, though he wasn’t sure when he was hit.
McFadden said he was standing with a group of journalists who were clearly identifiable as members of the press at the time he was hit. He said he and other journalists were carrying large cameras. He said journalists in the group sometimes shouted out to identify themselves as press to law enforcement, though it was very loud.
He said he believed that he was targeted as a journalist, because he was near others who were obviously members of the press.
Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the response to protests in Brooklyn Center that night. Neither the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office nor the Brooklyn Center Police Department responded to requests for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, said he was deliberately pepper-sprayed by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center on April 12, 2021.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department one day after Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the city, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
After a 7 p.m. curfew took effect, tensions escalated between protesters and law enforcement, and law enforcement later issued dispersal orders and began using rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the Star Tribune.
Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests had been peaceful, and that there was no provocation in the moments before a trooper doused him in pepper spray.
“As they were trying to get people to move back, one officer reached forward and started pepper-spraying people,” Nesheim said. “He stopped and then saw me with the camera and lunged forward and peppered me right in the face. Thankfully I was wearing a full-face gas mask, which kept it out of my eyes, but it proceeded to burn a pretty good red ring around my face for the rest of the evening.”
Nesheim said he was wearing both a helmet and a body armor vest, which were labeled with “PRESS” on multiple sides, as well as press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.
In a post to Instagram accompanying some of his photos, Nesheim wrote, “Tonight I was pepper sprayed and tear gassed worse than I’ve ever experienced. Between a burning face and puking out of my gas mask a few times, here's what I managed to capture.
“I would love to say I am surprised by this violation of my rights, but sadly I find it to be par for the course,” he wrote.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
New York Times reporter Erin Schaff wrote that she was assaulted, one of her cameras stolen and the lens of a second broken by rioters as they stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
A riot broke out as supporters of President Donald Trump marched on the Capitol, swarmed the building and broke inside in an attempt to disrupt the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Reuters reported. At a noon rally held in front of the White House, Trump called on his supporters to protest the vote on the basis of unfounded claims of election fraud. According to Reuters, the building was breached at approximately 2:15 p.m.
Schaff, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote in an account published by the Times that she followed the noise of protesters on the first floor of the Senate side of the building.
Schaff recounted that the single Capitol Police officer guarding the ceremonial doors to the Rotunda was rushed by the crowd, forcing open the door.
“I ran upstairs to be out of the way of the crowd, and to get a better vantage point to document what was happening. Suddenly, two or three men in black surrounded me and demanded to know who I worked for,” Schaff wrote.
“Grabbing my press pass, they saw that my ID said The New York Times and became really angry. They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras. I started screaming for help as loudly as I could. No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them. They ripped one of my cameras away from me, broke a lens on the other and ran away.”
Schaff’s congressional press credentials were also stolen in the attack.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting multiple assaults, detainments and equipment damages from Jan. 6 events. Find those here.
The Department of Justice under then-President Donald Trump obtained a court order on Jan. 5, 2021, demanding that the tech company Google secretly turn over the email logs of four New York Times reporters as part of an ongoing leak investigation. The effort, though ultimately dropped, was continued under President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Times reported that two days after it was revealed that the DOJ had obtained the phone records of four reporters — Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt — a gag order was lifted that had prevented a Times attorney from disclosing an ongoing battle over the same reporters’ email records.
According to the lawyer, David McCraw, the Justice Department obtained a 2703(d) court order from a magistrate judge requiring Google, which operates the Times’ email system, to turn over the requested records without informing the newspaper of the disclosure. Google reportedly resisted, saying that to do so would violate the tech company’s contract with the Times.
Google didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment. A spokesperson for the tech company told the Times it doesn’t comment on specific cases, but is “firmly committed to protecting our customers’ data and we have a long history of pushing to notify our customers about any legal requests.”
On March 3, the judge permitted Google to inform McCraw of the effort but required him to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring him from telling Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet or other newsroom leaders: a move which McCraw told the Times was unprecedented. A federal court lifted the order on June 4.
Baquet condemned both presidential administrations in a statement to the newspaper.
“Clearly, Google did the right thing, but it should never have come to this,” Baquet said. “The Justice Department relentlessly pursued the identity of sources for coverage that was clearly in the public interest in the final 15 days of the Trump administration. And the Biden administration continued to pursue it. As I said before, it profoundly undermines press freedom.”
Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley told the Times that, under the Biden administration, the department “voluntarily moved to withdraw the order before any records were produced.” The Biden administration issued a statement that no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until it was lifted.
The revelation about the Times reporters’ email records was the latest in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration.
CNN reported that DOJ regulations for issuing media subpoenas were changed under the Obama administration in 2015 to require that the attorney general authorize any such legal orders related to journalists’ communications or work products. While the regulations mandated that the journalist and outlet be notified of the seizures, the policy set no clear timetable for notification.
On May 21, 2021, Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong,” The Associated Press reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ said on June 5 that it would no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP.
“This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States,” Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is—of course—in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again.”
FPF is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and manages its day-to-day operations.
When reached for comment concerning the newspaper’s push for an explanation from the Justice Department, Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed to the Tracker that publisher A.G. Sulzberger would be meeting with the attorney general and shared a statement from him ahead of that meeting.
“We’re pleased that Attorney General [Merrick] Garland has agreed to this meeting. We hope to use the meeting to learn more about how this seizure of records happened and to seek a commitment that the Department of Justice will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations,” Sulzberger said.
Garland met with executives from the Times, The Washington Post and CNN on June 14, and affirmed the planned policy changes. While Garland’s comments during the meeting were off the record, the Times reported that Sulzberger was encouraged by Garland’s statements but said he would continue to push the department until the outlets’ concerns were fully addressed.
The New York Times office in the Manhattan borough of New York City in 2020
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,journalist communications or work product,['DROPPED'],Google,tech company,Journalist,2703(d) court order,Federal,None,False,[],,Department of Justice,,, 2021-02-23 21:33:43.537347+00:00,2023-12-20 21:35:35.955828+00:00,New York Times barred from press briefing call on warrantless surveillance ruling,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-times-barred-from-press-briefing-call-on-warrantless-surveillance-ruling/,2023-12-20 21:35:35.852949+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2020-09-04,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"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.”
Mike Baker, Seattle bureau chief for The New York Times, said he was hit with less-lethal munitions, identified as paintballs, while covering a pro-Trump caravan that went through downtown Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 29, 2020.
Baker was covering the “Trump cruise rally,” which began at the Clackamas Town Center parking lot, about nine miles outside of Portland. Trump supporters were met with counterprotesters as they drove through the downtown, sparking confrontations, according to local news outlet KATU.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported online videos showing the “flag-adorned trucks driving through groups of protesters, firing paintball guns at crowds and deploying what appears to be pepper spray,” leading to “dangerous, tense confrontations.”
Baker was filming the pro-Trump caravan at the intersection of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Southwest Washington Street downtown when a man riding in the bed of a black pickup truck flying a Trump flag opened fire with a paintball gun.
“The person in the back of the truck just started shooting their paintball gun into the crowd, just kind of shooting indiscriminately at anyone,” Baker told the Tracker. He was hit by a paintball in the back of the shoulder as he was turning away, he said, adding that it caused bruising but no serious injury. Baker was wearing body armor with press markings at the time he was hit, he told the Tracker
Baker captured footage of the incident, which he posted on Twitter at 8:15 p.m. As pickup trucks adorned with Trump and American flags drive through the intersection, a counterprotester can be seen trying to light a Trump flag on fire and another extends their middle finger at the caravan. A clear liquid of some kind can be seen being sprayed towards the caravan from the anti-Trump crowd, as a man in the back of a pickup fires a paintball at Baker and other people gathered on the sidewalk. Then a man in the next pickup deploys a yellow-tinted chemical irritant.
Clashes. Trump people unload paintballs and pepper spray. They shot me too. pic.twitter.com/PwU5pZMLnV
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) August 30, 2020
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests that have broken out across the country in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Rubber bullets fired by law enforcement officers injured a photojournalist from a national media outlet covering a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Alyssa Schukar, who was on assignment for The New York Times, said she was hit in her left hand while documenting clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse that had continued past an 8 p.m. state of emergency curfew. In an effort to disperse protesters, officers fired pepper balls and tear gas, according to several press reports.
Schukar told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was struck as she stood to the side of the demonstration, about 30 yards from the protesters and an equal distance from the line of police. The bullet struck the base of her index finger, shattering the bone and causing fractures.
“I went straight to the medic area and then I had to go straight to the hospital, it was very obviously broken,” she said. Since then, Schukar has had two surgeries, and she is now in physical therapy.
Schukar said that law enforcement officers were firing from a narrow gap behind a barricade and that when she was hit, she was standing far away from protesters. Although she said she could not be certain whether she was deliberately targeted, “it feels a bit suspect to me.”
Schukar said she was wearing a helmet and goggles, but no body armor. She added that when she was struck, her hand was on top of her stomach, where she was carrying one of her cameras.
“These are highly trained law enforcement folks,” she said. “To me, it doesn’t make sense that they could [accidentally] hit me so squarely in the middle of my body.”
Schukar said she did not file a complaint with police, but legal counsel for The New York Times submitted a letter to police and to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department asking for an investigation into the shooting.
“It’s important this is on the record, because this is happening increasingly,” she said. As of late October the Times had not received a response, according to Schukar.
The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and the police department have not responded to requests for comment.
Protests in Kenosha started on Aug. 23, 2020, after police officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in front of his three children, leaving him paralyzed. Hundreds of people in Kenosha joined public protests against police brutality and while many demonstrations were peaceful, some buildings in the city were set on fire.
The night Schukar was hit by a rubber bullet, a group of armed vigilantes patrolled the streets of Kenosha. Later that night, two protesters were shot dead and another man was injured. A 17-year-old was arrested and now faces criminal charges for those killings.
Law enforcement officers stand guard on Aug. 25, 2020, after protests erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man two days before.
",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,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-08-14 14:38:22.823267+00:00,2021-10-06 16:23:35.814999+00:00,DHS compiles intelligence reports on two journalists covering Black Lives Matter protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dhs-compiles-intelligence-reports-two-journalists-covering-black-lives-matter-protests/,2021-10-06 16:23:35.750631+00:00,,,,Chilling Statement,,,,"Mike Baker (The New York Times), Benjamin Wittes (Lawfare)",,2020-07-30,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"The Department of Homeland Security has compiled intelligence reports about the reporting and tweets of two journalists covering protests in Portland, Oregon, according to a Washington Post article published on July 30, 2020.
The protests began at the end of May in response to footage of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked protests across the country against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Post reported that over the last week of July, the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis disseminated three reports that included information on New York Times reporter Mike Baker and Editor-in-Chief of the blog Lawfare, Benjamin Wittes, alleging that the journalists had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland.
The reports included summaries of tweets written by Baker and Wittes, screenshots of the posts and information about the amount of engagement the posts received on the social media platform.
Neither Baker nor Wittes responded to the Tracker’s emailed requests for comment.
Following the Post’s article about the reports, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf ordered the office to cease all collection of information on journalists and announced an investigation into the reports. The acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, Brian Murphy, has also since been reassigned, the Post reported.
A department spokesperson told the Post, “In no way does the Acting Secretary condone this practice and he has immediately ordered an inquiry into the matter. The Acting Secretary is committed to ensuring that all DHS personnel uphold the principles of professionalism, impartiality and respect for civil rights and civil liberties, particularly as it relates to the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
The production of these reports is consistent with the department’s aggressive tactics in Portland, sources told The Post, but such investigations are not intended to detail information about American citizens who have no connection to terrorist activity. Steve Bunnell, a former general counsel for the department, described the reports as “bizarre.”
Wittes posted a series of tweets detailing that it was not the sharing of his tweets and the department’s concern about leaks that troubled him.
“What is troubling about this story is that I&A shared my tweets *as intelligence reporting,* that is, an intelligence arm of the government filed a report on a citizen for activity at the heart of journalism: revealing newsworthy information about government to the public,” he wrote.
“I am not sure how my reporting of unclassified material constitutes any kind of homeland security threat that justifies the dissemination of intelligence reporting on a US person, particularly not one exercising core First Amendment rights and nothing more. I intend to find out.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Tear gas engulfs demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, on July 28, 2020. That same week, the activities of two journalists covering the protests and the federal response to them were the subject of reports by the Department of Homeland Security.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2021-01-20 17:10:16.182712+00:00,2021-10-05 20:03:24.035787+00:00,Federal agent hits New York Times reporter in the head while he was covering Portland protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/federal-agent-hits-new-york-times-reporter-head-while-he-was-covering-portland-protest/,2021-10-05 20:03:23.974283+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Mike Baker (The New York Times),,2020-07-21,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Mike Baker, Seattle bureau chief for The New York Times, was struck in the head by a federal officer while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, in the early hours of July 21, 2020.
Baker was covering one of the many protests that broke out in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The Portland protests, held nightly since late May, had grown more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in early July. A temporary restraining order on July 2 that barred the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists wasn’t expanded to include federal agents until July 23.
Demonstrations that began the night of July 20 stretched into the early hours of the next day, according to the Oregonian, as the “Wall of Moms” and other protesters confronted federal officers stationed at the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse downtown.
Not long after midnight, Baker was observing protesters try to pry protective plywood off of the federal courthouse when federal agents emerged from the building to confront the crowd. One agent came up from behind Baker and hit him in the back of the head, knocking him over.
At 12:31 a.m., Baker tweeted: “The feds came rushing out aggressively. Throwing people to the ground, tear gas, firing less-lethals. One ran at me and punched me in the head, knocked me to the ground. I’m ok.”
Baker also tweeted a video captured by livestreamer Eric Greatwood that shows a federal agent approaching Baker from behind before hitting him. Baker was wearing a gas mask and helmet and appeared to be standing away from the protesters when he was assaulted.
Things happened so fast last night, I wasn't quite sure the details of the federal officer hitting me. It looks like someone captured a bit at the end of this clip.
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 22, 2020
Out of personal curiosity, I'd welcome more footage if people have some.
To reiterate: I'm fine. Be back tonight. pic.twitter.com/0wE7YchZJr
Baker said he didn’t believe he was targeted as press. “I think they were just going towards the protest crowd and just kind of hit me along the way,” he told the Tracker.
Despite being struck in the head and knocked to the ground, Baker said he wasn’t injured.
The Department of Homeland Security, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, said in a statement that officers used pepper balls and tear gas to respond to an “assault” against the courthouse and law enforcement officers by rioters. DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incident involving Baker.
Sarah Jeong, an opinion writer for The New York Times and columnist for The Verge, said she was thrown down courthouse steps while reporting in Portland, Oregon, on July 21, 2021.
Jeong was covering one of the many protests that broke out in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The Portland protests, held nightly since late May, had grown more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in early July. A temporary restraining order on July 2 that barred the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists wasn’t expanded to include federal agents until July 23.
On the night of July 21, the “Wall of Moms” and thousands of other demonstrators converged on the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse downton for another night of confrontations with the federal agents, according to the local KPTV news station. When some individuals began pulling off the plywood blocking access to the courthouse shortly after 11 p.m., federal agents emerged from the building to clear the area.
Jeong was standing in front of the courthouse in an area that is elevated several steps above the sidewalk, she told the Tracker. Federal agents exited the courthouse and swept right to left, clearing the crowd of protesters in front of the building, she said.
Jeong, who was standing in the center of the crowd, began to slowly back up while holding up her press identification, she said. Her helmet was also clearly marked “press.” A federal agent then pushed her down the steps, she said, adding that she believes the agent shoved her while trying to arrest someone near her.
Jeong went fully airborne and landed on her back. Her backpack protected her from further injury, she said, but she had a bad bruise and suffered whiplash for a few days after the event.
Soon after she was pushed, at 11:19 p.m., Jeong tweeted, “Curious if anyone got video of feds throwing me down the steps of the courthouse?”
While Jeong doesn’t have direct footage of the push, she did find a video posted by another Twitter user showing the events leading up to the incident. About 19 seconds into the video, Jeong can be seen wearing a white helmet clearly marked “press.” She appears again briefly around 27 seconds into the video, on the elevated part of the courthouse, as an aggressive arrest is being made.
“It’s really hard for me to imagine that they didn’t know that they were pushing a journalist,” Jeong told the Tracker, but added that she isn’t sure if she was targeted as a member of the press.
“I was not that close to other people, I was clearly not a threat, I was holding up my badge, I was being very purposefully non-threatening,” said Jeong, who gave a declaration to the ACLU about the incident in support of a restraining order against federal agents. Since the restraining order was granted on July 23, her declaration wasn’t included in the suit.
The Department of Homeland Security, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, said in a statement that officers were “forced” to leave the courthouse to repel a “mob” of protesters. DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment on this incident.
New York Times reporter Simon Romero was taunted and threatened by a man armed with a military-style rifle while covering protests in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 2020.
The protest was organized to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oñate, a 16th- and 17th-century conquistador and colonial governor in New Mexico at the center of long-standing tension between Pueblo Native Americans and Hispanic people in the state. It was one in a surge of demonstrations across the country this summer calling for a reckoning with the country’s history of racial injustice, sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Romero told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that no Albuquerque Police Department officers were present when he arrived at the Albuquerque Museum in Old Town at around 5 p.m.
Armed members of a right-wing group called the New Mexico Civil Guard had stationed themselves around the statue. When he approached them the men told him explicitly that they were there to protect the statue and to keep it from coming down.
“The guys who were managing the protest were the militia,” Romero said.
Romero said he attempted to interview some of the men, and spoke briefly with one who gave Romero his name.
By around 6 p.m., about 300 people had gathered at Tiguex Park across the street for a prayer and speeches from indigenous activists and small-business owners, the Albuquerque Journal reported. They then crossed the street to the statue being guarded by the militia members.
Tensions escalated when some demonstrators climbed onto the statue, covered Oñate’s head with a cloth and someone brought out a pickaxe to aid in bringing the statue down.
“I was in the thick of the protest as it turned to mayhem and started to get very violent, and there were still no police while this was happening,” Romero said.
Romero told the Tracker that a militia member carrying a military-style rifle approached him and began taunting him.
“He said, ‘So you work for the Times, huh? Do you guys print anything that’s not lies?’ He started on this whole ‘fake news’ thing,” Romero said. “That in itself, facing that type of taunting from an armed, extremist, right-wing militia figure at a protest without any police presence is in my view extremely threatening.”
When the man let up, Romero said he approached the militia member who had spoken with him before and told him, “Listen, you better take care of your boy because this is unacceptable.” Romero said the man only responded with a smirk.
Shortly after, a member of the militia group got into a fight with the people attempting to pull down the statue. The group pushed the militia member into the street and followed after, the Journal reported. The man then pepper sprayed the group, pulled out a gun and fired around five shots, wounding one person.
The police arrived at the scene a few minutes after, using tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the protesters and detain individuals involved in the shooting. The man who had taunted Romero was among those militia members detained that night, Romero said.
Romero told the Tracker that the scene was too chaotic that night, so he didn’t give a statement to the police. The Albuquerque Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Journal reported that the crowd dispersed at around 9:30 p.m.
Romero said that despite years of covering paramilitary groups, ideological militias and violent street protests across Latin America, he had never felt more threatened than he did in Albuquerque that day.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in more than two decades of journalism up and down the Americas,” Romero said. “I take something like this extremely seriously and I think every journalist should, especially now that they’re being attacked and singled out at protests around the country.”
To read similar incidents from other days of national protests in this category, go here. A full accounting of incidents in which members of the press were assaulted, arrested or had their equipment damaged while covering these protests can be found here. To learn more about how the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit pressfreedomtracker.us.
Freelance reporter Marina Trahan Martinez was targeted with foam projectiles and tear gas fired by police while covering protests in downtown Dallas, Texas, on May 30, 2020.
The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Trahan Martinez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was reporting on assignment for The New York Times wearing a black shirt emblazoned on the front and back with the word “PRESS” in white uppercase letters.
This is what I was wearing pic.twitter.com/0YPSUIK2lN
— marina trahan martinez (@HisGirlHildy) May 31, 2020
She was standing on a street corner at around 8 p.m. in downtown Dallas, filming demonstrators who were kneeling, when a group of two to three dozen police officers in riot gear approached.
When someone in the crowd lobbed a water bottle in the direction of the advancing officers, one of the officers issued a warning on his bullhorn to protesters: “Leave the area or you will be arrested.” Seconds later, the police sent canisters of tear gas into the crowd, causing protesters to scatter.
Trahan Martinez was filming the scene on her phone from a corner opposite the action, when the officers repeated their call to leave, this time in her direction. “I shouted, ‘I’m with the press. I’m media. I’m just working. I’m here doing my job,’” she recounted. When they responded with another command to clear the area, Trahan Martinez reiterated that she was a member of the press, in case they had not heard her.
“They screamed back, ‘It doesn’t matter,’” she said. Then they fired a canister of tear gas that landed a few feet behind her to her left.
“They started shooting at me,” she said, recounting that dark blue foam less-lethal projectiles fell at her feet. None of them hit her. Trahan Martinez walked away and took shelter in the patio of a closed restaurant until she was able to reach safety.
Trahan Martinez, who has worked as a reporter in Dallas for 20 years and has plenty of sources inside the Dallas Police Department, described the experience as a jarring one. “This particular unit did not care who I was or what I was doing there,” she said.
Reached by the Tracker, Warren Mitchell, a spokesman for the DPD, wrote in an email that it was “challenging” to provide comment about the incident without hearing the details from Trahan Martinez. Mitchell invited the reporter to make a complaint with the department.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Police officers shoved, threatened and shot projectiles at two freelance journalists while they reported for the New York Times on protests in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, according to interviews with the journalists and videos of the incidents.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
Journalists Mike Shum and Katie G. Nelson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were reporting in the Fifth Precinct of Minneapolis for the Times as an 8 p.m. curfew came into effect.
As seen in a video from local ABC affiliate KSTP, a line of state police formed to the south of the station on Nicollet Avenue. “Please disperse or you will be arrested,” a loudspeaker blares. Within seconds of the warning, the police appear to use flash bang grenades and tear gas. They then begin to advance.
The video shows a line of State Patrol troopers, in maroon pants and helmets, and what appear to be Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in green pants and helmets approaching a group of journalists huddled on the side of the street. As previously reported by the Tracker, State Patrol troopers pepper sprayed the group at close range as the journalists identified themselves as press.
Nelson and Shum had gas masks, but a third person working with them didn’t, Nelson said, so she escorted this person to safety as Shum stayed to film.
Shum and the other journalists fled from the advancing police. Several journalists attempted to turn west off Nicollet Avenue on West 31st Street, but found themselves trapped in an alcove on the corner of a building with no exit. They could either go back into the tear-gas clouded street or try to climb over a wall, Nelson said.
NBC journalist and producer Ed Ou filmed inside the alcove, his head bleeding from an unknown weapon or projectile and his vision blurred by tear gas and pepper spray, he told the Tracker.
Ou’s video shows several journalists climbing over the wall as Shum rounds the corner, several officers right behind him. The officers appear to be wearing green and tan DNR uniforms. As Shum attempts to scale the wall with his large camera, an officer pushes him from behind.
Shum said he heard the officer order him to “get the fuck out of here,” before shoving him. “I was pushed hard enough where I sort of lost control and fell on my shoulder and arm,” he said.
He added he rolled through the fall and suffered superficial injuries as he tried to protect his camera and body.
L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole wrote in an account of the incident that an officer also “lifted me up onto the wall and I fell to the other side.” Cole, who said she suffered cornea damage from the State Patrol pepper spraying her at close range, was helped to the hospital by local residents.
DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said the department respects the freedom of the press but “disagrees with [the Tracker’s] characterization of events.” He didn’t specify why. Niskanen added he couldn’t comment further on the incident because it “may be subject to ongoing litigation initiated against the State of Minnesota by multiple media members.”
Nelson and Shum have joined a lawsuit seeking class-action status filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and state officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.
The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions. In a May 31 press conference, the Chief of the State Patrol, Col. Matt Langer, praised the law-enforcement effort during a dangerous and unpredictable night while also saying: “We are never perfect.”
Shum reunited with Nelson and they continued to report on the dispersal of protesters near the Fifth Precinct police station. About an hour later, the team was filming a couple of people approaching a police line with their hands up near a Kmart a few blocks from where Shum was shoved, Nelson said. A Minneapolis Police officer about fifty feet away pointed a projectile launcher at them, Nelson said.
Nelson said she yelled that they were press, adding there was no question they looked like journalists given their large cameras, ballistic helmets and protective vests.
In a video filmed shortly after that Nelson provided to the Tracker, Minneapolis police officers in a line start ordering people to move. Nelson can be heard warning Shum, “Mike, Mike, Mike, they’re gonna push us. Keep shooting Mike.”
Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on the incident. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”
Late into the night, Nelson and Shum were driving a couple of blocks off Lake Street on their way to 38th and Chicago, where protesters had created a memorial on the site of Floyd’s killing.
Nelson turned the car onto a road blocked by a police checkpoint, the journalists told the Tracker. Nelson said the police shined a bright light at them. Blinded, she slowed the car down. Nelson said she yelled that they were press through the open windows of the car.
Nelson said the police yelled “Go home” and “We don’t care” in response.
Nelson pulled a U-turn and drove away as the journalists heard the pinging of projectiles hitting her car. They said they believe the car was hit with pepper balls.
At around the same time, unidentified law-enforcement officers fired projectiles at the car of a television crew for France’s TF1 and arrested them, the Tracker previously reported.
It isn’t clear which law enforcement agency fired the projectiles at Nelson’s car. Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a dozen different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Freelance journalist Mike Shum looks back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct shortly before police push him over a wall on May 30, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,['DISMISSED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2021-10-14 15:04:06.378956+00:00,2024-02-15 20:42:01.314709+00:00,"Police tear gas, fire projectiles at journalist on assignment for New York Times",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-tear-gas-fire-projectiles-at-journalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times/,2024-02-15 20:42:01.139974+00:00,,,"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks, (2022-02-08 11:57:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing",Assault,,,,Katie G. Nelson (The New York Times),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Police officers shoved, threatened and shot projectiles at two freelance journalists while they reported for the New York Times on protests in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, according to interviews with the journalists and videos of the incidents.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
Journalists Katie G. Nelson and Mike Shum told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were reporting in the Fifth Precinct of Minneapolis for the Times as an 8 p.m. curfew came into effect.
As seen in a video from local ABC affiliate KSTP, a line of state police formed to the south of the station on Nicollet Avenue. “Please disperse or you will be arrested,” a loudspeaker blares. Within seconds of the warning, the police appear to use flash bang grenades and tear gas. They then begin to advance.
The video shows a line of State Patrol troopers, in maroon pants and helmets, and what appear to be Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in green pants and helmets approaching a group of journalists huddled on the side of the street. As previously reported by the Tracker, State Patrol troopers pepper sprayed the group at close range as the journalists identified themselves as press.
Nelson and Shum had gas masks, but a third person working with them didn’t, Nelson said, so she escorted this person to safety as Shum stayed to film.
Shum reunited with Nelson and they continued to report on the dispersal of protesters near the Fifth Precinct police station. About an hour later, the team was filming a couple of people approaching a police line with their hands up near a Kmart a few blocks from where Shum was shoved, Nelson said. A Minneapolis Police officer about fifty feet away pointed a projectile launcher at them, Nelson said.
Nelson said she yelled that they were press, adding there was no question they looked like journalists given their large cameras, ballistic helmets and protective vests.
In a video filmed shortly after that Nelson provided to the Tracker, Minneapolis police officers in a line start ordering people to move. Nelson can be heard warning Shum, “Mike, Mike, Mike, they’re gonna push us. Keep shooting Mike.”
Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on the incident. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”
Late into the night, Nelson and Shum were driving a couple of blocks off Lake Street on their way to 38th and Chicago, where protesters had created a memorial on the site of Floyd’s killing.
Nelson turned the car onto a road blocked by a police checkpoint, the journalists told the Tracker. Nelson said the police shined a bright light at them. Blinded, she slowed the car down. Nelson said she yelled that they were press through the open windows of the car.
Nelson said the police yelled “Go home” and “We don’t care” in response.
Nelson pulled a U-turn and drove away as the journalists heard the pinging of projectiles hitting her car. They said they believe the car was hit with pepper balls.
“I start coughing and it’s really hard to see. My eyes are watering. It felt very close to tear gas,” Nelson said. “I was just like, we gotta get out of here.”
At around the same time, unidentified law-enforcement officers fired projectiles at the car of a television crew for France’s TF1 and arrested them, the Tracker previously reported.
It isn’t clear which law enforcement agency fired the projectiles at Nelson’s car. Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a dozen different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.
Nelson’s car wasn’t damaged and the journalists were uninjured. However, Nelson told the Tracker on Aug. 13 that a doctor diagnosed recurring eye inflammation as a result of tear gas exposure.
DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said the department respects the freedom of the press but “disagrees with [the Tracker’s] characterization of events.” He didn’t specify why. Niskanen added he couldn’t comment further on the incident because it “may be subject to ongoing litigation initiated against the State of Minnesota by multiple media members.”
Nelson and Shum have joined a lawsuit seeking class-action status filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and state officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.
The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions. In a May 31 press conference, the Chief of the State Patrol, Col. Matt Langer, praised the law-enforcement effort during a dangerous and unpredictable night while also saying: “We are never perfect.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Nelson told the Tracker this Minneapolis police officer pointed a projectile launcher directly at her and her reporting partner, Mike Shum, on May 30, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-04-14 19:33:58.549517+00:00,2024-02-29 19:43:41.963134+00:00,Liberty University obtains trespassing warrants against two journalists,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/liberty-university-obtains-trespassing-warrants-against-two-journalists/,2024-02-29 19:43:41.852709+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2020-05-15),LegalOrder object (98),(2020-05-15 13:50:00+00:00) Criminal charges against two journalists dropped,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Subpoena/Legal Order",,,,Julia Rendleman (The New York Times),,2020-04-06,False,Lynchburg,Virginia (VA),37.41375,-79.14225,"Arrest warrants were issued on April 6, 2020, for two journalists after they visited Liberty University to cover the school's decision to invite students back to campus following spring break during the coronavirus pandemic.
Virginia Magistrate Kang Lee signed the misdemeanor arrest warrants, which were sought by the Liberty University Police Department against ProPublica's Alec MacGillis, who wrote a March 26 report about students who returned to the university's Lynchburg, Virginia, campus, and Julia Rendleman, a freelance photographer on assignment for The New York Times whose photos accompanied a March 29 story in the newspaper. A warrant was not issued for the author of the Times piece, Elizabeth Williamson, as university officials had not located eyewitnesses placing her on campus, University President Jerry Falwell Jr. told The Associated Press.
Falwell has faced criticism of downplaying the risk posed by the coronavirus and being slow to halt in-person classes at the school. Around 1,000 students remain on campus. In MacGillis' ProPublica piece, "What’s It Like on One of the Only University Campuses Still Open in the U.S.?" he describes many examples of students on campus not adhering to social distancing guidelines and students and faculty worried about their personal safety.
The decision whether to prosecute will be up to Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison, according to the AP. "Once I receive copies of the served warrants, obtain reports from the Liberty University Police Department, conduct any necessary follow up investigation, and thoroughly research the applicable statutes and case law, I will make a final decision about how to proceed," Harrison said in a news release. Under Virginia law criminal trespassing is a class one misdemeanor, carrying a sentence of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
"We have heard nothing about this warrant from either Liberty or any authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia," ProPublica President Richard Tofel wrote in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. "We have also still never heard any suggestion from Liberty that anything in our story was factually inaccurate. We continue to believe this was a story of significant public interest about the greatest public health crisis of our time."
Eileen Murphy, a Times spokesperson, decried the decision to seek a warrant for someone taking photos for a news story in a statement to the Lynchburg News & Advance. "We are disappointed that Liberty University would decide to make that into a criminal case and go after a freelance journalist because its officials were unhappy with press coverage of the university's decision to reopen campus in the midst of the pandemic," Murphy said.
Falwell announced the warrants in an April 8 appearance on the Todd Starnes radio show and accused the reporters of putting students at risk by coming onto campus from known hot spots.
"To us it's so hypocritical for them to come to a campus that is doing everything right — social distancing, take-out food only, protecting our students who have no place else to go and no classes — and to come on our campus from New York or Washington or wherever the hotspot is that they come from and put our students at risk," he said.
Falwell shared a letter with the Washington Examiner that Liberty University lawyers have sent to the general counsel of the Times seeking a retraction.
Liberty University has been roundly criticized by press freedom advocates for obtaining the warrants.
Katie Townsend, legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that journalists should not face retaliation or threats of criminal penalties for routine newsgathering.
“These arrest warrants appear to be intended to harass journalists who were simply, and rightly, doing their jobs — reporting on the impact of Liberty University’s decision to partially reopen during a pandemic — and to intimidate other reporters from doing the same type of reporting," Townsend said.
The Virginia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists also issued a statement, writing, “The journalists were reporting about a health crisis of public interest and importance, and doing so in a professional and responsible manner. By pursuing criminal charges, Liberty University has cast a chilling effect on newsgathering activities vital to a free and democratic society.”
The Washington Post editorial board weighed in on April 12, comparing the move against the journalists as a tactic favored by authoritarian strongmen abroad. "But it is more than a little jarring to see this tactic of criminalizing journalism being employed in the United States — and by a university whose name celebrates American freedom," the editorial said.
The AP also reported that a Liberty University campus security officer asked one of its photographers to leave campus and delete the photos he had taken there on March 24. After speaking to his supervisor, the photographer complied, a decision the AP now says was incorrect. “We don’t delete photos or any other material at the request of an individual law enforcement officer,” said Sally Buzbee, the AP’s executive editor and senior vice president. “We try to fight such orders legally.”
Portions of two trespassing warrants against a ProPublica reporter and a New York Times freelance photographer following coverage of Liberty University's decision to remain partially open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
",charged without arrest,Liberty University Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,[],,coronavirus,,, 2021-06-21 15:56:37.518168+00:00,2024-02-29 19:48:19.014597+00:00,Trump Justice Department secretly obtained records of 4 New York Times reporters,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-justice-department-secretly-obtained-phone-records-of-four-new-york-times-reporters/,2024-02-29 19:48:18.914656+00:00,,LegalOrder object (82),,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,"Matt Apuzzo (The New York Times), Adam Goldman (The New York Times), Eric Lichtblau (The New York Times), Michael S. Schmidt (The New York Times)",,2020-01-01,True,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"The U.S. Department of Justice informed The New York Times on June 2, 2021, that the agency secretly obtained phone records of four of the newspaper’s reporters during the Trump administration, the Times reported.
The Justice Department, now under President Joe Biden, sent a letter to the Times saying that in 2020 it had obtained phone logs spanning nearly four months of 2017 for multiple Times reporters — Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt — as part of a leak investigation. While the letter didn’t specify the subject of the investigation, according to the Times the four reporters were covering then-FBI Director James Comey’s handling of investigations into the 2016 election, and had published classified information.
Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told the newspaper in a statement: “President Biden has said this sort of interference with a free press will not be tolerated in his administration. We expect the Department of Justice to explain why this action was taken and what steps are being taken to make certain it does not happen again in the future.”
Goldman’s phone records also were seized in 2013 while he was reporting for The Associated Press, which helped spur reforms to the department’s policies on obtaining journalists’ records. Goldman didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
I don’t care who is president - Republican or Democrat - I will always try to inform the public.
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) June 3, 2021
“I don’t care who is president—Republican or Democrat—I will always try to inform the public,” Goldman wrote in a June 2 tweet.
CNN reported that DOJ regulations for issuing media subpoenas were changed under the Obama administration in 2015 to require that the attorney general authorize any such legal orders related to journalists’ communications or work products. While the regulations mandated that the journalist and outlet be notified of the seizures, the policy set no clear timetable for notification.
The revelation about the Times reporters’ phone records was the latest in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration. On June 4, a gag order was lifted, allowing Times attorney Dave McCraw to reveal that the DOJ also had attempted to obtain the four reporters’ email records in an effort that began in January 2021 and continued under the Biden administration.
On May 21, President Joe Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong,” the AP reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ announced on June 5 that it would no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP.
“This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States,” Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is—of course—in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again.”
FPF is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and manages its day-to-day operations.
When reached for comment concerning the newspaper’s push for an explanation from the Justice Department, Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed to the Tracker that publisher A.G. Sulzberger would be meeting with the attorney general and shared a statement from him ahead of that meeting.
“We’re pleased that Attorney General [Merrick] Garland has agreed to this meeting. We hope to use the meeting to learn more about how this seizure of records happened and to seek a commitment that the Department of Justice will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations,” Sulzberger said.
Garland met with executives from The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN on June 14, and affirmed the planned policy changes. While Garland’s comments during the meeting were off the record, The Times reported that Sulzberger was encouraged by Garland’s statements but said he would continue to push the department until the outlets’ concerns are fully addressed.
The White House announced that President Donald Trump plans to instruct federal agencies to not renew their subscriptions to The New York Times and the Washington Post, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 24, 2019.
Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told the Journal, “Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving—hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved.”
Grisham did not provide additional details, such as how many subscriptions the federal government currently has, how the White House intends to compel agencies to cancel the subscriptions and when the order would take effect.
The decision came less than a week after Trump said during an interview on Fox News that the Times wasn’t wanted in the White House anymore.
“We’re going to probably terminate that and the Washington Post. They’re fake,” Trump added.
Neither the Times or the Post communications departments responded to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment.
Jennifer Jacobs, a senior White House correspondent for Bloomberg, tweeted that the White House followed through with the President’s threat and that Oct. 22 was the last day physical copies of those newspapers were delivered.
White House says it’s going to do things and doesn’t always follow through, but NYT and WaPo subscriptions were ended.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 24, 2019
Some aides privately expressing regret. But doubt Trump will stop reading either.
WaPo *online* subscription remains.
WH still gets WSJ, Hill, NY Post etc. pic.twitter.com/1H3lzdBtYM
Jonathan Karl, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told The Associated Press, “I have no doubt the hardworking reporters of The New York Times and Washington Post will continue to do quality journalism, regardless of whether the president acknowledges he reads them. Pretending to ignore the work of a free press won’t make the news go away or stop reporters from informing the public and holding those in power accountable.”
Axios reported that sources familiar with the president’s iPhone confirmed that Trump has not deleted the Times and the Post’s cellphone apps, maintaining digital access to the two newspapers.
Trump’s “fake news” rhetoric has trickled down to the local level. The same day the White House said it would instruct federal agencies to not renew subscriptions, county commissioners in Florida denied local librarians’ request for funds to provide their roughly 70,000 patrons with digital access to the Times. The Citrus County Chronicle reported that when the request came before the commission, the officials laughed aloud.
Commissioner Scott Carnahan also called the newspaper “fake news.”
“I agree with President Trump,” he said. “I will not be voting for this. I don’t want The New York Times in this county.”
All five members of the commission agreed to reject the library’s request. The Chronicle reported that it spoke to four of them and commissioners Brian Coleman and Chairman Jeff Kinnard cited concerns that approving the request would lead to requests for subscriptions to more “radical publications.” Coleman also said, “I support President Trump. I would say they put stuff in there that’s not necessarily verified.”
President Donald Trump speaks to the media in this 2018 file photo. Trump said in a Fox News interview recently that he wanted to keep specific newspapers out of the White House.
",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,[],"The New York Times, The Washington Post",Donald Trump,,, 2019-08-28 13:14:38.705067+00:00,2023-07-05 13:29:41.395065+00:00,New York Times reports that conservative operatives are compiling dossiers on journalists,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-times-reports-conservative-operatives-are-compiling-dossiers-journalists/,2023-07-05 13:29:41.295621+00:00,,,,Chilling Statement,,,,,,2019-08-25,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"According to a New York Times article published on Aug. 25, 2019, a “loose network of conservative operatives” supporting President Donald Trump have compiled dossiers containing potentially embarrassing information on journalists from outlets deemed “hostile” to the president.
The Times said it spoke with four people familiar with the operation. According to these sources, operatives dig through the social media histories of personnel employed at top news outlets—regardless of their rank or actual influence—in order to publicize information that could discredit the outlet as a whole.
“The operation has compiled social media posts from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and stored images of the posts that can be publicized even if the user deletes them, said the people familiar with the effort,” The Times wrote. “One claimed that the operation had unearthed potentially ‘fireable’ information on ‘several hundred’ people.”
The Times credited this operation with releases about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The Times, writing that the information was publicized “in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his reelection prospects.”
Sources pointed to Arthur Schwartz as a central player in the operation. Schwartz, a conservative consultant who is a friend and informal adviser to Donald Trump Jr., has previously tweeted alluding to knowledge of or asserting involvement with such dossiers on journalists.
I’m done bashing CNN for now. They should spend some time reflecting on the hypocrisy of their attacks on Trump admin folks — attacks that are usually based on old tweets & Facebook posts. I’m told that there are files on 35+ CNN reporters that will be deployed if they don’t.
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) October 8, 2018
The Times acknowledged in its article that it is not possible to independently assess the claims about the quantity or potential significance of the dossiers, and that “some involved in the operation have histories of bluster and exaggeration.”
However, as The Times wrote, the release of information about the operation and its goals may itself be an effort to intimidate journalists or their employers.
“Some reporters have been warned that they or their news organizations could be targets,” The Times wrote, “creating the impression that the campaign intended in part to deter them from aggressive coverage as well as to inflict punishment after an article has been published.”
The White House press office told The Times that neither Trump nor anyone in the White House was involved in or aware of the operation, and that neither the White House nor the Republican National Committee was providing it funding.
Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement that using these techniques as a warning against and retribution for pursuing coverage critical of the president escalates the president’s campaign against a free press.
“They are seeking to harass and embarrass anyone affiliated with the leading news organizations that are asking tough questions and bringing uncomfortable truths to light,” Mr. Sulzberger said in The Times. “The goal of this campaign is clearly to intimidate journalists from doing their job… The Times will not be intimidated or silenced.”
A New York Times article says that conservative operatives are compiling dossiers on the social media history of some journalists in an effort to discredit them or their media organizations.
",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,None,The New York Times,,,, 2018-09-07 21:05:37.997528+00:00,2023-11-22 21:01:43.999168+00:00,Trump tells DOJ to investigate author of anonymous op-ed criticizing him,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-tells-doj-investigate-author-anonymous-op-ed-criticizing-him/,2023-11-22 21:01:43.880173+00:00,,,,Chilling Statement,,,,,,2018-09-07,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"President Donald Trump called for the Department of Justice to investigate the author of an anonymous op-ed within his administration, and said he was considering taking action against the New York Times for publishing it.
On Sept. 5, 2018, the Times published an opinion column titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The anonymous author claimed in the op-ed that he was part of a group of administration staffers who tried to “resist” Trump’s impulsive decisions.
In an editor’s note, the paper said that the person who wrote the op-ed was a “senior administration official” whose identity was known to the Times but who had wished to remain anonymous.
Shortly after the op-ed was published, Trump said on Twitter that the newspaper should reveal the author’s identity to the government.
Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
On Sept. 7, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wanted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to direct the DOJ to unmask the identity of the author. Trump said that this was a national security imperative.
“I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was, because I really believe it’s national security,” Trump said.
"For somebody to do this is very low, and I think, journalistically and from many different standpoints, and maybe even from the standpoint of national security, we'll find out about that," he added.
In a statement, the Times said that any such investigation by the DOJ would be a “blatant abuse of government power.”
“We’re confident that the Department of Justice understands that the First Amendment protects all American citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power,” the paper said. “The president’s threats both underscore why we must safeguard the identity of the writer of this Op-Ed and serve as a reminder of the importance of a free and independent press to American democracy.”
Trump also said that he is looking into potentially taking legal action against the Times for publishing the op-ed, according to reports from multiple news outlets.
Trump has frequently vowed to take legal action against news organizations whose coverage he finds unfavorable, but he has not followed through on the vast majority of these threats.
In 2016, New York Times reporter Frances Robles was subpoenaed to testify in the murder trial of Conrado Juarez, whom Robles interviewed in jail in 2013. Robles fought the subpoenas, but the New York Court of Appeals — the highest court in the state — upheld the subpoenas on a technicality in a ruling on June 27, 2018.
If Robles refuses to comply with the subpoena, she could be held in contempt of court and put in jail.
In October 2013, Robles conducted a jailhouse interview with Conrado Juarez, who had been charged with the murder of “Baby Hope,” a four year old found dead in a picnic cooler in 1991. Although Juarez had confessed to the murder to police, he told Robles that police had coerced him into confessing. The day after the interview, the Times reported that Juarez claimed that his confession to police had been coerced.
In early 2016, Robles was subpoenaed to testify about her interview with Juarez and to hand over her reporter’s notes from the interview. Robles was subpoenaed to testify at a pre-trial hearing to determine admissibility of Juarez’s statements to law enforcement.
Robles moved to quash the subpoenas.
According to the New York State Constitution, a reporter can only be compelled to disclose non-confidential information if it is “critical or necessary” to the case and not available from any other source.
On April 13, 2016, the court quashed the subpoena, ruling that Robles’ testimony was not “critical or necessary” to the pretrial hearing because the prosecution already had a videotape of Juarez’s confession and access to the police and prosecutor that obtained it. The court also noted that compelling Robles’ testimony would open the door to lines of questioning beyond published material during cross examination.
After the pretrial hearing, the prosecution tried to subpoena Robles to testify during Juarez’s criminal trial. Robles again moved to quash the subpoenas, but this time, the trial court ruled against her. In August 2016, the trial court formally upheld the subpoenas, ruling that her testimony was “critical or necessary” to the case that the prosecution wanted to make about Juarez’s confession during the trial.
Robles immediately appealed the trial court’s decision. In October 2016, the First Department appeals court reversed the trial court’s decision, finding that the prosecution had not shown that Robles’ testimony was so “critical or necessary” that it could override her reporter’s privilege not to testify about her sources.
The prosecution then asked the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York state, to review the First Department appeals court’s decision, and the New York Court of Appeals agreed to do so.
The prosecution wanted the New York Court of Appeals to find that Robles’ testimony was in fact “critical or necessary” to the case and the First Department appeals court was wrong to reverse the trial court’s original decision forcing Robles to testify. Robles’ attorneys wanted the New York Court of Appeals to uphold the First Department appeals court’s decision and ensure that journalists in New York state cannot be compelled to testify in court about her conversations with sources.
“Ms. Roles has testified that most sources in jail would not speak with her if they came to believe ‘that the prosecution could successfully compel [her] to testify’ about their conversations,” Robles’ legal team wrote in a brief to the New York Court of Appeals. “Permitting prosecutors to enforce subpoenas like the one in this case would ‘fundamentally diminish’ Ms. Robles’s ‘practical ability to gather the news…’ and would in turn diminish the public’s knowledge about claims of mistreatment by indigent individuals caught up in the criminal justice system.”
In the end, the New York Court of Appeals did not rule on whether or not Robles’ testimony was necessary to the case. Instead, in a controversial 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that Robles was not technically allowed to appeal the trial court’s original decision, so the First Department appeals court’s ruling was completely moot.
The New York Court of Appeals did not actually say that the trial court’s decision to uphold the subpoenas was correct, just that Robles was not allowed to appeal it.
But it hardly matters to Robles. Since she’s not allowed to appeal the trial court’s decision to uphold the subpoenas ordering to testify, that decision stands.
If she refuses to testify, the trial court could find her in contempt of court and order her jailed until she agrees to testify.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press (a partner organization of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker) criticized the Court of Appeals decision.
“The protections of a shield law are meaningless unless a reporter can appeal an erroneous trial court ruling,” RCFP executive director Bruce Brown said in a statement. “Today’s decision leaves important substantive protections for journalists under New York law without the means to enforce them. A reporter should not have to risk going to jail for contempt in order to trigger appellate review of her rights.”
On Feb. 13, 2018, the Department of Justice notified New York Times journalist Ali Watkins that it had seized years of her phone and email records. Since Watkins was only informed after the fact, she had no way to challenge the seizure.
Watkins is a national security reporter at the Times, who previously worked at BuzzFeed, Politico, and McClatchy. In February, she received a letter from the Justice Department, informing her that it had obtained her customer records and subscriber information from Verizon and Google.
Those records, known as “metadata,” include details of each and every call, text message, and email that she sent between 2014 or so, when she was still an undergraduate intern, and December 2017. The metadata does not include the actual content of her calls and emails, but does include the recipient of each call and email, the duration of each call, and the timestamp of each message.
The Justice Department seized Watkins’ records as part of an investigation into her confidential sources. Between 2014 and late 2017, Watkins was romantically involved with James Wolfe, the director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Justice Department began an investigation of Wolfe in connection with the leak of classified information to Watkins and other reporters. In December 2017, FBI agents interviewed Wolfe about his contacts with reporters, including Watkins. Federal investigators also approached Watkins around the same time, but she refused to speak with them.
In February 2018, a grand jury indicted Wolfe on charges of lying to federal investigators, in connection with statements he allegedly made during the December interview. The indictment accuses Wolfe of making false statements about the extent of his contacts with reporters, including Watkins. It also accuses him of making false statements about disclosing sensitive information to Watkins and another reporter.
Wolfe has not been indicted on charges of leaking classified information — to Watkins or any other reporters — and Watkins told her editors at the Times that he was not a source of classified information for her.
The seizure of Watkins’ phone and email records is the first (publicly-known) instance of the Justice Department obtaining a journalist’s communications records since Trump took office.
In 2013, during the Obama administration, it was revealed that the Justice Department secretly obtained access to a Fox News reporter’s private email account, and to months of phone records belonging to the dozens of Associated Press reporters, in an attempt to identify journalists’ sources.
After public outcry, the current Justice Department implemented voluntary guidelines in 2015. These guidelines direct the Department of Justice to only subpoena journalists for information as a last resort and require the attorney general to personally approve any subpoena of a journalist or news organization.
The guidelines also instruct the department to provide news organizations of advance notice of subpoenas and records requests related to journalism, so that the news organizations have a chance to fight the subpoenas in court before they are carried out. The guidelines specifically state that the journalist should be given advance notice, “unless the Attorney General determines that, for compelling reasons, such notice would pose a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security, or present an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm.”
Watkins and The New York Times were not given advance notice or the opportunity to challenge the seizure in court. A Justice Department spokeswoman told the Times that the department “fully complied” with its internal guidelines when seizing Watkins’ records.
The Trump administration has floated the idea of modifying the internal guidelines but so far has not done so. According to the Times, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein told a group of journalists on June 6, 2018 that the guidelines remained in effect.
A New York Southern District judge ruled on Aug. 10, 2017, that the author of a New York Times article would have to testify under oath in connection to a lawsuit filed against the newspaper.
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin filed a defamation suit against The New York Times alleging that the newspaper knowingly published false and misleading information about her in an editorial article published in June 2017. The editorial connected Palin’s rhetoric with the 2011 mass shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and at least 17 others. The Times quickly issued a correction and issued an apology on Twitter.
Twelve days after the editorial was published, Palin sued The Times in federal court. Palin said in the lawsuit that The Times’s response “did not approach the degree of the retraction and apology necessary and warranted by The Times’s false assertion that Mrs. Palin incited murder,” The Times reported.
The Times filed a motion in July 2017 seeking to dismiss the case. Southern New York District Court Judge Jed Rakoff issued an order on Aug. 10 for the author of the editorial to testify, stating that it was necessary in order for him to determine whether to grant The Times’s motion, the newspaper reported.
David McCraw, deputy general counsel for The Times, said the witness would be James Bennet, the newspaper’s editorial page editor who had introduced the statements cited in the lawsuit during the editorial process.
At a hearing on Aug. 16, Bennet testified that his intention was not to blame Palin for the 2011 shooting. “I did not intend and was not thinking of it as a causal link to the crime,” Bennet said under oath.
Rakoff dismissed the case on Aug. 29, saying that Palin’s complaint failed to show that the mistakes in the editorial were made maliciously. The “actual malice” standard requires public officials show that news organizations knowingly published false information or acted with “reckless disregard for the statement’s truth or falsity,” according to the Digital Media Law Project.
Rakoff said in his judgment, “What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected.”
“Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not,” Rakoff wrote.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin filed a defamation suit against The New York Times for an editorial it published in June 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,None,The New York Times,,,, 2017-08-02 06:11:40.032611+00:00,2023-12-21 21:05:30.375079+00:00,Reporters excluded from press briefing,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-excluded-press-briefing/,2023-12-21 21:05:30.259671+00:00,,,,Denial of Access,,,,,,2017-02-24,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"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