first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2021-10-21 16:25:41.843515+00:00,2021-10-21 16:26:14.693392+00:00,Freelance journalist questioned about journalism at Portland airport,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-questioned-about-journalism-at-portland-airport/,2021-10-21 16:26:14.640930+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Sergio Olmos (Freelance),,2021-10-18,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"
Freelance journalist Sergio Olmos said he was subjected to secondary screening and questioning about his journalistic credentials while re-entering the United States in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 18, 2021.
Olmos, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote on Twitter shortly after 7 p.m. that he “went through an extended security check” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after landing at Portland International Airport.
Just went through an extended security check at CBP at PDX where the officer asked, with notepad in hand, where I went to journalism school.
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) October 19, 2021
I said it was none of his business, and so out came my underwear from my backpack.
“The officer asked, with notepad in hand, where I went to journalism school,” Olmos wrote. “I said it was none of his business, and so out came my underwear from my backpack.”
In a subsequent tweet, Olmos said a CBP officer searched his bag for approximately an hour with a supervisor watching, and refused to provide Olmos his name when asked. It was not immediately clear from Olmos’s posts whether he plans to file a complaint with the CBP Office of Internal Affairs.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented nearly 50 instances of journalists stopped at the border for secondary screening, asked intrusive questions about their work or been subjected to searches or seizures of their electronic devices. Find all instances of border stops here.
Two journalists were assaulted by an individual while documenting an anti-lockdown protest at the Oregon Capitol in Salem on Dec. 21, 2020.
KGW8 reported that far-right group Patriot Prayer had organized the demonstration at the Capitol, where lawmakers had convened for a special one-day session to address bills related to COVID-19 and wildfire relief.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos tweeted at 1:15 p.m. that police had already declared it an unlawful assembly and officers in riot gear were stationing themselves about a block from the Capitol. Olmos, who declined the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment, posted pictures and videos in subsequent tweets showing individuals gathered around the building’s west-side entrance. Some can be seen using poles and their legs to break a pair of glass doors.
Brian Hayes, a photojournalist for the Statesman Journal, told the Tracker that he’d been taking photos of this scene shortly before 1:30 p.m. when one of the men — whom Hayes identified as Albany resident Jeremy Roberts — noticed him.
Hayes said that Roberts had grabbed a 10-pound weight being used to hold down a tent outside the Capitol and was swinging it toward the glass door when the two locked eyes.
“He acted like he was actually going to throw [the weight] at me, thought better of it, dropped it and then jumped down, got in my face and pushed me around,” Hayes said.
In a video posted by Olmos, Roberts — who can be seen in a camouflage-print hoodie and black baseball hat — appears to shove and yell at Hayes, who attempts to walk away from him with his arms held up. A second man appears to run toward Hayes and shoves him back. When Hayes again attempts to walk away from the men, the second man appears to shove and punch Hayes; a third man, who had been standing to the side, shoves Hayes as well.
Hayes can be heard shouting, “I’m getting out of here!” The third man again shoves Hayes, who catches himself against the wall of the Capitol. Others in the crowd can be heard shouting, “See ya, buddy!”
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) December 21, 2020
Hayes said a right-wing livestreamer eventually reached him, wrapped his arm around him and led him out of the area. Hayes noted that he was wearing a press pass around his neck and was carrying his professional camera. The Tracker has documented his assault here.
A few minutes later, Hayes said he was standing with two other reporters approximately 50 to 100 feet from the demonstrators when another individual approached and started threatening them. Olmos captured part of that interaction and what followed.
“As we’re standing there … Jeremy comes back over and he’s still pretty keyed up and he gets in my face and threatens to beat me up,” Hayes said. In the footage, Roberts can be seen positioning himself nose-to-nose against Hayes, saying, “You took a picture of me.”
“At that point I decided, ‘Not worth it,’ and walked away to deescalate the situation,” Hayes said.
As Hayes looked back a few minutes later, however, he said he saw Roberts lunge at Olmos and tackle him to the ground.
Here is two clips: this man lunges toward me.
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) December 21, 2020
Second clip if after I’m tackled, I get up to walk away. pic.twitter.com/ESaa0BJDS1
“I bolted over there to check on Sergio and make sure he was all right,” Hayes said, “and I got him out of there.”
Hayes said both journalists then left the area and walked a block away to where Oregon State Police had set up a police line.
The Statesman Journal reported that both journalists spoke to police about the assaults and gave officers a description of the assailant. A warrant was issued for Roberts’ arrest after an OSP trooper submitted a probable cause statement testifying that they had personally seen Roberts kicking and shattering a door to the Capitol.
KGW8 reported that Roberts turned himself in to law enforcement on Dec. 27. Roberts faces charges of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, assault, harassment and probation violation.
The OSP did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos was pushed by an officer into a tree, according to his social media posts, while he was covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, early on the morning of Sept. 27, 2020.
Olmos was documenting one of the many protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists. Olmos provided a declaration in support of the class-action lawsuit involving a previous incident.
On Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, The Oregonian reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command. After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m.
Videos posted on social media into early the morning of Sept. 27 show police pushing many people who were marked as “press.
Olmos captured footage of officers pushing journalists. He tweeted a video at 12:24 a.m. showing police officers pushing a crowd up a street, writing that OSP and PPB officers were pushing journalists, protesters and legal observers with batons.
Immediately after, he tweeted, “This reporter is pushed into a tree.”
The video posted with the tweet shows police pressing people along a street. An officer in riot gear can be seen pushing the back of someone with a camera in a vest labeled “press.” The Tracker couldn’t identify the journalist.
Then another officer can be heard in the video saying, “Go, go, go, get moving!” After Olmos replies, “I’m press,” the camera abruptly shakes and continues to record as it hits the ground, looking up the trunk of a tree. When Olmos leans over to pick up the device, his black vest, labeled with “press” in white letters, is visible.
This reporter is pushed into a tree pic.twitter.com/mXP5Ar1pLN
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) September 27, 2020
Olmos didn’t respond to a request for comment.
OPB news director Anna Griffin retweeted Olmos’ video, noting that the enforcement actions against a journalist violated the temporary restraining order in the ACLU case. “I’d also love to hear elected officials explain why a reporter from my organization was subject to violence at the hands of law enforcement when judges have made it very clear this is not acceptable,” she wrote.
Afterwards, the ACLU called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate police treatment of journalists, The Oregonian reported.
Gov. Brown tweeted on Sept. 27 that she asked the individual law enforcement agencies to investigate any allegations about the use of force against members of the press or public. In a statement on behalf of the three agencies, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that video had been taken of several incidents involving force, which would be reviewed to determine whether any officers violated law enforcement policies, according to The Oregonian.
A spokesperson for the PPB declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for the OSP said they weren’t aware of the incidents.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos wrote that he was hit with paintballs fired by a right-wing activist while they were covering confrontations between protesters in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2020.
Clashes erupted after more than 100 far-right protesters, including members of the extremist group the Proud Boys and supporters of then-President Donald Trump, gathered outside the Justice Center for a “Back the Blue” rally on Aug. 22, the Washington Post reported.
Hundreds of counterprotesters amassed in opposition. Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement had been held in Portland daily for months, sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Olmos posted on Twitter at 6:32 p.m. that while he was being shot with a paintball by a right-wing protester he pointed to his press pass, but the man continued to shoot paintballs.
In a video Olmos posted with his tweet, a man wearing a black helmet can be seen firing a paintball gun into the crowd amid clashes between far-right groups and opposing protesters. At one point in the video, several paintballs can be seen flying past Olmos’s camera as he films.
Olmos did not respond to requests for comment.
In September, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office filed multiple assault charges against a man, who was arrested for allegedly attacking people with paintballs and mace at two protests, including the one on Aug. 22. The indictment against Alan Swinney alleges that on Aug. 22 he used a paintball gun to cause physical injury, pointed a revolver at a person and unlawfully discharged “mace or a similar substance” toward another person. The charges do not name any of the alleged targets.
In October, a judge denied a motion for Swinney’s release, and as of March 2021, he was still being held in prison, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department. Swinney's lawyer, Eric Wolfe, did not respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos said on social media that a Portland police officer hit him with a baton while he covered protests in the city on Aug. 16, 2020.
The protests were among many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland had targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The city agreed to a preliminary injunction in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work.
Protesters gathered outside the Penumbra Kelly building, where Portland police declared a riot at 11:57 p.m. on Aug. 15 and deployed crowd control munitions, according to news reports. Shortly after midnight, Olmos was documenting hundreds of demonstrators marching toward the Multnomah County’s Sheriff’s Office in southeast Portland. In a video posted to Twitter at 12:34 a.m., Olmos is hit with a baton and repeated calls to move can be heard. “Police bull rush, two officers run on the sidewalk and use butons [sic] to push press, including this reporter,” his tweet reads.
Olmos didn’t respond to requests for comment. When reached by email about this incident the PPB declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Freelance journalist Sergio Olmos said he was struck by crowd-control munitions fired by federal law enforcement officers during a protest in Portland, Oregon,on July 24, 2020, despite a fresh court order barring federal agents in the city from harming members of the press covering protests.
Portland had been experiencing daily protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The presence of federal law enforcement in Portland in July intensified the city's regular protests and the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland became a nightly flashpoint. A temporary restraining order from July 2 that barred Portland police from harming or impeding journalists was expanded to include federal agents on July 23. Despite the expansion of the temporary restraining order, the following day numerous journalists were hit with crowd-control munitions in the vicinity of the federal courthouse as protesters again gathered there. Some said they believed they were targeted.
The Department of Homeland Security, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to a request for comment. In its “Portland Riots Read-out” DHS said one federal officer was injured during the protest, which began the night of July 23 and went through the morning of July 24.
“No injuries to protestors or rioters have been reported” the statement added. It didn’t mention any injuries to journalists, despite reports some reporters were hurt.
Olmos said he was struck in the leg with what he described as “some kind of flash bang” while filming the protest at the federal courthouse.
In a video Olmos uploaded to Twitter at 1:13 a.m., sparks can be seen flying above the journalist before a canister tumbles in front of him and a bang is heard.
Some kind of flash bang goes off on my legs, it hurt enough that I had to walk off for a bit, but didn’t burn through my sambas. I’m good pic.twitter.com/5A0po4jDhO
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 24, 2020
“Some kind of flash bang goes off on my legs, it hurt enough that I had to walk off for a bit, but didn’t burn through my Sambas. I’m good,” he wrote on Twitter.
Later, after he left downtown Portland, Olmos shared a picture of small blood spots on the back of his leg writing: “must have burned through my pants.”
Olmos didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos was shoved by a police officer while covering a protest in downtown Portland, Oregon, in the early morning hours of June 6, 2020.
Olmos was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. 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.
In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class action suit the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon filed against the Portland Police Bureau in June. The city agreed to a preliminary injunction in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work. Olmos is a plaintiff and provided a declaration in support of the suit.
Olmos was covering a protest at the Multnomah County Justice Center that began the evening of June 5 and stretched into the next morning. Shortly after 11 p.m., he tweeted that the PPB had declared an “unlawful assembly.”
Tear gas pushed the protesters further into the downtown, according to a tweet Olmos posted at 11:41 p.m. Ten minutes later, Olmos posted an image of an email from a police spokesperson urging the media to “leave the area please for your safety.” In the tweet accompanying the image, Olmos wrote, “This reporter is staying.”
After midnight, the crowd returned to the Justice Center and was soon dispersed by police yet again. Olmos gets shoved by an officer using a baton while leaving the area. “This reporter is shoved by police, I try to vocalize my moments and tell police officer I’m behind him and blocked,” he tweeted at 1:27 a.m,
The accompanying video shows Olmos filming two police vans from across the street. “I’m going this way,” Olmos can be heard saying to an officer. “Hey, I’m behind you.” Another officer approaches and shoves Olmos with his baton, then points a can of tear gas at him. The officer gestures for him to follow the path of the sidewalk, which appears to have been rerouted for construction. “I didn’t see that, I’m going,” Olmos can be heard saying.
At 4:15 a.m., Olmos posted footage of the incident from another angle. “I vocalize my movements, telling two police officers I’m behind them. I think the sidewalk is closed and I’m stuck. I call out to police to let them know. Police officer shoves as I explain,” he wrote in the post.
Olmos also tweeted a photo of himself marked as “press” and wearing a press pass around his neck.
“He had his press pass clearly visible,” the ACLU court filing said. “Nevertheless, the police attacked him with a baton.”
Olmos didn’t respond to a request for comment. The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing the continuing ACLU litigation.