Photojournalist arrested, camera damaged by Chicago police during DNC

Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was arrested by Chicago Police Department officers on Aug. 20, 2024, while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest planned to coincide with the nearby Democratic National Convention. Law enforcement also confiscated her press credentials and cracked her camera lens.

A small gathering of protesters, unaffiliated with and more militant than other groups that had organized larger demonstrations earlier in the week, converged around 7 p.m. outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago’s West Loop section. The demonstrators and police, who far outnumbered them, clashed repeatedly. The protesters were later ordered to leave the area and police began arresting them, Block Club Chicago reported.

Other journalists besides Fedorova were among the dozens detained, according to the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. CBS News reported that Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said three journalists were arrested for not complying with officers’ orders when police began moving in to arrest protesters who had attacked police.

Independent photojournalist Josh Pacheco, one of those arrested, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the scene was chaotic, with officers issuing conflicting, often inaudible commands to the crowd, and pushing people onto the sidewalk, which was already crowded with police bicycles. Pacheco said that members of the press were caught between protesters and police as officers tried to keep demonstrators out of the roadway and intersections.

Amid the chaos, Fedorova was arrested. Journalists Talia (Jane) Ben-Ora and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel both reported on social media that at the time of her arrest Fedorova was wearing Chicago–issued press credentials, which the police confiscated, and that her camera lens was cracked by the police.

Fedorova’s attorney Steven Baron confirmed to the Tracker that Fedorova was “swept up in the mass arrest and detained for many hours at the Area 3 Chicago Police headquarters.” She was released the following morning and her press credentials were returned to her later in the day.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Chicago police returned Fedorova’s credentials after NPPA and the journalists’ attorneys notified them “that such seizures were improper.”

Osterreicher also said that in advance of the DNC, he had offered the Chicago Police Department a training on interacting with the press similar to one he gave the Milwaukee Police Department before the Republican National Convention in July.

“They told me that they had been providing First Amendment training and they didn’t need anything from NPPA,” Osterreicher said. “Given the events of last night, I would have to say that that alleged training was an abysmal failure.”

The DNC’s Public Safety Joint Information Center confirmed that Fedorova had been cited for disorderly conduct — failure to obey police. It did not respond to an additional question about why she was arrested.

“Olga and the others were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for simply doing their jobs as reporters,” Baron told the Tracker. “We are disappointed that the City of Chicago chose to sweep the First Amendment under the rug with its heavy-handed tactics against working journalists.”