Election-related free press violations, 2017-present

The role of a free press in our democracy is prominently on display during coverage of campaigns and elections. But as journalists hold the powerful accountable, they are sometimes at risk of assault, arrest or other press freedom violations.

Beginning with the launch of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database in 2017 — coinciding with the inauguration of President Donald Trump — we’ve cataloged more than 100 election-related press freedom incidents using the tag “election.” Year-specific tags, like “Election 2016,” “Election 2020” and “Election 2024,” give us a deeper understanding of the threats to journalists during these times.

We took a closer look at the situations in which those press violations occur and those instigating them, to better understand the risks faced by journalists covering election cycles in the U.S.

Among the biggest takeaways:

• Most incidents take place at protests, as is also the case with nonelection violations.
• The vast majority of the violations take place in presidential election cycles, specifically November of election years and January of inauguration years.
• More than half of the incidents are assaults.
• Press violations happen throughout the U.S., although there is a concentration in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital.
• Private individuals are responsible for twice as many assaults against journalists as law enforcement.

Here’s an in-depth look at these trends in our election-related data.

Tracker data consistently shows that protests are dangerous events for journalists to cover. Protests related to political campaigns and elections are no exception: Nearly three-quarters of all election-related press freedom violations occurred at protests, and almost all of those violations involved assaults or arrests of journalists.

In one of the first press freedom violations recorded by the Tracker, independent reporter Aaron Cantú was arrested while he covered protests at Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration.

During the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., more than 20 journalists were assaulted or had their equipment damaged by the angry mob on the grounds. Among them, Associated Press photojournalist John Minchillo was dragged through the crowd and independent journalist John Harrington was assaulted at least seven times — he was maced and struck by a chair and a pole, among other items.

In August of that year, three journalists were assaulted at a far-right “summer of love” protest in Portland, Oregon, including one who was maced.

Press freedom violations also occur when candidates speak at rallies. They date back to 2017 at Donald Trump rallies, and include when 17 Arizona Republic journalists were exposed to tear gas or pepper spray while covering anti-Trump protests in Pheonix, and multiple instances of journalists assaulted at or near Trump rallies. One press freedom violation was recorded in 2021 at a Joe Biden rally: A student journalist in Long Beach, California, was covering a pro-Trump counterprotest when he was surrounded by a group of people who demanded he delete all his photos.

“I worry about what ripple effects this is having on journalism as a whole,” the student journalist, Abel Reyes, told the Tracker at the time. “How do you expect someone to go into journalism if they can’t even get through student journalism without something like this happening?”

Election-related free press violations are cyclical: Most happen in presidential election cycles with spikes in November, when elections are held, and January, when inaugurations are held.

In January 2017, there were 13 election-related press freedom violations, all connected to the inauguration. They included five journalists who were assaulted while covering inauguration protests in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Nine journalists were arrested while covering the inauguration and protests against it. (These include two journalists, Evan Engel of Vocativ and independent journalist Shay Horse, who were arrested with excessive force, and so were categorized as both arrested and assaulted.)

Another wave of 30 press freedom violations happened in November 2020, all of them at election protests. The 19 assaults range from freelance journalist Eric Thomas, who said he was threatened and had his phone knocked from his hand by “antifa security” wearing all black in downtown Washington, D.C., to documentary filmmaker Lance Bangs, who was pushed by law enforcement officers while covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. Both occurred on Nov. 4, the day after Election Day. There were also 11 arrests, including three journalists in Minneapolis who were caught up in a “kettle” roundup on a highway.

In January 2021, there were another 30 incidents, all occurring on Jan. 6. Most of them, 23, happened during the Capitol riot. Four of the others took place in Olympia, Washington, where a man was charged with spraying two journalists with a chemical irritant and threatening others. A photojournalist was also pepper sprayed while covering a protest in Utah.

Only one of the election-related press freedom violations in those months wasn’t at a protest, when the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., banned journalists during inauguration week in 2017.

Given the heightened hostility against the press around presidential elections — and our belief that candidates’ treatment of journalists while running for office gives us insight into how they may behave when they become elected officials — the Tracker has also undertaken special accountability projects for each of the years leading up to the 2020 and 2024 elections, to collect and catalog reports of press freedom aggressions by candidates and their teams running in federal elections.

• Explore the 2024 election blog
• Explore the 2020 election blog

About half of all election-related press freedom violations through July 2024 are assaults, most of which happened at protests. Among those assaulted were videographer Vishal Singh, who was reporting on clashes between protest groups on Oct. 31, 2020, when he was attacked by a Beverly Hills police officer, and journalists for the Wall Street Journal and broadcaster 1010 WINS who were shoved by police at a protest near the Stonewall Inn in New York City on Nov. 5, 2020.

Ten journalists were assaulted at events that weren’t protests. In one such incident, Greg Gianforte, then a Republican congressional candidate, “body-slammed” reporter Ben Jacobs while he attempted to interview the candidate at his campaign headquarters in Montana. Gianforte, who won his election, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and agreed to a settlement with Jacobs that included donating $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That donation became the seed money to launch the Tracker.

Nearly a quarter of the incidents were arrests. Again, many of these occurred at protests, including the cases of three journalists who were detained on Jan. 6, 2021. In all three cases, the journalists — two from The Washington Post and one independent journalist — were detained and released without being charged.

Four of the arrests involved the unnecessary use of force. For example, on Oct. 28, 2017, journalist Mike Stark was reporting on the Virginia gubernatorial campaign when police told him to stay away from the Republican candidate’s campaign van. When he declined, saying he was a journalist covering the campaign, he was thrown to the ground with five officers on top of him, who punched him in the legs. He was left with bruises and scrapes.

Outside of protest incidents, the most common election-related free press violations are subpoenas and legal orders — some including the criminal cases that followed the Jan. 6 riots and others involving litigation related to Trump and the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case.

The highest number of election-related press freedom violations since 2017 (48) occurred in Washington, D.C., the center of American government. Half of those incidents (23) took place during the Capitol riot.

But it’s important to note that election-related press violations take place across the country, from Alaska — where Anchorage Daily News photojournalist Loren Holmes was assaulted while reporting a story about political sign vandalism — to Florida — where a candidate’s ad touted crowd-control munition use against the press (he won and is now a congressman). The problem is a national one, from coast to coast, and not limited to big cities.

In fact, a notable number of election-related press freedom violations happened in state capitals,. In one such incident, Salt Lake Tribune photojournalist Rick Egan was pepper-sprayed in the face by a demonstrator upset that he was documenting a protest at the Utah State Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A closer look at the 65 election-related assaults from 2017 through July 2024 reveals that in more than 60% of incidents, the attackers were private individuals. Many of these happened during the Capitol riot, but they also include the assaults of three journalists during the Million MAGA March in November 2020 and a broadcast reporter who was struck by a woman attending a 2023 mayoral forum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Law enforcement officers were behind about a third of those assaults, all but one of which happened at protests. Five of those assaults coincided with arrests of the journalists.

Gianforte, mentioned earlier, is a rare case of a politician instigating the attack (he is the only one in our database as of July 2024). But some cases involve politician’s staff members, who are recorded in our database as public figures. In one, a campaign official for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore shoved a Fox News cameraman. In another, a CNN correspondent was pushed by a senator’s aide in the Senate chamber as the Capitol riot happened outside.

This special section was first published on Aug. 2, 2024.