Journalist arrests surge in 2024 amid Israel-Gaza war protests

While revelers and protesters alike gathered near New York City’s Times Square on Dec. 31, 2023, a freelance reporter rang in the new year from a holding cell 10 blocks away.

Roni Jacobson was attempting to cover a pro-Palestinian demonstration for the New York Daily News when she said she bumped into a rookie officer and was quickly arrested. She was released after nearly 24 hours in custody when the charges against her for obstruction of government function and disorderly conduct were dropped.

Jacobson’s arrest — the final detainment of a journalist documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in 2023 — was a particularly bad omen for the year that followed.

In 2024, journalists were arrested or detained by police at least 48 times, more than during the previous two years combined. It’s also the third-highest number of arrests since the Tracker began cataloging press freedom violations in 2017.

More striking statistics: Nearly 90% of those arrests took place around Israel-Gaza war protests. And nearly half were at the hands of New York City police.

Any year with sustained national protests will see the numbers spike; 2024 was no exception.

Indeed, the Tracker has consistently found that protests are the most dangerous location for journalists in the United States: Four out of every five arrests (as well as assaults) of journalists since 2017 took place at demonstrations.

By contrast, the number of journalist arrests unrelated to protests in a given year has remained relatively consistent, with between five to 13 journalists detained each year since 2017.

It was protests in response to the Israel-Gaza war that caused this year’s uptick. They began in the final months of 2023, and saw four journalists — including Jacobson — arrested while covering demonstrations in Arizona, New York and Utah.

Then, as demonstrations continued into 2024, journalists were arrested or detained 42 times at protests taking place across the country, from Oregon to New Hampshire, Texas to Tennessee.

Even the five election-related arrests, in a year characterized by a contentious presidential election, were at protests at least partially if not entirely focused on the Israel-Gaza war. That includes the three journalists arrested by Chicago police at protests around the Democratic National Convention in August.

But the highest spike came in late April through May, after Columbia University students erected an encampment on its Manhattan campus and called for a ceasefire. The protests inspired similar demonstrations nationwide, with students occupying campus buildings or erecting encampments to demand that administrations divest from weapons manufacturers and Israeli-owned companies.

The Columbia protests were also the site of the year’s largest detainment of journalists. On April 30, at least six journalists were confined in buildings on campus or forced off the premises while New York City Police Department officers cleared a building that had been occupied by protesters.

In addition to instances where multiple journalists were detained at the same time, multiple journalists were themselves arrested or charged multiple times.

Two photojournalists — Josh Pacheco and Olga Fedorova — were each detained four times this year while documenting protests in New York City and outside the Chicago DNC.

Fedorova called it “a dubious distinction,” adding that “it can make it seem like we have the propensity for getting arrested.”

Pacheco agreed, noting that it has led some to question their journalistic legitimacy.

“I don’t want to be perceived like this, especially by my peers,” Pacheco said. “I want them to see this and think, like, ‘Oh shit, that can happen to me.’”

Both Pacheco and Fedorova, with three of their four arrests taking place in New York City, blamed police tactics within the NYPD.

Pacheco told the Tracker that under the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former NYPD captain, Pacheco believes there has been “a perfect storm for increased police violence, especially at protests and especially targeting journalists.”

“The tactic is to take the eyes and the helping hands first, before getting to the protesters,” Pacheco said.

Indeed, nearly half the arrests of journalists in 2024 were at the hands of the NYPD. While the majority of those taken into custody had charges dropped within a month, more alarming to press freedom advocates was the use of “catch-and-release” tactics.

For instance, both Pacheco and Fedorova were assaulted and arrested and their equipment damaged on May 7 while documenting NYPD officers clearing a student encampment at Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology. But then the journalists were released from police headquarters in the early morning of May 8 and informed that their arrests had been voided.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that the journalists should not have been arrested in the first place.

“While the NPPA is glad that some common sense prevailed by the NYPD not charging these two photographers with any crime, we are very concerned that they are perfecting ‘catch-and-release’ to an art form,” Osterreicher said. “The fact that they took two photojournalists off the street, preventing them from making any more images or transmitting the ones they already had on a matter of extreme public concern, is very disturbing.”

Neither the mayor’s office nor the NYPD responded to requests for comment.

But covering protests was far from the only routine newsgathering for which journalists were arrested or charged in 2024.

This year, a pattern continued of criminally charging journalists for standard journalistic practices. The Tracker’s 2023 arrest report highlighted the trend — which Tracker Managing Editor Kirstin McCudden referred to as “testing the fences” — of punishing journalists for ordinary acts, such as asking questions of public officials, publishing leaked information and documenting breaking news in the field.

Last year’s analysis highlighted the case of Catherine Herridge, who was facing potential charges for refusing to identify the sources behind reporting she did while at Fox News. In 2024, that possibility became a reality. On Feb. 29, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper held her in contempt and ordered that she be fined $800 a day until she complies. The fine was stayed during an appeal of the ruling — ongoing as of this report.

Meanwhile, Tim Burke, whose home and office were raided in May 2023 as part of a criminal probe, was also charged in 2024. This February, the Justice Department indicted him on 14 felony counts alleging conspiracy, wiretapping and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He is still fighting the allegations.

While prosecutors and judges followed through on those threats, a “fence” in California that had remained relatively untested for several years — policing of press coverage at sweeps of homeless encampments — was challenged again in 2024.

The issue became a flashpoint in 2021, peaking with the detentions of 19 journalists in a single night while they were documenting a cleanup operation in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park.

The following year, the Tracker reported on a federal ruling halting a city ordinance in nearby Fresno that would have allowed cordons around similar operations, after First Amendment advocates raised concerns over journalists’ access.

But the barrier was tested again in 2024: While attempting to cover encampment sweeps in LA, investigative reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray was repeatedly threatened with arrest. On Oct. 17 he was detained. Though he was released without charges, another journalist — Yesica Prado — was charged with allegedly remaining in a “safe work zone” and interfering with public employees while covering a sweep in Oakland in September. The charges were dropped on Dec. 4.

“Threats of arrests definitely have a chilling effect,” Ray told the Tracker following his arrest. “And I can’t do my job to the best of my ability if I’m in handcuffs.”