Chilling Statement

Total cases	42

Vice President’s office reportedly threatens censure over tweet

April 30, 2020

Vice President Mike Pence’s office reportedly threatened to take punitive actions against a Voice of America reporter for a tweet …

Illinois mayor threatens journalist for taking pictures, video on public street

March 26, 2020

The mayor of an Illinois village threatened a reporter with assault and called the local sheriff to intervene in newsgathering …

Tennessee lawmaker introduces bill to declare CNN, Washington Post ‘fake news’

January 29, 2020

A Republican State Representative in Tennessee filed a joint resolution declaring CNN and The Washington Post “fake news” for introduction …

State Department removes NPR reporter from official trip

January 27, 2020

In apparent retaliation for an NPR reporter’s interview with Mike Pompeo, the State Department removed a different NPR reporter from …

State agency sends cease-and-desist letter to NBC journalists

January 24, 2020

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families sent a cease-and-desist letter to an NBC reporter and producer on Jan. 24, …

Indiana governor sends cease-and-desist letters to news outlets following investigative report

November 29, 2019

On Nov. 29, four days after Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting published a lengthy investigative piece into injuries …

Congressman Nunes alleges CNN, Daily Beast ‘committed crimes’ in reporting, says will sue

November 24, 2019

California Congressman Devin Nunes said that he plans to sue CNN and The Daily Beast for defamation during an interview …

White House plans to instruct federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to two major news outlets

October 24, 2019

The White House announced that President Donald Trump plans to instruct federal agencies to not renew their subscriptions to The …

More Incidents

How we track Chilling Statements

Selected public threats made to reporters and media organizations by U.S. politicians and other public figures, which can have a chilling effect on journalism.

FEATURED STORY

From ‘fake news’ to ‘enemy of the people’: An Anatomy of Trump’s tweets

From June 16, 2015, when Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president, to today, where he sits as leader of the free world, every tweet in which he mentions the media, individual journalists, news outlets, or journalistic sources in a negative tone is being tracked in a database.

Contributor Stephanie Sugars, who created that database with the Committee to Protect Journalists and manages its ongoing accounting, explored rhetoric from the first two years of Trump’s presidency in a blog post.

As the president continues to communicate through Twitter, this live database offers a continued tracking.