Chilling Statement

Total cases	43

Jeff Sessions speaks at briefing on leaks

Attorney general considers making it easier to subpoena journalists

August 4, 2017

‘We respect the important role that the press plays, and we’ll give them respect, but it is not unlimited,’ Sessions said. ‘They cannot place lives at risk with impunity.’

A Time Warner Cable truck returns to its office in San Diego, California, U.S., November 2, 2016.

White House advisers allegedly discuss leverage over CNN

July 5, 2017

White House advisers reportedly discussed using the multibillion-dollar merger between AT&T and Time Warner as leverage over cable news network …

Trump tweets video of him wrestling ‘CNN’

July 2, 2017

President Trump tweeted a short video from @realDonaldTrump on July 2, 2017, that showed him wrestling a figure whose head …

Donald Trump and John Kelly at U.S. Coast Guard 2017 commencement ceremony

DHS secretary jokes about using sword on reporters

May 17, 2017

After President Trump was presented with a ceremonial saber at a commencement ceremony for the U.S. Coast Guard on May …

Attorney General has repeatedly refused to rule out prosecuting or jailing journalists

April 21, 2017

After the Justice Department indicated it planned on pursuing WikiLeaks and its publisher with criminal charges, Attorney General Jeff Sessions …

The Justice Department and CIA threatens legal action against WikiLeaks for publishing

April 20, 2017

After reports in April 2017 indicated that the Justice Department would seek to prosecute WikiLeaks and its editor Julian Assange …

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski arrive for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, U.S. on April 25, 2015.

Morning Joe hosts claim that administration officials tried to use Enquirer story as leverage

April 12, 2017

MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough claimed in a Washington Post op-ed that senior White House officials used the …

DATE IMPORTED:February 26, 2016Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event after receiving the endorsement of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (Not Pictured) in Forth Worth, Texas February 26, 2016.

Trump administration calls for changing libel laws

March 30, 2017

On March 30, 2017, President Trump tweeted, “The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world. Gotten me wrong for two …

More Incidents

Search Results Summary

Total Results	19
Journalists affected	7
Institutions affected	4

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.