Nieman Foundation at Harvard
As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country after a white police officer allegedly murdered a black man, George Floyd, it’s becoming clear that attacks by police on journalists are becoming a widespread pattern, not one-off incidents. While violence against press-credentialed reporters covering the protests may still be dwarfed by violence against the American citizens who are protesting, incidents are piling up — and are getting more attention in part because the journalists being attacked include those from large mainstream news organizations.
A number of efforts are underway to try to track the attacks on journalists, which are often first documented on Twitter. Bellingcat senior investigator Nick Waters had documented 140 incidents by Friday morning. You can see a visualization of the violence against journalists here. Bellingcat notes:
Although in some incidents it is possible the journalists were hit or affected accidentally, in the majority of the cases we have recorded the journalists are clearly identifiable as press, and it is clear that they are being deliberately targeted. This pattern of violence against journalists is replicated in several cities, but appears most intense in Minneapolis.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker counts more than 300 total press freedom violations.
OUR LATEST DATA AS OF 9:30PM ET JUNE 4
*300+ total press freedom incidents*
49+ arrests
192 assaults (160 by police)
42 equipment/newsroom damageAssault category breakdown:
69 physical attacks (43 by cops)
43 tear gassings
24 pepper sprayings
77 rubber bullets/projectiles— U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (@uspresstracker) June 5, 2020
Reminder: we're going back and writing up full reports for each press freedom incident during the #GeorgeFloyd protests, for the permanent record.
Here's our new story on reporter Haisten Willis, detained in Atlanta for the @washingtonpost on May 31 https://t.co/s5W6kdx4tR
— U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (@uspresstracker) June 5, 2020
If you're a journalist who's been arrested, gassed, or shot — get in touch with us at the @USPressTracker so we can document your case.
Our team is investigating literally dozens of press freedom violations across the country as we speak. https://t.co/nJcVsWAqLQ
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) May 31, 2020
Police forces have regularly attacked and arrested journalists at protests in this country. But often it has been unfamous journalists from non-corporate outlets, so no one paid attention to it. Now, the police are deliberately & consistently attacking corporate journalists too.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) May 31, 2020
I’ve never seen so many incidents with police and reporters simultaneously in different cities. Tension between cops and reporters is nothing new. Aggression on reporters in multiple locations nationally at same time is something different. https://t.co/SA5s1Wy3DP
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 1, 2020
I researched countless protests for my first book. I’ve written about many since. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve never seen the widespread, deliberate targeting of journalists by police that we’ve seen over the last few days. Something has changed.
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) June 1, 2020
I'll continue to track and file FOIA requests for journalists arrested in Minneapolis. I filed requests for the CNN crew this morning. If you hear about something new, please let me know.
— Runa Sandvik (@runasand) May 29, 2020
This is the thing, to me, that feels different. This is the action where the police are crossing a line in terms of press freedom that they hadn’t routinely cross before at 2014-2019 protests. Your “new” and “increasing” narratives are now accurate https://t.co/MNq3sCrvvl
— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) June 1, 2020
This post was last updated on Friday, June 5 at 11:00 AM ET.
