So far in 2023, at least 25 journalists have been assaulted

View this email in your browser ([link removed])

Friends of press freedom:

Welcome back to your monthly newsletter around press freedom violations in the United States as captured by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker ([link removed]) , a project by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here ([link removed]) to get the monthly newsletter in your inbox.
A snapshot of press freedom violations as documented by the Tracker so far this year. — U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

Earlier this week, I attended a panel discussion around “Covering Democracy: Protests, Police, and the Press ([link removed]) ,” a report focusing, in part, on the interactions between police and journalists during the social justice and Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

That year, journalists were assaulted ([link removed]) — and arrested ([link removed]) — by law enforcement in unprecedented numbers. Here at the Tracker, we documented more than 630 assaults; 80% ([link removed]) at the hands of law enforcement. And law enforcement’s role in press freedom aggressions deserves scrutiny: “Police must do far more to ensure that officers respect and protect press freedom at protests, and they must hold accountable officers who fall short in this duty,” as the report says.

[link removed]

Eighty percent of the 632 assaults that occurred in 2020 were at the hands of law enforcement, according to the Tracker database. The vast majority were at protests.

The number of attacks this year may be nowhere near the distorted scale of 2020. But assaults on journalists are always notable — even when the aggressor is not law enforcement. So far in 2023, for instance, at least 25 journalists ([link removed]) have been assaulted. In 80% of those assaults, the assailant has been a private individual ([link removed]) .

Four of those took place in Chicago ([link removed]) in under one month’s time.

On Aug. 8, an ABC7 videographer ([link removed]) attending a press conference on Chicago’s West Side was robbed and two phones from inside his vehicle stolen. On Aug. 28, a Univision reporter ([link removed]) and a cameraperson ([link removed]) were robbed at gunpoint and a TV station camera stolen while the crew was preparing to file a report from the city’s North Side about, ironically, robberies in the area. On Sept. 6, another Univision reporter ([link removed]) was assaulted by an unidentified man during a live shoot. The man approached the reporter, grabbed her, tried to grab her phone and said: “You know I could kill you.”

Florida ([link removed]) and New York ([link removed]) have each also seen several assaults of reporters and photographers by private individuals, too.
[link removed]

So far in 2023, 80% of the assaults of journalists have been by private individuals.


** In the news
------------------------------------------------------------

Before the national Society of Professional Journalists conference kicked off this week in Las Vegas, I sat down with SPJ International Committee co-Chair Dan Kubiske to talk about threats to press freedom in the United States and why tracking is necessary. Watch it here ([link removed]) .


** Support the Tracker
------------------------------------------------------------

The Tracker is now in its seventh year of documentation, enabling this type of year-over-year data. Your support is crucial to this work; donate today ([link removed]) .

Best,
Kirstin McCudden
Managing Editor, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
[link removed]
[link removed]

============================================================
Copyright © 2023 Freedom of the Press Foundation, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.

Our mailing address is:
Freedom of the Press Foundation
49 Flatbush Ave, #1017
Brooklyn, NY 11217
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.