Friends of Press Freedom:
Welcome back to your newsletter around press freedom violations in the United States as captured by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get the newsletter in your inbox.

Thank you for being with us in this new year.

This Saturday marks three years since we watched, horrified, as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to halt the democratic process of counting electoral votes.

As part of the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, nearly 20 journalists were assaulted while capturing the events in Washington, D.C., and tens of thousands of dollars in news equipment was destroyed, as cataloged in our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database.

In addition to documenting the violence against journalists and their equipment, we’ve spent the past three years tracking as the Department of Justice has charged more than 1,100 people with criminal activity on Jan. 6. To date, however, only six of those people have been charged in connection with assaults on four journalists. For 15 other journalists who were assaulted while bringing us the chaotic and rapidly unfolding news that day, no one has been charged.

I go more in-depth in our latest blog: “Three years on, little justice for press assaulted on Jan. 6” 

More to know

As 2023 came to a close, the Tracker team worked to bring context to the year of U.S.-based press freedom violations. Of note, we documented 11 prior restraints — when news organizations or journalists are ordered by a judge not to publish information under threat of punishment. That’s the most ever in one year.

With 45 journalists assaulted in 2023, the database now has documented more than 1,000 assaults of journalists since we began keeping track in 2017. A harrowing landmark.

And when Harvard’s Nieman Lab asked me to make a prediction for media and journalism in the year ahead, I couldn’t help but glance back. In a year just past where journalists were charged with crimes for routine newsgathering and a year coming up on another contentious election — as the three-year anniversary of J6 reminds us — there’s little reason to believe we’ll need to be anything other than vigilant for the safety of journalists and protection of journalism in the days ahead. “Attacks on journalism, and journalists themselves, are going to keep coming,” I wrote. I also worked in an old-school “Jurassic Park” reference: The fence will be tested (Nieman Journalism Lab)

More in the Tracker

For the latest on press freedom aggressions across the U.S., explore the database and follow the Tracker on social media — we’re on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram. As always, your support is crucial to this work; donate today.

Best,
Kirstin McCudden
Managing Editor, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker