The @uspresstracker has recorded nearly 200 press freedom violations involving @LAPDhq and journalists — including Pulitzer and Emmy winners.
This week, FPF's @adjoro challenged the LA police commission to prevent another international incident.
The stakes are increasingly global — LA will host the World Cup next month and the Summer Olympics in 2028.
Can the LAPD confront its press freedom problem before the international media arrives?
Photographer John Abernathy was violently arrested, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed by federal officers in the Twin Cities in January — images that have since become emblematic of federal agents’ attacks on journalists.
His crime? Well, photography.
That’s right — @John_Abernathy_ was arrested and charged while attempting to document a protest at a federal building, despite repeatedly informing agents he was there only as a photographer.
It’s an outrageous affront to the First Amendment.
Watch our executive director, Trevor Timm, explain, and follow @uspresstracker for more.
In March, independent journalist Justin Pulliam won a federal First Amendment case against Fort Bend County, Texas, after his rights were violated by the local sheriff’s office.
Pulliam was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in December 2021 after he refused to stop filming while deputies conducted a welfare check on a mentally ill individual. He argued he had every right to film, as he was in a public space and other bystanders were present who weren't told to leave.
Well, he was right: As the judge wrote, the arrest was in “retaliation for the exercise of Pulliam’s First Amendment rights of free speech as a citizen and journalist.” Pulliam was awarded $75,000.
We hope this is a lesson to the next local law enforcement officials who attempt to violate the rights of a journalist, merely doing his or her job.
Watch our Executive Director Trevor Timm break it down.
If you're a journalist and you can't tell the story, you are the story.
LA demonstrators may have broken turnout records at No Kings 3 on March 28 — but LAPD broke the rules, violating a federal injunction that prohibits officers from restricting press coverage of protests.
Officers obstructed journalists, threatened them with arrest, and detained two freelance photographers. Three others who appeared to be press were taken away in LAPD vehicles.
Freedom of the Press Foundation Deputy Director Adam Rose was on the ground documenting the scene and helping reporters assert their rights.
L.A. Taco’s Lexis-Olivier Ray posted on Bluesky that he narrowly avoided arrest thanks to Rose advocating for him and other journalists.
Watch Rose explain what happened that day — and if you're a journalist facing a press freedom violation, email a tip to @uspresstracker[email protected]
For Student Press Freedom Day today, the U.S. Press Tracker is looking back at 2025 and documenting the start to 2026.
Just two months into this year, three student journalists have already been assaulted in incidents in LA and Eugene, OR, with a fourth caught in tear gas fired by federal officers.
And in 2025, the Tracker documented 25 press freedom incidents against student journalists at 11 different colleges and one high school in multiple states, our highest annual tally to date since we began cataloging aggressions against the press in 2017.
Read more at the Tracker’s link in our bio and visit @studentpresslawcenter for resources and legal help available to student journalists.
📸: @Reuters / @leahmillis
Leaks to the press are good for democracy.
Did you know that leakers helped destroy the Trump administration's deportation case against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk — who was snatched from the street by masked agents in March and spent six weeks in ICE detention for co-writing an op-ed the government didn’t like?
So, score one for press freedom.
Separately, the @uspresstracker has documented more press freedom violations in January and February than in the first two months of any year since we started tracking almost a decade ago. It's a truly ominous sign for anybody who cares about the First Amendment.
First, watch our Executive Director Trevor Timm highlight these stories and more in this week’s Press Freedom in 90 Seconds, and then subscribe to our great weekly newsletter at the link in the bio to get the latest press freedom news and views sent right to your inbox every Friday.
While Don Lemon’s arrest last week drew widespread attention, dozens of other reporters covering protests in Minnesota have also been violently targeted by ICE.
Watch Trevor Timm, our executive director, explain how ICE agents have been systematically infringing the rights of journalists.
“What we have seen out of Minnesota — just in the last month — is shocking … The havoc ICE is wreaking on the First Amendment simply cannot stand in our democracy.”
Watch Timm explain, and click on the link in the bio to find out how you can help.
One month into 2026, and journalists are facing a troubling landscape of aggressions.
In January, @uspresstracker documented at least eight assaults of journalists in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area. It’s worth noting the vast majority of the assaults involve a journalist being hit with a crowd-control munition of some type, like pepper balls, stun grenade shrapnel or projectiles, while reporting.
But that’s not all. Federal agents executed an extraordinary search warrant at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson on Jan. 14, seizing her phone, two laptops and a smartwatch as part of a leak investigation. Natanson was not charged with a crime, but the seizure immediately disrupted her reporting, sweeping up confidential newsgathering material along with whatever evidence investigators were seeking.
Plus, a Nevada judge ejected Las Vegas Review-Journal journalists from the courtroom during testimony in a high-profile sexual assault trial in Las Vegas on Jan. 21 after they objected to the judge placing restrictions on media coverage.
Watch the Tracker’s Managing Editor Kirstin McCudden explain these stories and more, and subscribe to our newsletter at the link in our bio, for more stories like this sent right to your inbox every month.
Year 1 of Trump 2.0 has brought a constant barrage of norm-breaking aggressions against the press — from tightened access and investigations to lawsuits — aimed at those who dare to report unfavorably on the administration.
First, it was Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who wasted no time after the inauguration in January 2025 to reinstate complaints against outlets Trump had targeted in the lead-up to and wake of the election.
In February, the White House barred The Associated Press from covering events in the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to adhere to Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Not long after, the White House wrested away control of the press pool, breaking from more than a century of practice.
In April, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she would aggressively investigate intelligence leaks, and Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded Biden-era policies protecting journalists from federal subpoenas.
In June, Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, urged Congress to gut Voice of America and the other federally funded news organizations that she oversees.
In August, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which funds NPR and PBS stations — announced it would shutter after Congress passed Trump’s request to cancel the $1.1 billion in funding earmarked for the organization for the next two years.
In October, dozens of Pentagon correspondents surrendered their press badges rather than pledging not to publish any information gathered at the Defense Department — even if unclassified — without approval.
And already this month, the House Oversight Committee authorized a subpoena to independent journalist Seth Harp, while the FBI subpoenaed The Washington Post and seized the devices of one of its reporters as part of a leak investigation.
Far from isolated instances of curtailed access, funding cuts, weaponized investigations or lawsuits, these aggressions reveal a sustained campaign to punish critical coverage, chill reporting and redefine press freedom through intimidation rather than law.
📸: @APnews Photo/ @alex_brandon
The immigration raid protests that began in Los Angeles in June 2025 and spread to other cities across the U.S. have shown, once again, that covering protests is dangerous for journalists.
The @uspresstracker documented at least 180 press freedom incidents involving journalists covering protests around the country in 2025, most of them instigated by law enforcement, and is investigating numerous other cases.
As the Trump administration continues to push unpopular immigration raids in cities around the country, journalists — as well as protesters — remain vulnerable.
When police detain, assault, and attack journalists covering protests, it prevents them from reporting the news and strips the public of information about newsworthy events. That’s why we all must condemn police attacks on the press and take action to stop them.
Journalists are often trained to avoid becoming part of the story. But when you can’t tell the story, you ARE the story! It builds trust with audiences when they understand what press go through to deliver the news, and it’s critical that we document these incidents so that we can stand as a community to defend press freedom. Please share your experiences with your union steward or with us.
If you are a journalist — or know one — who has been attacked or seriously threatened in the course of reporting, let us know. You can now submit tips in English or Spanish by following the link in our bio or by emailing us at [email protected].
Five years ago today, 18 journalists were assaulted while covering the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the Tracker data.
On Jan. 20, 2025 — the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term — nearly everyone charged in connection with those assaults was pardoned, along with some people charged in connection with the large-scale destruction of media equipment.
Journalists were punched, dragged down stairs, tackled, threatened and had cameras and other equipment damaged or destroyed. Tens of thousands of dollars of news equipment was destroyed at media staging areas and other locations.
The Justice Department charged more than 1,500 people for Jan. 6-related crimes. Only 14 of those cases involved assaults on journalists or damage to their equipment, and most of the 18 journalists assaulted never saw charges filed against their attackers.
Read more at the link in our bio.
📸: @Reuters / @ahmedgaaber
While covering anything from protests to government meetings, journalists in 2025 were pulled from news scenes, placed in cuffs and held in custody from minutes to days — long enough for deadlines to pass and breaking news to go cold.
As of Dec. 17, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented at least 32 instances in which journalists were detained or charged just for doing their jobs. Each one is a warning flare that something fundamental is shifting in how authorities police information and those who gather it.
The Tracker’s database — now spanning nine years and including nearly 400 arrests of journalists — shows that most such incidents never lead to prosecution. Charges against journalists are typically dropped or dismissed. Yet every arrest has a ripple effect for the journalist, their news outlets and the public they serve.
One journalist arrested while covering a protest told the Tracker his arrest stopped the news from getting out. “Talk about putting the brakes on press freedom,” he said.
Read more at the Tracker’s link in our bio.
📸: Courtesy Lisa Kiselevich
