A Statement by Reporters Without Borders
Four journalists have been arrested by police and four others attacked in the course of covering university campus protests in the past week. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this wave of arrests, criminal charges, and violence against journalists and urges law enforcement agencies and school administrators to protect and respect the rights of all journalists, including student media.
Carlos Sanchez was covering a protest against Israel’s war against Hamas at which 56 demonstrators were arrested. While none of the arrested protestors were charged due to a lack of probable cause, according to the Travis County Attorney’s Office, two misdemeanor assault charges have been filed against the journalist. According to the affidavit arrest warrant against him, police allege that Sanchez “lunged towards” a state trooper “striking him with his camera.”
However, video of Sanchez’s arrest shows him filming the demonstration and police herding a group. Carlos is pulled by his backpack and violently thrown to the ground where he is arrested. Sanchez told the television station KXAN, “They said that I hit an officer. I didn’t hit an officer. They were pushing me.”
The same day that Sanchez was charged, a reporter for local TV stations KRCR and KAEF, Adelmi Ruiz, was detained by police on April 30 while covering a protest against Israel’s war with Hamas at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in the city of Arcata. She was released and no charges were filed.
Student journalists become targets: Two Dartmouth College student journalists were arrested during a protest on their university’s campus while clearly identifying themselves as members of the media on May 1. One day before that, four student journalists for the Daily Bruin were attacked as counter-protestors clashed with pro-Palestine protests on UCLA’s campus. One was hospitalized.
“As protests continue to unfold on American college campuses and beyond, police must respect the rights of journalists to cover these demonstrations,” Clayton Weimers, Executive Director of Reporters Without Borders USAm said. “These arrests are reminiscent of the wave of press freedom violations that swept across the country in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, suggesting that police departments failed to learn the proper lessons about the First Amendment from those protests.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said officers responded to the university protest at the request of the university and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The recent series of journalist arrests follows a trend of police and lawmakers using physical force and intimidation against journalists while they cover protests and police action.
In August 2023, police raided a newsroom in Marion, Kansas. A reporter for KJZZ in Tucson was arrested, but never charged, at a protest in Pima County, Arizona. NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert was arrested while covering a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in February 2023. Two Asheville Blade reporters were convicted of trespassing after covering a homeless encampment in a public park in North Carolina on Christmas night 2021.
According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a record 146 arrests and charges were made against journalists in 2020, largely driven by police reactions to Black Lives Matter protests that erupted across the country.
The United States is ranked 55th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
ASF says
I would love to something of any note being said or done by Reporters Without Borders about the large numbers of journalists being decimated in places like Mexico and Haiti. They seem to have somewhat mystical priorities, given the large numbers of journalists killed in places they hardly seem to mention.
Pogo says
@Be patient
President Trump is on its way.
Deborah Coffey says
Austin, Texas
Arcata, California
Marion, Kansas
Tucson, Arizona
East Palestine, Ohio
Asheville, North Carolina
Excepting California, does one notice anything in common among the states where the “free press” is being punished? We should be afraid of what is happening in our country since Donald Trump destroyed democracy in America.
Pierre Tristam says
Aside from your grossly and, judging from your not non-existent intelligence, maliciously inaccurate statement, you might want to give the Pulitzer Board a call too, since today they issued a Special Citation to the journalists in Gaza, with this statement: “This year, the Board recognizes the courageous work of journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza. Under horrific conditions, an extraordinary number of journalists have died in the effort to tell the stories of Palestinians and others in Gaza. This war has also claimed the lives of poets and writers among the casualties. As the Pulitzer Prizes honor categories of journalism, arts, and letters, we mark the loss of invaluable records of the human experience.”
Go ahead. Claim the Pulitzer Board is just a proxy of the Gaza Ministry of Information.
Sherry says
@asf. . . you are certainly correct in comparing what is currently happening in the USA with Mexico and Haiti . . . trump and desantis are cultivating strong man Fascism as fast as possible. Third World Here We Come!
We should also include the journalists killed and silenced in Gaza. These are indeed terrible times for what should be “Freedom of the Press’!
Sherry says
Thank you Deborah!