Attacks on journalists surge during Black Lives Matter protests

At least 50 journalists in the United States Black Lives Matter Dozens of people were injured by rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas during demonstrations across the United States.

The US Press Freedom Tracker has collected nearly 500 cases from 382 reports. Minneapolis In the wake of George FloydPolice killed in late May and have since been demonstrated in more than 70 cities in 35 states.

At least 46 journalists were arrested between the end of May and the beginning of June, according to data collected by the organization. Dozens of others reported law enforcement injuries and fired “less lethal” projectiles, tear gas canisters, and other weapons at the crowd or directly at reporters during the demonstration.

Two reporters have permanent eye injuries.

The latest report shows a significant surge since the end of May, when national protests began. At this point, the organization had recorded only five arrests and 26 attacks per year by that time.

However, by the end of the month, the number of attacks had nearly quintupled after more than a month of nighttime protests, vigilance, and other demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice.

“The importance of documenting these, and the importance of doing it as quickly as possible, is not lost. The conversations and calculations that are in front of us as a nation are now in shape. “Kristin McCaden, Editor-in-Chief of Press Freedom Tracker, said in a statement.

“No matter where you talk, the message is the same. In 70 cities in more than 30 states across the country, what happened in a month is different from what we’ve seen in modern history, with all three trackers. Beyond. Year history of documentation. “

In Minneapolis, 71 cases have been reported to reporters, followed by Washington DC At 33 New York At 27, and Los Angeles At 20, the press freedom tracker reports.

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By the weekend of July 4, from monuments and rallies of police violence victims to groups of people trying to remove Confederate and slave owner monuments, including American celebrities and former presidents. The demo lasted for over 40 days.

Reporters used social media to capture some of these incidents, but the news network devoted considerable live coverage to the protests in the first few weeks of the demonstration, and they themselves found the target.

CNN correspondent Omar Jimines was detained for an hour After he was arrested live on TV Covering the aftermath of the May protests in Minneapolis.

When the camera captured his arrest, he told police in riot control equipment.

That same day, a local TV reporter Louisville, Kentucky Covering anxiety after police killing Breona Taylor The captured officer seems to have aimed and fired a pepper ball directly at the camera.

Photojournalist Linda Tirado, who recently testified to Parliamentary Commission about police violence in protest, lifted her camera a little from her face when she bumped into what she believed was a rubber bullet in Minneapolis.

The shock permanently blinded her left eye.

July 1, Andrew Buncombe, US Correspondent Independent, Arrested in Seattle While covering police permits in the so-called CHOP protest zone. He was charged with failing to dissolve and was detained for at least eight hours before being released, despite repeated confirmations that he was a journalist.

As journalists continue to report police violence against them on the scene, media supporters claim to emphasize a decline in confidence among law enforcement agencies in the media. Donald TrumpThe message to his supporters remains the same.

At his own press conference, the president widely accused journalists of “fake news” and urged supporters to mock the “enemy of the people” in the room at his rally.In his 2020 reelection campaign Independence Day Anger, He attacked the reporter as part of “Far Left Fascism”, which staged a rebellion against him.

His attacks on the press have been ridiculed as a creeping threat to authoritarianism, as journalists’ arrests under his administration have begun to outpace authoritarian journalists.

In the 2019 survey Committee to Protect Journalists That year, he discovered that at least 248 journalists around the world were imprisoned in retaliation for their work. The annual survey found that 255 reporters were imprisoned in 2018.

The maximum number of journalists imprisoned each year since the organization began its annual survey was 273 in 2016.

Last year, at least 48 journalists were imprisoned in China, followed by 26 in Saudi Arabia and 26 in Egypt, the organization reported.

The United States is currently ranked 45th out of 180 counties in the 2020 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

The scale of the attacks on US journalists has warned international human rights groups. Called City and state officials and law enforcement agencies will immediately suspend the arrest of reporters and appoint an independent committee to investigate the assault.

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