US Press Freedom Tracker: Reporters Criminalized For 'Routine Journalism' In 2023

A project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation documented several incidents in 2023, where reporters were arrested or detained

Screen shot from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s annual report

In 2023, the United States government armed the Israeli military in an assault and siege on Gaza that has killed over 75 journalists. It has repeatedly been confirmed that military forces targeted journalists—and their families—to eliminate them and their coverage of the war.

Despite increased calls from the Australian government and other world leaders to drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the U.S. government still backs an unprecedented prosecution that civil liberties, human rights, and press freedom organizations have labeled a dangerous threat to journalism and freedom of expression.

The above forms a global backdrop for the arrest and detention of 12 journalists over the past year.

As documented in an annual report from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, several U.S. reporters were criminalized for “routine journalism.”

It shows that “authorities either do not understand newsgathering practices,” or worse, officials do understand and “use prosecutions as a cudgel to chill future reporting.”

Read the full article at The Dissenter.