The Battle for Press Freedom in the Streets

New York media outlets are being proactive about defending their rights as they anticipate the deployment of federal law enforcement.

Last month Carroll Bogert, the newly named chief executive of The City, a nonprofit digital news site that covers New York, sent a letter to the local field directors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. “We seek to discuss establishing clear, well-recognized best practices for law-enforcement interactions with journalists during fast-moving or sensitive operations,” she wrote. Bogert raised concerns about how journalists had been treated across the country, as “agents and journalists have recently ended up in conflicts that risk both the safety and work of your agents and our journalists”—consider the scenes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. She proposed a meeting to clarify federal policies, in the likely event that Donald Trump deployed more federal officers to New York. The letter was cosigned by eight news organizations, including the New York Times, New York magazine, and Documented, a media nonprofit that covers the immigrant community.

Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, also signed on. “We’re trying to be proactive,” he said. “We’re not trying to point blame. We’re just trying to say, ‘Hey, we’re here, and we’d like to engage with you and talk about how we can avoid having incidents.’” Tensions have been high in New York for a while now, as dozens of journalists have covered dramatic scenes at 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE agents have been arresting immigrants attending court hearings. In September, federal agents shoved several journalists, including a Turkish reporter named L. Vural Elibol, who was injured and had to be carried away on a stretcher. In late November, city police shoved Avery Craig, an independent journalist and documentarian, and then arrested him. According to an account published on the US Press Freedom Tracker, a comprehensive database operated by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Craig had been covering protests against immigration enforcement—and police responded with pepper spray and arrests. When Craig identified himself as a journalist, the arresting officer said, “We don’t give a shit.” (The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.)