Journalists in the United States were assaulted 45 times last year, and 34 were arrested while covering news, a report from a media rights watchdog said Tuesday. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in its first annual assessment of threats to journalistic freedom in the United States, cited a total of 122 incidents including physical assaults, arrests, equipment seizures and border checks.
"While it does not capture every press freedom incident that has occurred, the tracker strives to document the number of times journalists in the United States were arrested, assaulted, subjected to equipment searches or seizures, or detained at the border," the report said. "It also highlights particularly serious denials of access and chilling statements by public officials."
The largest number of arrests of journalists came at public protests, with many swept up in a crowd-control technique known as "kettling," where police corral demonstrators into an area and subsequently arrest everyone. The report said more than half of the journalists arrested were freelancers.