U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

An immigration judge granted political asylum to Spanish-language journalist Luis Galeano, arrested by ICE in September and held in detention in Florida for nearly two weeks. Galeano faced persecution for his reporting in Nicaragua.

LA journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias filed a $50M claim against the federal government on Oct. 20, following his violent arrest in 2025 and ongoing immigration detention. Parias’ lawyer indicated that a lawsuit was forthcoming.

The White House sent a letter Monday to @politico.com, demanding that the news outlet retract and apologize for three articles published last week or else “face the consequences” for reporting “fanciful fiction.”

@the-independent.com correspondent @andrewfeinberg.com was barred from traveling with President Trump on Air Force One for a Thursday campaign trip. The move followed a tense exchange between the two men in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Update: CNN has again been bumped from Air Force One, this time for Trump’s planned campaign trip to South Carolina. The move comes after a CNN lawyer threatened legal action over repeated refusals to allow the news network on the aircraft.

Independent photojournalist Angel Perez was tackled and arrested while covering a “No Kings” protest in LA on Oct. 17. Perez repeatedly identified himself as press but was detained for about two hours. He sustained injuries and lost camera gear in the scuffle.

The Florida GOP and multiple state attorneys sent letters to Florida broadcast stations on Friday claiming that further broadcasting of a Democrat-funded ad would violate state law. The state GOP also filed a suit asking the court to enforce a ban as early voting begins.

Update: Journalist Calvin Andrus had his federal lawsuit against Cincinnati and a police officer dismissed on Thursday. The freelancer had sued in response to a November 2023 arrest while he was documenting the aftermath of a car crash.

Update: CNN was barred from Air Force One yet again on Friday for Donald Trump’s weekend campaign trips to Georgia and Florida. The move followed a recent extension of a federal judge’s block on the outlet's ban from the White House complex.

Amid the Pentagon’s ongoing efforts to overhaul military newspaper @starsandstripes.bsky.social, a federal judge declined to reinstate its ombudsman Oct. 6. A week later, DOD announced that one of its own public affairs officials will be the paper’s acting publisher.

Student journalist Cat Murphy, reporting for @cnsmd.bsky.social, was threatened with prosecution by Rep. Andy Harris while recording him during a news conference Tuesday in Cambridge, MD. She later told CNN, “I was focused on doing my job”:

Update: Journalist Tim Burke was reindicted by a FL grand jury Oct. 8 on 13 felony counts for distributing Fox News footage. He was first charged in 2024 after a probe of his access to the unedited clips, but some counts were dropped after a judge dismissed them as overbroad.

On Friday, DOJ sent letters to ABC, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News demanding the networks turn over communications as part of an investigation into their alleged violation of federal antitrust laws during a TV pool boycott.

Chair of House Committee on Ways and Means Jason Smith threatened to individually subpoena three @btnewsroom.bsky.social journalists Friday. The outlet has already refused to comply with a July subpoena requesting financial documentation related to donations from financier Neville Singham.

On Sunday, the White House blocked @politico.com from traveling with President Trump aboard Air Force One, amid a lawsuit over presidential access for the outlet and other news organizations. Politico was scheduled to serve as the primary print outlet in the presidential travel pool.

On Sunday, the White House blocked @politico.com from traveling with President Trump aboard Air Force One, amid a lawsuit over presidential access for the outlet and other news organizations. Politico was scheduled to serve as the primary print outlet in the presidential travel pool.

Happening now at a federal court in New York: a hearing in our lawsuit against President Trump. FPF and @theintercept.com sued Trump and aides Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino over a scheme to sell early access to his Truth Social posts for up to $100,000 a month. Here’s what’s at stake 👇

The former editor of the student newspaper at University of Texas at Dallas, Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez, sued the school on First Amendment grounds Sept. 16 after he was fired and suspended over an editor’s note in The Mercury addressing charges of antisemitism at the school.

A Louisiana court official demanded on Sept. 10 that WWL-TV remove personal information about a judge from a published TV report. The next day, the judge filed a criminal complaint against the New Orleans station, citing a state law that had recently been repealed.

Joe Sokol, a reporter for @themainewire.bsky.social, was allegedly almost hit by a car while reporting near a Bangor, Maine, drug treatment center on Oct. 1. The driver was arrested on four counts, including two felonies, the next day.

Update: An assault charge against a man who shoved @themainewire.bsky.social 's Joe Sokol at a July anti-Trump rally in Bangor, Maine, was dismissed Sept. 16:

Update: Amid an escalating battle over @cnn.com's access to the president, the White House yesterday said it would block the network from traveling with Trump on Air Force One again, this time for a campaign swing today to Oklahoma and Texas:

Explore how the administration’s banning of @cnn.com, @ms.now, and @politico.com from the White House fits into the president’s pattern of attacks on the press. This and more in this month’s newsletter from managing editor @kamccudden.bsky.social:

Journalist Luis Galeano was released from ICE custody in Miami on Sept. 26. Galeano faced persecution over his reporting in Nicaragua and has a pending asylum application.

Just days after a judge temporarily reversed a White House access ban, @cnn.com was excluded from Air Force One and the television pool that covered President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to a college football game in Tennessee.

Eye on Cherokee reporter Sal Insinga was assaulted while covering a Sept. 11 protest in Cedartown, Georgia, over the police shooting of HeeHaw, a pet donkey. Insinga’s microphone and camera were damaged, and a man was arrested and faces a charge of disorderly conduct.

Follow @freedom.press's U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on Flipboard to see the latest cases involving journalists and news organizations. flipboard.com/@freedomofpr...

Update: An Iowa judge dismissed President Trump’s consumer fraud lawsuit against pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, ruling that a faulty poll was protected speech.

BREAKING: Journalists from @cnn.com, @ms.now and @politico.com regained access to the White House around noon today, after the Trump administration this morning disregarded a judge’s overnight order to restore their credentials and instead initially denied them entry.

BREAKING: A federal judge ruled early today that @cnn.com, @ms.now and @politico.com can temporarily recover press access to the White House, days after President Trump banned them. But the administration defied the order, denying journalists from the outlets entry this morning.

The Florida Senate ordered South Florida Sun Sentinel and @orlandosentinel.com to destroy a report they obtained through a public records request. The Senate’s Sept. 15 letter warned that refusing to shred the document could lead to “civil or criminal legal implications.”

"Overstayed his welcome": The Trump administration is ramping up its hostile environment for journalists, from American streets to the corridors of the White House. Originally published in @columjournreview.bsky.social:

BREAKING: The news outlets banned by President Donald Trump from accessing the White House — @cnn.com, @ms.now and @politico.com — filed a federal lawsuit today demanding their credentials be immediately reinstated.

After journalists from @cnn.com, @ms.now and @politico.com were barred from the White House on Saturday, following a Trump ban, the networks sued. And when CNN was pulled from TV pool rotation today, major networks said they’d drop pool TV coverage of Trump altogether.

‘Overstayed his welcome’: The Trump administration is ramping up its hostile environment for journalists, from American streets to the corridors of the White House. Read more in @columjournreview.bsky.social:

Reporter Mike Emery of Indiana’s Western Wayne News was subpoenaed Aug. 28 for trial testimony in connection with his coverage of an industrial fire that displaced thousands in April 2023. A judge struck down the request Sept. 11.

BREAKING: Trump announced today that @cnn.com, @ms.now and @politico.com are banned from the White House, effective immediately. While the president warned that more outlets will follow, there is no sign of steps being taken to implement his order.

U.S.-based Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano was detained by ICE while driving for a ride-hailing service in Orlando, Florida, on Sept. 14. Galeano, who fled into exile after government arrest orders, has an active asylum case in the U.S.

A federal judge in Nashville, Tennessee, last week dismissed Spanish-language journalist Estefany Rodríguez’s petition over her two-week March detention by ICE. She had asked the court for protection against future retaliation for her reporting.

A federal judge on Sept. 14 barred the implementation of new Department of Homeland Security visa restrictions for foreign journalists, writing that, under the policy, ‘the possibilities for abuse are rampant’:

Five reporters invited to cover an event at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California were detained at the gates and held at gunpoint by security personnel on Aug. 17. The base called it a "breakdown in communication."

In August, the Pentagon polygraphed approximately 50 members of the military staff that supports the Joint Chiefs, amid an investigation into the sources behind news reports of the depletion of crucial munitions.

President Trump has attacked the press on social media nearly every day for over a decade. Explore the Tracker dataset that catalogs every time Trump uses Truth Social to abuse the news media and journalists. That and more in this month’s newsletter from managing editor @kamccudden.bsky.social: