Category
Targeting journalists, revoking credentials, arrests for reporting, and suppression of public access to information
6 incidents
Trump's threat to jail journalists for reporting on a military rescue mission during the Iran war extends the administration's documented pattern of using national security claims to suppress press freedom and criminalize journalism.
A campaign of government coercion against media through broadcast license threats from the president and FCC chair, forced cancellation of a television show, pressure to remove apps, and demands that platforms suppress immigration-related content.
A systematic pattern of press freedom violations including the arrest of journalists covering immigration enforcement, the deportation of a journalist to the country he fled due to death threats, and the detention of reporters in foreign countries covering US deportation operations.
A coordinated attack on US government-funded international broadcasting placed 1,300 journalists on leave, terminated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's grant, and attempted to gut Voice of America — until a federal judge ruled the actions illegal and ordered staff reinstated.
The AP's exclusion from the White House briefing room — a credentialed, nonpartisan wire service that had covered every presidency since 1865 — was triggered by the AP's editorial decision to continue using 'Gulf of Mexico' rather than 'Gulf of America,' the name Trump had issued an executive order to adopt. AP's position was that it followed geographic naming standards and could not adopt a contested renaming while it was politically motivated. The exclusion was condemned by press freedom organizations as the most direct government intervention in editorial content by excluding a news organization from access on the basis of its editorial decisions.
Trump's attacks on the press were systematic and escalating: he labeled specific organizations (CNN, NBC, the New York Times, Washington Post) 'fake news,' called reporters 'enemies of the people,' suggested revoking NBC's broadcast license, threatened to revoke press credentials, and cheered when supporters physically confronted journalists at rallies. Body-slammed a reporter (Greg Gianforte in Montana) and Trump endorsed him. Reporters covering Trump rallies documented being surrounded by hostile crowds. The Annenberg Foundation documented 2,000+ attacks on press freedom during the Trump presidency. Authoritarian governments around the world cited Trump's 'fake news' rhetoric when expelling journalists or restricting press access.