Committee to Protect Journalists Committee to Protect Journalists

Last May, VICE video journalist Dave Mayers went to Minneapolis to cover protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in police custody. A day later, he was arrested with his entire crew for violating a curfew order that specifically exempted reporters.

All over the United States, journalists like Mayers were impeded from doing their jobs as they documented the story of the national movement to protect Black lives and end police violence. The Committee to Protect Journalists responded to an unprecedented number of arrests and assaults of journalists, most of them at the hands of law enforcement.

In CPJ’s first audio feature, U.S. researcher Katherine Jacobsen looks at the factors that led authorities in the United States, traditionally a beacon of press freedom, to violate so many reporters’ rights. She speaks with Mayers and Andy Mannix, a reporter with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, who was injured while reporting. She also talks with press freedom advocates with ideas about how to reshape law enforcement’s relationship with the media.

For more information about this audio feature and a transcript, visit cpj.org/blmprotests