Coalition cites arrests, assaults, equipment damage, and access restrictions

More than a dozen national and statewide press organizations are demanding that authorities dismiss charges against at least three journalists arrested while covering protests outside Newark’s Delaney Hall detention center, arguing that law enforcement actions during recent demonstrations threaten core First Amendment protections.

The National Press Photographers Association, Committee to Protect Journalists, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and several other organizations, including the New Jersey chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, issued a joint statement Friday condemning the arrests and raising concerns about a broader pattern of interference as journalists covered protests outside the privately operated immigration detention center.

The journalists were arrested May 31 after police used a crowd-control tactic known as kettling, in which officers surround and contain a group before making arrests. The arrests occurred after authorities enforced an emergency curfew around the facility.

One journalist reported being charged with felony rioting and resisting arrest.

The groups noted that journalists were exempt from the curfew under state guidelines and argued the arrests conflict with long-established protections for members of the press covering matters of public concern.

“These actions appear inconsistent with both the spirit and the substance of the New Jersey Attorney General Guidance on Police–Press Interactions During Protest Events,” said Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association.

“We also need clarity regarding how press exemptions will be applied during future curfews and crowd control operations, so journalists are not subjected to arbitrary decisions by law enforcement officers in the field.”

According to the organizations, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is investigating reports involving at least three arrests, 38 assaults, and five incidents of equipment damage involving journalists covering the protests. The tracker is also examining allegations that law enforcement officers may have stolen or lost journalists’ equipment, potentially raising concerns under the federal Privacy Protection Act. One Essex County Prosecutor’s Office sergeant was charged Thursday with stealing an injured journalist’s gear.

Several photographers were pepper-sprayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and struck with batons while documenting events.

State police reportedly removed a WNBC television crew from its marked news vehicle and directed them into an area where tear gas was deployed. MSNBC host Ali Velshi and his crew were allegedly pushed beyond sight of the protest while broadcasting live. An independent photographer reportedly was granted access only after submitting to a police pat-down and riding in the back of a police vehicle.

“Arresting reporters for covering protests is not law enforcement, it is the criminalization of the First Amendment. CPJ demands all charges be dropped immediately,” said Jose Zamora, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Americas director. “This type of behavior has no place in a democracy.”

Protests outside Delaney Hall, New Jersey’s largest immigration detention center, began on May 22, after detainees launched hunger and labor strikes to protest conditions inside the facility.

Vanessa Maria Graber, senior director of journalism and media education at Free Press, argued that the incidents reflect a broader effort to discourage scrutiny of conditions inside the detention center.

“We remain deeply troubled by the systemic law enforcement campaign to silence reporters who cover ICE’s gross mistreatment of immigrants,” Graber said. “We will continue to fight for local and national journalists’ ability to cover their communities without fear of retaliation. These unconstitutional arrests, while intended to chill coverage of these abuses, rarely stand up in a court of law.”

Adam Rose, deputy director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said journalists were attempting to document events that were clearly in the public interest.

“Protesters were literally pleading for press to remain. Police had other ideas and kept trying to chase journalists away,” Rose said.

“Shockingly, at least three of those arrested ended up in the hospital. Do I really need to explain why press cameras needed to be rolling?”

The allegations directly challenge statements by state officials that journalists were not arrested, detained, or injured during crowd-control operations outside Delaney Hall.