RWB

Reporters Without Borders counts 68 attacks on reporters by the police and demonstrators since the Minneapolis demonstration in the wake of the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by police officers.

The journalism watchdog blames Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the press for triggerding the violence against reporters.

“President Trump's demonization of the media for years has now come to fruition, with both the police and protesters targeting clearly identified journalists with violence and arrests,” Christophe Deloire, RWB's secretary general, said in a statement. “It has long been obvious that this demonization would lead to physical violence."

The organization has "has warned about the consequences of this blatant hostility towards the media, and we are now witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of violence against journalists in the US," he added.

Deloire calls for US authorities to ensure the safety of journalists covering the continuing protests, including a moratorium on the arrests of journalists and immediate guidance to police making it clear that reporters are not to be directly targeted by crowd-control measures, and that journalists must be protected from violent attacks by protesters.

The Free Press advocacy group also blasted the "unprecedented number of attacks against journalists at many of these protests as law-enforcement officers have specifically targeted those engaged in First-Amendment protected newsgathering and reporting."

It noted that Trump "has egged on the police crackdown in a series of recent tweets, including one that labels news outlets covering the protests as the enemy of the people.

"The First Amendment prevents law enforcement from silencing the voices of protesters and from beating back the journalists who seek to share their concerns with the world," said Alicia Bell, FP's News Voices Organizing Manager.