President Donald Trump, since returning to office, has drawn upon numerous strategies to silence, delegitimize and infringe upon the work of journalists.
Among the most shocking of these incidents occurred last month, when government institutions searched a Washington Post reporter’s home and federally charged journalists who covered a protest at a church in St. Paul.
These actions represent a contrast to the historically exercised caution when curtailing the freedom of the press. Throughout the 20th century, Supreme Court decisions on most of the lawsuits brought by plaintiffs against journalists on accusations of false publishing, source confidentiality and incitement have favored the latter.
At the end of January, an appeals court complied with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to arrest nine individuals for their presence at a protest at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota. Among them were independent journalists Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, now host of the “The Don Lemon Show” on YouTube.
The two represent the newest faces in the pushback against a rising federal persecution of free speech. These especially ramped up last year, when many pro-Palestinian activists, including Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, were claimed by the federal government to present adverse foreign policy consequences. Nearly a year later, Khalil is still fighting deportation in court.
On Jan. 18, a crowd interrupted a church service held at Cities Church to protest Pastor David Easterwood’s alleged involvement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was not in attendance at the gathering.
The Cities Church protest, as Religion News Service notes, has received relatively little support and led to discomfort among prominent religious leaders, some of whom have declined to comment. In video footage, the uncomfortable expressions among congregants can be seen as protestors chant slogans like “ICE out” and “hands up, don’t shoot” in the midst of prayers.
Attorney General Pam Bondi described the disruption as a “takeover-style attack” and noted that the protestors’ tactics were intimidating, making congregants apprehensive about a mass shooting.
The DOJ furthermore accused protestors of occupying the aisles to prevent people from exiting the building. It invoked the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, which prohibits interference with the rights to access reproductive health services or places of worship, to support the accusations.
A federal magistrate later signed arrest warrants for three of the protestors, but did not issue them for Lemon and four others. After this declination, senior DOJ officials appealed the decision, obtaining a warrant for Lemon through an appeals court. Finally, nine defendants, among them journalists and protesters, were indicted by a federal grand jury on felony offenses.
According to an article by Lawfare, “the Cities Church protest may fairly be characterized as disruptive, disrespectful, or even unlawful under local state or trespass law,” but expresses that the statutes invoked and the federal government’s level of investment seem like an overreach.
The charges pressed against all defendants alleged conspiracy to violate religious freedoms and the acts of injuring, intimidating and obstructing worshippers, but do these accusations match up?
Houses of worship are recognized as private property, reserving the right to establish codes of conduct on premises, permit or deny entrance. By extension, an individual who violates rules can be asked to leave and will likely be treated as a trespasser if they refuse.
Furthermore, journalists, under the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause, are allowed to gather information on public, rather than private grounds, and may not interfere in the event they are documenting.
As an all-encompassing guideline, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics encourages journalists to balance competing obligations in their profession while being courageous in collecting and reporting information.
Evidence shows that the federal charges against the journalists, in particular, are problematic.
Don Lemon, present in the raw video footage of the incident, affirmed that while interviewing congregants and protestors, he was not part of the rallying group but, rather, only intended to report on them. In livestreaming the protest from an observer role, Lemon, as a journalist, was exercising his First Amendment right and duty to report in the public interest.
As Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s attorney, notes, in order to charge him, prosecutors would need to prove that Lemon had attempted to physically obstruct, threaten or intimidate the church congregants from exercising their rights. There is no proof of any of these actions.
Lemon, who appeared at an arraignment hearing on Feb. 13, is pleading not guilty to the charges.
Minnesota Chief Judge Patrick J. Schlitz rejected the premises behind the arrests of Fort and Lemon. He affirmed that they were “not protestors at all,” but “a journalist and his producer,” who had not engaged in criminal behavior.
Government officials, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, have cast a spin on Lemon’s actions and accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of promoting unrest.
In an interview with Fox News, Bondi accused Don Lemon of conspiring with the protestors who entered Cities Church, obstructing fearful congregants from exiting and violating the FACE act. She asserts that Lemon had endorsed the protestors and initially gathered with them before proceeding towards the church, framing his role in the controversy as a more active one.
“We’re going to prosecute you, and you will be held accountable,” Bondi said.
Harmeet Dhillon denounced the protest, characterizing Lemon’s actions as “pseudojournalism” not protected by the First Amendment.
Despite conflicting accounts, one thing remains clear: the arrests of Fort and Lemon send a chilling message to journalistic independence. In an interview with MS Now anchor Rachel Maddow, journalist Georgia Fort referred to a “strategic attack on freedom of the press,” citing the previous attempts by Trump to censor a segment that aired on the CBS show, 60 Minutes and take the Jimmy Kimmel, host of the Jimmy Kimmel Show, off air. She believes that hers and Lemon’s arrests represent a new level to criminalize journalism as a profession.
Fort said that government agencies and other powerful institutions have often attempted to cover up misdeeds in the past. The work of journalists has always played a pivotal role in bringing those truths to the forefront.
“I really want American people to understand— attacking the press is not simply just attacking journalists, it’s attacking the public’s right to know,” she said.
