U.S. journalist safety kit

Donald Trump is seen on a camera display as he speaks during a campaign event at Dorton Arena, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 4, 2024, a day before he was elected president. (Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Drake)

Updated: January 14, 2025

Journalists and media workers reporting across the United States have faced increasing threats to their safety and profession over the past several years, including retaliatory violence, lawsuits, and attacks by police and protesters. Political polarization, the contested 2020 election, and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, combined with a rise in domestic extremism, have all contributed to a riskier working environment for U.S.-based journalists.

As a result, journalists on assignment in the U.S. may face forceful reprisals, including physical harassment, obstruction, and verbal abuse. Media workers should be aware of the increased risk of online abuse, including doxxing, and targeted disinformation campaigns designed to undermine the press, as well as the potential for legal threats. This underscores an increasingly hostile environment for journalists in the United States, with at least 80 assaults against journalists in 2024, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a comprehensive database of U.S. press freedom violations, of which CPJ is a founding member.

The guide below is designed to help newsrooms and journalists think about and manage physical and digital risk when it comes to covering assignments in the United States.

Editors’ Checklist

For journalists, having a quick conversation with their editor can increase risk awareness and enhance their safety. The following checklist enables editors to best prepare journalists and other media workers as they cover assignments in the United States.

When selecting your reporting team, consider:

As part of your risk assessment, discuss:

To increase awareness when on assignment, advise journalists to:

Counter protesters and police clash as the protesters attempt to block the anti-abortion rights National Men’s March from continuing in Boston on November 16, 2024. Multiple people were taken into custody by the police. (Photo: AFP/Joseph Prezioso)

Physical Safety: Covering crowd events and rallies

Journalists covering crowd events or rallies should be aware of their physical safety at all times and understand that these are fluid situations that can change and escalate quickly. Be mindful of how you interact with both police and protesters while covering crowd events and rallies and plan ahead. A 2023 report from the Knight Foundation found that police failed to uphold basic constitutional rights for journalists who covered protests in the United States over the past several years, leading to unjust arrests and suppression tactics at large and small protests.

To minimize risks when covering rallies and events:

To minimize the risk when dealing with tear gas:

Physical Safety: Dealing with aggression

Physical Safety: Dealing with armed extremists

Militia groups have made their presence felt within the American political environment in recent years. Most groups oppose government and law enforcement powers, though some view themselves as potential partners to certain law enforcement agencies. A report by ISD Global states that extremist ideologies have constantly evolved over the past two decades, and that a new younger generation of extremists has emerged. This can be attributed to the use of online platforms being used to reach broader audiences and to push extreme ideologies into the mainstream.

Between the 2020 election and January 2024, according to the U.S.-based non-profit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), far-right militias were involved in 91 percent of violent demonstrations. According to ACLED, extremist groups adopt hybrid tactics. It is common for groups to train for urban and rural combat with public relations and propaganda works to engage with a wider audience. Groups often place themselves in so-called “public protection” roles that increase the threat faced by journalists. Flash points for violence include state capitals, periphery towns, and rural and suburban areas. 

The following should be considered for reporting from places where armed extremists may be present:

Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth departs following a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on November 21, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Nathan Howard)

Digital Safety: Online harassment, disinformation campaigns, and doxxing

Media workers face an increasingly hostile online environment, exacerbated by the spread of disinformation and misinformation. They are often targeted by online attackers who want to discredit them and their work. This can often involve coordinated campaigns that leave the journalist unable to use social media, essentially forcing them offline. Protecting against online harassment is not easy, however, the more you can do to protect yourself in advance of an attack the safer you will be

Essential steps to protect against doxxing
  • Regularly look yourself up online and remove personal information
  • Remove personal data by signing up to services, such as DeleteMe
  • Secure accounts with two-factor authentication
  • Speak with family and friends about what you are happy to share and not share online
  • Make a plan for what to do in case you are doxxed

To minimize the risk:

Protect your personal data

Protect your accounts

Plan for online abuse

Managing online attacks

There are different types of online attacks and your response to them will likely differ depending on the threat. See the steps below for guidance.

For more information and suggestions for keeping yourself safe online, consult CPJ’s resources for protecting against online abuse.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is a member of the Coalition Against Online Violence, a collection of global organizations working to find better solutions for women journalists facing online abuse, harassment and other forms of digital attack.

Supporters record Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has since been elected as vice president, on their phones during a campaign rally at TYR Tactical in Peoria, Arizona, on October 22, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Rebecca Noble)

Digital Safety: Protecting your devices and their content

It is important to maintain best practices around securing your devices and the content contained within them. If you are detained, your devices may be taken and searched, which could have serious consequences for both you and your sources. The 2023 police raid on the Kansas newspaper, the Marion County Record, highlights the importance for newsrooms of securely storing their data.

The following steps can help:

Digital Safety: General best practices for rallies and events

Journalists who are carrying their personal phones should take the following precautions to protect their data:
  • Review what information is stored on your devices, including phones and computers. Anything that puts you at risk or contains sensitive information should be backed up and deleted. You can back up your device by connecting your phone to your computer using a USB cable or in the cloud. Journalists should be aware that there are ways to recover deleted information if your devices are taken and inspected.
  • When reviewing content on your phone, journalists should check information stored in apps and in the cloud.
  • Think about what apps you may need on your device while covering a rally or protest. Apps for email services and social media providers contain a lot of personal information about you that the authorities or others could access if they take your phone. Think about temporarily uninstalling apps you will not need. You can install them again once you have finished covering the event.

Digital Safety: General best practice for protecting data in the newsroom

This guidance is for small- to medium-sized news outlets that may not have a dedicated IT department.

  • Turn on encryption for laptops and desktops. Use Bitlocker for Windows Pro and FileVault for Mac. You can use these programs to also encrypt external hard drives.
    • Encrypt your cloud backup using Cryptomator. You can also use Cryptomator to encrypt individual documents or folders.
    • Ensure that phones are encrypted. Android users should turn on encryption in the settings section of their device. iPhones come with encryption as standard, but journalists should ensure that their cloud backup is encrypted by turning on the advanced data protection option on their devices.

For additional assistance, to speak directly with CPJ’s Emergencies team, or enquire about safety training for you or your news organization, please email us at emergencies@cpj.org. Additional physical, digital, and mental health safety resources can be found on the CPJ Emergencies homepage.

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