The attacks on press freedom in Portland

THIS WEEK DAVE MILLER, who hosts a daily talk show on Oregon Public Broadcasting, interviewed “two very tired people”: Tuck Woodstock and Sergio Olmos, both independent journalists. Since late May, daily protests in solidarity with Black lives and against police brutality have taken place in Portland. Local outlets have often sent reporters, but not to cover every protest; mainstream national outlets mostly ignored Portland until last week, when OPB reported that federal agents in unmarked vehicles were snatching protesters off the streets. By contrast, freelancers like Woodstock and Olmos have been out night after night, documenting the scene.

Miller asked Woodstock and Olmos about the power balance between protesters and law enforcement, the ethics of livestreaming (The Oregonian has reported that federal agents are using live online videos to surveil and make arrests), and the physical threats that reporters face. “I’ve been out there for the majority of the last fiftysomething nights,” Woodstock said, “and I have never once felt unsafe by the actions of a protester. But I have, almost every night, felt unsafe by either the actions of Portland police or the federal law enforcement.” Without the institutional backing of a newsroom, freelancers in Portland have helped equip one another with protective gear—helmets, gas masks, Kevlar. “As independent journalists, we’re not getting a paycheck, so we’re really risking it just in the hope that people will compensate us for it,” Woodstock said. Local and federal officers had been violent for a while, Olmos added, but in recent days federal agents raised the risk level, pointing assault rifles and handguns at reporters. “It is as dangerous as it’s ever been out there,” Olmos said.