The new law explicitly allows journalists access behind police lines during an emergency and prohibits police from interfering with newsgathering or citing journalists for failing to disperse. The law also gives journalists the right to challenge any detention with a supervisor on the scene.
But as tensions have escalated between the Trump administration and California, journalists have increasingly found themselves caught in the crossfire.
In Los Angeles, several journalists covering the protests against ramped-up immigration enforcement have been injured, including an Australian TV broadcaster who police shot with a less-lethal projectile while she was live on air.
It is not immediately clear what led to the incidents involving journalists in San Francisco, and the SFPD did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication of this story.
Tracy McCray, head of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said it can be difficult in a tense environment to identify who is a journalist and who is a protester “with a phone.”
“The press has a right to do their job and report on this. That helps everyone. But there needs to be a better way to identify them,” McCray told KQED. “Because people can say anything, right? And sometimes we can’t take their word for it.”
Mukherjee and Grotenstein were both wearing their student press badges and hard hats with “Press” and “Daily Cal” written on them, Mukherjee told KQED.
“On some level I understand that they are working and it’s an intense situation, but so far as detaining us for an hour, on two separate days, behind an SFPD line, when we’re repeatedly asking to speak to a supervisor … they’re putting our safety at risk,” said Mukherjee, 20. “And on a level I care about more, they’re impeding our ability to do our work and report on the events happening — it impedes both of those things.
While past anti-Trump protests in San Francisco have been relatively peaceful, including an April 5 protest called “Hands Off,” heightened tensions over the past week have led some to wonder if the protest could escalate. A safety advisory published by Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative reported that the recent developments in Los Angeles may contribute to increased “contention” on Saturday.
Indivisible SF’s Liliana Soroceanu, an organizer of the upcoming protest, said she expects that the escalation in L.A. would bring more than the 4,000 currently registered attendees out into the streets “to express their dissatisfaction with what’s going on in America.”
Members of her organization have been in touch with SFPD and the mayor’s office to come up with a safety plan for the event.
“Our hope is that this will be a joyful, peaceful event, and the police will basically keep us safe,” she said.
