Assessing Trump’s press freedom record, one year on

[Commentary] Just under a year ago, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. How should we assess his press freedom record so far? A year into the Trump administration, here are the headlines from the Press Freedom Tracker:

• Journalists have been arrested 34 times in the United States in the last year.
• Twenty-nine of those arrests were at protests. These occurred in Standing Rock, where protests erupted over the Dakota Access pipeline; in St. Louis (MO), where people took to the streets in response to a police shooting; and in Washington (DC), where there were sizable protests during Trump’s inauguration.
• Nine of these journalists were charged with felonies. At least one case went to trial.
• Fifteen journalists have had their equipment seized.
• Forty-four journalists have been physically attacked in the last year. The attackers span the political spectrum, from white nationalists to anti-fascists.

[Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists]