Freelancer Attacked at Trump Election Protest

A freelance journalist was attacked while covering a Nov. 10  Oakland, Calif., protest of Donald Trump's election as President.

CPJ has warned Trump's election would be a clear and present danger to journalist safety given the now President-elect's verbal attacks on them, including insults and threats of lawsuits and tougher libel laws.

Freelancer Kyle Ludowitz suffered a broken cheekbone, according to CPJ, which said Ludowitz told them that several protestors attempted to intervene to stop the attack.

CPJ said he was attacked while covering looting and vandalism during the protest, but did not say by whom--the men wore masks.

"The media should never be targeted for doing the important work of documenting events of significant public interest," said Carlos Lauría, senior coordinator of the Americas program at CPJ. "Journalists have faced increasing threats and violence at political events throughout the U.S. presidential election campaign. The trend toward heightened violence targeting the press is alarming, and must be reversed."

Journalists have been attacked by both supporters and opponents of Trump in recent weeks.

CPJ also pointed out that a TV news van was vandalized Nov. 9 in L.A.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.