Guest column: Lake County prosecutors must drop charges against photojournalist

Chicago Tribune

08-03-2025

The Trump administration's assault on press freedom is multifaceted, targeting everything from interview editing to wire services that local papers depend on. But prosecutors in Lake County are inadvertently helping President Donald Trump advance two of his leading anti-press priorities — cracking down on media coverage both of protests and of his mass deportation agenda.
On January 18, two days before Trump took office, Gary Police Department officers arrested freelance photojournalist Matthew Kaplan for doing his job — reporting on a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Gary/Chicago International Airport, a regular site for deportation flights.
Kaplan was not participating in the protest but merely exercising his constitutional right to document it. According to eyewitness accounts cited in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Kaplan was photographing the arrest of a protester when he was himself arrested.
Officers knew full well he was a journalist. Before he was taken into custody, he told the Tracker he handed off his camera and equipment to another journalist (who was also threatened with arrest). That was a smart move — police departments that arrest reporters often illegally seize and search their equipment. But it also removed any doubt about who he was and what he was doing at the protest.
To state the obvious, protests in general, and particularly those resisting the Trump administration's controversial immigration policies (in anticipation of which the protest was organized) are important news. The press's presence is arguably even more vital at these demonstrations than at the White House spin sessions from which Trump has expelled reporters he doesn't like.
Our First Amendment recognizes a right of assembly and a right to report on it, and that right applies to freelance journalists like Kaplan every bit as much as journalists from a newspaper.
The right of the Fourth Estate to cover protests does not terminate when police break up the demonstrations, even if protesters break the law. How police respond to protests is just as newsworthy (at least) as the protests themselves. We are, in all likelihood, entering a period of widespread civil unrest — how law enforcement responds will be major news. We've repeatedly seen officers cross the line in responding to protests ranging from Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 to pro-Palestine activism last spring.
This isn't just one press freedom advocate's read of the Constitution — even the Department of Justice agrees. In its report on its investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department's response to unrest over George Floyd's murder, the DOJ explained that 'Blanket enforcement of dispersal orders and curfews against press violates (First Amendment) principle(s) because they foreclose the press from reporting about what happens after the dispersal or curfew is issued, including how police enforce those orders.'
The DOJ has since reiterated that guidance. Appellate courts have reached the same conclusion — alleged lawbreaking by protesters, even when it warrants breaking up a demonstration, cannot justify arrests of law-abiding journalists.
Nonetheless, it's unfortunately not uncommon for police to arrest journalists covering protests. Of the 360 total arrests and detainments of journalists the Tracker has documented since 2017, 296 occurred during protests. But in most cases, authorities quickly realize prosecuting journalists for doing their job is not a wise use of prosecutorial discretion — or of public funds. Chicago, for example, quickly (although not quickly enough) dropped its cases against journalists arrested during last year's Democratic National Convention.
But Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter's office has not done that — 1.5 months after Kaplan's arrest, charges are still pending, and the case is currently scheduled for trial in April.
Whether this is a deliberate decision or an oversight by busy prosecutors, it's a big mistake. Cities that arrest and prosecute journalists certainly risk judgment in the court of public opinion from residents who expect officials to respect First Amendment freedoms. But if that's not enough of a deterrent, they also risk liability in courts of law.
Police departments from Minneapolis to Portland to New York City have settled legal actions by the DOJ or by journalists themselves challenging arrests of journalists at protests. Those settlements required the departments to commit to no longer arresting reporters just for continuing to cover protests after a dispersal order. They're just a few of the many settlements entered into by police departments that mistreat journalists.
Kaplan should be commended, not prosecuted, for exercising his constitutional right to document important news up close rather than relying on the often self-serving spin authorities put out after the fact. Carter should drop the charges against him without delay. Not only would it save taxpayers money, it would send a message that, no matter what's going on at the national level, Lake County still values press freedom and transparency, and will safeguard the public's right to know during these troubled times.