Statement from the Movement Media Alliance on the targeting of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon

The Movement Media Alliance (MMA) is outraged by the arrests of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon. These arrests are an attack on the First Amendment and on journalism itself. The MMA demands that all charges be dropped and that the federal government stop targeting journalists, and we condemn the ongoing repression of journalism and free speech.

It is not illegal to record and report on what people in power would rather keep hidden. And beyond legal considerations, journalists have an ethical and justice-driven obligation to report the truth. The public has a right to know what is happening in our communities, especially when people are standing up for justice and demanding accountability from the state. We recognize this explicit escalation against Black journalists as another move in the Trump regime’s ongoing assault on public and independent media, which we know is a core tactic of the authoritarian playbook.

When government agencies target and arrest journalists for doing their jobs, the intention is to suppress and stifle reporting and the sharing of information. It tells reporters and the public that documenting state power comes with a price. That is how authoritarianism grows. It is how fear spreads. And it is how the public gets cut off from the truth.

Independent journalism is not a luxury. It is a public good. It is how movements protect themselves from misinformation, retaliation, and manipulation. It is how communities tell their own stories when corporate media will not.

We call on news organizations, civil liberties groups, elected officials, and the public to speak out clearly and reaffirm that journalism must not be criminalized. If the government can arrest journalists for covering a protest today, it can silence any movement tomorrow.