Statements
January 29, 2026
Today, under the guise of immigration enforcement, we are witnessing violent attacks on and attempts to silence Americans who document, narrate, and bear witness to events, who work to ensure we have the facts. Journalists and authors are not bystanders of the First Amendment. They are its essential practitioners. When they are targeted, the entire ecosystem of free expression is under assault.
The Authors Guild’s mission is to protect authors and journalists’ rights, including rights under the First Amendment and copyright systems that serve as the foundation for free expression; and today we stand by writers and journalists on the ground in Minnesota and elsewhere who are calling power to account, as writers have always done.
Since January 9, 2026, at least six journalists have been violently attacked by law enforcement while covering protests in Minneapolis, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. They include Whitney Wild (CNN), Jalyssa Dugrot (Mint Press News), King Demetrius Pendleton (Listen Media), and JT Cestkowski and Jon Farina (both of Status Coup). Reporters have been tear-gassed, detained by the Minnesota State Patrol, and had their equipment confiscated.
Journalist Don Lemon recently defeated a federal bid to charge him with criminal conspiracy after he livestreamed an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church. A judge confirmed his actions were protected by the First Amendment.
As Yoni Greenbaum, Vice President at the American Press Institute, wrote in his newsletter Backstory & Strategy: “Journalists are working in an increasingly hostile environment, one that requires body armor, not just notebooks.” He notes that legacy publishers have legal teams and corporate insurance, but freelancers and independent creators do not: “If a camera gets confiscated, or a reporter gets tear-gassed, an independent journalist is on the hook financially for everything.”
Minnesota’s literary community has responded with characteristic resilience and risk.
In Literary Hub’s “Letters From Minnesota” series, local writers are acting as witnesses and warnings. Poet chaun webster describes the “limits of language” in the face of militarized patrols and the emotional toll on families who now wake to the sound of whistles signaling ICE activity. Dobby Gibson praises bookstores like Moon Palace Books for stepping into a leadership void, providing community care, and organizing space. Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a poet who also won Academy of American Poets Prize, was killed—her perspective and words lost to the world forever.
Community members, including staff from bookstores, publishers, and writers’ groups, have organized neighborhood patrols, legal observers, and rapid-response networks to track and document ICE operations. Their tools are phones, notebooks, and whistles. A whistle blown to alert a neighbor is protected speech. So is a phone held up to record, and a voice speaking from an open car window. The Constitution protects all of it. Yet reporters and documenters have been recast as criminals precisely because their presence makes misconduct harder to conceal.
We can never lose sight of what a vital role journalists serve in democracy, informing citizens, acting as “watchdogs” to hold power accountable, uncovering wrongdoing, and promoting transparency, while also facilitating public discourse, defining community, and giving voice to the voiceless. Without a free press, there is no democracy. We must stand firm and protect journalists’ right to be present, respected, and protected, to document and to freely share the facts they witness and uncover; otherwise, we are lost.
If we want these stories told, we have to take care of the storytellers. As Greenbaum writes: “Bolstering the local news ecosystem in real-time demands more than goodwill and likes.”
Fund safety gear for journalists on the ground:
Support community-defense journalism:
Fund local newsroom capacity:
Amplify the reporting: The Star Tribune has unlocked unlimited “gift articles” for subscribers. If you have a subscription, use your gift links to bypass the paywall and share verified, on-the-ground reporting.
If you’re an author participating in the protests or a journalist documenting them, you deserve to speak and report freely. If your voice is silenced or your rights are challenged, contact staff@authorsguild.org for help.
