From the White House grounds to town halls across the country, politicians and candidates have been attempting to block members of the media from covering them — and advocates say it’s raising serious press freedom concerns.
The trend has stretched beyond party lines and political positions. Sometimes incidents stem from a dispute over unfavorable coverage; others from logistics snags or credentialing issues. But clashes between politicians and members of the media appear to have reached a fever pitch.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) on Tuesday tried to bar reporter Cat Murphy from recording him after a campaign forum with his Democratic challenger, incorrectly citing the state’s two-party consent law, which does not apply to public press gaggles. The incident, in which Harris called for an officer to take the journalist’s camera before abruptly exiting the room, occurred the same day a federal judge extended a block on President Donald Trump from barring some journalists from the White House grounds.
The Society of Professional Journalists, a national organization that issues standards for ethical reporting and advocates for press freedom and access, said it was “deeply concerned” by the representative’s threat to involve law enforcement while Murphy, a student journalist from the University of Maryland, was attempting to record Harris’ post-debate remarks.
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The First Amendment does not guarantee journalists admission to every campaign event — including private, invite-only gatherings and events with limited capacity — but that “doesn’t make it acceptable for candidates to exclude reporters because they dislike their coverage,” SPJ’s executive director, Caroline Hendrie, told The Washington Sun, adding that restricting press freedom is a “bipartisan issue.”
“We are seeing a spread and a normalization of hostility and aggressive pushback to journalists asserting their rights to report in the public on the public’s behalf,” Hendrie said. “I think it’s part of a strategy to delegitimize ethical, independent reporting.”
Harris’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, a staffer for Brandon Herrera, the Republican nominee for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, tried to remove a Texas Public Radio reporter from a campaign event after the journalist attempted to interview him about controversial remarks he made online. On Sept. 24, a staffer for Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany — who’s running for governor in Wisconsin — blocked two Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters from entering a veterans roundtable event for Tiffany’s campaign.
Tiffany later accused one of the Journal Sentinel reporters of being a “liberal activist” and running a series of “articles that have been hit jobs” on his campaign
“All we ask is for fair and balanced reporting,” Tiffany said.
Multiple Democratic candidates have also denied media access across primary and general election campaign events.
Several media outlets, including Sacramento TV station KCRA and The New York Times, were blocked from covering a campaign event featuring former Vice President Kamala Harris and Richard Pan, the Democrat running for California’s 6th Congressional District, on Oct. 2. Representatives for Harris and Pan blamed miscommunications in the credentialing process and each other’s teams for excluding the outlets.
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong — who lost her primary — initially blocked a Fox News reporter from reporting live from her election night watch party on Aug. 11, with the campaign citing capacity limits for the venue. Staffers eventually allowed the Fox journalist to enter without her camera crew’s equipment in tow.
And Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who also lost in her Democratic Senate primary, ejected a reporter from The Atlantic from a campaign event in February — though Crockett publicly denied the allegations.
“I will say that, you know, there is a specific journalist who is — she has a history of being less than truthful, and frankly, there’s no evidence of anything that she’s talking about,” Crockett said in an interview with CBS News following the alleged incident.
The trend also extends to elected politicians: Press freedom groups recently urged Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to stop scuttling media inquiries from Sinclair-owned news outlets and sending them generic responses amid his defamation quarrel with the broadcast group’s chair — likening it to Trump’s White House media ban. (The Washington Sun has a content-sharing agreement with The Baltimore Sun, which is one of the outlets affected.)
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented more than 275 violations in 2025 — including assaults, arrests, equipment seizures and access denials for journalists. That number is nearly a 30% increase from 2024’s tally, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s annual impact report.
By icing out specific members of the media and justifying the action by citing a reporter’s supposed bias against the candidate, public officials could be redefining “routine news gathering as misconduct,” Hendrie said.
“If you diligently seek comment from people you’re reporting about, that’s being misconstrued and redefined as harassment on the part of reporters when, in fact, they’re trying to fulfill their professional duties,” Hendrie added.
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