Student journalists assaulted, others arrested as protests on college campuses turn violent

Journalists tasked with covering violent unrest on college campuses across the US have been assaulted, arrested and barred access as police moved in to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up encampments and barricaded themselves inside buildings.

Journalists tasked with covering violent unrest on college campuses across the US have been arrested and barred access as police moved in to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up encampments and barricaded themselves inside buildings. The confrontations with journalists come as student-run news outlets and traditional news media descend on college campuses where police officers have clashed with and arrested hundreds of demonstrators demanding the universities divest any financial ties with Israel over the war in Gaza. On one campus, assailants reportedly followed and attacked student journalists. At Columbia University in New York, journalists said they were barred from covering the unrest Tuesday night as police officers in riot gear breached an academic building where demonstrators were barricaded, resulting in more than 100 arrests. At the University of California, Los Angeles, student journalists reporting on violent clashes between protesters said they were assaulted and gassed. And in Northern California, local journalists covering college demonstrations were detained and arrested by police. On some college campuses rocked by the demonstrations, access has been restricted to students only, effectively making student journalists the only reliable news media reporting on the campus protests and clashes. At UCLA, reporters for the student-run newspaper The Daily Bruin, said they were violently attacked during the clashes Tuesday night, including being followed, slapped and sprayed with irritants, the newspaper said. Student Editor Dai-Liu told CNN that she was gassed, and other student reporters were assaulted, with one reporter being taken to emergency care. “Shortly before 3:30 a.m., four Daily Bruin reporters were walking on campus when they were followed and then assaulted,” the newspaper reported. “Five to six assailants also sprayed reporters with an irritant. As some reporters went to help a reporter that was pulled to the ground, assailants began to record on their cellphones.”