What threats do journalists face and what protections exist to ensure their safety?

Threats that journalists face usually depend on which country they are working in and/or which country they are a resident or citizen of. For example, journalists in communist countries such as Russia and China are often censored, arrested, and even killed for practicing free speech, but those threats are not nearly as prevalent or common in non-communist countries such as the United States. For the sake of conciseness, I will write a brief post about the United States today, and then expand on both the US and other countries as time goes on. Within the US, journalists are usually protected from governmental persecution because of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. According to a May 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center, the biggest threats that US journalists currently face is harassment from the public and threats of arrest when trying to report on stories that involve the government and law enforcement. One such threat was when police threatened to arrest journalists who were attempting to report on the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. According to Poynter and San Antonio Express-News editor Nora López, reporters for her newspaper were physically harassed by former police officers, blocked by law enforcement from reporting on the sites of funerals for the victims, and were threatened with arrest multiple times despite not breaking any laws. Those kinds of incidents are becoming more frequent in the US, especially when reporting on mistakes law enforcement has made. Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center emphasized that a majority of journalists surveyed stated that they were extremely concerned about current press freedoms in the US, believing that press freedom is not as protected as it once was and that it could potentially worsen in the future. As mentioned above, US journalists are protected under the First Amendment, and even if certain protections for them were to be legally overturned, the First Amendment still remains as a shield. However, workers for the government often ignore said protections, such as when police officers harass and/or arrest journalists, usually on unfounded charges. Journalists also face harassment from the public, especially on social media. According to UNESCO, journalists around the world, including in the US, have increasingly experienced, "Online violence and harassment [which] spurs self-censorship and, sometimes, physical attacks. Journalists have also increasingly been attacked while covering protests, by various actors (including both security forces and protest participants). Journalists in the US often endanger themselves when reporting on protests both in-person and online given that protests are often caused by controversial issues. There is also the problem of journalists being censored by their own newspapers, such as when New York Times writer Jazmine Hughes was forced to resign after signing a petition criticizing Israel in the Israel-Hamas War. According to Vanity Fair, the New York Times' guild had objected to the handling of her resignation, with her resigning after the Times re-released their guidelines on what their journalists can and cannot publicly express outside of working hours. The guideline states that staffers may not, "...sign ads taking a position on public issues, or lend their name to campaigns...if doing so might reasonably raise doubts about their ability or the Times's ability to function as neutral observers of the news." Said guideline also received criticism because of the Times' suspected bias towards Israel in its war reporting. Overall, US journalists face numerous threats, mostly from law enforcement, the public both online and in-person, and even their employers themselves. Their main protection is the First Amendment, though what protections should be implemented for journalists wishing to express their opinions outside of working hours is up for debate and will be addressed in a later post.