Dartmouth College: Student Journalists Arrested Covering Campus Protest

On May 1, 2024, police arrested student journalists providing live coverage of a pro-Palestine protest at Dartmouth College. . The journalists, Alesandra Gonzales and Charlotte Hampton of editorially-independent student paper The Dartmouth, had clearly identified themselves as press and had received permission to cover the event from Dartmouth’s Office of Communications. On May 7, a coalition of 15 press freedom organizations led by FIRE’s Student Press Freedom Initiative and the Student Press Law Center wrote urgently to Dartmouth and the Prosecutor’s Office of Hanover, New Hampshire calling for dismissal of the charges against Gonzales and Hampton. Later that day, Dartmouth responded, sharing an op-ed written by Dartmouth President Sian Beilock in which she called the arrests an “error” and vowed to work with authorities to drop the charges. On May 8, the Hanover Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to FIRE it would not pursue the charges.