Reporters covering protests in the United States have been shot with crowd-control munitions, sprayed with tear gas, hit with cars, and physically attacked by both law enforcement and demonstrators.
So it makes sense that many journalists wear personal protective equipment like helmets, goggles, and gas masks at demonstrations, and that organizations like Reporters Without Borders offer grants to buy PPE that can reduce reporters’ chances of being hurt or even killed while doing their jobs.
What doesn’t make sense is when the government tries to stop reporters from taking those basic safety precautions.
Yet across the country, jurisdictions are banning safety gear at public protests. Officials often justify these policies in the name of public safety, for example by arguing that masks make it difficult to identify people who commit crimes at demonstrations. But many make no exceptions for members of the press, who pose no threat and face severe risk simply for doing their jobs.
In Newark, New Jersey, journalists covering the protests outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at Delaney Hall have recently reported being turned away by police for carrying gas masks or bags that they need to hold PPE.
Other places bar protective equipment at protests by law, such as Modesto, California, where an ordinance that prohibits a wide range of PPE, including goggles, helmets, and gas masks, is currently being challenged in court.
These bans are dangerous, most importantly to journalists’ physical safety. But they also harm the public’s right to know. When reporters can’t safely remain at a protest, the public loses access to independent documentation about what happened there.
PPE is ‘the only reason I’m alive’
Journalist and writer Linda Tirado lost her left eye and suffered a traumatic brain injury after being shot by a foam round while covering a protest in Minneapolis in 2020. The city later paid $600,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought over excessive use of force.
Tirado credits the protective equipment she wore that day with saving her life. “The only reason I am alive is that I was wearing goggles that I had sourced, I was wearing a respirator that I had sourced,” Tirado told me when we spoke recently.
Half a decade later, journalists covering demonstrations continue to face similar risks. While covering a protest in Los Angeles in 2025, filmmaker and photojournalist Michael Nigro was shot in the head with a crowd-control munition, leaving a mark on his protective helmet, which was labeled on both sides with the word “PRESS.”
“These less-lethal munitions are sometimes lethal,” he said. “You can get hit in the eye; I could lose eyesight.”
Reporter and photojournalist Wali Khan expressed similar concerns about an incident last September when he was shot with crowd-control munitions by federal officers while covering protests outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Khan was wearing impact goggles, a ventilator set, and a helmet when he was hit. Without his PPE, he said, he believes he could have been “partially blinded.”
Helmets and goggles aren’t the only equipment journalists rely on. Respirators and gas masks can also be critical when law enforcement deploys chemical agents at protests. Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter for L.A. Taco, has covered multiple protests around California. He often wears a full-face gas mask to mitigate the impacts of chemical irritants.
“There’s a big question mark” about the side effects of tear gas, Ray said. Even with a mask, he still has concerns about the impact on his health from tear gas that seeps through the mask or touches his skin.
Threats beyond law enforcement
Protective equipment can also help reporters defend themselves against threats that don’t come from law enforcement.
Documentarian Rocky Romano learned that firsthand while covering a protest in California in 2022. Romano was wearing a helmet when he was violently struck on the head by a man wielding what he described as a “tire checker” baton.
“He just doesn’t hit me. He hits me as hard as you can hit somebody with that weapon, like he must have played baseball or something,” Romano said.
Romano believes that his helmet saved him from more serious injuries, including death or mental impairment. “I can’t imagine taking that hit without a protective helmet between my head and the weapon. It would have been devastating,” he said.
PPE allows journalists to continue reporting
But protective equipment does more than prevent or mitigate injuries to journalists; it also allows the press to continue reporting when demonstrations become dangerous. Without gas masks, helmets, goggles, and other equipment, some reporters say they may miss out on documenting newsworthy events for the public.
For Nigro, protective equipment has made it possible to go places that he may otherwise be forced to avoid. Wearing a respirator and gas mask, for instance, allowed him to “go into the scrum” to document what was happening during the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Protective equipment is also essential because members of the press may be specifically targeted by law enforcement. “Sometimes the press badge is also a bull’s-eye,” Nigro explained. “They still come out on horseback with batons, with gas, and pepper balls and less-lethal munitions, and they’re firing directly and teeing up on us,” he added. That’s despite court orders prohibiting officers from attacking the press at protests.
“I’m just trying to mitigate any kind of bodily harm and make sure that the story is told,” Nigro said. “We need to be protected to be able to make sure that we document history, for now, and for the future.”
Ray also credited protective equipment for helping him do his job while covering a protest outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles earlier this year. Federal agents, he said, used large amounts of chemical irritants on the crowd. “I was able to stay and report on all that, and if I didn’t have a gas mask, it would have been impossible,” Ray explained.
Similarly, Khan said that his gas mask is essential. “My pictures are so much better because of it,” he said. “That’s like the most important part of my kit.” Khan, however, was among the journalists recently barred by officers from bringing a gas mask to cover protests at Delaney Hall.
‘A ticking time bomb’
Restricting PPE at protests, then, makes it harder for journalists to keep the public informed and makes an already dangerous job even riskier.
“It just seems like a ticking time bomb, where eventually something bad is going to happen,” said Ray. “Someone’s going to get shot in the eye, or shot in the head, or something like that.”
“I think it’s incredibly dangerous to expect that journalists would put themselves in these situations without being able to protect themselves,” he added.
For Tirado, the concern extends beyond journalists. She noted that many protesters also suffered severe injuries at the same Minneapolis demonstration where she was injured in 2020. “The First Amendment,” Tirado said, “does not distinguish between a citizen and a journalist.”
“I managed to survive,” Tirado said. “But that is down specifically to the PPE. If I hadn’t had it, I’d be dead right now.”
freedom.press/issues/ppe-bans-…
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