JOURNALISTS COVERING GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS SHOT AT, BEATEN UP

Journalists have become fair game to protesters and police alike as they battle it out in major US cities, with Brian Stelter of CNN Business reporting that reporters have been assaulted or arrested six times while covering the protests from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C., Louisville, Kentucky and Las Vegas.

At least a half dozen different incidents were reported on Friday, starting with the wrongful arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis and ending with the arrest of two photographers in Las Vegas.

Another disturbing episode took place on Saturday, when Ian Smith, a photojournalist for KDKA TV in Pittsburgh, said he was "attacked" by protesters downtown. "They stomped and kicked me," he wrote in a tweet from the back of an ambulance. "I'm bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life. Thank you!"

Reporters by and large said they wanted the attention to be focused on the communities they cover, not on their own safety concerns. Still, the incidents provoked concern from a range of advocacy groups. "Journalists have a clear First Amendment right to cover public events," Freedom of the Press Foundation advocacy director Parker Higgins said in a statement.

In Louisville, Kentucky, where protesters have been calling for accountability for a black woman who was fatally shot by police in March, an officer fired what appeared to be pepper balls at a reporter for WAVE 3 News, a local TV station. The incident was broadcast live on the air. "Who are they aiming that at?" the anchor asked. "At us," reporter Kaitlin Rust replied.