NewsNation reporter arrested while covering Ohio governor news conference

NewsNation Correspondent Evan Lambert was forced to the ground and arrested while covering a news conference held by Ohio’s governor in East Palestine on Feb. 8, 2023. The outlet reported live as he was released approximately five hours later.

Lambert was reporting live at around 5 p.m. as Gov. Mike DeWine spoke in a school gymnasium about clean-up efforts around a recent train derailment. Law enforcement officers approached Lambert at the back of the room, telling him to be quiet. After finishing his live report, officers again approached him and asked that he leave.

In footage of the incident, Lambert can be seen speaking with four law enforcement officers as one of them pulls on Lambert’s arm to forcibly remove him. Officers ultimately forced Lambert to the ground, pinning him on his stomach while handcuffing him. Two officers then place him in what appears to be a Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office vehicle.

NewsNation Washington Bureau Chief Mike Viqueria said during a broadcast that he spoke to Lambert while he was jailed.

“The first thing I’m going to tell you is Evan continues to act with a calm professionalism and equanimity despite what appears to me to be an infuriating outrage and violation of the First Amendment,” Viqueria said.

NewsNation reported live as Lambert was released from the Columbiana County Jail at around 10:15 p.m. He faces charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency filed the charges. When reached by phone, the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to contact the East Palestine Police Department. A EPPD officer said that they would be releasing a press release on Feb. 9.

After his release, Lambert said he was doing fine and that it had been an extremely long day.

“I’m just trying to do my job — as I am continuing to do right now — and that’s what it’s all about,” Lambert said. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”

The governor told reporters shortly after the arrest that he had not ordered or authorized it.

“It has always been my practice that if I’m doing a press conference, someone wants to report out there and they want to be talking back to the people back on channel, whatever, they have every right to do that,” DeWine said. “If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong.”