A week ago today, police in Gary arrested veteran freelance photographer Matthew Kaplan, along with two demonstrators, at the scene of a protest against immigrant deportations he was plainly present to record rather than participate in. Indiana native Kaplan is a long-time Chicago journalist, and in area press, at least, the incident hasn’t gone unreported. Kaplan himself documents it with his and others’ photos in a post of the next day on Instagram.

The press in North America — where we are used to assuming a clear baseline in expression freedoms and in checks on anti-journalism practices characteristic of enforcement agencies worldwide — may find it less straightforward to document a rising trend in repression of journalism than it does the arrest of a single well-known journalist. Journalists cannot afford to wait for the institutions that employ us to raise the alarm for us. We must build the protections of worker solidarity on one another’s behalf.

As a labor organization of journalists and of workers in all media professions, this union is watching the trend. This month, we brought our collective voice together with that of press-freedoms advocacy groups in a swell of calls for ending the prosecution of movement journalist Alissa Azar, who was arrested while documenting a demonstration in Portland, Oregon last year. Anticipating a protracted defense effort by Azar’s legal team in the criminal case that lay ahead, we are heartened in learning instead this week of its unexpected dismissal. Her account of the turn can be read at NWU.org.

We foresee more cases to come. Our security as workers depends on us — not as lone warriors merely, but together. The well-being of the journalism profession depends in turn on the well-being of journalists. This union is intensifying effort to be prepared accordingly.

One way that’s happening now is through a three-part series of public trainings held by the union’s Digital Media Division, known also as the Freelance Solidarity Project, together with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Titled Protecting Journalists, Protecting Journalism, the series begins next week, Tuesday Jan. 28 at noon CT, with a session on legal preparedness for freelancers. Registration is free.