Journalists covering the unrest across the United States are increasingly coming into harm’s way, even after identifying themselves as members of the press.

In Des Moines, a Des Moines Register reporter was pepper-sprayed in the face this week by a law enforcement officer even though she was physically separated from protests and identified herself several times as a member of the media, writes Carol Hunter, the Register’s executive editor. The incident occurred the day after another Register reporter was arrested while covering protests that turned violent at Merle Hay Mall.

“In both instances, [the reporters] were doing their jobs, their important — and we feel sacred — duty: reporting at the scene, conducting interviews, documenting what they were seeing,” writes Hunter. “This is a tumultuous time in Iowa cities and across the country, and it is a moment that must be recorded and reported.”

Similar incidents have occurred in other cities. In the past four days, there have been at least 100 reports of violence against journalists covering the protests and riots, Joel Simon, executive director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the Wall Street Journal. And, as with the two Register reporters, most of the incidents occurred after the journalists had identified themselves as members of the press.

“I have not heard previously in the United States of journalists consistently alleging that they have been targeted with violence even after identifying themselves as journalists,” Simon told Wall Street Journal reporter Benjamin Mullin.

Other incidents that have occurred in recent days include:

• The arrest of an Asbury Park Press reporter Monday night after a protest march. The reporter was later released and New Jersey’s state attorney general issued an apology.
• The tear-gassing of a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter. The reporter was handcuffed, put in a police wagon and detained for two hours.
• The pelting with pepper balls of a Louisville, Ky., television news reporter as she was reporting live on the unrest.

“We understand that [law enforcement] officers are often making split-second decisions,” writes the Register’s Hunter. “But it’s a different matter when journalists are not interfering with police and clearly identify themselves as press — but are pepper-sprayed anyway.”