All you need to do is write "press" in sharpie somewhere visible on your person and upload cell phone videos to youtube, twitch, dlive, etc. to be considered a "journalist" in 2020. Maybe set up a venmo/cashapp account. That's what the vast majority of live streamers in Portland do covering the riots, and most who were arrested were breaking the law. There are many more "livestreamers" than accredited journalists who work for actual newspapers, magazines and tv news stations.
It would be interesting to know how many people working for actual "major publications" were arrested vs self proclaimed "journalists" streaming or uploading to youtube. I witnessed many, many livestreamers being arrested over the last 7 months of ongoing riots/unlawful assemblies. I don't think I ever saw anybody from the local news stations/news papers being arrested.
The livestreamers who were arrested were violating the law.
1) participating in de-arresting someone (when the police are physically detaining someone, others will physically attack the police to set the person being arrested "free")
2) throwing objects at police
3) Not leaving the scene of a declared riot/unlawful assembly when lawfully told to do so. They are usually warned multiple times through the LRAD system with at least 15-30 minutes forewarning.
Most arrested were actually actively participating in the riots and not just passively recording/reporting. They also routinely purposefully turn their cameras away when people who they are favorable towards are committing crimes so there is no evidence and chant "what did you see? We didn't see shit" over and over.
Journalist Andy Ngo (https://twitter.com/mrandyngo) routinely posts their arrest records and what the arrest charges were, and often video of what they did when arrested. Most charges are dropped by the local DA. Most are also immediately bailed out if actually charged using a $1.4M bail fund (https://www.gofundme.com/f/pdx-protest-bail-fund and that's only 1 fund of several) set up by the National Lawyers Guild. Basically they'll only actually charge you if you committed arson. They even drop charges of physically attacking police officers unless it's particularly egregious and well documented.
As you can probably tell, I strongly disagree on who they are claiming are journalists. I don't think anyone from KOIN/KGW/Fox/The Oregonian/New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time or any other major publications were arrested in Portland during the riots. They tend to be lawful while gathering their source material.