The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a statement this morning in which they stated;
“
. . . at least three journalists have been assaulted since October by police officers, and two others by participants, in demonstrations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oakland, California.In addition, at least a dozen journalists have reportedly been placed under temporary arrest while performing their professional duties, the statement said.The organization pointed to this week's detentions of seven journalists as they covered the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. They are Julie Walker, a freelancer who does work for National Public Radio and The Associated Press; Patrick Hedlund and Paul Lomax of DNAinfo.com; Doug Higginbotham, freelance cameraman for TV New Zealand; Jared Malsin of The Local; Karen Matthews and Seth Wenig of The Associated Press, and Matthew Lysiak of the New York Daily News.”
From the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Yesterday, in response to a report about the arrest of journalist in New York City, Stu Loeser, Mayor Bloomberg’s spokesperson made this statement in the form of an e-mail:
To: Interested Parties
From: Stu Loeser
Re: Just 5 of the “26 arrested reporters” are actually credentialed reportersDate: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Like all of you, I’ve heard and read many reports of reporters who supposedly were wearing valid NYPD press credentials, yet allegedly encountered problems on the streets of New York. Like some of you, I had those stories in mind when I read The Awls’ rundown of “The 25 26 Arrested Reporters and What They Do.”
Not being familiar with many of the media outlets for which The Awl says these reporters work, I had the list of “26 arrested reporters” checked against the roster of reporters who hold valid NYPD press passes.
You can imagine my surprise when we found that only five of the 26 arrested reporters actually have valid NYPD-issued press credentials. Note that we didn’t check – and don’t really care for the sake of this exercise – if the reporter’s credential lists the media outlet for which he or she currently works.
One more thing. Of the five reporters with valid press credentials who were arrested, three were arrested for trespassing and had their arrest voided. As the Associated Press and others reported, there’s no doubt that these personnel – and others – were in fact trespassing. There’s no question that protesters sliced open a chain link fence and tried to take over private property.
From The New York Observer
http://www.observer.com/...
The striking thing about this memo is, first, it distinguishes between credentialed and non-credentialed reporters meaning that “citizen reporters” with cell phones and video cameras, so much a part of a new wave of information gathering and disseminating, are not, according to Mayor Bloomberg, legitimate contributors to the body of essential public information. As such they are subject to whatever treatment the NYPD deems appropriate. Secondly, the statement implies that only New York City, specifically the NYPD, gets to decided who is a properly credentialed reporter, a subtle but terribly effective way of controlling the content information released. Consider the NYPD requirements for a press pass;
Applicants must be a member of the media who covers, in person, emergency, spot or breaking news events and/or public events of a non-emergency nature, where police, fire lines or other restrictions, limitations, or barriers established by the City of New York have been set up for security or crowd control purposes, within the City of New York; or covers, in person, events sponsored by the City of New York which are open to members of the press.Applicants also must submit one or more articles, commentaries, books, photographs, videos, films or audios published or broadcast within the twenty–four (24) months immediately preceding the Press Card application, sufficient to show that the applicant covered in person six (6) or more events occurring on separate days.
In order to get a press card in New York one must report on the news at a professional level but, one can’t report on the news in New York without a press pass. Whether the NYPD is the proper agency to anoint reporters it deems worthy is another question that should be asked.
The right to a free press is one that must be protected with zeal and the fight to keep is never over just as the war with the plutocrats for class and income equality is never over. It was fought in the late 1800s and early 1900s over labor rights, in the 1930s over a governments obligation to its citizens’ welfare in the 1950s and 1960s over civil rights and in the middle to late 1960s over America’s participation in a profitable but immoral war. Today, as always, our war is with the oligarchs, their hired minions and the mob of armed militants they use to suppress opposition. When the new Centurions become tools of suppression the people have not only a right but a moral obligation to resist.