Showing posts with label freedom of the press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of the press. Show all posts

Thursday, February 1, 2024

"The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone."

Via The Toronto Star

February 1, 2024

 What charges against journalist Brandi Morin mean for Canadian democracy

Trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges.

By Kiran Nazish, Contributor

The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin was interviewing indigenous elders and people inside an encampment in Edmonton for Ricochet media, when the police raid on indigenous encampments began.


Despite showing her credentials Morin was arrested, detained and kept in a cell at the police station for hours and charged with obstruction. Later Morin told me, an officer told her he had heard of her and knew her work.

The events Morin experienced that day was not only an escalation of police encounter for a journalist doing her job, but also what seems to be a carefully thought through intervention to the press’s ability to have access when the police is using force on citizens. Is it reasonable that after the police saw Morin's press credentials and the condemnations of her arrest — which were all over social media while she had been in the police station — that the police had a reason to believe that she was "obstructing?"

Charging a journalist covering a public issue that impacts hundreds of thousands of Canadians lacks foresight and sincerity on many levels, but most importantly smells of maleficence. This is a deliberate charge to intimidate journalists covering important stories that bring vital insight into some of the most concerning and sensitive issues impacting Canadians lives today.

This is not the first time law enforcement in Canada has gotten in the way of journalistic work.

At Women Press Freedom, a New York-based advocacy group focused on press freedom and gender globally, we observe authorities impeding journalists to be an ongoing issue and unfortunately a growing trend in Canada.

Since 2019, according to Women Press Freedom, almost 70 Canadian women journalists have been intimated or harassed for doing their work: 39 of these incidents include smear campaigns and online harassment, 16 press freedom violations including assaults while on the job, and 17 of these have been violations and impediments conducted by law enforcement including police and RCMP. These numbers only reflect attacks on the press for women journalists and do not cover the overall picture, which is much more bleak.

In 2016, journalist Justin Brake was criminally charged for his coverage of an occupation by Innu and Inuit land protectors of a construction site for Muskrat Falls, a controversial $12-billion hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2021, Ian Wilms was arrested while covering a similar raid of homeless encampment. The same year journalist Amber Bracken and Micheal Toledano were arrested by RCMP while reporting on the escalating situation at Gidimt’en camp in Wet’suwet’en territory. During Fairy Creek several journalists were intimidated, harassed and impeded from reporting on the protests.

The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin was interviewing indigenous elders and people inside an encampment in Edmonton for Ricochet media, when the police raid on indigenous encampments began. 

Despite showing her credentials Morin was arrested, detained and kept in a cell at the police station for hours and charged with obstruction. Later Morin told me, an officer told her he had heard of her and knew her work.

The events Morin experienced that day was not only an escalation of police encounter for a journalist doing her job, but also what seems to be a carefully thought through intervention to the press’s ability to have access when the police is using force on citizens. Is it reasonable that after the police saw Morin's press credentials and the condemnations of her arrest — which were all over social media while she had been in the police station — that the police had a reason to believe that she was "obstructing?" 

Charging a journalist covering a public issue that impacts hundreds of thousands of Canadians lacks foresight and sincerity on many levels, but most importantly smells of maleficence. This is a deliberate charge to intimidate journalists covering important stories that bring vital insight into some of the most concerning and sensitive issues impacting Canadians lives today. 

This is not the first time law enforcement in Canada has gotten in the way of journalistic work. 

At Women Press Freedom, a New York-based advocacy group focused on press freedom and gender globally, we observe authorities impeding journalists to be an ongoing issue and unfortunately a growing trend in Canada. 

Since 2019, according to Women Press Freedom, almost 70 Canadian women journalists have been intimated or harassed for doing their work: 39 of these incidents include smear campaigns and online harassment, 16 press freedom violations including assaults while on the job, and 17 of these have been violations and impediments conducted by law enforcement including police and RCMP. These numbers only reflect attacks on the press for women journalists and do not cover the overall picture, which is much more bleak. 

In 2016, journalist Justin Brake was criminally charged for his coverage of an occupation by Innu and Inuit land protectors of a construction site for Muskrat Falls, a controversial $12-billion hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2021, Ian Wilms was arrested while covering a similar raid of homeless encampment. The same year journalist Amber Bracken and Micheal Toledano were arrested by RCMP while reporting on the escalating situation at Gidimt’en camp in Wet’suwet’en territory. During Fairy Creek several journalists were intimidated, harassed and impeded from reporting on the protests. 

When it comes to police intimidation, impediment or arrests, we notice a consistent thread: number of journalists covering Indigenous stories and climate change-related stories dominate the chart. Brandi Morin has been targeted by RCMP and police on multiple occasions in the past few years, and in all these cases she was covering issues that impact lives of Indigenous Peoples.

These trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges. These are clear intimidations, and if a reformation of these police actions are not called for now, it would harm other institutions in the country widely.

This calls for attention for all Canadian leadership, particularly those who care about this country’s democratic values. There is an urgent need for steps that ensure the police and law enforcement comply with the laws of democracy, in which journalists are not obstructed but respected and supported. 

Morin was just doing her job. It is time that the Edmonton Police takes inspiration from that and do their job by respecting freedom of the press and dropping charges against her. 


Kiran Nazish is the founding director of the New York-based Women Press Freedom and the Coalition For Women In Journalism. 

Thursday, January 25, 2024

"Journalists play an important role in holding those in power accountable...."

 

Via Brandi Morin on Twitter

January 25, 2024


"I was I was arrested on January 10 while reporting on a police raid on an Indigenous encampment in Edmonton. During the arrest of the camp’s leader I was targeted and told I had to leave the area. When I tried to assert my rights as a journalist, rights which have been upheld by high courts in two provinces, I was arrested and charged with obstruction. 

My editors and lawyers feel this charge is an attempt to send me a message. Now, I need your help to send one back. 

I hope you’ll stand with me."




Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Report Warns of Attempt to 'Criminalize' Newsgathering in the US

 Via VOA

December 20, 2023


WASHINGTON — At least a dozen journalists faced arrest or charges related to their newsgathering across the U.S. in 2023, with most working for local media outlets.

The incidents and their impact on the ability of journalists to cover the news are detailed in a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Based in New York, the Tracker has documented what it sees as press freedom violations inside the U.S. since 2017.

According to the Tracker, many of the cases this year involved attempts to prevent journalists from engaging in regular reporting practices — from asking questions to investigating public officials. It cited around 30 cases of journalists or media outlets being summoned and asked to identify a source or hand over reporting materials.

“What was interesting this year was an apparent criminalization of general newsgathering,” said Stephanie Sugars, the report’s author.

The number of cases of journalists arrested is lower than previous years, when the Tracker documented dozens of cases as media covered unrest and large-scale protests. Still, the findings are a concern, the nonpartisan group said.

In one case from October, police arrested a small-town Alabama newspaper publisher and a reporter for publishing an article that authorities said contained confidential grand jury evidence.

While leaking information may be illegal, it is not a crime for news outlets to publish that information, so long as the reporters are not involved in illegally obtaining the materials, press experts say.

In another case, a reporter at an Illinois newspaper was cited for asking city officials too many questions about flooding in October.

“That is normal newsgathering,” Sugars told VOA from New York.

In the Illinois case, the charges were dropped.

In a separate incident in Ohio, NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert was ordered to stop a live broadcast while Governor Mike DeWine was giving a press briefing in February. Officers then forced Lambert to the ground and arrested him.

The governor expressed concern and said he was not aware of the incident at the time it occurred.

Lambert filed a lawsuit in November over the incident.

Meanwhile, an Arizona judge in April granted a restraining order against a local reporter after the journalist looked into a state senator’s residency claims. Another judge later rejected the restraining order. And in July, two California reporters were accused by a local police union of stalking for trying to contact a police officer at her home.

“Attempts to criminalize routine journalistic activities, such as contacting public officials or the subjects of stories, send a chill through the heart of newsgathering,” Sugars wrote in the report.

It’s unclear whether police and officials in these incidents were unaware of what constitutes normal newsgathering or whether they just didn’t care, Sugars said.

But, she added, that distinction also misses the point.

“Whether they know that it is general, basic newsgathering or not is less important than the fact that they just don’t like it and are using the tools at their disposal to retaliate,” Sugars said.

Another factor that links many of the cases in the Press Freedom Tracker’s report is that most incidents took place at the local level, affecting smaller or regional publications.

That’s likely a byproduct of the decline of local news coverage, according to Sugars.

The U.S. has lost more than one fourth of its newspapers since 2005 and is set to lose one third of all its roughly 6,000 remaining print newspapers — mostly weeklies — by 2025, according to a report by Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative.

“That lack of constant scrutiny has created an atmosphere where local officials feel like they are no longer responsible for answering questions,” Sugars said.

First Amendment experts say such violations make it harder for journalists to do their jobs.

“If you’ve got these instances of law enforcement overreach, again, it impairs the press’s watchdog role," said Gabe Rottman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, or RCFP.

Rottman, who is director of the RCFP’s Technology and Press Freedom Project, said that it is important for government officials to understand the role journalists play in their community.

Fewer journalists were arrested or charged in the United States in 2023 than in the past few years, the Tracker report found.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Behind the Headlines: Victims of Newsroom Raids in Marion and Tampa Tell Their Stories

Via Freedom of the Press Foundation

December 11, 2023 


Freedom of the Press Foundation Director of Advocacy Seth Stern is joined by special guests Eric Meyer from the Marion County Record and independent journalist Tim Burke to discuss updates on these troubling incidents and what's next in the fight to defend and foster a courageous press.





Thursday, November 2, 2023

"We are deeply concerned by this violation of the First Amendment rights of these journalists"

 Via Associated Press: Newspaper publisher and reporter arrested and accused of revealing grand jury information

"In over 40 years of handling media law matters, Bailey said he had “never seen a reporter arrested for publishing truthful information about the existence of a grand jury subpoena.”


Committe To Protect Journalists: Alabama publisher, reporter arrested, charged with disclosing leaked information

“CPJ is outraged by the arrest of Atmore News publisher Sherry Digmon and reporter Don Fletcher and calls on local authorities to immediately drop all charges against them. They should not be prosecuted for simply doing their jobs and covering a matter of local interest, such as the allocation of school board funds,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S. and Canada program coordinator. “Journalists play a crucial role in their local communities. Arresting them creates a chilling effect and is a gross misuse of taxpayer funds.”


National Press Club: Press Club leaders condemn arrests of Alabama newspaper reporter and publisher

"Arresting journalists in response to the publication of a news article is contrary to democratic values. It should not happen anywhere in the world, and is especially concerning in the United States, where we have strong and well-established legal protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press."

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Update: Marion police chief resigns after body cam footage shows him rifling through records about himself

 Via The Kansas City Reflector

October 3, 2023


Update to earlier report

TOPEKA — Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody has resigned, less than two months after he instigated a widely covered raid on a local newspaper that culminated in a federal lawsuit and one woman’s death.

Marion Mayor David Mayfield announced Cody’s departure during a Monday city council meeting, following the previous week’s announcement that Cody was suspended. Mayfield said the resignation was “effective immediately,” according to Marion County Record reporting.

Zach Hudlin, an officer who was present during the raid, has been appointed as Marion’s acting police chief by Mayfield’s suggestion. Hudlin was involved in the raid of the Marion County Record and seized items from the newspaper. He is the only remaining Marion police force member fully certified as a law enforcement officer, the Record reported.

Cody’s resignation is one of several developments in the unprecedented rural newspaper raid. Cody initiated the Aug. 11 search under the pretense that reporter Phyllis Zorn committed identity theft when she accessed public records on a public website.

In an affidavit, Cody wrote that Zorn had illicitly accessed local restaurateur Kari Newell’s driver’s license history. Newell lost her license following a 2008 drunken driving conviction, but had been accused of driving without a license for years. A confidential source gave the reporter Newell’s driver’s license record, and Zorn verified the information through a Kansas Department of Revenue database — a legal way for reporters to access information.

Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed off on the search warrant.

During the raid, Cody, along with four police officers and two sheriff’s deputies, took cell phones and other electronic devices from the newsroom. According to details from a federal lawsuit filed by Deb Gruver, a veteran Record reporter, law enforcement read reporters their Miranda warnings, then left them to wait outside in 100-degree heat for three hours.

Officers also searched Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer’s home, along with the residence of a county councilwoman. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother, Joan, the newspaper’s co-owner, died a day after the raid.

Meyer believed the stress of the raid contributed to his mother’s death. Newsroom equipment was returned five days after the raid, after the county attorney determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support the search warrants.

Body camera footage

Gruver — who is suing Cody individually for “emotional distress, mental anguish and physical injury” — had previously questioned him about alleged misconduct.

Recent reporting from the Record describes officers searching records about Cody during the raid, ignoring the drivers’ license document for which they had purportedly raided the office. The Record also reported Cody had been in contact with Newell during the raid, telling her he had information he wanted to share.

Other portions of the body camera footage obtained by the paper showed Hudlin rummaging through Gruver’s desk during the raid and alerting Cody to the reporter’s files about him.

“You want to look through this desk?” Hudlin asks Cody in the Record’s account of the incident.

Cody’s reply, after reading the files: “Keeping a personal file on me. I don’t care.”

Though the Record hadn’t published the information, Gruver had compiled allegations made against Cody by his former colleagues with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. According to Record reporting, Cody left Kansas City under the threat of demotion, following accusations of creating a hostile work environment.

Before he was sworn in as Marion’s police chief, Cody denied he was facing demotion and threatened Gruver with a lawsuit if she reported anything about his Kansas City history, the Record said. At the time, the newspaper provided a summary of the allegations against Cody to city council member Zach Collett, who allegedly asked the newspaper why they were “digging into this.”

The last Facebook post from the Marion Police Department, left Aug. 12, maintains the officers’ belief in ensuring “safety and security.”

“The Marion Kansas Police Department believes it is the fundamental duty of the police to ensure the safety, security, and well-being of all members of the public,” the comment read. “This commitment must remain steadfast and unbiased, unaffected by political or media influences, in order to uphold the principles of justice, equal protection, and the rule of law for everyone in the community.”

Newsroom fallout

In the weeks since the raid, Record reporters have expressed anxiety and concern. Meyer buried his mother. Zorn has faced worsening health, with her seizure disorder exacerbated by stress.

Gruver has announced her resignation from the newspaper, saying she no longer felt comfortable in the Marion community, the Record reported.

“I’ve been having — whether anyone understands it or not — a lot of anxiety about being in Marion. …” Gruver wrote in a resignation letter to the Record. “I feel bad about this, but I need to do what’s best for my mental health, which isn’t the greatest at the moment.”

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Photojournalists settle long fought case against the NYPD

 Via National Press Photographers Association

September 5, 2023


Sept. 5, 2023 - The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has agreed to historic settlement terms with five photojournalists who were attacked and arrested by NYPD during the racial justice protests of 2020. The agreement reinforces the First Amendment rights of the public and the press, provides new protections for journalists operating in New York, and according to the terms of the agreement will improve police training and reinforce proper behavior toward the press.

The settlement resolves a federal lawsuit brought three years ago by attorneys from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), along with the nationally recognized law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and noted civil rights attorney Wylie Stecklow, on behalf of the five photojournalists, Adam Gray, Jason Donnelly, Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi, Mel D. Cole, and Amr Alfiky.


The agreement includes the following terms:

Journalists with press credentials issued by New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) will not need to leave the area when an order to disperse is issued to the general public and members of the press will not be subject to arrest for documenting police activity or for not leaving the general area;


NYPD will not arrest journalists with government-issued credentials for alleged low-level offenses (such as disorderly conduct or obstructing governmental administrations) without prior approval by an incident commander or a Deputy Commissioner, Public Information official. Any summons for such arrests will presumptively be issued to the journalist on site instead of at a police station, thereby discouraging the practice of unlawfully detaining journalists at police stations for hours before charges against them are dropped;


NYPD officers are prohibited from arresting, restricting, or interfering with members of the press for merely observing or recording police activity in public places;


NYPD will recognize the legitimacy of press passes that are issued by jurisdictions outside New York City;


NYPD is required to provide journalists with access “to any location where the public is permitted,” and NYPD officers are barred from putting up crime/accident/incident scene tape or establishing “frozen zones” for the purpose of preventing members of the press from viewing or recording events in public places;


Neither a press pass nor any other form of press identification is needed to observe or record police activity occurring in public places, including areas where protests, crimes, or other matters of public concern are taking place.


In the agreement, the NYPD also—for the first time ever—formally acknowledges that the press has a clearly established First Amendment right to record police activity in public places, and commits itself to respect that right. (See Settlement Agreement, ¶¶ 14, 89.) No press pass or other form of identification is needed to exercise this right. Pursuant to the agreement, the agency will update its guidelines, amend its current policies and training and will specifically train members of the service on treatment of the press and the clearly established right to record police activity in public. The agreement also makes clear that the increased protection for members of the press does not in any way diminish the right of citizens to record police activity in traditional public places.


“Journalists are an essential part of a functioning, civil society and it’s essential that they be allowed to conduct their work free of harassment and assault, especially from state actors,” said Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel to the NPPA. “On behalf of our members and all visual journalists, who perform a vital role as watchdogs and witnesses to history, I am very pleased with the terms of this agreement and the changes to police behavior that it demands.”


“This is not an agreement that will simply sit on a shelf,” added NPPA deputy general counsel Alicia Calzada. “It has real teeth and real mandates for improved training of police at all levels. We are hopeful this will truly change law enforcement culture when it comes to First Amendment activities.”


Attorney Robert D. Balin, who led the litigation for Davis Wright Tremaine accentuated the importance of the case. “The treatment that our clients received at the hands of the NYPD was not only unconstitutional, it was unconscionable, and a direct threat to our democratic principles,” Balin said. “I’m proud that these brave photojournalists chose to hold the police department accountable for their actions and I look forward to seeing the terms of this far-reaching settlement implemented for the benefit of all journalists.”


In addition to the policy changes, the settlement agreement also requires that the NYPD provide extensive annual training to all of its officers—ranging from Police Academy cadets to high-ranking executive personnel—on the First Amendment rights of the press and establishes a police-media relations committee to monitor and discuss future incidents involving the press. Additionally, for a period of three years, a committee headed by the New York City Department of Investigation will monitor police activity at protests to ensure that the NYPD complies with its commitments to respect the rights of peaceful protesters, journalists, and legal observers.


While pervasive mistreatment of journalists covering the George Floyd protests was the catalyst for the civil rights suit (see, Testimony of NPPA General Counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher June 15, 2020, OAG Hearing on Interactions Between NYPD and the General Public, p. 207), the scope of the agreement they ultimately hammered out with the NYPD reaches much further. The provisions in this settlement agreement related to the press are not limited to protest situations, but are crucial First Amendment principles that apply whenever members of the press are covering police activity in public.


“The NYPD’s abuse of the media has been a systemic issue for decades, and today’s injunctive settlement hopefully provides a brighter future for protest and the ability of the press and public to document police interactions at First Amendment activities and beyond in this great City,” said Wylie Stecklow, who in addition to his work on this case, regularly represents photographers and protesters whose rights have been violated by the NYPD. “But today’s announced settlement is not the end, it’s just the beginning of re-training and new NYPD policies to ensure there is respect and protection for the press, up and down the NYPD hierarchy. We cannot expect the rank and file to follow these rules related to the respect of First Amendment rights of the media, if high ranking officers are able to violate the rights of the media with impunity and immunity.”


The five plaintiffs in the case are award-winning visual journalists who have published their work in a variety of leading global news outlets, including Reuters, The New York Times, The Times of London, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Paris Match, Le Monde, CNN, BBC, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and more.


Adam Gray, former chief photographer for the British press agency South West News Service and repeat recipient of the Photographer of the Year Award by the British Press Photographers’ Association, was the first plaintiff to join the case following his wrongful assault and arrest while covering the protests. He was pushed to the ground without warning, arrested, and detained overnight while covering protests in and around Union Square. “I’m extremely grateful for the no-cost representation provided to me and the other news professionals by Rob, Mickey, Wylie and their teams,” said Gray. “These protests happened during a critical inflection point for U.S. society and I am hopeful this settlement will mark a major change in New York’s police culture as well.”


Jae Donnelly, a well-known photographer, and regular contributor to The Daily Mail, was violently assaulted by a baton-wielding officer while photographing protestors in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. “Our lawsuit has fought to change the NYPD rule book on how NYPD from top to bottom treat us news gathering professionals with the professional courtesy,” said Donnelly. “We deserve to be kept safe before one of us is eventually killed at work. My attack by an NYPD sergeant put myself and my family through much pain,” he added.


Amr Alfiky —who was arrested while photographing police activity on the Lower East Side in February 2020, and, in a second incident, violently attacked by an officer while covering protests at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn—celebrated the agreement. “This settlement is indeed historic and goes beyond the compensation for the profound damage caused by excessive use of force and unlawful arrests towards visual journalists and photographers in New York City,” he said. “Hopefully, this is the start of a new era of how journalists are perceived and treated by NYPD.” Alfiky is now a staff photographer for Reuters in the Middle East.


Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi, a renowned documentary and news photographer, who was hit in the face by a baton-wielding officer while photographing police beating a young man in Lower Manhattan said, “as a photographer working in conflict zones around the world, I was stunned when the NYPD struck me with a baton, splitting my lip, when I was simply doing my job on the public streets of NYC a few days after the murder of George Floyd. It was the first time I'd suffered an injury while on the job, and it wasn't in war-torn Congo or South Sudan, but in the New York City. I'm glad to see that in the USA, however, when the rights of the press are so egregiously infringed upon, there is a legal system that can come to our support. I do hope our trial will move things in the right direction for us journalists to be able to do our jobs without fear of unlawful arrest or harm, and ultimately for freedom of the press and a more just society.”


Mel D. Cole, a widely published visual journalist and music photographer, was documenting police-protester clashes from the Brooklyn Bridge footpath when he was arrested, stripped of his cameras, and held for seven hours. “Going to jail for doing your job as a photographer should never ever happen. I'm happy that I can now put what should have never been behind me, but I will never forget the feelings that I had that day while being handcuffed and not being able to free when I should have been!” he said.


These terms are all part of a larger settlement announced today of claims that were brought on behalf of peaceful protestors by the New York Attorney General’s Office, the New York Civil Liberties Union, The Legal Aid Society, Gideon Orion Oliver, and civil rights firms Cohen & Green and the Aboushi Law Firm. The NPPA had previously filed public comments and testified during public hearings regarding the mistreatment of the press during the 2020 protests. Along with the agreed upon terms of the settlement, the photographers will all receive monetary compensation.


This significant civil rights litigation was supported by NPPA counsel Osterreicher and Calzada and a team that consisted of Davis Wright Tremaine counsel Robert D. Balin, Abigail Everdell, Alison Schary, Kathleen Farley, Alexandra Settelmayer, Nimra Azmi, Megan Amaris, Jean Fundakowski and Veronica Muriel Carrioni, and paralegal Megan Duffy, along with attorney Wiley Stecklow of Wylie Stecklow, PLLC.

About the National Press Photographers Association NPPA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of visual journalism in its creation, editing, and distribution. NPPA’s members include video and still photographers, editors, students, and representatives of businesses that serve the visual journalism community. Since its founding in 1946, the NPPA has been the Voice of Visual Journalists, vigorously promoting the constitutional and intellectual property rights of journalists as well as freedom of the press in all its forms, especially as it relates to visual journalism. For more information, go to nppa.org.




Photojournalists settle long fought case against the NYPD (nppa.org)


Monday, September 4, 2023

"GOOD TROUBLE" Exhibit extended through September 30

 

"Good Trouble" is an exhibition of photographs that register the power of individuals to inspire movements and illustrates the power of protest from a deeply human perspective. In this exhibition, we are reminded of the power of photographs to propel action and inspire change.  The exhibition has been extended through September 30, 2023.


Protest is an invaluable way to speak truth to power. Throughout history, protests have been the driving force behind some of the most powerful social movements, exposing injustice and abuse, demanding accountability and inspiring people to keep hoping for a better future. The right to protest encompasses various rights and freedoms, including the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, and the freedom of expression. Unfortunately, these precious rights are under attack and must be protected from those who are afraid of change and want to keep us divided.

During the course of the exhibition, several major news items have affirmed the importance of protest and standing up against injustice.

On May 8, Photojournalist Stephanie Keith was arrested while documenting a candlelight vigil in New York City for Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on the subway. On July 7, Keith joined Gallery photographer Ryan Vizzions, who met while documenting the Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, discussed their experiences documenting protest movements, recent efforts to suppress protest, and the increase in the misuse of force by police at protests.

Watch the Gallery conversation on YouTube here.

Last spring, Tennessee Republicans inadvertently turned the "Tennessee Three" — Democratic Representatives Justin J. Pearson, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Jones — into beloved national political figures by voting to expel them for supporting gun reform demands. At the end of August, Lawmakers voted 70-20 to discipline Jones, effectively preventing him from speaking during the special session. Republicans ordered state troopers to clear the galleries. The decision forced the removal not only of the protesters but also of the parents of students who had survived a deadly school shooting and were keeping a quiet and emotional watch over the proceedings. Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, said "We have arrived in a very scary and sad place in the state of Tennessee. Instead of being used to enforce the public safety, they are being used to suppress democracy."

In July, New York City agreed to pay $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020. In August, Denver approved a $4.7 million settlement for more than 300 protesters who were detained for violating an emergency curfew during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in 2020, and later accused the police of using excessive force.

In August, the office of The Marion County Record in Iowa, and home of the newspaper's owner, were raided by Police in an unprecedented attack on the press. Following an international backlash, the County attorney cited 'insufficient evidence' for the search and seizure.


"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something. You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way…to get in the way". – John Lewis


View the exhibition here.









Wednesday, August 23, 2023

"We hear you, Joan Meyer. Your loss stings. But we won’t forget that you took a stand when it mattered."

 Via The Kansas Reflector

August 23, 2023

"But we won’t forget that you took a stand when it mattered."



Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record, finally had her say Monday.

Boy, did we get a talking-to.

Meyer’s previous silence was sadly excusable. She died of cardiac arrest Aug. 12, a day after unconstitutional police raids on her home and beloved newspaper. But the whole world heard her loud and clear Monday, thanks to a video released by the Record showing her confrontation with officers.

Suffice to say, she had some choice words.

“Don’t you touch any of that stuff. This is my house!” she tells the police, who are clustered at the other side of the room around a table. “You ***holes. Get ’em out of here. They’re here.”

She then confronts an officer, vigorously pushing a walker ahead of her: “Does your mother love you? Do you love your mother? You’re an ***hole, police chief. You’re the chief? Oh, God. Get out of my house. You’re (unclear). Get out. Stand outside. You can stand outside that door and still see him. I don’t want you in my house.”

The video continues, with Meyer muscling herself and the walker past two officers to see exactly what was happening at the table.

“What are you doing?” she demands. “Those are personal papers.”

An officer limply explains the now-withdrawn search warrants, and Meyer responds with: “You people —” before the footage cuts off.





Those following the Marion County fiasco since Kansas Reflector broke the story probably have conjured an image of Meyer in their mind. She was a sweet elderly lady, gentle and caring, face wreathed with white curls and harboring angelic disposition. Accounts written after her death painted her as a community fixture, someone who dedicated 60-plus years to the newspaper.

Sure, she was many of these things, at least some of the time. But we can also see that she was a tart-tongued firebrand, not just feisty in the face of adversity but downright impassioned.

The police raid may have led to Meyer’s death. It most certainly did not break her spirit or misdirect her moral compass.

Watching the video, I thought about both of my grandmothers. They were each about her age, which meant their youths were shaped first by the Great Depression and then by World War II. My maternal grandmother went to work for Pratt and Whitney’s aircraft engine division during the war and stayed on at the Veterans Administration a few years afterward. Once my grandfather retired, she went to business school and landed a new job. My paternal grandmother spent her career as a schoolteacher in southeast Kansas and kept tutoring after she retired.

They were tough ladies. They raised families, loved grandchildren and didn’t stand for malarky. Although they both died some dozen years ago, I miss them still.

Would either have reacted like Meyer, cussing out local police, if officers had intruded on their homes and families?

I can only guess. But between the two of them, I bet at least one would have tried.

Meyer tried. She was still here. She had survived the passings of so many other people of her generation, and from the available video clip, she had no plans to go anywhere. That makes the overreach of Marion County Police Chief Gideon Cody and Magistrate Judge Laura Viar even less tolerable. They not only violated the First Amendment. They appear to have contributed to this newswoman’s death.

As Kansas House Minority Leader Vic Miller said Tuesday: “It had literally grave consequences in this instance, with the mother passing away. I’ve watched the video, there’s no doubt in my mind that the stress of this event added or contributed to her loss. But the chilling effect, the absolutely chilling effect that this can have on the rest of our press is intolerable.”

All of us need similar courage today. We face assaults on individual rights and freedoms from all directions. Leaders at the Kansas Statehouse have been more than happy to target minority groups for political advantage, pamper the privileged and spread lies about people in need. They expect us to blithely take it and treat them politely along the way.

Listen, I don’t advocate cussing out anyone. At least not instantaneously. But at a certain point, raising your voice for justice and freedom doesn’t just make sense. It’s the only way to be heard.

We hear you, Joan Meyer. Your loss stings. But we won’t forget that you took a stand when it mattered.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate.

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Marion County attorney withdraws search warrant against Kansas newspaper; returns items

 

Ad featuring black and white portrait of Congressman John Lewis with text "In solidarity with the Marion County Record" and his quote "If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have the moral obligation to do something about it"


Via KHSB Kansas City

August 16, 2023

By: Jessica McMaster


County attorney sites 'insufficient evidence' for search, seizure


MARION, Kan. — A search warrant that cleared the way for the raid of a Kansas newspaper last Friday has been withdrawn, KSHB 41 I-Team reporter Jessica McMaster learned late Wednesday morning.

Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey withdrew the warrant that served as the basis for the raid of the Marion County Record by the Marion Police Department last Friday.

As part of withdrawing the warrant, Bernie Rhodes, the attorney representing the newspaper, says all items that were seized as part of the raid have been released back to the attorney representing the newspaper.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation shared Wednesday afternoon that its investigation will move forward independently "and without review or examination of any of the evidence seized on Friday, Aug. 11."

Rhodes tells the KSHB 41 I-Team that a forensics expert is on standby to examine the items that were seized. Once those items are in the possession of the expert, the expert plans to make a "forensic copy" and then check to see if anything was accessed or altered.

Ensey issued a press release Wednesday, stating the affidavits established probable cause that an employee at the Marion County Record may be guilty of unlawful acts concerning computers, but that there was not sufficient evidence between the "alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized."

The county attorney said he is asking the courts to publicly release the affidavits.

The KBI will submit findings of its investigation to the Marion County Attorney's Office.

Saturday, August 12, 2023

In Marion County newspaper raid, a grim threat to Kansans’ First Amendment rights

 Via The Kansas Reflector

August 12, 2023



The outrageous law enforcement assault on the Marion County Record newspaper raises a veritable forest of red flags.

Why would a judge sign off on an apparently illegal search? What type of officials would willingly execute such an abuse of power? Could any convoluted sequence of liquor permit infighting possibly justify such drastic measures? Are we still living in a state and nation where the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies?

We don’t know definitive answers to any of these questions yet, and the story may well still surprise us. In the meantime, the Record itself and Kansas Reflector’s story offer starting points.

This morning, though, I’d like to write about a part of the story that we do know. We know that law enforcement officials raided the office of a news outlet and carted away computers and cellphones. On its own, with no other background or context, this sets an incredibly destructive precedent.

Not just in Marion.

“Newsroom raids in this country receded into history 50 years ago,” said John Galer, chair of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of the Journal-News of Hillsboro, Illinois.

“Today, law enforcement agencies by and large understand that gathering information from newsrooms is a last resort and then done only with subpoenas that protect the rights of all involved. For a newspaper to be intimidated by an unannounced search and seizure is unthinkable in an America that respects its First Amendment rights. NNA stands by its community newspapers and calls upon top officials in Kansas to immediately return any property seized by law enforcement so the newspaper can proceed with its work.”

An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know. This cannot be allowed to stand.

– Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, added strong words on behalf of local outlets: “An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know. This cannot be allowed to stand.”

Imagine for a moment that you’re the editor and publisher of a small weekly newspaper somewhere else in Kansas. Imagine too that you’ve been speaking with a source about potential wrongdoing by a prominent resident. That resident happens to have a friendly relationship with the local police department. You know that publishing the story, even in the best of times, will create a firestorm in your little community.

Now imagine that you read the coverage coming out of Marion County. You see that printing such a story — or even reporting it — might put you at risk of being raided. It might put your employees at risk. It might threaten the entire financial stability of your business.

So do you publish the story? Or do you think twice? Do you potentially delay the piece for a couple of weeks until this all blows over?

Well, do you?

That’s the damage already done in Marion. That’s the damage already done to Kansas journalism. No matter how the story shakes out — if officials return all the seized computers and cellphones this afternoon — a message has been sent. That message conflicts with the tenets of an open society. It conflicts with free expression. It shuts down the ability of democracy’s defenders to do their jobs, informing and educating the public.

Or as Record publisher and editor Eric Meyer told us yesterday: “It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues.” What’s more, it will have “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”

A toothpaste tube has been squeezed, hard, and there’s no getting all that minty fresh goo back inside its container.

No matter the size of the outlet, no matter the reporter, the memory of this raid will linger. Stories will be slowed or go unwritten. Towns, cities, counties and entire states will lose out on vital knowledge about the misdeeds of powerful people. That’s why I care, and that’s why the Reflector cares. That’s why journalists across this country, when they learn about what happened in Marion County, will care too.

Look, I understand. Journalists and journalism can be pretty annoying at times. But no one should doubt our commitment to doing our best for both readers and our communities. Folks who stand in the way of us doing that job don’t just pick a fight with us. They pick a fight with the people we serve.

One more point. If you revere the Constitution — as so many conservatives and liberals claim to do these days — don’t just sit back and watch. Step up to defend our shared freedoms. Because if the Marion County Record can’t report and print freely, neither can the rest of us.

And neither can you.


Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

Monday, July 3, 2023

DA drops charges against Jordan Neely protesters, but not against journalist photographing them

Via News4NewYork
July 3, 2023

 



A veteran news photographer is blasting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for failing dismiss her disorderly conduct summons, even though prosecutors have dropped all misdemeanor charges against the protesters she was photographing. 

“It feels really unfair because I’m not an activist. I’m a journalist and I should be protected by the Constitution,” said Stephanie Keith, who was arrested on May 8 while she attempted to take pictures of demonstrators protesting the chokehold death of troubled subway rider Jordan Neely. “Every other case was dismissed except mine.”

The Manhattan DA’s Office declined to comment on whether prosecutors believe Keith was lawfully arrested, but did refer the I-Team to an email written to the photojournalist’s attorney. That email references a hands-off policy prosecutors began following five years ago when violations of law are charged using a written summons as opposed to a criminal complaint or Desk Appearance Ticket.

“As of 2018 the Office has ended the practice of taking a position on summons matters as they are best handled by a judge or judicial hearing officer, so that the limited prosecutorial resources were not expended on minor offenses,” the email read. It goes on to say moving to dismiss the photographer’s charge would be unfair to other defendants who are charged via summons.

Keith’s civil rights attorney, Wylie Stecklow, said he believes DA Bragg not only has the right but the obligation to intervene in the photographer’s case. He said Cy Vance, the former Manhattan DA, did intervene to dismiss summonses issued to journalists during the Occupy Wall Street protests.

“Alvin Bragg has every legal authority to dismiss this summons,” Stecklow said. “I think he’s making a mistake here and I hope he’s going to correct it.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to the I-Team’s request for comment. 

Video of the May 8 protest shows Stephanie Keith’s arrest was ordered by Chief John Chell, the NYPD’s Chief of Patrol and one of the department’s highest ranking uniformed officers. Chell did not respond to the I-Team’s request for comment, but in the hours after Keith was arrested, Chell told reporters the journalist was detained and charged because she allegedly interfered with three arrests.

Stecklow say the many angles of video taken that day prove Chell’s statement to be a falsehood, and he said the Citizen’s Complaint Review Board is now investigating Chell’s conduct related to the photographer’s arrest. 

“I believe it is the rank of Chief John Chell that is impacting decisions here concerning her prosecution,” Stecklow said.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

GOOD TROUBLE: Gallery Conversation with Ryan Vizzions

 


Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM, is pleased to present "GOOD TROUBLE”, a major exhibition inspired by the late Civil Rights icon and Congressman John Lewis’ quote: "Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

The exhibition of 50 photographs registers the power of individuals to inspire movements and illustrates the power of mass protest from a deeply human perspective. The exhibition begins Friday, June 30, and a special Gallery Conversation with Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions will be held Friday, July 7, starting promptly at 5:30. Seating is limited, and RSVP is essential. The conversation will also be live on Zoom, please contact the Gallery for registration.

Ryan Vizzions is an independent photojournalist who has covered the Standing Rock protest movement, many Black Lives Matter protests, and most recently the “Tennessee Three”, State Representatives wrongly expelled for protesting Republicans’ inaction on gun violence.

Vizzions will speak about his experiences documenting and participating inside social protest movements, and recent efforts to suppress protest and silence critical voices; global trends towards the militarization of police, and the increase in the misuse of force by police at protests.


“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something. You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way…to get in the way”. – John Lewis


Friday, June 23, 2023

Committee to Protect Journalists, partners call for charges against New York journalist Stephanie Keith to be dropped

 Via Committee to Protect Journalists

June 21, 2023


District Attorney Alvin Bragg
New York County District Attorney’s Office
One Hogan Place
New York, NY, 10013

Dear District Attorney Bragg,

We, the undersigned press freedom and civil liberties organizations, write to ask that you drop the disorderly conduct charge (Section 240.20, Subsection 6) pending against photojournalist Stephanie Keith, who was documenting a vigil when she was unjustly arrested by New York City police on the evening of May 8, 2023. Her prosecution would set a harmful precedent of prosecuting reporters simply for doing their jobs and documenting matters of public importance.

Leading up to her arrest, Keith was photographing a vigil organized to commemorate the May 1 killing of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on a New York subway train. Keith had been documenting demonstrations around New York in the wake of Neely’s death, with some of her coverage published in Brooklyn Magazine.

Around 8 p.m., Keith was near the northwest corner of East Houston Street and Lafayette Street when NYPD Chief of Patrol John M. Chell can be seen in a video of the arrest grabbing Keith’s arm. Chell can be seen forcefully pushing her into two officers in jackets marked “NYPD Community Affairs,” while yelling “lock her up.” Keith— who was wearing a press badge and was holding a camera— can be heard saying “Please don’t.” The photojournalist was then handcuffed and taken to the 7th Precinct, and then the 9th, where she was issued a court summons.

Later that evening, Chell said during a press conference that Keith “interfered” with three arrests before officers arrested her. However, Keith was simply doing her job and photographing police action and that evening’s vigil. No video has been released showing any alleged interference.

We are gravely concerned by the charges facing Keith. All of the videos of Keith’s arrest show that she was behaving professionally and trying to photograph events, and do not show her interfering with the police. Keith is an award-winning photojournalist whose clients have included Getty Images, Reuters, The New York Times, and Bloomberg. This year, she was part of the New York Times team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for their breaking news coverage of a fire in the Bronx. Keith was not at the vigil to participate in a protest or interfere with police but to perform the public service of documenting the news, as she’s been doing her entire career.

Our organizations document cases of press freedom violations both in the United States and globally. Our research shows that arresting reporters is a crude form of censorship: it stops journalists from documenting current events, and protracted legal proceedings to dismiss baseless charges create financial and time pressures for reporters. It is disappointing and concerning to see these tactics being deployed in New York City.

Furthermore, the prosecution of reporters in the United States is exceedingly rare, according to the non-partisan U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which maintains data on press freedom violations across the country. Prosecuting Keith would send a chilling message to journalists in New York City and beyond, and indicate to the wider public that New York City believes that members of the media can be prosecuted simply for doing their jobs.

We understand that your office does not usually take part in summons prosecutions, but we consider this to be an exceptional case. We urge you to dismiss the disorderly conduct charge against Keith and ensure that journalists working in New York City will not face punitive retaliatory measures from the city’s police.

Sincerely,

Committee to Protect Journalists

Freedom of the Press Foundation

New York Publishers Association

Coalition for Women in Journalism

National Press Photographers Association

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Reporters Without Borders

Online News Association

The Deadline Club, NYC Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists

National Coalition Against Censorship

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Journalists in America must be allowed to safely cover protests

 Via Columbia Journalism Review

June 20, 2023

Journalists in America must be allowed to safely cover protests

(Note: Monroe Gallery presents "Good Trouble", an exhibition of photographs that register the power of individuals to inspire movements and illustrates the power of protest from a deeply human perspective. Through this exhibition, we are reminded of the power of photographs to propel action and inspire change. June 30 - September 17, 2023)


A week after the May 1 strangulation death of Jordan Neely, demonstrators assembled outside the Broadway-Lafayette subway station for a candlelight vigil. Freelance photographer Stephanie Keith was there to cover events, and when police began to arrest protesters, she moved into the street to get the shot. Soon Keith was in handcuffs, being led away by two officers, facing charges of disorderly conduct. 

“I was dumbfounded. I thought it was a mistake,” Keith told me. “I really didn’t understand why this was happening to me.” 

Keith’s arrest might be a relatively minor incident in America’s press freedom landscape if it were not the case that police routinely impede the rights of the press to cover protests and demonstrations.

I spent 2022 as a fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute researching the issue. I spoke with dozens of journalists across the country, with leading experts on policing, with First Amendment scholars, and with the police themselves (none would speak on the record). I pored over data from the US Press Freedom Tracker, and researched the history of police-press interactions from the civil rights era to the present day. My report “Covering Democracy: Protests, Police, and the Press” is out today. 

The report documents a troubling reality: despite the protection of the First Amendment, the right of journalists to cover protests has not been secure. As the Associated Press’s assistant general counsel Brian Barrett explained, what matters most “is what a police officer decides at two in the morning in a heated environment.”

In most instances journalists and protesters themselves enjoy the same rights, including the right to photograph and otherwise record events, so long as they do not interfere with the activities of the police. But by tradition, journalists covering protests have sought to distinguish themselves in some way—by standing off to the side, but wearing credentials or distinctive clothing, or by verbally identifying themselves to police. In most instances police respected the role of the press and allowed journalists to do their job. But where the institutional relationships have broken down, and particularly when police employ force, journalists have been arrested and attacked in significant numbers. 

The issue came to a head most recently during the summer of 2020, when Americans took to the streets in record numbers following the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. According to the US Press Freedom Tracker, 129 journalists were arrested or detained while covering the protests during 2020, and hundreds more were attacked or assaulted by police, in some cases resulting in serious injuries. 

One of the most notorious episodes occurred on May 30, 2020, the day after CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested on live television. That evening, as police in Minneapolis enforced a citywide curfew, they swept through a group of about two dozen journalists who were standing apart from protesters, wearing credentials and carrying professional camera equipment. Police attacked them using less lethal munitions, including pepper spray, and shoved several who tried to escape the onslaught over a six-foot retaining wall. 

Ed Ou, a Canadian war photographer who had moved to the US because he wanted to work in a country where the rights of journalists are respected, was hit in the face with what he believes was a flash-bang grenade; he was seriously injured. Ou later told me that because of the violence and suddenness of the police response in Minneapolis, “my radar for what’s safe has been completely fried.” 

Ou decided to participate in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU against the police and state and local authorities on behalf of journalists who had been attacked and injured. That case, Goyette v. City of Minneapolis, resulted not only in monetary compensation for the plaintiffs but a settlement requiring police to refrain from attacking or arresting journalists. A scathing Justice Department report on the Minneapolis Police Department released Friday noted that “officers regularly retaliate against members of the press—particularly by using force.”

Police in Minneapolis and across the country often claim they can’t possibly distinguish between journalists and protesters when everyone has a cellphone. But the First Amendment requires that they do so, as affirmed in the Goyette settlement and a federal court ruling in another case, Index Newspapers v. City of Portland. In that instance, the court determined that police must ensure that journalists are not subject to violence, arrest, and dispersal and directed officers to identify journalists based on observable behavior, often called a “functional test.”

Police at times have resisted that standard because they allege that protesters falsely claim to be journalists in order to evade arrest. But my research indicates that such behavior, while troubling, is exceedingly rare. Much more common, and thoroughly documented, are instances in which police attack, assault, or arrest journalists who are clearly identifiable and engaging in newsgathering. In one instance Australian correspondent Amelia Brace and her crew were assaulted live on camera by US Park Police while covering a protest outside the White House in June 2020. Brace later testified before Congress that she was shocked by the violence of the attack and that she had expected to work “freely and safely…in the world’s greatest democracy.”

Brace is right. The media has a critical role in ensuring that all First Amendment rights are protected, including the right to assembly and speech. The recent arrest of Stephanie Keith drives home the fact that, as Keith herself put it, “the cops are so arbitrary, and they have so much power over you.” As we enter a polarizing election session in which some of America’s messy politics are likely to play out in the streets, police across the country must ensure that journalists are able to document protests without the risk of attack or arrest. 


Joel Simon is the founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Photojournalist arrested at candlelight vigil for man killed on NYC subway

 

Via US Press Freedom Tracker 

color photograph of NYC Policeman escorting handcuffed photojournalist Stephanie Keith following her arrest at a protes on May 8, 2023
Photojournalist Stephanie Keith was arrested on May 8, 2023, while documenting a candlelight vigil for a man who died on a New York City subway train earlier in the month. Keith was charged and released.

 — REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY



Freelance news photographer Stephanie Keith was arrested while documenting a candlelight vigil in New York, New York, on May 8, 2023.

The vigil was organized following the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on a subway train by a Marine Corps veteran. Keith has been documenting demonstrations in the wake of Neely’s death, with some of her coverage published in Brooklyn Magazine.

Keith was one of nearly a dozen people arrested at the May 8 vigil, according to the New York Post, which was held at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in Manhattan where Neely was killed. In footage posted to Twitter by Oliya Scootercaster, Keith can be heard identifying herself as a press photographer as multiple officers place her in handcuffs and lead her away.

When reached for comment, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that Keith was issued a summons and released, but declined to say which specific charges were filed against her.

The spokesperson directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to footage of a press conference held later that evening. During the press conference, Chief of Patrol John Chell indicated that the majority of those arrested were charged with obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct.

“The reporter interfered in at least two arrests in the middle of the street and we got very physical,” Chell said. “She interfered a third time, so she was placed under arrest.”

Keith, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told the Daily News she was detained at the 7th Precinct.

“I was trying to photograph what I thought was an arrest but I never even got a chance to see since they grabbed me as soon as I tried to photograph,” Keith told the News. “I said, ‘I’m press’ and they said, ‘You’re not, you’re arrested.’”

New York Press Photographers Association President Bruce Cotler said in a statement to the News that the organization stands in support of Keith and that he is confident the Manhattan district attorney will drop any charges against her.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Keith was charged with disorderly conduct.

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Where the U.S. stands on World Press Freedom Day 2023 (May 3)

 

Via Freedom Forum


Where the U.S. stands on World Press Freedom Day 2023

As the United Nations marks 30 years of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, it’s worth remembering how a mere four words in the First Amendment – “or of the press” – is the basis for press freedom in the United States.

Despite having prime constitutional billing, U.S. news outlets and journalists don’t enjoy the freest press conditions in the world. The U.S. doesn’t even rank in the top 20.

Wait, what?

Reporters Without Borders (known by their French initials, RSF) ranks the U.S. as 42 out of 180 countries. But that is up two spots from the 2021 ranking.

As RSF’s annual report puts it: “In the United States, once considered a model for press freedom and free speech, press freedom violations are increasing at a troubling rate.”

Similarly, global advocacy organization Freedom House gives the U.S. a three out of four on press freedom conditions. Not the worst, but there’s room to improve.

Certainly the U.S. isn’t North Korea, which RSF consistently ranks last.

Nor is it Russia, where the recent arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ongoing treatment of imprisoned opposition leader, advocate of free expression and 2023 Freedom Forum Free Expression Award honoree Alexey Navalny makes the country’s press freedom ranking of 155 out of 180 countries seem too generous.


U.S. press freedom black holes

WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING

West Virginia Public Broadcasting, licensed to the state government, fired reporter Amelia Ferrell Knisely last December. The reporter claimed it was after pressure from state officials who didn’t like her reporting on accusations against a state agency and its treatment of people with disabilities.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik covered the fallout, reporting: “Interviews with 20 people with direct knowledge of events at West Virginia Public Broadcasting indicate Knisely's involuntary departure from her position as a part-time reporter was not an aberration but part of a years-long pattern of mounting pressure on the station from Gov. Jim Justice's administration and some state legislators.”

More than 200 local public radio stations, members of the NPR network, are independently owned and operated. Those stations are nonprofits, often licensed to public entities, such as universities, school districts, or in a few cases, state governments.

Whether these stations are licensed to an independent nonprofit or to a public entity, their editorial independence is what makes them essential and reliable news sources. Government funding of any amount does not equal editorial control. When interference happens, it undermines public trust in a free press.

FLORIDA LICENSE PROPOSAL

A bill introduced this year in Florida immediately drew the ire of free press groups – and Gov. Ron DeSantis – for seeking to make “bloggers who write about elected officials to register with the state.”

The bill doesn’t target journalists working at established news outlets, but the spirit runs afoul of the First Amendment.

“53% would support a special licensing process for journalists, like that for doctors and lawyers – perhaps not recognizing press freedom is a right for all and that licensing would limit this freedom,” according to Freedom Forum’s 2022 Where America Stands survey.

Proposals like this aren’t new, particularly in the past 20+ years as publishing and sharing information by people who don’t work for traditional news outlets has become easier. The First Amendment protects more than just “the press,” an amorphous term more than 200 years on. It protects every person’s freedom to talk, write, or share opinions about government or any topic. Attempts to license people, be they journalists, bloggers or your neighbor complaining on Nextdoor will always draw scrutiny as being unconstitutional.

 THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES


Despite the First Amendment’s broad protections for U.S. journalists, those freedoms generally don’t extend to sovereign Native American nations and their tribal-owned media. Federal and state freedom of information laws broadly guarantee anyone can request and receive communications of public officials and other government documents. But these laws don’t cover tribal governments.

For example, the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota have been accused of multiple transparency violations of its own constitution and bylaws, according to the Society of Professional Journalists.

These violations caused the Society of Professional Journalists to give the tribal nation its annual Black Hole Award, which “highlights the most heinous violations of the public’s right to know.”

Journalists who work for tribal-owned media and groups like the Native American Journalists Association and Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance have been pushing tribal governments to extend free press protections and broaden transparency, press access and freedom of information within their sovereign nations.


Saturday, April 15, 2023

Glazer's Presents: The January 6th Insurrection in Photos with Nate Gowdy

 Via Glazer's Camera


black and white photo of rioters on steps of US Capitol at 5:07:45 PM, January 6, 2021, US Capitol, Washington, DC

Join Nate Gowdy for an engaging visual presentation on the making of Insurrection, the only book of photojournalism dedicated to chronicling the deadly mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

As a seasoned political photographer who had already covered 30 Trump rallies, Gowdy was confident he could handle one more. However, the events that transpired were beyond anyone’s expectations.

Gowdy will share his firsthand anecdotes and insights into his creative process amidst the chaos and violence of that fateful day. Despite being “fake news” and assaulted twice for carrying professional cameras, he remained committed to capturing the truth.

This event offers attendees the opportunity to connect with the photographer and delve deeper into the stories behind his January 6th portfolio, originally shot on assignment for Rolling Stone. He will also discuss his journey in self-publishing.

Copies of Gowdy's debut monograph, Insurrection, will be available after the presentation and Q&A.

Gowdy maintains a photography studio in Seattle’s International District, and his fine art is represented at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Friday, July 29, 2022

“I hope that the documentary can change the mentality of some people a little — make them understand that without journalists, there is no democracy,”

 


An early look at the new content is available, via Farrow’s interview with Jimenez in this 9-minute video clip


Via FORBES

July 28, 2022

CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, at times, still looks a little stunned when recounting what happened to him in May of 2020 while covering a protest over the killing of George Floyd. All of a sudden, despite the press badge hanging prominently near his waist — to say nothing of the crew that was clearly filming him — Jimenez went from reporting a story to staring blankly at the still-rolling camera as police put him in handcuffs.

The cops in riot gear, standing in the background brandishing batons during Jimenez’ live shot, wanted the street cleared. And this reporter from CNN was another body standing in the way.

“As a reporter, it’s the last thing you’d expect would happen in the United States,” Jimenez says, by way of recounting his arrest during a conversation with investigative journalist Ronan Farrow. “I was in this professional mode of being a reporter at first … then trying to figure out, wait, what the hell is going on right now?”

That conversation is part of new footage HBO Max is releasing today in support of “Endangered,” an HBO Original documentary film that debuted in June about journalism in its current state of global crisis.

Directed by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, with Farrow as executive producer, that documentary presents vignettes of reporters from around the world. From places as disparate as Mexico City, Miami, and Sao Paulo, where reporters like photojournalist Sáshenka Gutiérrez grapple with recalcitrant public officials, death threats, an indifferent public, an uncertain business model, and other hazards to their livelihood and lives.

“I hope that the documentary can change the mentality of some people a little — make them understand that without journalists, there is no democracy,” Gutiérrez told me. “(And) show them the different forms of violence that we face.”

In all, “The Endangered Tapes” includes six new pieces of content featuring Farrow interviewing journalists like Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post opinion writer arrested in Iran and held in the country’s notorious Evin prison for 544 days. As well as Selene San Felice, formerly of The Capital Gazette and a survivor of the newsroom shooting there.

"While we were producing ‘Endangered,’” Farrow told me, “I was guided by conversations with fellow journalists about their experiences and views on the state of the free press. I’m happy to share some of those behind-the-scenes exchanges with the world. These are bite-sized, informative glimpses into the lives of different kinds of journalists, facing different challenges. I learned a lot from them, and I’m so glad that the HBO Documentaries team — and the journalists I spoke with — are allowing others to see them too."

The documentary and supplemental content encourages viewers to not take for granted that the profession of bearing witness undertaken by reporters will always exist in its current form. That existential threats are ever-present. And that there is a man or a woman behind every byline, as well as a home and a family that the correspondent you see on TV will return to at the end of the day.

For journalists like Jimenez, there is also an everlasting tension between functioning as an objective reporter — and as someone with a life outside of that work, someone who’s not dispassionate about the people and things they encounter.

“A lot of times, being reporters, I think we fall into this pattern of — I have to be so objective that I am removed from the story,” Jimenez tells Farrow. “The story is over here, but I am back here.”

“This,” Jimenez continues, about his arrest, “was a situation where I couldn’t escape it.”


Related: Photojournalists Nina Berman and David Butow discuss threats to photojournalism.

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