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Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

freedom.press

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Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#21

Post by NDizzle »

Miner49er wrote: post #12
NDizzle wrote: post #7

What's their definition of journalist here? Journalists, at these protests, that were arrested? In other words, how many twitter followers do I need before I can identify as a journalist?!

Let's not pretend that it just happened to smaller-audience journalists. There's videos of CNN reporters being arrested while on air.

If I was arrested while livestreaming to Facebook I would be on their list of arrested journalists.

Technically this means that a journalist was arrested in this situation, by their definition above: https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/us/chicago-facebook-live-beat...

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#23

Post by ausbah »

a free, professional, and trustworthy press is vital for any functioning democracy. through all the rightful and wrongful critiques people have given the press over the past 5 years, I wish more people would understand this

I unfortunately think that the US is trending towards the likes of countries like Hungary, Turkey, and Russia and how they handle their press

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#24

Post by jakelazaroff »

conductr wrote: post #14
makeworld wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was anyone suggesting it was a coincidence? It makes sense more journalists were arrested, but it's still notable.

It’s also not like they have press cards in their hat or some press pass lanyard. They look like everyone else and are probably recording/photographing like everyone else. An arrest by itself doesn’t mean much in this context. But I assume they are released once they can be proven to be a journalist and no charges are brought.

That's not a particularly moving defense. There are no de jure rights afforded specifically to journalists (whatever your definition). And even if there were, the threat of arrest is still an intimidation tactic the police can use to subjugate civilians — journalist or not.

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#25

Post by BLO716 »

I'll dare to ask this, but what defines a "journalist" in the data points here? The Clark Kent types are the only ones I really understand that can live under that title - but with the advent of syndication and micro-journalism (to use a term I just made up) for regional markets that have no real local presence of classic journalism, interested to know what it means now.

Here in Buffalo, could go many directions.

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#26

Post by umvi »

ausbah wrote: post #23

a free, professional, and trustworthy press is vital for any functioning democracy. through all the rightful and wrongful critiques people have given the press over the past 5 years, I wish more people would understand this I unfortunately think that the US is trending towards the likes of countries like Hungary, Turkey, and Russia and how they handle their press

> I unfortunately think that the US is trending towards the likes of countries like Hungary, Turkey, and Russia and how they handle their press

We just had 4 years of every major media outlet (besides Fox) raking the president of the country over the coals 24/7... I think we still have a long way to go before we are like Turkey or Russia (how often do you see criticism of Putin or Erdogan in their respective media?).

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#27

Post by tppiotrowski »

Honest question: why were these journalists arrested? Do you actually have to commit a crime or can you be arrested as part of crowd control technique and released later? Did these journalists actually commit a crime? Will they be charged with something in court?

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#28

Post by Miner49er »

NDizzle wrote: post #21
Miner49er wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not pretend that it just happened to smaller-audience journalists. There's videos of CNN reporters being arrested while on air.

If I was arrested while livestreaming to Facebook I would be on their list of arrested journalists. Technically this means that a journalist was arrested in this situation, by their definition above: https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/us/chicago-facebook-live-beat...

So? It's still an attack on the 1st amendment. During the protests I was watching an aggregation of different livestreams on Twitch, many of them were streams on Facebook. Some of the journalists doing reporting on there likely only had a handful of viewers when they started getting streamed by the aggregator and then they had thousands of viewers.

These types of journalists caught many of the instances of police brutality that happened during the protests and got video of things like the burning down of the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis.

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#29

Post by ausbah »

umvi wrote: post #2

> The vast majority of these arrests occurred while journalists were documenting the historic, nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd and in support of Black Lives Matter. So basically, it's not a coincidence - police are more likely to arrest journalists that are attending anti-police protests. And it's sort of understandable. Imagine you are a police officer called to go to a protest where ever…

police don't nor should get to brutalize civilians just because they don't like being called out for the corruption and abuse of power rampant in their profession

Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year

#30

Post by tppiotrowski »

BLO716 wrote: post #25

I'll dare to ask this, but what defines a "journalist" in the data points here? The Clark Kent types are the only ones I really understand that can live under that title - but with the advent of syndication and micro-journalism (to use a term I just made up) for regional markets that have no real local presence of classic journalism, interested to know what it means now. Here in Buffalo, could go many directions.

“While we recognize the importance and the rights of the private citizen who snaps a photo or video of an arrest, this site will only cover individuals who self-identify as journalists and have some track record of journalistic work.“

Looks like you’d have to produce some journalistic work in the past. Unclear if that’s a blog or having your worked printed in a major publication.

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