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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

#61

Post by FruityCoconut »

zug_zug wrote: post #44
NDizzle wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm hearing is that if I live stream myself performing a crime, and I'm arrested, I'm now a valid statistic for a journalist being arrested. Is that accurate? I strongly disagree with you, if so.

So you're conflating two things here If people are actively engaged in protest (e.g. carrying signs), I agree they are not "journalists." However, having viewers or not is irrelevant. Also, let's not pretend even credentialed journalists weren't assaulted and arrested by police.

If they're anything like the "journalists" we might see on Twitter, I have a hard time believing they're dignified people covering these events in a professional manner. I see a lot of hyperemotionality, hero-of-the-people complexes, and instigation of conflict and controversy among these types. I'm sure it is a significant boost to their cred to be arrested, especially under the current administration.

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

#62

Post by screamingninja »

Miner49er wrote: post #34
tppiotrowski wrote: post #27

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?

The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. I'm not sure if any were charged with anything that stuck, because likely none of them committed any actual crimes. It's just police abusing their power.

> The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer.

> likely none of them committed any actual crimes

What makes you say that?

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

#63

Post by kube-system »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10
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?!

I wonder if there's any countries that specifically recognise people as journalists? Like how police officers have a warrant and specific powers and accountability, could legitimate journalists be recognised, empowered and held accountable like that? Then it could also be an offence to impersonate them. Otherwise yeah a journalist is just some random person claiming to be a journalist and I'm not sure what could be d…

> I wonder if there's any countries that specifically recognise people as journalists?

There are, and it usually is a bad thing. Making it "official" is an easy way to gatekeep speech rights.

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

#64

Post by dmurray »

ausbah wrote: post #17
rhacker wrote: post #9

In some protests, when things get violent, is it easy to spot a journalist or do they just look like other protestors? honest question.

journalists and other reporting figures usually have a lanyard saying "Press" I believe? totally anecdotal, but I've seen more than few instances of police brutalizing press members like other protesters unfortunately. I think such press members are easily identifiable, the police just don't care

> totally anecdotal, but I've seen more than few instances of police brutalizing press members like other protesters unfortunately.

This is one of those situations where the opposite would be even worse: if the police were roughing up protesters just for being in the wrong place, but leaving journalists alone to keep them onside...

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

#65

Post by Miner49er »

screamingninja wrote: post #62
Miner49er wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. I'm not sure if any were charged with anything that stuck, because likely none of them committed any actual crimes. It's just police abusing their power.

> The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. > likely none of them committed any actual crimes What makes you say that?

I've done some googling, and can't find any instances were a journalist was actually convicted. All I can find is instances that they weren't charged or charges were dropped.

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

#66

Post by dfxm12 »

tppiotrowski wrote: post #27

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?

why were these journalists arrested? Did these journalists actually commit a crime?

The article contains this info at a high level and links to more in-depth info about it. Some jurisdictions make arrests public, btw. And all you need to make an arrest is "probable cause", so you might not always get a satisfying answer about why a journalist was arrested. Since you're asking honestly, I'm going to be honest with you. We're talking about well over 100 arrests here. It's dishonest to lump all these situations together and the HN community is not equipped to give you the info you seek anyway. Arrest records are, court records are, first hand reports are, and it is relatively easy to find this stuff, if you're honestly curious. Since this happened so recently, you can also reach out to the people directly involved. Some reports may contradict each other. Some common threads may appear.

Do you actually have to commit a crime or can you be arrested as part of crowd control technique and released later?

You can be arrested without committing a crime.

Will they be charged with something in court?

As some of these are fairly recent matters and court systems are moving slowly due to the pandemic, the answer to your last question might not be clear at this time. This will be public record if they are.

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

#67

Post by HarryHirsch »

screamingninja wrote: post #62
Miner49er wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. I'm not sure if any were charged with anything that stuck, because likely none of them committed any actual crimes. It's just police abusing their power.

> The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. > likely none of them committed any actual crimes What makes you say that?

The fact that the cops arrested people observing from their front porches?

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

#68

Post by chrisrhoden »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #58

I see some folks (and many journalists) astounded that folks wearing press badges and press helmets were arrested, which I believe to be a dangerous viewpoint. We don't want journalists to get special treatment for the same reason that we don't want politicians or judges to get special treatment and also for the same reason we dogfood our systems. Journalists need to have a representative experience in order to be ab…

First, the press credentials should probably grant some benefit of the doubt if the justification for arrests is something along the lines of, "I can't think of any reason you might be here except to cause mischief."

I think what's shocking to people is that, traditionally, police have understood that they're somewhat more likely to be held accountable for abuses of power toward journalists. It seems likely that is primarily for the same reason that e.g. a tech company with a bad policy is more incentivized to fix it if it happens to stub the toe of anyone with an audience.

That police in many cases apparently knew that there would be no consequences if the press was _strongly_ encouraged to document frequent abuses is not a great sign.

The other parallel I think folks are drawing is that abuses of journalists in particular is a common feature of dictatorships. My sense is that this is not a particularly good parallel to draw in this case, but it's easy to see how one might connect the dots based on a passing review of the facts.

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

#69

Post by HarryHirsch »

mdhh wrote: post #43

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative's data showed that even in 2019 the "The US scores for Safety from the State are disturbingly poor". https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/the-us-scores-poorly-in-h...

Funny fact: this organization is from New Zealand and amongst other issues, discusses the "right to work" in the US. Turns out that "right to work" means something different in NZ than it does in the US. In NZ it means "can actually make an honest living".

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

#70

Post by adamsea »

screamingninja wrote: post #62
Miner49er wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. I'm not sure if any were charged with anything that stuck, because likely none of them committed any actual crimes. It's just police abusing their power.

> The police were attempting to intimidate and silence them is the honest answer. > likely none of them committed any actual crimes What makes you say that?

Reading history is the honest answer.

You read enough good books and articles about current events and history and then are able to make reasonable inferences.

Suppressing, or evening worse distorting historical knowledge is always a tool of authoritarians and oppressors.

Which is imho part of why so many folks here in the U.S. are so historically illiterate :/ :(.

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