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

freedom.press

211–220 of 527 posts

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

#211

Reading the comments in this thread and I am amazed at the sudden pro-authoritarian shift seen on HN lately, what's going on?

The whole internet has slowly been shifting that way it seems.

During the Anonymous era and Snowden leak era HN and the internet seemed much more anti-authoritarian.

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

#212
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.

In general, US law makes little distinction, and with good reason---the easiest way to curtail freedom of the press would be to give government the authority to declare some citizen's aren't really press.

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

#213

Anyone with an iphone and a youtube account is now a “journalist” and frankly theyre not far off in credibility from corporate. Thats where the bar is at. So the datapoints have shifted

FTA: “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.“

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

#214

This is because Black Lives Matter™, and because black lives matter. This isn’t a hyper escalation against freedom of the press, per se, it’s an escalation of police on citizen violence that came about when police felt threatened when folks got a little extra vocal about how the racist cops boys club has little to no accountability when harming citizens they’re supposed to protect. I think this narrowly focuses on tr…

Why would you assume that cops are racist? Especially when a lot of them are black themselves?

This comment is much more inflammatory than it needs to be.

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a journalist steps beyond being a journalist and turns into an activist, of course they’re going to get arrested if they break the law. Just because someone is a journalist does not give them a pass from breaking the law.

Breaking the law like filming police violence for example: https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/29/minneapolis-protest... Watch the video and tell me how that arrest was justified.

What was the person filming arrested for? I know many in Seattle were arrested for violating curfews or dispersal orders, and proceeded to claim that they were arrested for filming. They weren't arrested for filming, they were arrested because they harbored ill-conceived views that declaring oneself a journalist exempted them from curfews and orders to disperse and proceeded to violate them.

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

#216
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not following police order is grounds for arrest, not for getting a riot shield bashed into one's face.

I don't know about the US, but here in Canada not following police orders is not by itself grounds for arrest. It has to be a lawful order, not whatever the police fancies at the moment. The police cannot for example say "stop filming or I will arrest you" and be able to legally justify that arrest in the court of law. https://globalnews.ca/news/6233399/supreme-court-montreal-es...

It was a dispersal order to leave a riot so the crowd can be controlled, not an order to stop filming. There’s no other legal and humane way to deal with rioters amongst a crowd. Even if you aren’t being violent or breaking anything, you have to leave when told to do so.

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tech people aren't immune to the hyper divisiveness taking place around the world. Once "your team" decides it no longer wants to respect freedom of the press or election results then you must follow suit. Gotta make sure your team wins, right?

Some people don’t play on a team.

Then you're probably following a losing strategy. "Team" doesn't have to mean "generic normie political party"; there are other team dynamics at play. In any case, if you haven't partitioned the political space into allies and enemies along at least a few planes, you're probably going to get taken advantage of (at the very least).

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

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more of a "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck." If you call yourself a journalist and have a record of reporting on things, then by this definition you are one. But you can't decide you are a persecuted journalist because you got arrested.

And this is the reason why BLM where vests that say press but then those same people are attacking police. They want to abuse the special privileges the press get.

The press doesn't get any special privileges. The law doesn't make a distinction between press and not press.

Certain organizations may get special privileges (press passes), but there's nothing legally binding about them. S citizen journalist is still a journalist under the law.

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

#220

This is because Black Lives Matter™, and because black lives matter. This isn’t a hyper escalation against freedom of the press, per se, it’s an escalation of police on citizen violence that came about when police felt threatened when folks got a little extra vocal about how the racist cops boys club has little to no accountability when harming citizens they’re supposed to protect. I think this narrowly focuses on tr…

Why would you assume that cops are racist? Especially when a lot of them are black themselves?

Because we have looked at the statistics.
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