Tracking Journalists Arrested at Occupy Protests - MUST READ/VIEW stuff from Mother Jones

[Bozita]

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/tracking-journalists-arrested-occupy-protests

Tracking Journalists Arrested at Occupy Protests
—By Tasneem Raja| Fri Nov. 18, 2011 2:30 AM PST

Josh Stearns of media-reform group Free Press has been tracking journalist arrests at Occupy protests since September (see his complete list below). He constantly scans Twitter for mentions of latest arrests, tries to verify by contacting publications affiliated with the journalists in question, and updates their status on the list he maintains at Storify, the social-media curation site.

Unlike the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, where riot police ripped press credentials off journalists' necks and tampered with recording equipment, Stearns doesn't believe there's an intentional effort by law enforcement officials to target journalists covering Occupy protests. "Journalists are just getting swept up as part of the general 'nuisance,'" he says, "and cops are finding it easier to sweep house and get the details later." And in the age of smartphone reporting, Twitter, and livestream video, it's hard to tell who's a credentialed journalist and who isn't—or what that means for journalism.

"These arrests are a symptom of a larger debate about how we understand the First Amendment in a digital age, as the institutions that traditionally embodied those freedoms shift and change," Stearns writes on his blog. "As more and more of our speech moves online and over mobile networks, and as our press is distributed across vast human and technological networks, we need to contend with new kinds of First Amendment issues."

Read more of his thoughts here, and send tips and tweets on journalist arrests to @jcstearns.

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Storified by Josh Stearns
13 hours ago · 6301 views 53101045
Tracking Journalist Arrests at Occupy Protests Around the Country

I'm tracking, confirming and verifying reports of journalist arrests at Occupy protests all over the country since September. So far 26 journalists have been arrested, 10 of which were arrested in NYC on Nov. 15. Help me by sending tips and tweets to @jcstearns.

Note: Scroll to the bottom for the most recent updates. If you are concerned about the press suppression you are seeing, please take a moment and call on your Mayor to defend the 1st Amendment.

Loads of photos and videos at the link above.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. 'Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.' -

- Thomas Jefferson


Denninger said it better than I could, this morning:

The First Amendment, including not only the freedom of speech but also freedom of the Press, is sacrosanct.
It is the second to the last guardian of our representative republican form of government.

There is no need for an arbitrarily-issued (or denied) "Press Pass" to be a member of The Press.
Being a member of The Press is a function of what you're doing, not whether you have a permit.
Like the remainder of the Bill of Rights one does not need a permit to exercise a right.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I agree and I believe the author makes the same point on the original link.

http://stearns.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/why-im-tracking-journalists-arrests-at-occupy-protests/#more-883

However, the best reporting and most exciting developments in how people are covering elections are likely going to be a surprise to us. They can’t be listed because we haven’t thought of them yet. I expect to be awed in the coming year by smart journalists who work tirelessly to tell critical stories in new ways. And therein lies the danger of a narrow view of the First Amendment, one that privileges an outdated notion of who is a journalists and what journalism has to look like. We can’t afford to have journalists being locked up, or denied press credentials, or threatened by frivolous lawsuits designed to shut down their work.


Right around the same time I started tracking journalist arrests at Occupy events, Mathew Ingram of GigaOm wrote a post, “Freedom of the press applies to everyone — yes, even bloggers,” in which he quotes Judge Kermit Lipez, from a recent court case:

Changes in technology and society have made the lines between private citizen and journalist exceedingly difficult to draw. The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status.

While there has been enormous hand-wringing about the state of journalism (I should know, I’ve wrung my fair share of hands on the topic) I believe there’s been too little concern about state of our First Amendment. As our media grows more participatory, more networked and more dynamic we need to value and understand the new ways that people are speaking, printing, and assembling. The Internet and technology have democratized the tools of media making, now we have to protect people’s right to use them.

[socialindependocrat]

3. Then they need to be easily identified

The press need sot have press passes and dress to be easily noticeable

why not wear fluorescent shirts with "PRESS" printed on the back

Why not have the sponsor's name and a license number.

There needs to be a way to stop the police from blocking news coverage just because they want to
rough people up or not be held responsible for their actions.

And I don';t want to hear anyone say, "OH gee, that's so hard to do"

Either come up with a potential suggestion or STFU - GOT IT!!!

[EFerrari]

4. Independent journalists often don't have a sponsor

and the default shouldn't be "wear special clothes or expect to be clubbed".

If the police can't handle mass arrests lawfully, they need to stop doing them. There, that's my suggestion.

[socialindependocrat]

5. So, give me a potential solution...

[EFerrari]

6. I did. If cops can't make mass arrests lawfully, they need to stop making them.

Period.

[xchrom]

7. The very definition of police work. Nt