SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'As demonstrators protest unjust policing practices in Ferguson and reporters document this activism, we need to ensure that neither group is treated as criminals.'
(Original Photo: Flickr user Shawn Semmler)
Journalism Is Not a Crime
Aug 12, 2015
On Monday, a day after the first anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, St. Louis County filed charges against two reporters who were arrested in 2014 while covering the Ferguson protests.
Their crime? Being journalists.
During the height of last year's protests, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post used a local McDonald's as a base for their reporting. Police officers stormed the restaurant and ordered Lowery and Reilly to leave. When the two men recorded the officers' behavior and didn't move fast enough, they were roughed up and arrested.
The crackdown on those trying to show what's happening in Ferguson continues. It includes yesterday's arrests of several prominent Black Lives Matter activists attempting to film protests in neighboring St. Louis. We need journalists -- and anyone performing acts of journalism -- to act as our eyes and ears on the ground, protect our communities' best interests, and report on any abuses of power.
We don't have time to waste. As demonstrators protest unjust policing practices in Ferguson and reporters document this activism, we need to ensure that neither group is treated as a criminal.
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Mike Rispoli
Mike Rispoli is the senior director of journalism policy at Free Press. He is co-author, with Amy Kroin and Kevin Davis, of the case study New Jersey's Civic Information Bill: The Story of the Campaign to Transform Local Media.
On Monday, a day after the first anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, St. Louis County filed charges against two reporters who were arrested in 2014 while covering the Ferguson protests.
Their crime? Being journalists.
During the height of last year's protests, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post used a local McDonald's as a base for their reporting. Police officers stormed the restaurant and ordered Lowery and Reilly to leave. When the two men recorded the officers' behavior and didn't move fast enough, they were roughed up and arrested.
The crackdown on those trying to show what's happening in Ferguson continues. It includes yesterday's arrests of several prominent Black Lives Matter activists attempting to film protests in neighboring St. Louis. We need journalists -- and anyone performing acts of journalism -- to act as our eyes and ears on the ground, protect our communities' best interests, and report on any abuses of power.
We don't have time to waste. As demonstrators protest unjust policing practices in Ferguson and reporters document this activism, we need to ensure that neither group is treated as a criminal.
Mike Rispoli
Mike Rispoli is the senior director of journalism policy at Free Press. He is co-author, with Amy Kroin and Kevin Davis, of the case study New Jersey's Civic Information Bill: The Story of the Campaign to Transform Local Media.
On Monday, a day after the first anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, St. Louis County filed charges against two reporters who were arrested in 2014 while covering the Ferguson protests.
Their crime? Being journalists.
During the height of last year's protests, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post used a local McDonald's as a base for their reporting. Police officers stormed the restaurant and ordered Lowery and Reilly to leave. When the two men recorded the officers' behavior and didn't move fast enough, they were roughed up and arrested.
The crackdown on those trying to show what's happening in Ferguson continues. It includes yesterday's arrests of several prominent Black Lives Matter activists attempting to film protests in neighboring St. Louis. We need journalists -- and anyone performing acts of journalism -- to act as our eyes and ears on the ground, protect our communities' best interests, and report on any abuses of power.
We don't have time to waste. As demonstrators protest unjust policing practices in Ferguson and reporters document this activism, we need to ensure that neither group is treated as a criminal.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.