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- Felony Charges for Journalists Arrested at Inauguration Protests Raise Fears for Press Freedom
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Anti-Trump protesters being pepper-sprayed in Washington on Jan. 20.
JEWEL SAMAD / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH
JANUARY 25, 2017
The journalists were among 230 people detained in the anti-Trump demonstrations, during which protesters smashed the glass of commercial buildings and lit a limousine on fire.
The charges against the journalists — Evan Engel, Alexander Rubinstein, Jack Keller, Matthew Hopard, Shay Horse and Aaron Cantu — have been denounced by organizations dedicated to press freedom. All of those arrested have denied participating in the violence.
“These felony charges are bizarre and essentially unheard of when it comes to journalists here in America who were simply doing their job,” said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of Pen America. “They weren’t even in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were in the right place.”
Carlos Lauria, a spokesman and senior program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the charges “completely inappropriate and excessive,” and the organization has asked that they be dropped immediately.
“Our concern is that these arrests could send a chilling message to journalists that cover future protests,” Mr. Lauria added.
The arrests and charges were reported by The Guardian.
Witnesses reported that sweeping arrests during the parade targeted rioters, protesters and journalists indiscriminately. A lawyer representing dozens of people arrested, Mark Goldstone, told The Associated Press that the police had “basically identified a location that had problems and arrested everyone in that location.”
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington declined to comment Wednesday on why the journalists had been charged along with protesters.
Mr. Engel, a Brooklyn-based journalist who writes for Vocativ, a media and technology outlet, was among those charged with felony rioting and released. He said by email on Wednesday that he was unable to comment on the case since it was active, but that he was looking forward to the day he could say more.
The document charging Mr. Rubinstein, who wrote for RT America, an affiliate of the Russian state-run television network, is identical to that charging Mr. Engel: While it says that protesters carrying “anarchist flags” were observed smashing large plate-glass windows at businesses and setting a limousine on fire, it does not accuse any individual journalist of criminal activity.
Court documents for Mr. Keller — who works on the documentary series “Story of America” — and for Mr. Hopard, Mr. Horse and Mr. Cantu — who are independent journalists — included similar information.
Jeffrey Light, a lawyer based in Washington who has been working on civil rights and first amendment related cases for about a decade, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 51 plaintiffs arrested that day against officers from the police department and the park police. The suit accuses the police of surrounding and arresting “not only protesters who had engaged in no criminal conduct, but also members of the media, attorneys, legal observers and medics.”
Mr. Lauria, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said it was all the more alarming that journalists had been arrested. “A car set on fire, windows broken in downtown businesses: I think that this is important information that the public needs to be informed about,” he said.
He said his organization was concerned about what he called “the sharp deterioration of press freedom in the U.S.,” which he linked to Mr. Trump’s campaign, noting that the candidate had “obstructed major news organization, vilified the press and attacked journalists by name with unrelenting hostility.”
All those actions were seen to contribute to a threatening climate for journalists covering the election.
The committee had sought to meet with Vice President Mike Pence during the transition, Mr. Lauria said, but that meeting never took place. “We’ve been in touch with aides, and we’re talking about the possibility of having this meeting in the future,” he said.
Ms. Nossel, of Pen America, also linked the charges to a climate fostered by Mr. Trump.
“Obviously we were girded for worrisome and troubling developments,” she said. “But the speed, pace and ferocity of the attacks on journalists, the purveying of falsehoods, the silencing of government and agencies that interface with the public — for all that to happen in a matter of days puts us on notice that some of the worst fears may not have been so far-fetched.”
Representatives of Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Wednesday. -
- Nothing like making America great again then shytting on the 1st amendment
