Journalist arrests during Missouri shooting protests raise questions about state of free press in America

Runa A. Sandvik of the Freedom of the Press Foundation reports that as of Wednesday, August 20, there has been 16 arrests of journalists in Ferguson, Missouri with law enforcement agencies clearly in violation of the First Amendment rights of reporters covering the protests.

A national coalition of 48 media outlets sent a protest letter to the Missouri police agencies to make it clear that federal courts and the Justice Department have ruled that reporters and photographers must be respected in covering the actions of police during the protests. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, August 15, 2014, press release)

Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center, August 18, 2014, wrote, “The nation’s Founders provided constitutional protection for a free press precisely to keep authorities from figuratively or literally manhandling or muzzling what they intended to be a ‘watchdog on government.’ To effectively fulfill that watchdog role, journalists must be able to see and report to their fellow citizens what government is doing – whether that is a grand jury investigation into Brown’s death or how police are responding to what clearly is, at times, lawless behavior in the streets of Ferguson.”

Noa Yachot of the American Civil Liberties Union, August 21, 2014, wrote that notwithstanding President Obama’s defense of the role of the free press in covering the Ferguson protests, the Obama administration has systematically undermined the free press including prosecuting journalists’ government sources and banning intelligence officials from speaking to the press without advance permission.