This is what "freedom of press" looks like in 2015.

[kpete]

Last edited Sun May 3, 2015, 09:40 AM - Edit history (1)

Why are you not in The Media Area?
:large

:large

https://twitter.com/Bipartisanism/status/594719754130100225

Please don't use this photo without crediting a young journo who defied orders @Edwinjtorres https://twitter.com/Edwinjtorres/status/594694057001095170






https://twitter.com/shazza_razza/status/594284067140538368

[SamKnause]

1. The U.S. is currently ranked

49th in the World Press Freedom rankings.

I expect the downward spiral to continue.

[Buzz Clik]

6. By whom?

[Luminous Animal]

8. By Reporters Without Borders

https://index.rsf.org/#!/

[Enthusiast]

18. +1

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. And it went down by three this year alone

going from memory, We wrote a story on this.

[nashville_brook]

23. soooooo not surprising

and sad.

[Aerows]

24. It's crazy Nadin

What the hell is wrong with our nation if reporters can't be there and have access to report?

It's nuts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. I partially get the credentialed media part

we signed away our rights to sue if we get an ouchie covering these things... everybody who does this, expects to get hurt sooner or later. If you do not, you are delusional, and I should not say everybody... when some reporters show up wearing heels... So only allowing credentialed press (while really problematic from a 1st amendment, since it is nowhere in there that this applies to only credentialed press), I get it from the point of view of liability for cities. I don't agree, but.

Penning press is a problem though, and it is because police knows that in the 1960s there were many problematic pieces of video in the evening news... and we can't have that, now can we?

[Aerows]

31. Heaven forbid

that the truth is taped! We just can't handle the truth!

I appreciate everyone that is there in the trenches doing the job you do, Nadin. It can't be easy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Here in San Diego, compared to other places

it's been mostly pretty easy.

Wildfires so far have been mostly more dangerous. But we are aware of the risks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. Have there been any legal challenges to this stupid rule of media being corralled? n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Yes ACLU filed during ferguson

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. I was at an event, so could not look for it there

but here is one of the multiple lawsuits

http://www.aclu-mo.org/newsviews/2014/12/16/aclu-files-suit-behalf-reporter-who-was-arrested-ferguson

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/07/federal-judge-rules-police-violated-amendment-rights-ferguson-protesters.html

https://www.aclu.org/blog/there-no-5-second-rule-first-amendment-ferguson

The problem is that "in the heat of the moment" you are indeed risking arrest. So the balance is... do I get arrested and become part of the story? Or do I stay out and try to continue to document it.

[Oilwellian]

40. Who can forget Amy Goodman getting arrested...

A final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists reporting on the 2008 Republican National Convention and protests in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman, along with former producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous, filed the lawsuit last year against the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and United States Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenged the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 RNC that resulted in their arrests. They were among dozens of journalists arrested that week in St. Paul. The settlement includes $100,000 in compensation paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis Police Departments and the Secret Service. The settlement also includes an agreement by the St. Paul Police Department to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations, including proper procedures for dealing with the press covering demonstrations. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/3/settlement_reached_over_arrest_of_amy

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. True, there is that.

[Jefferson23]

2. Highy recommend. +1.

Edwin Torres

[Octafish]

3. Kinder, Gentler Machine Gun Hand.

The Freep Press is the only business mentioned by name in the Constitution.

[ms liberty]

4. Great post, kpete...K&R n/t

[tblue37]

5. KnR. nt

[Blue_Adept]

7. Have these media zones been challenged in court?

Or are the media folks too afraid to do so for biting the hand that feeds them?

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Shouldn't it be the curfew getting challenged?

The 'media zone' is a small side-effect of the general removal of rights that the people of Baltimore are suffering.

[fasttense]

12. Yes they have

And the Dancing Supremes danced for their masters and said, "Hey, it's all right to NOT allow free speech throughout the country and only allow it in certain locations with certain people saying certain things. The GOP is our master." Well they may NOT have said exactly that, but it came very close to that.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/27/supreme-court-bush-protest-speech/9172707/

[mountain grammy]

19. Oh yes, we can bash the corporate media, and they deserve it,

but the corporate supremes are a huge part of the problem.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. That's like the "free speech zones" that are being used to silence dissent.

[Aerows]

25. Same exact crap

It's shameful.

[turbinetree]

10. I guess

the gestopo state, forgot about that stinky thing called the First Amendment

[fasttense]

13. No they didn't forget about it. They just ignore it.

There are 2 parts to free speech that is in the constitution. There is the part that allows for sending speech and there is the part that allows for receiving speech. In the US we mostly focus on the sending and ignore and restrict the receiving.

[mountain grammy]

14. The corporate wimps of the American press

just takes it because, you know, it's only the first amendment, and they really haven't given as shit about that for the last 30 years or so.

A camera pointed at a cop is the same as a gun in the eyes of many in law enforcement, and they "fear for their lives."

[Helen Borg]

15. Looks pretty packed in the "media area"

[JEB]

16. F'n A man! Looks like fascism, smells.... eom.

[Enthusiast]

17. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! This is a very significant post.

We must recognize that our freedom has been compromised. If we are to correct it.

While the nation was off "fightin' for our freedumbs" we turned around and found them to be gone.

WTF?

Way to go Bush, you fucking ninny.

[intheflow]

20. K&R for a picture being worth a 1000 words.

Most troubling image I've seen all morning.

[certainot]

21. put the liberal media in cages.

1000 radio stations out there demonize the "liberal media" on a daily basis. those radio stations and their ignorant liars give the loudest and most coordinated interpretations and response to protests in america. it worked to kill OWS and the billionaires' think tanks will keep defining what is and isn't acceptable in america if the left keeps letting them.

to fix this slide into fascism the 'left' and dems MUST begin including radio stations and the 90+ universities that endorse them, in civil disobedience. otherwise those 400 blowhards will continue to make it optional for media and politicians to listen to protestors and other activism. by ignoring rw radio the left is allowing a few blowhards yell over and negate thousands of protestors. and they keep up the national buzz for however long it takes to demonize the protestors and distort their message.

team limbaugh blames 'liberal' media for loving the protests and hating the cops. rw radio was critical for selling the homeland security shit. if there was a move to legislate the end of this all those same radio stations would be worked to oppose it.

media conglomeration, police brutality, prison industrial complex, MIC/privacy, free speech, money in politics, are all issues that democracy was designed to identify, work on, and solve, but our democracy can't do any significant reform anymore because 1000 coordinated think tank scripted radio stations reach enough of a captive audience in just about every state that they can short circuit normal democratic feedback with made-to-order constituencies.

if those blowhards can keep yelling their coordinated hate and racism and lies all over the country on behalf of the billionaire think tanks and the left keeps giving them a free speech free ride, the right wing think tanks will continue to be able to define a lot of what is 'acceptable' and unacceptable in america.

[Aerows]

26. This isn't just absurd.

This is anti-Constitutional, illegal and is going to have far-reaching ill consequences.

[hifiguy]

27. Yes, it is fascism now.

Not German fascism, but fascism nonetheless.

[LeftInTX]

28. Was Jeraldo there? Did he try to break the barrier?

Even if he did, they would find a way to blame on the "black mayor"

[alphafemale]

30. We are free because they tell us we are.

Disagree and they will kill you.

[Aerows]

33. It doesn't alarm me that a handful want what they've always gotten

What they have always gotten benefits them.

What does alarm me is the number that don't want what they have always gotten, but have no idea how to change it or desire to do so.

Apathy is an insidious enemy.

[marym625]

34. Just waiting for Pravda-America.

Oh wait, FOXCNNMSNBC. What was I thinking?

[Scuba]

35. "Credentialed" media, sanctioned by those who are being "investigated" by "journalists".

[liberal_at_heart]

39. K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. Do the cops even KNOW the law?

[blackspade]

43. What a crock of shit.

I guess the police don't want the press or the public catching their agent provocateurs in action....