WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As our nation
continues to struggle with the enormous impact of a global pandemic
and an outcry for racial equity and social justice, Americans are
more reliant than ever on journalists to gather, sort and report
the news with accuracy and fairness.
"Reporters are witnesses," said National Press Club President
Michael Freedman. "To silence the
press is to silence the people, silence accountability, and silence
the truth."
Yet, in a growing and alarming pattern, journalists have been
attacked, injured and arrested without provocation by law
enforcement authorities, in spite of following agreed-upon
guidelines established to protect their constitutional right to
pursue their jobs.
In the latest incident, confirmed in a video recording,
Los Angeles County Sheriff's
deputies tackled, roughed up, arrested, detained and charged Josie
Huang, a reporter with NPR affiliate KPCC Radio. Huang had been
covering a press conference at a hospital where two police officers
were taken after being shot in an ambush. Following the press
conference, police clashed with a demonstrator, and Huang rushed to
record the scene. Video of the incident shows police hurting Huang
even after she tried to cooperate and clearly identified herself as
a reporter. Scraped and bruised, she was held for five hours and
charged with obstruction.
The sheriff's department later tweeted that Huang did not
identify herself as press. But video of the event and Huang's
account on Twitter say the opposite.
Huang's is the latest in a wave of assaults on journalists this
year as they have covered unrest associated with America's 2020
racial reckoning. In May, freelance photojournalist Linda Tirado was shot in her left eye and
partially blinded by a foam bullet fired by an officer while
covering a Minneapolis protest
following the killing of George
Floyd at the hands of police. Tirado, wearing press
credentials, was taking photos at the time.
According to the Press Freedom Tracker, such attacks number
more than 800, and a substantial percentage of them have been
committed by police.
In June, the National Press Club and the National Press Club
Journalism Institute, the Club's nonprofit affiliate, penned
an open letter to law enforcement signed by more than 30 other news
and press-freedom organizations calling for a halt to police
violence against the press and demanding accountability for those
who have perpetrated it.
Club president Freedman and Institute president Angela Greiling Keane reiterated that call
today.
"The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department has told reporters that it is investigating
the Josie Huang incident," said Greiling Keane. "The probe should
be completed quickly and fairly. And we implore other law
enforcement authorities across the country to deliver a message of
zero tolerance for officers found to have interfered with
journalists' First Amendment rights. When police assault
journalists who are doing their jobs, those officers must face
swift and severe consequences."
The National Press Club, the World's Leading Professional
Organization for Journalists™, represents more than 3,000
reporters, editors and professional communicators worldwide. The
National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged global
citizenry through an independent and free press, and equips
journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways
that inspire civic engagement.
Press Contacts:
John M. Donnelly, NPC Press Freedom
Chairman: jdonnelly@cq.com; (202) 650-6738.
Lindsay Underwood for the National
Press Club: lunderwood@press.org; (202) 662-7561
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SOURCE National Press Club