Reporters Say Police Denied Access to Protest Site

[Derechos]

As New York City police cleared the Occupy Wall Street campsite in Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning, many journalists were blocked from observing and interviewing protesters. Some called it a “media blackout” and said in interviews that they believed that the police efforts were a deliberate attempt to tamp down coverage of the operation.

The city blog Gothamist put it this way: “The NYPD Didn’t Want You To See Occupy Wall Street Get Evicted.”

As a result, much of the early video of the police operation was from the vantage point of the protesters. Videos that were live-streamed on the Web and uploaded to YouTube were picked up by television networks and broadcast on Tuesday morning.

At a news conference after the park was cleared Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the police behavior, saying that the media was kept away “to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press.”

Some members of the media said they were shoved by the police. As the police approached the park they did not distinguish between protesters and members of the press, said Lindsey Christ, a reporter for NY1, a local cable news channel. “Those 20 minutes were some of the scariest of my life,” she said.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/reporters-say-police-denied-access-to-protest-site/

[uppityperson]

1. good lord, who writes these headlines. Police denied Reporters access

not police denied access. Makes a big difference. I know it is the headline on the article.

kick and rec

[hootinholler]

5. I came in to say I think the police had ample access n/t

[Fumesucker]

2. Constitutional lawyers all agree that health and safety concerns are paramount..n/t

[truedelphi]

4. Hmm, where did they learn those lessons?

Anyone else here remember how the jewish people wer e taken off to work centers for their own good. And also, once in those ghettoes, they were asked to go to the concentration camps, so the typhoid and other helath problems they had wouldn't be spread.

I am always very very afraid when the Uber Government starts worrying abut the collective population's health.

[Earth_First]

3. So NOW they want access to OWS?

Now there is a *genuine* concern for access to Zuccotti Park?

Gimme a fucking break!

You've had nearly two full months to get your 'special interest stories'

Now that heads and skulls are being cracked, you want access?

Get bent!