Occupy Crackdown Targets Journalists

[Earth_First]

For the past two months I have been tracking journalist arrests at Occupy protests around the country. Today, Nov. 15, was the worst day yet in terms of police suppression of the press.

It all began in the middle of the night, when police moved in at 1 a.m. to forcibly evacuate Zuccotti Park, the original Occupy Wall Street encampment. Not long after the park raid began, journalists on Twitter began to report that they were being blocked from covering the police actions.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police kept the media away “to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press.” But according to the New York Times, one journalist told a police officer “I’m press!” and the officer just responded “Not tonight.”

If the mayor of our country’s largest city thinks protecting the press means silencing them, we’re in big trouble.

See the full list of journalists arrested here.

http://stearns.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/occupy-crackdown-targets-journalists/

Mainstream media, independent media, photographers, videographers, student journalism majors on assignment, and curious bystanders are all being infringed upon with increasing frequency.

THEY CLOSED AIRSPACE IN LOWER MANHATTAN *TWICE* THIS WEEK!

This should be an issue that EVERYONE can get behind, REGARDLESS if you agree or disagree with #OWS.

[valerief]

1. I guess America can't have a free press with their godforsaken free market.

Of course, that "free" market includes socialism for corporations only.

[tularetom]

2. So what?

They weren't going to report anything unfavorable to Bloomberg or the NYPD anyway and now that they've been roughed up they still won't. They know the drill.

Their bosses won't let them tell the truth.

[Earth_First]

3. I understand that,

trust me, I am just as perplexed as to why the all of a sudden interest in access to Zuccotti on the very night that skulls were being cracked and blood was being spilled when they had a near full two months of unfettered access to the park.

That really isn't my concern, however.

My great concern is, that *they* are arresting journalists.

Period.

[Sal Minella]

4. Remember when the excuse for "embedding" journalists in Iraq

was that the journalists' safety could not be adequately assured otherwise.

The embedding was necessary for promoting the safety and welfare of the journalists, and had nothing to do with preventing Americans from knowing what was actually happening.

I'm sure Mayor Bloomberg is worried about journalists getting hurt somehow, so protective custody is for their own good. /sarcasm.

[socialindependocrat]

5. Film from the rooftops

They'd probably find snipers on the roofs if they went up there.

They filmed from roofs in the middle east.

[ljm2002]

6. Same thing happened in Iraq...

...only there, "targets journalists" was a rather more literal description of what happened.

In fact the famous video from Wikileaks via (possibly) Bradley Manning, showed one such incident. Sure a lot of people claim our troops can't tell a zoom lens from a bazooka, but I for one do not buy it.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Acutally they did not close the airspace *ever*

[Earth_First]

8. Care to link that?

The Guardian, Salon, NBC, Washington Post, YahooAP, Gothamist, all have not retracted stories claiming otherwise...