The Reporters’ Committee on Freedom of the Press and a coalition of 91 media organizations are calling on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate law enforcement treatment of the press as part of the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into local police stations in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Louisville, Kentucky.
In a letter to Garland on April 29, the coalition media highlighted the dangers journalists in Minneapolis, Louisville and other cities across the country faced while covering protests against racial justice following the police murder of George Floyd. The US Press Freedom Tracker confirmed 137 arrests of members of the news media last year, 20 in Minneapolis and three in Louisville.
“In many of these cases, the simultaneous recording of the arrest shows that the journalist was indisputably involved in lawful news gathering, complied with police instructions and was identifiable as a member of the press,” the letter said. “Dozens of other reporters have been hit by less lethal weapons, exposed to chemical ammunition, or otherwise subjected to unjustified violence.”
Last year, the Reporters Committee sent letters to officials in Minnesota and other jurisdictions denouncing the attacks on the press and asking them to discipline any law enforcement officers who undermined protection for the news media. More recently, the reporters’ committee endorsed a letter written by Ballard Spahr media attorney Leita Walker to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and police officers expressing concerns about the mistreatment of journalists during the post-shooting protests expressed by Duante Wright by the police.
“Any unjustified attack on efforts to document police work in public undermines clearly defined constitutional law,” the coalition media’s letter to Garland said. “We therefore urge that probes be used [Minneapolis, Louisville] and all other jurisdictions examine whether violence, arrest or threats of law enforcement have been used to interfere with legitimate journalistic work. “
This is not the first time the Reporters’ Committee has called on the Justice Department to investigate the illegal treatment of the press as part of a civil rights investigation. In 2014, the Committee of Reporters and 44 news organizations called on then Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate press freedom violations by local police as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri.
“For all of the reasons we identified at the time,” the letter to Garland said, “protecting the legal rights of journalists is essential to the fulfillment of civil rights laws and the preservation of democratic self-government.”
The Reporters Committee periodically files judicial notices and its lawyers represent free of charge journalists and news organizations in legal proceedings affecting first amendment freedoms, journalists’ rights to collect news and access to public information. Stay up to date on our work by signing up for our monthly newsletter and following us on Twitter or Instagram.
AP photo by Andrew Harnik
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