SPJ NorCal on Monday issued a letter to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Howard Jordan condemning the arrest of independent journalist Susie Cagle during Occupy Oakland protests on Nov. 3. Cagle was arrested and held in custody for 15 hours despite displaying a press badge and identifying herself as a journalist and despite the fact that an officer at the scene acknowledged his familiarity with her published work.
The action is part of a disturbing trend of police officers at Occupy protests nationwide arresting journalists covering the events.
SPJ President John Ensslin last week issued a statement urging mayors across the country to drop charges against these journalists and calling on police to exercise greater care to avoid arresting journalists who are simply doing their jobs.
“We know that as protests escalate it may be difficult for police to distinguish bystanders from participants, but it is clear now that many journalists have been erroneously arrested without cause,” Ensslin said. “These errors must be rectified immediately.”
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Because the independent media are less likely to be manipulated by police and political power, they are more likely to be pushed around to prevent their coverage. Monopoly media get preferential treatment and access, to insure favorable coverage.
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Thanks for your comment, John. Because of hurdles reported to us from independent journalists seeking press credentials from police, we sponsored a forum on media access in June.
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Oh, come off it, John. Our “monopoly media” journalists have been batoned, tear-gassed and held at the point of a shotgun in recent weeks – hardly kid-glove treatment – and I don’t think you could find anyone in City Hall or OPD headquarters who believes we’ve given them “favorable coverage.” We’ve had people arrested in past incidents, too. You’re not doing journalism any favors by trying to drive this wedge into our community.
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