Reporters held at Wall St. protests: Rights group
October 14th, 2011 - 11:29 am ICT by IANSParis, Oct 14 (IANS/EFE) Police in New York have arrested and attacked journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests, Reporters Without Borders said Thursday.
Authorities’ “often violent response” to the OWS campaign in New York and other US cities “is affecting the freedom to inform”, the Paris-based group, known as RSF, said in a statement.
New York Police Department officers have detained and - in at least one instance - attacked accredited members of the media, according to RSF.
“Ordinary citizens, bloggers and netizens who provide information through online social networks have also been affected by this obstruction,” the press-freedom watchdog said.
More broadly, RSF objects to the police giving itself the right to decide on who qualifies for press credentials.
“Since when is a police department equipped to determine who is and who is not a journalist?,” the statement said. “This NYPD filtering violates the most elementary constitutional guarantees.”
“On the eve of major worldwide demonstrations planned for Oct 15, Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities not to resort to repressive methods, which constitute acts of censorship,” the group said.
RSF said it hopes that “journalists who have been the victims of violence will get their charges lifted and obtain compensation”.
–IANS/EFE
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Tags: accredited members, bloggers, censorship, constitutional guarantees, journalists, netizens, new york police, new york police department, online social networks, ordinary citizens, ows, press credentials, press freedom, protests, reporters without borders, victims of violence, violent response, watchdog, worldwide demonstrations, york police department