This week, the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California signed onto two letters condemning harm inflicted by law enforcement on journalists while covering protests in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In San Francisco on Sunday and Monday, journalists were shoved, detained and obstructed from newsgathering. SPJ NorCal joined the First Amendment Coalition in urging the San Francisco Police Department leadership in ensuring press rights during protests moving forward.
From the June 11 letter, which can be found on FAC’s website: “”On Sunday, Daily Californian journalists were detained for about an hour, after being kettled into barricaded areas while they were reporting on confrontations between protesters and officers, and for at least 30 minutes on Monday, despite identifying themselves to police as press, according to an editor’s column detailing and condemning these events. The journalists presented press identification, and one staffer wore a helmet that said “PRESS.” Officers responded at one point that they “did not care they were press,” and pushed a staffer, causing that journalist to fall to the ground, the editor’s reported. News reports and witnesses indicate that during at least one kettling multiple reporters, photographers and other media workers were confined as as officers prepared for mass arrests.”
One officer also knocked the smartphone out of another journalist’s hands after they identified themselves as such. And on Monday, journalists were barred from certain areas to cover the police department’s response and a projectile narrowly missed a Wall Street Journal reporter during a night of heavy use of force. Some of these events were observed by SPJ NorCal leadership and caught on video.
“Based on our understanding of these events, we have serious concerns that officers appear to
June 11 letter to SFPD
have violated your department’s general orders, California law and the First Amendment. We’re
troubled that this interference with lawful newsgathering was intentional: when officers declared
an unlawful assembly, they also said it applied to those with cameras, which members of the
press understood was incorrectly directed at them.”
These events were covered by local press, including Mission Local, KQED and SFGATE. The Daily Californian issued an editor’s note condemning the suppression of their students’ journalism.
SFPD has shown preliminary signs of openness to hearing out journalists and has stated it will send out public information officers to help facilitate the identification of journalists at protests this weekend. We look forward to working with them to sort out the rest of our concerns.
SPJ NorCal also signed onto a June 9 letter with a coalition of 27 press rights and civil liberties organizations to Department of Homeland Security “expressing alarm at reports that federal officers may have violated journalists’ First Amendment rights as they covered protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
“A number of reports suggest that federal officers have indiscriminately used force or deployed
June 9 letter to DHS
munitions such as tear gas or pepper balls that caused significant injuries to journalists. In some
cases, federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing
more than their job covering the news,” read the letter, which can also be viewed on FAC’s website.”
SPJ NorCal will continue to monitor regional protests and collect events of mistreatment of journalists to advocate on their behalf. Please reach out to spjnorcal@gmail.com to share any related experiences, or for a link to fill out a survey.
Resources for journalists covering protests can be found here:
- SPJ Safety and Reporting guidelines: https://www.spj.org/reporting-safely-
- First Amendment Coalition’s FREE legal hotline: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/legal-hotline/
- Staying Safe While Documenting Civil Unrest training: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tSPbw3cbM1fEVxUB4R_rALQ3b9eoXn5i/view?usp=drivesdk