The ITT List
Tuesday Sep 2, 2008 3:50 pm
Letter from Joel Bleifuss: Drop charges against Amy Goodman and two producers of “Democracy No
September 2, 2008
Dear friends,
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was arrested yesterday, along with two of the show’s producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. The producers were arrested for simply doing their jobs as journalists: covering street protests. Goodman was arrested merely for asking why her colleagues were being arrested. All three were roughly handled. Although Goodman, Abdel Kouddous, and Salazar were released, charges against them are still pending, including felony riot charges against Kouddous and Salazar.
In These Times demands that these charges be dropped. Goodman and her colleagues were clearly falsely arrested. We have seen such repressive tactics before, during the Republican National Convention in New York City in 2004. Force was used then, as now, to quash peaceful dissent and to prevent journalists from revealing it to the public.
Freedom of the press and the right to peaceful protest are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Indeed, they are the cornerstones of our democracy. Anyone who affirms our democratic form of government must find such police tactics not only appalling, but an assault on our constitution. It is not the peaceful protesters and journalists who betray our deepest values; it is those who intimidate and suppress them.
In solidarity,
Joel Bleifuss
Editor and Publisher
In These Times
Return to InTheseTimes.com
Dear friends,
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was arrested yesterday, along with two of the show’s producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. The producers were arrested for simply doing their jobs as journalists: covering street protests. Goodman was arrested merely for asking why her colleagues were being arrested. All three were roughly handled. Although Goodman, Abdel Kouddous, and Salazar were released, charges against them are still pending, including felony riot charges against Kouddous and Salazar.
In These Times demands that these charges be dropped. Goodman and her colleagues were clearly falsely arrested. We have seen such repressive tactics before, during the Republican National Convention in New York City in 2004. Force was used then, as now, to quash peaceful dissent and to prevent journalists from revealing it to the public.
Freedom of the press and the right to peaceful protest are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Indeed, they are the cornerstones of our democracy. Anyone who affirms our democratic form of government must find such police tactics not only appalling, but an assault on our constitution. It is not the peaceful protesters and journalists who betray our deepest values; it is those who intimidate and suppress them.
In solidarity,
Joel Bleifuss
Editor and Publisher
In These Times
Return to InTheseTimes.com
3 comments ·
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Bravo!
Excuse me but, precisely how clueless does anyone have to be to believe this? Lots of journalists covered the rioting. It was shown on air, written about in paper, blogs, and news magazines. Other reporters were not arrested for being journalist. Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were being antaognistic and were arrested for being a part of a NON peacefule display. There is a huge difference in journalism and taking an active part in your subject matter. Perhaps one of these days true non-biased no participatory journalism will return. Until them arrest all who use the ‘credential’ of journalism to further a cause. Have a cause? Speak out! Protest! It is our given right. Don’t do it under the guise of journalism. You sir, are a huge discredit to our profession.
Johnathon,
To answer your question, one must be completely clueless and plugged into the mainstream corporate media (or working for it) to NOT believe this. All it takes to know it’s true it is to do a little research on what’s going on in the world right now. The pace of the rolling back of democratic values and freedoms while the corporatist agenda is advanced worldwide is stunning!
I don’t know what you consider “covering” the “rioting”. If that means standing on the sidelines with a zoom lens and leaving when the police tell you its about to get bad, then I’d say your breed of journalists are spineless and missing the real story, and sidestepping your crucial watchdog role of bearing witness and telling the REAL story to the world. To truly cover the story, assuring that police brutality and possible protester lawbreaking is documented, you need to be in the thick of the action.
They weren’t covering “riots”, they were covering protest demonstrations. Usually, these remain peaceful, with the exception of a small percentage of the group. Police reactions to these protests are many times confrontative and violent, which can provoke an already tense situation to get out of hand.
If you stand by your statement about Abdel Kouddous and Salazar above, then please provide some sources that prove they were being antagonistic and inappropriate. I can’t imagine either doing anything out of line, so I suspect you made that part up to support your point.
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