Two reporters were detained at the Ferguson protests, and police behaved as “soldiers” with the “enemy combatants,” journalists said. Outrage over the incident spilled into both the media and social networks.
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post told AP they were working in a fast-food restaurant when Special Forces entered the premises and started clearing them out. Reilly tried to take a photo, and police demanded his ID, which he lawfully declined to provide. The officers detained him regardless, according to Huffington Post official statement, “for not packing up fast enough.”
An Al Jazeera journalist was also attacked and teargassed by security forces as he tried to film the protest.
Both journalists tweeted about their arrests, detention and subsequent release without charge.
Also in the statement, Huffington Post noted that according to Reilly, who reported from the notorious Guantanamo Bay military facility, “police resembled soldiers more than officers,” and treated those inside the fast-food restaurant as “enemy combatants.”
All in all, Huffington Post condemned “the false arrest and the militant aggression towards the journalists,” saying that police militarization has become “among the most consequential and unnoticed development of our time, and is beginning to affect press freedom.”
The Washington Post also called the arrest “illegal” and an “assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news.”
Contine reading : Police target media, arrest and teargas reporters at Ferguson protests
Niamh Harris
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