Reporters assaulted for doing their jobs
Members of media are part of a healthy democracy, not ‘enemies of the state’
I’ve never crossed a police tape, but I did get a stern reminder a few years ago of what happens when a reporter breaches that line.
A journalism student came across a fire in downtown Charlottetown. To get better pictures, he ducked under a barrier tape and moved towards the fire.
Before he could focus his camera he was, rightly, hustled back behind the line by firefighters.
Not only had he potentially put himself in harm’s way, he had gotten in the way of firefighters as they attempted to douse the blaze.
The fire chief called first thing the next morning, requesting we remind students about the purpose and importance of the barrier tape.
That’s an example of a clear breach by a young reporter, but what happened in Hamilton, Ont., last week appears to be quite the opposite.
A TV cameraman and a freelance photographer were arrested at the scene of a fatal crash. One was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, then charged with obstructing police and resisting arrest. Police are reviewing the incident, but accounts from one of the reporters involved as well as a third reporter at the scene suggest they were not interfering with police work and, at the time of the arrests, they were well outside the police tape. If that proves to be the case, they should certainly have been allowed to do their job without being forcefully detained.
More than a decade ago, student journalists and student paramedics at Holland College both responded to a fatal accident near the Grafton Street campus. Aspiring paramedics assisted emergency responders at the scene, and our students took pictures and talked to eyewitnesses and police. But there was tension.
The student paramedics insisted student journalists did not have the right to take photographs so close to the scene and that they should move away. Our students pointed out they were reporting in a public area and from behind the police tape, and that it was their job to record what they saw from that vantage point.
A few days later, city police joined journalism and paramedic instructors and students in a session that clarified the roles of both groups working at the scene of police/fire investigations. Both groups had done their jobs well, and students left with a better understanding of the important and legitimate reasons they both had to be there.
While these cases both stem from some level of misunderstanding of a reporter’s rights, U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear he feels the media – which he considers to be “enemies of the state” – should have no rights at all.
Last week, a Congressional candidate in Montana body slammed and punched a reporter. Why? He asked a question about health care. The candidate was charged with assault and, remarkably, was elected the next day. Only then did he admit he “made a mistake” and apologized for the way he treated the reporter.
Trump also reacted. He called it “a great win in Montana ” – no mention of any role his inflammatory remarks may have played in the assault.
A healthy democracy demands a vibrant press and reporters free to ask questions as they gather and present information.
There’s nothing healthy about reporters being assaulted for simply doing their jobs.