CNN crew is arrested on live television

A CNN reporting team was arrested live on television early Friday while covering the protests in Minneapolis, an extraordinary interference with freedom of the press that drew outrage from First Amendment advocates and a public apology from Minnesota’s governor.

The CNN crew, led by correspondent Omar Jimenez, was released by police in Minneapolis after spending about an hour in custody. In the moments before the 5 a.m. arrest, Jimenez could be heard calmly identifying himself as a reporter and offering to move to wherever he and his team were directed.

“Put us back where you want us; we are getting out of your way, just let us know,” Jimenez told the police officers, who were outfitted in riot gear, as the network broadcast the exchange in real time. “Wherever you’d want us, we will go.”

Instead, he and his team — Bill Kirkos, a producer, and Leonel Mendez, a camera operator — had their hands bound behind their backs.

Their camera was placed on the ground, still rolling; CNN anchors watching from New York sounded stunned as they reported on their colleagues’ arrests.

It is common in autocratic countries for journalists to be swept up in arrests during protests and riots but rare in the United States, where news gathering is protected by the First Amendment. Lawyers at CNN reached out to Minnesota authorities, and the network’s president, Jeffrey A. Zucker, spoke briefly Friday morning with the state’s governor, Tim Walz.

Walz told Zucker that the arrest was “inadvertent” and “unacceptable,” according to CNN’s account of the call. By about 6:30 a.m. local time, the crew had been released and was back on television.

“Everyone, to their credit, was pretty cordial,” Jimenez said of his interaction with police officers after his arrest. “As far as the people that were leading me away, there was no animosity there. They weren’t violent with me. We were having a conversation about just how crazy this week has been for every single part of the city.”

At a news conference Friday, Walz issued what he called “a very public apology” to CNN for the morning’s events., saying, “I take full responsibility; there is absolutely no reason something like this should happen.”