September 3, 2008

St. Paul, MN - Freedom of the press - means never having to ask the authorities to "free the press." That's what members of the news media are saying about the treatment of journalists and others by police, as protests and arrests continue outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

An Associated Press photographer and Amy Goodman - cohost of the nationally syndicated radio news program "Democracy Now!" - were among those swept up in arrests during clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers that began on Monday.

Karlos Gauna Schmieder, media strategist for the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, says jailing journalists is not only unacceptable - it makes a mockery of our democratic process.

"Democracy truly requires a free flow of ideas, there's no doubt. Without that, the Declaration of Independence truly isn't worth the paper it's written on.

In Minnesota, attorney Gena Berglund, with the state chapter of the National Lawyers Guild agrees that targeting journalists doesn't look good for police.

"What is so harmful about somebody using a camera to document police activity? If the police are behaving appropriately, they shouldn't be afraid of anything."

In Bergland's view, police have been overstepping their authority all week in St. Paul, beginning with weekend preemptive raids on homes in which visiting demonstrators and journalists were staying.

"Why is the Constitution being treated like a doormat, instead of the basis on which we build our system of governing and our system of democracy here in the United States?"

Thousands demonstrated in St. Paul on Monday and Tuesday. Nearly 300 people, including reporters and photographers, were arrested after a group of protesters splintered off and began smashing windows. Eyewitnesses say many of those arrested were merely caught up in the chaos.

As St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington put it, police "won the day" against those who intended to disrupt the convention through violence and vandalism. Follow details of the convention-related arrests online, at www.centerformediajustice.org.

 **Karlos Says:

Unfortunately, they didn't use the part of my quote that i'd wished.

What I continued to say was:

If we want to call ourselves a shining beacon of democracy, basic freedoms must be in place. Every human rights document around the world begins with freedom of speech, expression and the press - and it's this freedom upon which all others are based...