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Fiedler: Police didn’t violate journalists’ First Amendment rights in Zuccotti Park eviction

avatar by Published Nov. 16, 2011 5:01 pm

MediaWire Letter
Tom Fiedler supports journalists whose coverage of the Zuccotti Park evacuations was disrupted by police. But the former executive editor of The Miami Herald does not think the police violated the media’s First Amendment rights.

Fiedler writes in an email to Poynter:

As a former journalist who has been pepper gassed, detained, shoved and screamed at (but never beaten) by law enforcement during my career, I can empathize with those reporters in New York whose attempts to cover the Zuccotti Park raid were hindered or worse by NYC’s finest.

Few responsibilities carry a higher priority for journalists than providing the citizenry with accurate accounts of police activity, particularly when that activity is in pursuit of a public policy that impacts other citizens. As a result I believe reporters should aggressively attempt to get close to such activity so their reports will be accurate and timely.

But I can’t agree that the police action in Zuccotti Park was a violation of the First Amendment’s press freedom. The amendment’s clause that ‘Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of the press…,’ doesn’t mean that the press is free to go anywhere at any time.  It certainly is not at all unusual for the media to be kept away from a potential crime scene during police action. (Similarly, reporters cannot wander into the Oval Office, sit in the corner, and observe anything that happens, claiming a First Amendment right to do so).

Unless I missed it, none of the reporters around Zuccotti Park were barred from publishing, broadcasting or otherwise informing others of what they witnessed during and after the raid. Nor am I aware that any photojournalist’s cameras were seized or destroyed, any recordings destroyed, nor any reporter kept from interviewing an Occupier by police after the raid ended.

So, hooray for reporters for trying to do what they do and for pounding Mayor Bloomberg for making their jobs difficult. But I’d be hard pressed to see where the First Amendment was among the victims.

Related: Occupy DC says Washington Post reporter Tim Craig is “biased” and “dismissive” of the movement. Craig responds: “I believe I’ve been very fair to Occupy D.C.” (Washington City Paper)

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  • http://485i.com Brian Van Nieuwenhoven

    With riot cops assaulting peaceful protesters and fringe hoodlums threatening use of Molotov cocktails and rubber bullets being shot in other cities – and things only getting worse every day – I fear we’re not far away from an actual violent riot and the use of deadly force. Since the police are deliberately toeing that line and daring crowds to resist already brutal tactics in order to provoke escalation and criminality, that risk is being cultivated intentionally. I understand that the police and the cities have a job to do and that it is in opposition to the plan that the Occupy movement follows, but the police have been doing a really poor job of meeting our standards for law enforcement in these situations. 

    It’s inappropriate to directly compare recent OWS events to what happened to Daniel Pearl, I admit that. But if a journalist is seriously injured or killed by the hands of the police (or by anyone else) in a future police-instigated violent situation here in the United States, and if we had a million clear opportunities to avoid that (as we have had), should we tolerate it any more? I suppose that was my clumsily executed point.

  • http://twitter.com/jeffbercovici Jeff Bercovici

    “[T]he use of indiscriminate violence against members of the media makes the NYPD as brutal as Al-Qaeda.”

    Um, no. If you want your argument to be taken seriously, don’t say things like that.

  • http://485i.com Brian Van Nieuwenhoven

    “writes in an email to Poynter”

    So, basically, this is his opinion and you’re printing it like a press release and not challenging any of the statements being made. 

    Aside from some of the basic points of logic that the other commenters have pointed out to contradict Fiedler’s logic, I’m going to add in that false arrest is a civil offense by the government at the very least. There is proof on video that some of the arrested journalists were on public property (the sidewalk), and not on some “privately owned public space” (what a bullshit construct), so there was no probable or definite cause for arrest. 

    I’m also concerned about the arrests at the other space (Duarte Park) and whether or not the property owner of that space made a trespassing complaint. This is perhaps less of a concern because of the correct logic that both protesters and journalists were technically trespassing, but it’s a bit fishy that the police responded with such certainty that there was probable cause to arrest the reporters for any reason. Wouldn’t the landowner need to notify the police of an issue? Or can the cops just arrest anyone on private property for “trespassing” without checking to see if the property owner is in opposition? I have a huge problem believing that Trinity Church told the police to arrest reporters on a public space under construction. And the use of indiscriminate violence against members of the media makes the NYPD as brutal as Al-Qaeda.

    This behavior by the police – some of it technically correct but harsh against the media, some of it downright illegal – is in violation of the letter AND spirit of the law. Maybe it’s not your job to advocate for the media on this matter. But we all have a responsibility to the core values of our society to leave our jobs behind for a second and speak out for what’s right. To do otherwise is unethical and stupid.

  • http://hydrolyzefacts.com Hydrolyze

    Real classy you
    mocking genuine people who believe in a cause. You just listen to what
    your Corporate Masters tell you and think for yourself, the revolution
    will not be televised.
     

  • http://www.jt10000.com John Forrest Tomlinson

    How is physically making reporters unable to see what is going on (by arresting them or macing them) not preventing them from publishing?????

  • Anonymous

    Reporters were arrested and shoed away from the park on the ground that cops were protecting them from debris that wasn’t falling. How is this not a violation of the First Amendment? Mayor Bloomingdale’s thugs obviously wanted to make sure there was no video of them roughing up protesters. Unfortunately, they forgot about You Tube.