Monday, May 21, 2012

The first amendment and the smartphone journalist...

World Press Freedom Day came and went earlier this month. While it’s important to take a day to recognize our right to speak and share information, threats to our First Amendment freedoms happen all the time, everywhere.

It's a threat that will become very real on the streets of Chicago this weekend as a new breed of journalists and onlookers attempt to cover the protests surrounding the NATO summit.

Just ask Carlos Miller. The photojournalist has been arrested three times. His “crime?” Attempting to photograph police actions in the U.S. Most recently, in January, Miller was filming the eviction of Occupy Wall Street activists from a park in downtown Miami.

In a twist that’s become too familiar to many, the journalist became the story as police focused their crackdown on the scrum of reporters there to cover the eviction. Miller came face to face with Officer Nancy Perez, who confiscated his camera and placed him under arrest.

(...)

While the media landscape has changed, our First Amendment rights haven’t. Freedom of the press is more important, not less, when anyone with a mobile phone and an Internet connection can act as a journalist. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. It's not an offence to film the police...
  2. U.S falls to 47th in press freedom rankings after Occupy crackdown...
  3. 19 signs that America has become a control freak nation...
  4. India's low-caste Dalits become video journalists to highlight their plight...
  5. Journalists being killed at 'astonishing pace'
  6. Al Jazeera journalists quit channel citing bias on Syria coverage...
  7. The American press and Israel...

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