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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Media / 2008 Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Federal Government Settle With Journalists Arrested at the 2008 RNC

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 9:41 AM

Back during the 2008 RNC, police roughed up and arrested journalists who were covering the convention. (A list of them is here.) Now the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as the federal government, is paying some of those journalists for their trouble.

From the AP:

Journalist Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated program "Democracy Now!" and two of her producers will receive $100,000 in a settlement over their arrests during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, their attorney said Monday.

Their attorney, Anjana Samant of the Center for Constitutional Rights, also said St. Paul and Minneapolis have agreed to develop a policy and training for police officers on how to avoid infringing on the First Amendment rights of journalists who cover big protests.

The settlement was reached Friday with the aid of U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan in St. Paul. The two cities agreed to pay a combined $90,000 while the federal government agreed to pay $10,000, Samant said. The lawsuit named the federal government because a Secret Service agent confiscated the press credentials of Goodman and her producers, she said.

Comments (7) RSS

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That slap on the wrist will surely dissuade anyone from arresting journalists again.

Posted by rejemy on October 4, 2011 at 10:16 AM

Oh, Amy, how I love thee. Pardon me shoehorning, but all good people should read or listen to her interview with John Le Carre, whose Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been remade into a movie with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Gary frickin' Oldman that's opened to enormous box office and ecstatic reviews in England this month. I'm a Le Carre maniac, but I think anyone would find this just a great interview by Amy:

AMY GOODMAN: It’s seven years after the invasion of Iraq. You’ve moved from Blair in this country, and in the United States it’s gone from Bush to Obama, who then expanded the war in Afghanistan. What is your assessment of the United States?

JOHN LE CARRÉ: I suffer from the same frustration that every decent American suffers from. That is, that you begin to wonder whether decent liberal instincts, decent humanitarian instincts, can actually penetrate the right-wing voice, get through the steering of American opinion by the mass media.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/11/e…

Posted by gloomy gus on October 4, 2011 at 10:29 AM

More Tales of how Republican Criminally Insane jerks show the Nation how well they can run the Nation? F.B.I. targets people as they are "Muslim" and you get busted for being a reporter? yes and this is just the micro list of Republican criminal activity's?

Posted by slade

on October 4, 2011 at 10:45 AM

This is just a cost of doing business. That's a fraction of the amount of cop overtime they paid. The next time, they'll do it again, and pay the stupid fine again.

Posted by Fnarf