Philip Eil – Forward - September 14, 2016
In the introduction
to Amy Goodman’s recent book, “Democracy Now! Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America,” the
journalist and longtime “Democracy Now!” co-host describes her many run-ins
with law enforcement.
“As
reporters we shouldn’t have to get a record for putting things on the record,”
she writes. And yet her “rap sheet” includes being detained in 1998 while
covering pacifist activists who threw blood on a B-1 bomber at an Air Force
base in Maryland; deported by Indonesian authorities in 1999 while trying to
report on an independence referendum in Indonesia-occupied East Timor; arrested
in front of the White House while covering an Iraq War protest in 2003;
arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota,
while fighting for the release of “Democracy Now!” producers who had been
detained while filming protests; and detained in 2009 at the Canadian border on
her way to speaking about press freedom in Vancouver.
And,
as of the last week, Goodman, can add a new entry to the list. On Saturday,
“Democracy Now!” reported that officials in Morton County North Dakota had
issued a “criminal trespassing” arrest warrant for Goodman, following her
reporting on Native America-led protests against the construction of the
multi-billion-dollar Dakota Access pipeline. One of her dispatches, a
seven-minute video showing protesters attacked by dogs held on leashes by
private security contractors, was viewed over 13 million times, and picked up
by broadcasts from major networks. A few days later, the Department of Justice,
Department of the Army, and Department of Interior announced that pipeline
construction would be halted until its legality could be sorted out.
Goodman’s
latest arrest has received coverage and stern criticism from other news
outlets. And Goodman condemned it, herself, in a brief statement, saying, “This
is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press…I was doing my job by
covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American
protesters.”
Photo:
Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
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