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When journalists and other citizens are arrested for covering the police

When a freelance photographer was arrested late last month while shooting video of a public arrest on Long Island, it wasn't an isolated incident.

When a freelance photographer was arrested late last month while shooting video of a public arrest on Long Island, it wasn't an isolated incident. In fact, it was at least the third time in the last two months that police in New York had arrested a citizen for reporting on their work. In Rochester, a woman was charged with obstructing governmental administration for videotaping a traffic stop while on her own front lawn, and in Glens Falls, a reporter for the Post-Star was charged with the same crime for asking the police questions at a murder scene. Journalists in California and Hawaii, and a motorcyclist in Maryland, were also arrested for shooting photos or video of public law enforcement activity. Ten years ago, they would have been thrown in jail “with little public notice,” ASNE President Ken Paulson noted recently. But in the YouTube era, “the officer's actions are documented, disseminated and assessed by tens of thousands in perpetuity.

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