Journalists: collateral victims of protests in the US

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The press has not fared well in the protests nationwide over the death of George Floyd. From Los Angeles to Minneapolis, passing through Washigton or Kentucky, scenes of assaults and arrests of journalists have taken place throughout the United States, a level of violence that some attribute to President Donald Trump's inflammatory speech against the press that is not related to his interests. -which is almost all-, and the levels of police brutality more than palpable despite the prevailing climate of denunciation.

Trump announced on Sunday via Twitter that he had ordered the withdrawal of the National Guard from Washington DC "now that everything is under perfect control." From the same social network, he also attacked former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who announced that he would vote for Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential elections, he said in an interview on CNN. He considered that "he has not been a very effective president , " in addition to "lying all the time . "

Since last Friday, the affected media and social networks have echoed scenes of merciless beating, shooting with rubber bullets at point-blank range, and unusual arrests for trying to report. Currently, there are more than 300 in the days of the protests, according to US Freedom Tracker, a portal that monitors press freedom in the world's leading power.

"This is unprecedented in scope and scale," says Kirstin McCudden, director of the US Freedom Tracker, in a telephone interview with EL MUNDO, surprised by police assaults on journalists, photographers and cameras in the United States. "This is a watershed moment that we will analyze over time as a threat to press freedom."

McCudden believes that Trump has legitimized this kind of aggression. "He did not start them, but the antagonistic speech of the commander in chief has exacerbated them. He has been consistent with the language he uses against the press and his messages on social networks. So many attacks are not normal." According to McFadden, in a normal year they do not exceed 150 .

It wasn't just the police. Some protesters have staged violent scenes against members of the media. Last Friday, May 31, at least two men from local channels in Birmingham, Alabama were hit and punched by a group that had just robbed a building in the city center. In the video broadcast on social networks, a journalist can be seen asking for help while a mob knocks down a colleague with a clean punch.

Ian Smith, a photographer for the KDKA television network in Pittsburgh, was also attacked by protesters. "I am bruised and bloody, but I am alive," he said. "My camera is destroyed. Another group of protesters took me out of there and saved my life. Thank you!"

Briana Whitney, a reporter from Arizona, was knocked down on the ground in the middle of a live broadcast. "I felt raped. It was terrifying," she said. Linda Tirado, a photographer from Minneapolis, had her eye plugged with a rubber bullet. "Who knows if I will need surgery," he commented.

African American journalist detained

The trickle has been constant since the riots and marches began. Adolfo Guzmán-López, a KPCC journalist in Los Angeles who normally covers education, took a rubber ball to the throat while covering a protest in Long Beach. "I had just interviewed a man with my phone on 3rd Street and Pine, and a police officer pointed at me and shot me in the throat . I saw the bullet bounce on the ground. That's one way to stop me, for now," the journalist wrote on his Twitter account.

During the first weekend of protests after Floyd's death alone, there were more than a dozen incidents . Perhaps the most significant was the arrest of two photographers in Las Vegas, that of the African-American journalist for CNN, Omar Jiménez. Minneapolis police, where Floyd died, killed by a police officer, surrounded him and his camera as he reported on the violent protests in the city. All this happened live.

Jiménez, accreditation in hand, explained with all respect that they could step aside so as not to disturb. Still, the police handcuffed him without explaining why they arrested him. To him and the rest of his camera and production team, four people in total. They were held for an hour.

The embarrassing episode prompted Minnesota Governor Democrat Tim Walz to apologize to Jiménez in an interview on camera. "Thank you for being so professional and for understanding . We deeply regret the error. The protocols are going to have to change."

The chain of attacks led UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to speak out. "When they attack journalists, they attack societies," he said. "No democracy can function without freedom of the press, and no society can be just without journalists who investigate errors and tell the truth to power."

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

• Un
• United States
• George Floyd

RiotsThe EU and the UN back peaceful protests in the US

Washington and other US cities protest police brutality

The Minnesota prosecutor brings the charge to the police officer who killed George Floyd to unintentional murder and prosecutes the other three officers.

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