Three Photojournalists Arrested at Protests During Democratic National Convention
Three photojournalists were arrested while covering protests during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week.
Last week, pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested after clashing with police during a demonstration that began outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago while the Democratic National Convention was taking place.
Chicago Police arrested 74 people during the protests last week. Three of the individuals arrested were journalists who were documenting the demonstrations — prompting fresh concerns about press freedom in the U.S.
One of those three journalists arrested was Los Angeles-based freelance photographer Sinna Nasseri who came to Chicago to document the protests. Nasseri has had his photography published in publications like The New York Times, Time Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.
In an interview with CBS News, Nasseri revealed that he was grabbed and handcuffed by police while he was taking photos of protestors interactions with police on August 20.
The photographer was then arrested and left the protest in police custody despite being a journalist at the demonstration.
“I mean, I understand in the heat of the moment, maybe getting, you know, cuffed,’ Nasseri tells CBS News.
“But once I told them I’m a journalist, and they saw my press ID, and they saw my gear, they should have known that I was doing nothing wrong — which I wasn’t — and they probably should have let me go.”
Nasseri says he sat for two hours in a bus, and then another six hours in jail. The photographer was charged with disorderly conduct and says he was unable to talk to his attorney until 4 am on Wednesday.
The Impact on Photojournalism
According to CBS News, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling says that Nasseri along with the two other journalists were arrested for not complying with officers’ orders when police began moving in to arrest protesters who had attacked police.
However, Nasseri tells the news outlet that he never heard any kind of dispersal order before he was arrested. The photographer says he will be flying back to Chicago for his next court date scheduled in September and plans to fight the charge.
Nasseri is worried that his experience will have a negative impact on other photojournalists in the U.S.
“I’m here to make sure that the peace is kept by, you know, shedding light on exactly what’s going on,” the photographer says.
According to VOA News, the other two journalists arrested in Chicago last week were independent photojournalists Olga Fedorova and Josh Pacheco. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker reports that some of Pacheco and Fedorova’s equipment was also damaged in the incident, according to the Tracker.
Several press freedom groups have condemned the three photojournalists’ arrests at the protests last week.
“It’s really important that law enforcement distinguishes between journalists and protesters and does not charge journalists for engaging in newsgathering activities,” Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S. and Canada program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, tells VOA News.
Meanwhile, Chicago Police says it will publish extensive data on all of the arrests connected to the protests during the Democratic National Convention.
Image credits: Feature photo licensed via Depositphotos.
