RCFP letter to New York City officials demands end to police attacks on journalists
On June 6, 2020, the Reporters Committee sent a letter to New York City’s mayor and police commissioner, calling for police officers to stop attacking and arresting credentialed journalists covering protests that began after a white police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.
The letter, co-signed by 126 media and press freedom organizations, highlights many incidents in which journalists were assaulted by the police and emphasizes that officers do not have legal immunity when they clearly violate First Amendment freedoms.
“Officers on the ground must understand that gathering news and recording police activities are not crimes,” the Reporters Committee states in the letter, “and that journalists who are complying with reasonable law enforcement directions when covering civil unrest are protected by the First Amendment.”