MIAMI, Florida (August 14, 2015)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today issued a public call on the United States judiciary to drop criminal charges against two journalists filed as they were covering protests last year in the city of Ferguson, on the grounds that these violate constitutional rights concerning press freedom.
Reporters Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post were accused of alleged “interference and violation of property” during coverage of the 2014 protest in Ferguson, Missouri, at the fatal shooting of young black American Michael Brown by a police officer.
Lowery and Reilly were recharging their cell phones in a restaurant on August 13, 2014 when they were arrested by the police. They claimed they were mistreated, threatened, handcuffed and were not told why they were being detained.
Lowery’s appearance in court in St. Louis, the state capital, has been scheduled for August 24. Reilly has not yet been given a court hearing date, though the charges against him were confirmed by state officials. The two journalists face one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, declared, “We are hopeful that the court will dismiss the charges and the hearing, as the reporters were in Ferguson in search of information about a situation of national and international interest.”
Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, recalled that last year 48 press organizations, among them the IAPA, “sent a letter to the city and state police authorities protesting the detention of the journalists and the obstruction of the work of the press.”
Bruce Brown, vice president for the United States of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added, that: “Interfering with the reporting of important public controversies is a telltale sign of a government that is trying to cover up its own actions. Charging reporters with crimes for covering a story sends a clear signal that police do not want their actions documented, and thus makes the situation worse."
Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) said: "Police officers have to make snap decisions during conflicts, yet we still expect them to respect First Amendment rights. With a full year to review the situation, prosecutors have no excuse for making poor judgment calls that do not respect these rights."
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
