| Media Credentials - Law Enforcement Issued "Press Pass" |
| MY VIEWS ON FIRST AMENDMENT FREEDOMS & POLICE ISSUES |
| There is no requirement in law for any media organization or any journalist to use or be "credentialed" by a local or state law enforcement agency. The medias use of such "passes" is based on a decades old non-adversarial relationship which no longer exists. The media organizations use and requirement that its employees go to a law enforcement ageny to aquire such "pass" IS defacto licensure and gives said police agency power, whether literal or in its own mind, over the press in general. Both of which are unconstitutional. Note that many "pass's" state that -it- can be revoked at any time. Does this mean that should a pass from the CHP be revoked for photographer B from the LA Times that said photographer looses his First Amendment rights as a journalist and he is no longer entitled to respond to and cover breaking news stories occuring within the jurisdiction of the California Highway Patrol? OR ANYWHERE else? * See: Los Angles Free Press vs. City Of Los Angeles for a thought provoking and very troubling disertation on police powers via press pass's and the media's use of them. THE PRESS PASS NO LONGER PASSES THE MEDIA THROUGH POLICE LINES FOR CLOSER THAN THE PUBLIC ACCESS. IN FACT THE PRESS IS NOW RESTRICTED TO THE SAME AND IN MANY CASES GIVEN LESS ACCESS THAN THE PUBLIC. Which is a violation of the law. All news organizations should stop using law enforcement issued press pass cards for identification or credentialing of their employees. They should issue their own employee identification cards or badges with their respective logos displayed and the words press or media clearly visible. A free press in a free society consists of free person's who choose to engage in journalism as their profession and they therefore are not required to seek permission from the state or its law enforcement arm to do so. Nor does a free press exist in a free society in which those journalists are required to seek a license or a form of identification to retain that freedom, or excersize it, from the state or its law enforcement, secret police or security service. |
| IF THE POLICEMAN IS YOUR FRIEND AND YOU HAVE "CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS" THEN WHY DID HE JUST HIT YOU, SIEZE YOUR CAMERA, HANDCUFF YOU AND THROW YOU IN THE BACK OF HIS PATROL CAR? |
| CRIME SCENE EXCLUSION -OR- HOW WE HAVE GONE FROM FREEDOM OF THE PRESS TO THE COPS FREEDOM FROM THE PRESS, THE PEOPLES RIGHT TO KNOW TO THE POLICE'S RIGHT TO CONTROL: CITIZEN OVERSIGHT BE DAMMED & THE CULTURE OF THE CLIQUE. |
| COMING SOON |
| News Gathering around Police: How to protect yourself. Lessons from the street. |
| There are three rules that you must never forget in dealing with United States police officers, keeping these in mind as you encounter them during your quest for truth in documenting the story will go along way in helping you. 1. You are the enemy. You have a camera, your a journalist and your not a cop. 2. POLICE OFFICERS LIE! They lie in court, they practise"creative report writing" and lie in them also. 3. Police Officers VIOLATE CIVIL AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS REGULARLY. Do not think that they will not violate yours. They get away with doing it to everyone else so often, being a journalist is meaningless to them, they have nothing to fear because they know that your employer and the rest of the media and the Press Freedom groups will not fight for you or take any action towards them because it has happened so many times to so many photographers. Their unions make sure they know it. Finally, they know the system is so scewed in their favor. Do not think that judges or DA's don't look the other way or believe that the ends justify the means. Always carry a micro-cassette recorder. Turn it on while speaking to the police. If your a TV photographer always have your camera recording when you begin to have a negative encounter with a police officer. Always take a photograph of the officer or the scene around you, photograph any bystanders, even as your being arrested try to snap off some frames. Getting shots of the scene or witness's will be crucial to your case. Don't be surprised if the police sieze or "accidentally" destroy your film. Take mental notes of the area and the people in it as your led away and sittng in the back of the police car. If you have a cell phone and it hasnt been taken away from you, call your editor or lawyer or both, tell your editor to send a reporter to interview and get information from witness's regarding your arrest - NOT THE STORY YOU WERE COVERING! |
| FREEDOM OF THE PRESS? NOT ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA The Assaults, Arrests, Prosecutions & Imprisonment of Photojournalists in The United States of America |