Just where is the line
Documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg has been arrested in North Dakota. Those who are involved in the protests against an oil pipeline there are claiming she was arrested solely for filming a protest. The police are charging her and the protesters with more severe crimes. Those who were allegedly committing "civil disobedience" were actually going beyond mere trespass, a time-honored form of actual civil disobedience. These protesters cut chains and locks and tampered with pipeline safety valves, disrupting the flow of oil.
Depending on the jurisdiction, failing to report a crime is in and of itself a crime.
The question is, should a journalist get a pass for trespassing to document a crime? It isn't an easy question. Let's examine this potentially slippery slope.
November 22, 1963. A journalist knows that Lee Harvey Oswald is going to assassinate JFK. This reporter accompanies Oswald to the site where he fired the fatal shot. Is that reporter guilty of a crime?
June 17, 1972. A reporter goes along with the five "plumbers" to the Watergate Hotel to document their break-in. Is that reporter guilty of a crime?
December 11, 1978. A producer accompanies the gangsters who steal nearly $6 million from the Lufthansa facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He or she films the pistol-whipping of Lufthansa employee Kerry Whelan. What, if anything, should this producer be charged with?
Ms Schlosberg definitely trespassed when she went with the protesters on that day in North Dakota. On February 2, 1988, I covered an anti-nuclear protest at the gate to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. The protesters lined up and one at a time crossed the cattle-guard across the gate to the site. They were arrested as they did so. Several of those who were filming the protest would have been able to get a much better angle of the arrests had they been allowed to go inside the site and shoot footage of the faces of the protesters as they were cuffed and led away. But they couldn't have done so, because they too would have been arrested. They were able to cover these events without violating the law.
I do not believe for one minute that Ms Schlosberg should be charged as an accessory to the crimes of the protesters, other than that of trespassing. But the charge of trespassing against her is a fair and appropriate charge. Journalists do not deserve a free pass to commit a crime to cover the comission of a crime.
Depending on the jurisdiction, failing to report a crime is in and of itself a crime.
The question is, should a journalist get a pass for trespassing to document a crime? It isn't an easy question. Let's examine this potentially slippery slope.
November 22, 1963. A journalist knows that Lee Harvey Oswald is going to assassinate JFK. This reporter accompanies Oswald to the site where he fired the fatal shot. Is that reporter guilty of a crime?
June 17, 1972. A reporter goes along with the five "plumbers" to the Watergate Hotel to document their break-in. Is that reporter guilty of a crime?
December 11, 1978. A producer accompanies the gangsters who steal nearly $6 million from the Lufthansa facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He or she films the pistol-whipping of Lufthansa employee Kerry Whelan. What, if anything, should this producer be charged with?
Ms Schlosberg definitely trespassed when she went with the protesters on that day in North Dakota. On February 2, 1988, I covered an anti-nuclear protest at the gate to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. The protesters lined up and one at a time crossed the cattle-guard across the gate to the site. They were arrested as they did so. Several of those who were filming the protest would have been able to get a much better angle of the arrests had they been allowed to go inside the site and shoot footage of the faces of the protesters as they were cuffed and led away. But they couldn't have done so, because they too would have been arrested. They were able to cover these events without violating the law.
I do not believe for one minute that Ms Schlosberg should be charged as an accessory to the crimes of the protesters, other than that of trespassing. But the charge of trespassing against her is a fair and appropriate charge. Journalists do not deserve a free pass to commit a crime to cover the comission of a crime.
posted by me at 6:15 AM
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