Molly Hennessy-Fiske covered the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan for the Los Angeles Times, the 2014 racial riots in Ferguson, Missouri, and a number of other protests. "The police never shot me, she reported. Until Saturday. "
Journalist was following the fourth night of incidents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, outside the Fifth District Police Station, when riot police charged protesters, spraying a group of reporters entrenched along a wall with tear gas and duly fitted with press cuffs. Deliberately and at close range. The journalist was injured in the leg. "The mask of a reporter who was next to me was stained with blood. He was so shocked that someone must have told him that he had been hit, " did she relate in the Los Angeles Times.
A testimony far from isolated. Journalists covering the protests in more than 70 cities in the United States after the death of George Floyd were not spared from police brutality. Several dozen said they were directly targeted by rubber bullets or tear gas, while their press card was clearly visible. Several were injured. The Freedom of the Press Institute and the Bellingcat site said they identified 50 examples of journalists " assaulted by the police ".
The most serious case: in Minneapolis, Linda Tirado, a freelance photographer from Tennessee, who had dropped her protective glasses for a moment, was hit in the face by a rubber bullet. At the hospital, she was told that she would likely not be able to see with her left eye.
"Scenes reminiscent of China or Iran"
Often reporters filmed the exchanges. Tom Aviles, a renowned photographer working for the local CBS office, was struck by a rubber bullet. He was bluntly arrested after repeating that he " do not resist ", according to the video.
Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams, who has shouted a dozen times as a journalist, heard himself answer " I do not care " before being sprayed with tear gas.
Another CBS correspondent, Michael George, reported that his team had been hit by rubber bullets while away from the " forehead ". “I have been covering protests across the United States for fifteen years. It’s the first time I’ve seen the police actively and intentionally targeting the press with rubber bullets, tear gas and arrests, he tweeted. These are scenes reminiscent of China or Iran. "
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