As crews picked up after the RNC in downtown St. Paul Friday morning, a handful of local and national journalists went to City Hall and delivered 50,000 signatures pressuring St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and the city and county attorneys to immediately release journalists who were recently arrested in connection to convention protests and to drop all charges against them.

Nancy Doyle Brown (pictured at the microphone above), a media reform organizer from the Twin Cities Media Alliance, said she and others want to send a message that “journalism is not a crime.” Journalists have “been detained and arrested, subjected to raids, pepper-sprayed and more simply for showing up to work. These have been dark days for press freedom in the U.S.,” she said.

According to a separate statement from the national nonprofit organization, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), which is making similar demands of the city of St. Paul, volunteer legal counsel and news editors/directors tried to negotiate with police commanders for the release of reporters on the scene at the demonstration Thursday evening, “but [Ramsey County Sheriff Bob] Fletcher and [St. Paul Police Chief John] Harrington apparently intervened, they said, and ordered that the journalists be issued criminal citations. Once ticketed, the journalists were released,” the RCFP statement goes on. Others have been tear-gassed or held at gunpoint.

Media professionals had pursued protesters as they marched from the Capitol lawn into the downtown area. “Law enforcement officers flanked the marchers and corralled them on bridges passing over Interstate 94,” and they were detained on the bridges while police processed them,” it continues.

“We’re demanding that all charges against journalists covering the RNC be immediately and unconditionally dropped. We respect the important role officers play in maintaining a safe place for people to exercise their freedom… tragically there are stories that the world needed to hear this week that will never be told. They won’t be told because the reporters working on them were sitting in the back of squad cars, stripped of their cameras, or were face down on the pavement with their hands tied behind their back,” said Brown.

Additionally, in a preemptive attack on journalists, homes where they were staying were raided over the past couple weeks. Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck, (shown below) vouched for that, while adding that one of her writers was arrested Thursday night. “Police are now holding personal belongings…and saying they can’t get them back till Monday. That is one example of the use of police power as sheer harassment for journalists,” said Turck.

One person who said he’s been subjected to it firsthand is Sharif Abdel Koubdous, a producer for the national radio/TV show Democracy Now, who was arrested twice this week and is now facing pending felony charges and for being a part of an “unlawful assembly.” “These charges are unacceptable. We are clearly marked as press… We were simply doing our job and nothing more. We shouldn’t be penalized for it,” he said.

Mike Buscko, with the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 450 local journalists, including some at the Pioneer Press, echoed their sentiments, saying, “We’re appalled by the treatment of journalists. It’s had a chilling effect on the coverage of the convention outside and in the street… The police were heavy-handed, and we’re concerned on a local and national basis.”

Inside City Hall, Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland responded, “I know you take these seriously and as do we. We value your First Amendment rights and we value the rights of the media.” Overall, “We feel we conducted a great convention.” The Mayor “appreciates your rights, interests and abilities to cover stories.”

And in his office, City Attorney John Choi told reporters, “I’m a believer in justice.” Among the numerous arrests, most received citations and weren’t charged with a crime, he said, adding, “We’ll look at all the facts. We only proceed on cases where there’s probable cause to prosecute… This isn’t about politics or making decisions on political whims… I assure you we’ll do the right thing… Justice requires that we review these cases carefully and seriously.”

(Pictured below are the thousands of letters signed by people across the country, with the first 35 pages filled by Minnesotans.)

MnIndy Video: Journos, protestors sound alarm over pre-RNC police behavior

(Video at this link)

Story by Andy Birkey; video by Paul Schmelzer

Reports of media suppression by local law enforcement have activists concerned that their message might not get heard — and that a free press at the Republican National Convention (RNC) will be trumped as police throw homeland security in front of the cameras.

“A Channel 5 reporter was pushed back into the elevator and was told by the police and homeland security that he was not allowed to be there,” said Sheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. The campaign protested a decision by Housing and Urban Development to cancel an appearance at that group’s protest at the RNC, so they took their message to HUD offices on Tuesday. That message was hampered by efforts of police to block reporters access. The only reporter on hand was from Sweden.

“So we had to go by way of Sweden to get news on the television,” said Honkala.

She said she is concerned about the RNC. “Hopefully we’re going to have freedom of the press, and that reporters will not be manhandled just because they want to cover the story.”

Vlad Teichberg of the Glass Bead Collective had his cameras confiscated by Minneapolis Police on Tuesday, an event that prompted the press conference. “We are calling on all of you people, members of the press, and the public in general, to immediately address this issue,” he said. “If this is allowed to continue in this way, the basic rule of law is going to be in doubt.”

He said instead of protesters and Republicans being the story at the RNC, the police could become the focus. “The Minneapolis police run a big risk because they are going to be the central story,” he said. “I do not know if they want to be on national television accused and maybe even implicated in blatant attempts at suppression of public events by seizing people’s cameras.”

Daryl Robinson of Communities United Against Police Brutality said he had a more violent confrontation with police. “A few weeks back I was doing cop-watching down at the shelters downtown and I was viciously attacked by the Minneapolis police. My cameras, my video cameras, my cell phone camera, all that was smashed to the ground and broken,” he said. “I want to put on notice that there will be documentation and cop watching and photographing at the Republican National Convention. There will be accountability for all the law enforcement agencies working the RNC.”

Minneapolis City Council member Cam Gordon was disturbed by the reports. “The health of our democracy, the city, our society depends on people being able to watch and observe and share the stories of what’s going on,” he said. “To have these things come up now … that there’s even the appearance and the impression that the government and police are trying to suppress this kind information is of great concern for me.”

Katrina Plotz of the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War told everyone not to be intimidated by the recent reports. “There seems to be a pattern of targeting journalists and people with cameras who are there to document demonstration or record police behavior. We are not going to be intimidated by their concerns about ’security threats,’” she said. “I would encourage everyone out in the public who is hesitant to come out now or who doesn’t think it’s safe, to have courage and realize that it is more important than ever to get out there and have your voice heard.”

Gordon said this behavior is nothing new and the community has to be vigilant in fighting back. “What is happening in Minneapolis is reflecting a larger trend in the country in general. We heard today homeland security mentioned and there seems to be a trend of what’s been happening lately,” he said. “Security and safety are being used to tip the scales away from freedom of information and right to assemble and freedom of press. We are not fighting perhaps as hard as we should be and working to preserve those rights that are so valuable and are also valuable to our safety and security.

Palin says she is ready to be President of the USA