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Body camera footage released this week following a court petition filed by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) reveals that Asheville, North Carolina, police targeted journalists for recording them during a homeless encampment sweep in 2021. 

An officer can be heard telling his colleagues to arrest journalists first, before protesters and residents of the encampment, “because they’re videotaping.” 

Police then proceed to handcuff Asheville Blade journalists Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit, despite both of them repeatedly explaining that they are members of the press. They’re charged with trespassing for reporting from the public park shortly after its closing time. 

Bliss and Coit were not charged with endangering or obstructing anyone and the video confirms that they recorded from a distance and did not impede police. Nonetheless, the Buncombe County district attorney continues prosecuting them. After repeated continuances, their case is scheduled for trial on April 19. 

We told the Asheville Citizen Times “it’s disturbing and striking that Asheville, which markets itself as this progressive oasis in the South, wants to distinguish itself as the place where journalists are tried for doing their jobs at a public park.” Other cities, like Phoenix and East Palestine, Ohio, have dropped charges shortly after arresting journalists. 

We explained in a press release that “it’s bad enough when rogue officers arrest journalists but the ongoing prosecution means the mayor, city council and District Attorney all endorse these unconstitutional arrests.”

Florida continues its assault on the First Amendment

Last week Florida legislators introduced a bill, vocally supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, that would open the floodgates for retaliatory defamation lawsuits by the wealthy and powerful against their critics. 

Then this week, the same state senator who carried DeSantis’ water on that anti-press bill proposed new legislation that would require “bloggers” who are compensated for their content to register with the state if they write about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.” 

They’d need to disclose the amount and source of their compensation for each article. It’s a flagrantly unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech that treats critics of elected officials like sex offenders so the government can maintain a blacklist of its detractors. 

DeSantis has previously sought to frame his attacks on the press as necessary to save “the little guys” from large media conglomerates. That was always nonsense, and now his allies in the legislature are coming directly after the “little guys” themselves. Either DeSantis will denounce this fascist bill immediately or it’s exactly what he intended all along. 

FPF demands NC court lift gag order, unseal documents

A federal judge in North Carolina entered an order sealing court records in an expelled UNC student’s lawsuit against the university. Not only that, the judge ordered the defendant not to disclose any information about the case and to inform unnamed media outlets that they’re prohibited from reporting on it. 

Daniel Ellsberg’s message following cancer diagnosis

Our co-founder, our stalwart board member since 2012, our hero, Daniel Ellsberg, eloquently wrote about how he is facing terminal cancer and discussed his ambitious plans for his final months: “I work better under a deadline. It turns out that I live better under a deadline!”  

He reflected on expecting, after copying the Pentagon Papers in 1969, that he would spend his life behind bars. Instead, he was able to devote the decades since to “doing everything I could think of to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war.” That’s not to mention his vocal advocacy for the First Amendment rights of whistleblowers. 

He concluded that "my wish for you, my friends, is that at the end of your days you will feel as much joy and gratitude as I do now."

What we’re reading

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