For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Indianapolis,
IN
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
CONTACT Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins, SPJ National President, ashanti.blaize@gmail.com
Caroline Hendrie, SPJ Executive Director, chendrie@hq.spj.org
Kim Tsuyuki, SPJ Communications Specialist, ktsuyuki@hq.spj.org
INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Professional Journalists condemns today’s arrest of freelance journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel at the University of California, Los Angeles and demands that authorities immediately drop a criminal charge against him.
Beckner-Carmitchel was arrested Monday morning while recording video as police detained dozens of UCLA protesters in a parking structure. Beckner-Carmitchel faces a charge of misdemeanor conspiracy to commit a crime.
“This unwarranted arrest flagrantly violates Sean’s First Amendment right to film police and protesters on public property,” said SPJ National President Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins. “It was to curb exactly this sort of over-reaction by law enforcement officials that a coalition of journalism organizations, media unions and First Amendment advocacy groups pushed successfully for California’s Senate Bill 98, which Governor Newsom signed into law two years ago.”
SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to informing citizens; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and fights to protect First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. Support excellent journalism and fight for your right to know. Become a member, give to the Legal Defense Fund or give to the SPJ Foundation.
|