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500 Cases and Counting: Unprecedented Press Freedom Violations at US Protests

Eric Neugeboren

   WASHINGTON - Andrew Buncombe expected his assignment on July 1 to be
   relatively straightforward: covering the clearing of a Seattle protest
   site for the British daily The Independent. Instead, the reporter found
   himself in a situation he had never experienced before.
   Irons were strapped to his ankles and a chain wrapped around his
   stomach. He was in a van heading toward Seattle's West Precinct, in
   close quarters with others who, like Buncombe, had just been arrested.
   At one point, the "belly chain" became so tight that he told the
   officers he could not breathe -- a phrase similar to the words spoken
   by [1]George Floyd, Eric Garner and other Black Americans who died
   while in police custody, and one that has become a rallying cry in
   Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
   In response, an officer told him "If you can speak, you can breathe,"
   Buncombe said.
   "It felt surreal and it felt crazy and just ridiculous that I would
   have to use those words to an officer who just arrested me," Buncombe
   told VOA. "Their response to me speaks for itself."
   A Seattle police spokesperson referred VOA to the Office of Police
   Accountability, which is investigating Buncombe's case. The Office of
   Police Accountability did not respond to VOA's request for comment.

   Buncombe is one of more than 70 journalists arrested while covering
   demonstrations sparked by the May 25 death of Floyd in Minneapolis.
   The [2]U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has received reports on over 500
   incidents involving journalists, including 114 attacks. Advocates say
   the incidents could have dangerous implications for press freedom in
   the U.S.
   "There's no comparison because never before, certainly in modern
   history and certainly in the Tracker's history, have there been
   simultaneous protests happening at one time," Kirstin McCudden, the
   Tracker's managing editor, said referring to the U.S.

References

   1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/28/us/i-cant-breathe-police-arrest.html
   2. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/george-floyd-protests/

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