The role of a journalist is not to obstruct but to remain a fly on the wall and a diligent observer. A reporter’s primary objective is to disseminate accurate accounts of current events to the public, and to inform without bias. But to restrict a reporter’s ability to follow the ebb and flow of a given event hinders that reporter’s ability to thoroughly fulfill that purpose.
We are therefore concerned about a BART official’s statement Friday to the San Francisco Chronicle that, during protests, the agency may sanction “media areas” guarded by a police line. Journalists who cross the line could be subject to arrest. We acknowledge that BART may be seeking to better accommodate journalists, especially after at least six were handcuffed and detained amid a protest last Thursday. We also recognize the frustration and difficulty officers experience when attempting to distinguish journalists from civilians recording an event with their camera phones. But essentially caging journalists in order to protect them is not the role of the police. Not only would this impede reporters’ ability to fully deliver the facts of an event to the public, but it would also distinguish and identify reporters, denying them the ability to transform into that fly on the wall.
It must then be up to reporters themselves to acknowledge the repercussions of covering a protest and to not interfere with the actions of police officers. When an officer instructs them to move, they should do so. To behave otherwise is to break down the fourth wall separating the reporter from the story and from its characters, becoming a participant in the news rather than an objective witness.
Journalists certainly implicate themselves in much more serious situations — abroad in war zones and domestically in tracking dangerous criminals. In these circumstances, the risks are understood. When covering a protest, reporters too must be mindful that without proper press credentials, they may be subject to arrest when a scene gets heated or when they are in fact becoming obstacles. While reporters must be protected from legal ramifications resulting from their work as journalists, they must also shoulder the responsibility for their own well-being and practices.
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“Media cannot be caged”
Senior Editors, do you understand the meaning of “cannot”?
Does this apply to citizen journalists too? There are many amateur photographers and videographers at the BART protests. We post our work online. The coverage is far better than anything you can see in the SF Chronicle.
In the Internet age, do citizen journalists have the same rights as professionals? I’m concerned that BART is trying to say that someone who works for corporate media has rights that I, a citizen with a camera and an Internet connection, don’t.
But they should be real journalists-not a protester posing as a reporter such as that phony Josh Wolf…