May Day! May Day! Hijackings of the 4th Estate

The title of this piece, Hijackings of the 4th Estate, is purposefully provocative. For any journalist, Blogger or otherwise muckraker laboring in service to truth, you will readily understand the significance of the theme of this essay as well as its direct correlation to the times in which we live. For everyone else, please, Wake up!! and "smell the coffee!"

"Hijackings of the 4th Estate" are tales from the journalistic trenches. I suspect I am not the only journalist out there who has observed this phenomenon nor are these instances singular or isolated events. I hope that you fellow journos and people dedicated to justice and truth telling, will come forth to comment on and contribute your own observances of the squelching of freedom of the press which is, really, freedom of speech. Civil Liberties and Civil Rights go hand in hand. As one dies a slow death, so will the other. Let us bear witness to the recent NYC court ruling of acquittal regarding the officers who gunned down the 23-year-old unarmed man on his wedding day.

Here on the west coast in Los Angeles a few days ago, many of us observed the one-year anniversary of May Day 2007's mass crackdown by the LAPD on journalists and demonstrators assembled to protest immigration policies in downtown MacArthur Park. An October 9, 2007 report determined that police officers from the LAPD's "elite" Metro Division used excessive force [batons and rubber pellets] on a mostly peaceful crowd -- they injured 246 journalists and marchers, as well as 18 officers.

According to the report , [Quote Source ] Chief Bratton concluded that "tactics were flawed," "situational awareness was poor," and "behavior by officers appeared to be unjustified."

It is important to note that while some of these officers should face criminal charges, LA County D.A. Steve Cooley has convicted only one officer of such a crime in the past 5 years. That case involved an officer who was videotaped assaulting a teenager in a police station. Now, the LAPD's internal disciplinary body, the Board of Rights, holds trial-like hearings in secret (no longer in public) to decide whether officers are guilty of misconduct.

Civil Liberties and The Press - Around the Globe

More Recent Hijackings: Brigitte Bardot - This is an excerpt of the article which ran in Time Magazine . Bardot is on trial in France for "inciting racial hatred" however her lawyers say that it's actually her animal rights activism for which she is being indicted.

Here's the quote: "Bardot wrote to French officials in 2004 in which she alluded to a Muslim religious festival observance. The former actress-turned-animal rights crusader had written that letter to protest the ritual slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Kabir. Her missive, whose contents were later leaked to the media, had been sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose rising popularity was based in part on his hard line on immigration and tough stand against troublesome youths from immigrant backgrounds."

Bardot, now 73 years old, did not attend the trial. Her lawyers argued that the sections of the letter that were deemed offensive had been taken out of the context of her defense of animal rights. Ms. Bardot has given charitable contributions totaling millions of dollars in support of this cause over the years.
France has long been an international beacon of freedom of speech and independent thought. If a cultural icon can be thwarted in her right to express her beliefs vis-a-vis the humane treatment of animals, what about the rest of us?

Another Hijacking?

Early one Friday morning a few weeks ago, a CNN reporter for business and travel was arrested in Central Park after being escorted out of the park for violating park curfew. As printed in the Seattle Times , the 46 yr. old told police, "'I've got some meth in my pocket,' according to the complaint filed in court. "

Journalists, this may or may not be a hijacking, as only a good defense attorney will be able to reveal.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that, worldwide, "In about 10 % of cases, governments used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges ranged from property damage and regulatory violations to drug possession and association with extremists. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist's work."

Make no mistake, if you are reporting and investigating about even such innocuous subjects as gardens, the environment, the geo-politics of water, Hollywood's children's entertainment machinery or the source of campaign funds of U.S. Presidential candidates, you are NOT safe. Understand that we now live in times where one of the founding principles of our country, namely, the right to freedom of speech, is currently a facade. The "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it," is under serious siege today.

And let us not forget the ordeal New York Times reporter Judith Miller underwent as recently as 2005. Important to grasp amidst all the brouhaha and buzzwords such as "CIA" and "Special Prosecutor" was that Miller, who was the only person to actually face jail time, never wrote a story about Ms. Plame nor revealed her CIA affiliation. She was under fire for not waiving confidentiality of sources which she unearthed during her investigations. Article Link.

This is what she herself stated in court, as referenced in FindLaw's article
about the issue, "If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press."

More recently, there is Yong Tangyan, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence in China for posting anti-government articles on the Internet. He was awarded this year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award as reported on NPR, in the LA Times and the Washington Post. NPR Blog Link