SPJ Applauds St. Paul for Dropping Charges vs. Journalists

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The Society of Professional Journalists gave the city of St. Paul, Minn., a shout-out for deciding to drop the charges against journalists covering the Republican National Convention earlier this month.

Four journalists were arrested on misdemeanor charges, including Amy Goodman, host of a syndicated TV/radio show carried on noncommercial stations, Dish Network, DirecTV and the Internet.

“It’s good news that the charges against the journalists covering the convention protests were dropped,” SPJ president Dave Aeikens said in a statement. “We hope we can talk with law enforcement about how we can avoid this happening again,” Aeikens said. “We want police to be able to provide public safety and journalists to be able to cover the news.”

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.