Originally Posted by KARE-11

But protesters weren't the only ones caught in the trap.

A number of journalists covering the chaos were surrounded by police, and were arrested after being forced to sit down with their hands over their heads. An exact number of arrested journalists isn't known, but the number is believed to be more than a dozen. Kare 11 photojournalist Jonathan Malat was among them.

"We respect the important role police officers play in creating a safe space for people to peacefully exercise their freedoms," said Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, "but journalists 'also' play an important role. They are our eyes and ears."

Friday morning, Doyle Brown led a group of journalists and media advocates up to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's office, where they dropped off more than 51 thousand petitions demanding that all charges be dropped against journalists arrested while covering the R-N-C.

"It is unacceptable that the press is being prevented from operating freely in St Paul," added Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now! who was herself arrested Monday. "When you stop journalists from operating, you are closing the eyes and ears of a democracy."

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

Petitions containing 51,000 names and demanding that charges be dropped against journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention were delivered Friday to city and county offices in St. Paul.

Originally Posted by MPR

At first police wouldn't let me go. But after frantically waving my press pass, I was released. Others weren't so lucky. More than 100 were given citations for unlawful assembly. Eighteen others were arrested and charged with felony riot.

The police had their version of events. In a complaint they said the confrontation began after officers told protesters not to advance. The complaint said protesters not only moved forward, but they hurled rocks, chunks of blacktop, fireworks, plastic bottles filled with an "unknown liquid" and a white bag with what appeared to be "fecal matter."

That's not what I saw from where I stood -- about an arms-length from the protesters and more than a car lane away from police. I saw no rocks. No fireworks. No bottles or bags filled with feces. The way I saw it, the police fired the first shot, and I never heard a warning.

Minneapolis-based blogger Aaron Landry stood about a block away. His memory disagrees with mine on one point: who fired first.

"To my recollection," said Landry. "What I saw was something thrown toward the cops and ... Afterwards, the cops shooting something back at them, so I was seeing things lobbed going both ways, in both directions."

Another journalist on the scene was Corrine McDermid of the Web site The Uptake. She shot video from the median on Shepard Road about 20 feet from the clash.

"I didn't see any rocks thrown," said McDermid. "What I saw was the protesters move forward and then police starting to fire."

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

I distanced myself further from the main group and was content to do my job — observe a confrontation between police and hot-headed citizens — from a reasonable distance. I double-checked that my RNC credentials were prominently displayed around my neck.

That’s when the officer ordered me onto the bridge.

It seemed safer to me to put as much open parking lot as possible between me and the protest nucleus. I stopped by a light pole to look back. After a couple of sighs of relief, I heard muffled yelling behind me. The masked, black-suited police were pressing the entire human contents of the parking lot toward the bridge.

...

We endured the terror of a police invasion, the humiliation of forced subservience, the frustration of sluggish bureaucracy, and a lost day’s wages to set the legal record straight. And in my case, it’s all to keep the world safe from a journalist determined just to document what he sees.

Originally Posted by Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul police say they had little choice but to detain people claiming to be journalists at disturbances during the Republican National Convention.

...

"There were a large number of media here. There were supposed to be about 15,000 media here. Some of those obviously were credentialed people that represented organizations like Minnesota Public Radio, etc. Others were simply bloggers who claimed to have press credentials and some sort of privilege as a journalist. And sorting them out is really not a police function," said Walsh.

Originally Posted by Minnesota Public Radio

Rybak, a former journalist himself, says it's getting harder to define who is and who isn't a journalist.

"There are many people who blog, or video blog, or who are involved in all sorts of areas who aren't as easy to identify," said Rybak. "There are also just simply incidents we always have to look out for, to make sure that journalists can do their jobs. So we want to answer those questions -- see what we learn from this case."

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

"I grabbed my press pass and walked forward with my camera toward police just to film them, and they Maced me," Washington explained just after a near-melee between police and protesters, his shirt removed and his freshly shaved head still burning from pepper spray.

...

More than 30 — and possibly as many as 50, based on an informal Pioneer Press survey — were arrested. Among them were a Pioneer Press photographer, three Associated Press employees and student journalists from the University of Kentucky. Many more were hit, at least peripherally, with pepper spray or tear gas.

...

"I don't know that we were prepared for the bloggers and the alternative media. That's, I think, a new factor to what news coverage is today — the blogs and alternative media that came oftentimes in large numbers, sometimes without real clear press credentials or backgrounds," [St. Paul Police Chief] Harrington said.

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

"An independent videographer may be doing just as legitimate journalism as the local NBC affiliate in town," said Bob Steele of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media at DePauw University and a faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

"It's confusing, and it's uncomfortable, but we've got to figure out ways to do it," Steele said, referring to expanding the definition of journalism and accommodating those journalists.

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi said his office will begin announcing decisions on whether to proceed with charges against journalists shortly.

Originally Posted by Minnesota Public Radio

At least 42 journalists identified by the Society of Professional Journalists were arrested during the four days of the convention. And many reporters said they were wrongly caught up in the sweep.

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said, "It's always good to learn that a bogus charge against you has been dropped. We're still waiting for police to account for the unprovoked smack downs of two of our photographers."

Originally Posted by Minnesota Public Radio

But today's decision should not suggest any wrongdoing by police as they tried to maintain order on the streets, said city attorney John Choi.

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

St. Paul police stand by officers' decisions to arrest journalists during the RNC, said Tom Walsh, a police spokesman. He said officers had probable cause.

"Cops made a good decision at that time," Walsh said today. "It was an unlawful assembly and it was a public safety issue." He added, "You have to separate charging and trying from the issue of whether or not someone should be arrested." he said.

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

Asked whether there would be a review of department policy on arresting journalists, Walsh said, "I don't see why."

Originally Posted by Minnesota Public Radio

The continuing conflict between alternative and mainstream media is an intriguing and important discussion, but the effort to make the distinction forced the journalists to defend themselves to each other, when what they should have been doing is standing as journalists to the authorities and trying to recognize a solution to the changing medium landscape.