GOP 2004: Few Journalists Arrested During Protests

By: Joe Strupp Despite the hundreds of protester arrests during the Republican National Convention, only a handful of journalists have been hauled in or detained by police, according to editors and legal groups who monitor such actions.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which operates a year-round hotline for reporters needing legal representation, created a special hotline (212-850-6122) just for the GOP convention. So far it has received only four calls.

"It seems small, but during the Democratic convention, there were none," said Grant Penrod, one of the committee's attorneys.

One of the calls came from an Associated Press photographer, who was detained briefly on Tuesday while covering a demonstration at the former World Trade Center site. At the same event, an AP photo messenger was arrested and taken into custody for several hours, according to an AP story.

The Reporters Committee hotline also fielded calls seeking help for a photographer from an Ohio television station, who was later released, and another from a California weekly newspaper reporter, who was being detained but did not give a name and never called back.

The New York Daily News had two reporters detained at two different protest events, according to Metro Editor Dean Chang. He said one was held by authorities at a Times Square rally on Sunday, while the other was detained at the same World Trade Center event as the AP staffers.

"They were both caught up in the new netting that the police are using to round people up," said Chang. "We also had a reporter who was jabbed in the side with the handle of a bike cop's bike in Herald Square, but did not have to be taken anywhere."

During planning for the convention, Daily News editors issued a five-page set of instructions for reporters and photographers on how to behave if detained or arrested. "Always carry credentials, always carry I.D., display press passes, and tell them you are a reporter," Chang said, citing the major elements of the instructions. "Essentially, they are told to use a respectful tone."

Newsday of Melville, N.Y. -- which also publishes a New York City edition -- had one staffer arrested, photographer Moises Saman. The veteran shooter, who spent eight days in an Iraqi prison in 2003, was taken into custody during a Times Square protest on Sunday and held for two hours before being released.

"I was photographing a guy getting arrested and somebody grabbed me from the back with a lot of force and made me fly backwards," Saman said in a Newsday story about the event. "I turned around and it was a police officer. ... he just said something like, 'You're arrested ... I told you to move.' But he [had] never said anything to me."

New York Post editors did not return calls seeking comment and The New York Times reported no arrests or detention of staffers. But Times Metro Political Editor Gerry Mullany noted reporters were having some difficulty getting access to protest areas and were making a greater effort to avoid getting caught up in the mass arrests.

"They appear to be rounding up demonstrators and there is a risk of reporters being rounded up," Mullany said. "Police have engaged in some very, very sophisticated tactics, like netting."

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Catherine Lucey, who is covering the protests under the pen name "Riot Grrrl," reported no major hassles, other than a lack of respect for her Philadelphia press pass. "It has been a problem a few times not having local credentials," she said. "I also blend in with the protesters sometimes, because I'm 25 and wearing jeans and sneakers, which can be good or bad."