An international news agency has protested to the Israeli military after two of its journalists were attacked and had their equipment smashed by soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

Footage of the incident showed the two men, who work for AFP, being accosted by a group of soldiers while covering clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters at Beit Furik, near Nablus.

One of the journalists, Andrea Bernardi, an Italian, was thrown to the ground and jabbed in the side with a weapon, according to AFP.

He suffered bruised ribs and an injury beneath his eye and is understood to have received hospital treatment.

Bernardi and his Palestinian colleague, Abbas Momani, a photographer, said they had been covering confrontations when soldiers took them aside and ordered them to stop filming. They said they were sworn at in English.

Both men were wearing protective helmets and body army clearly emblazoned with the word “press”. The Italian journalist said a soldier forced him to the ground and pressed his knee to his chest until he showed his press card.

Footage posted online by PalMedia, a Palestinian news agency, clearly shows a soldier smashing a black object violently onto the asphalt road, before picking it up again and throwing it away. Voices in Arabic in the background can be heard muttering “camera”.

A group of soldiers, some emerging from an armoured vehicle, then pursue the two journalists as they are walking away. One of the soldiers takes a piece of equipment from one of the men and aggressively throws it to the ground.

A soldier then appears to grab one of the journalists.

AFP said a video camera and a stills camera had been smashed and another camera and a mobile phone seized

Lt Col Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israel army, promised “disciplinary measures”.

“The highest levels of command are aware of the incident,” he told AFP.

The journalists had been covering clashes that broke out following the funeral of Ahmed Khatatbeh, 26, a Palestinian man who died of his wounds on Thursday after being shot near Nablus by Israeli forces.

Israeli authorities said he and another Palestinian had thrown a petrol bomb at a vehicle on a road near the Jewish settlement of Itamar.

The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman has filed a complaint with the state Department of Public Safety after a veteran Alaska State Trooper pulled over a reporter last week and seized his camera memory card, saying news-gathering images of an arrest constituted “evidence.”

The Wasilla newspaper’s complaint says trooper Sgt. Mike Ingram’s actions violated constitutional protections of freedom of the press and against unlawful search and seizure.

The Department of Public Safety, which oversees troopers, says it is investigating.

The incident happened when Frontiersman reporter Brian O’Connor went to cover a reported shooting near the Parks Highway in Willow Wednesday morning, the newspaper wrote in a front page article published Sunday.

O’Connor took photos of a man being arrested from a public roadway about 100 yards away and then left in his personal vehicle, according to Frontiersman Managing Editor Matt Tunseth. O’Connor had twice identified himself as a journalist at the scene, the newspaper said.

The reporter had driven a couple of miles from the scene when Ingram pulled him over.

The trooper “demanded that O’Connor turn over either his camera or the digital memory card containing pictures of the arrest, saying it was potential evidence,” according to the newspaper’s published account of events.

O’Connor offered to share the images with authorities, but “Ingram said he had to take the card into his possession” and the reporter complied, the article said.

There was never any explicit threat of arrest and the exchange was cordial, Tunseth said.

Still, the reporter was ordered to give up his camera or memory card by a uniformed law enforcement officer.

“Brian’s understanding was that he had to do this,” Tunseth said.

After hearing about what happened, Tunseth and publisher Mark Kelsey contacted troopers to ask about the incident. Within a few hours, the memory card was returned.

None of the photos had been deleted, according to Tunseth, a former Alaska Dispatch News sports reporter who recently took the helm at the Mat-Su paper.

On Friday, after the paper filed its formal complaint, the newspaper was told an internal investigation was underway.

The newspaper is not asking for the trooper to be disciplined.

The editor and publisher spoke directly to the director of the Department of Public Safety, Col. James Cockrell.

“I have every assurance from Col. Cockrell that they are taking this seriously,” Tunseth said.

Cockrell declined to answer questions about the incident Sunday.

The department released a statement through spokeswoman Beth Ipsen saying it would have no comment until an investigation through the Office of Professional Standards had been completed.

“We will not be commenting further until we have had a chance to review the information to determine what happened and if any department policies were violated or if the actions of the troopers involved were warranted under the circumstances,” the statement said.

On Sunday, the newspaper ran a news article and editorial about the incident that praised the department as a “highly professional and distinguished group” but said it “acted contrary to the public’s trust” and needed to be held accountable.

“We’ve always had good relations with (troopers),” Tunseth said. “We just think this could have been handled a little differently.”

T24 Reporter Michelle Demishevich

ISTANBUL — T24 news portal reporter Michelle Demishevich was beaten by police officers in civilian clothing on Monday in front of the Belgian Consulate in Istanbul when attempting to attend the press statement given by Sümeyye Erdoğan, the daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The incident occurred when members of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) women’s wing went to the Belgian Consulate in an act of solidarity to show support for Mahinur Özdemir, who was recently expelled from her status as a member of the Belgian parliament for denying the large-scale massacres of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as a genocide. After the women’s wing gave their press statement outside of the consulate, Sümeyye Erdoğan met with the Belgian Consul General. When she was leaving her visit with the consul, journalists gathered to inquire about the meeting. It was at this time that Demishevich was beaten by the police officers.

“I was there to record Sümeyye’s statement, but I was blocked by a total of five civil police officers, two of which were women. In spite of having told them that I was a journalist, the police did not listen to me. I told Sümeyye and my colleagues that I was being violently attacked. Despite Sümmeye saying, ‘Do not obstruct the journalist from doing her job,’ the police officers pulled me away from the scene by my hair,” Demishevich explained, according to the news report published by T24.

This story reported by Turkish publication Today’s Zaman

The First Amendment was cast aside on Saturday night in Baltimore, as credentialed journalist Ford Fischer of News2Share was abducted by police under the false pretense of violating the city – wide curfew. The Baltimore Police Dept had exempted members of the press in possession of official credentials immediately after the curfew went into effect on Tuesday night. Clearly, something is amiss.

Fischer’s credentials (Andrew is his given name, Ford is a nickname) are authentic and even recognized by the White House.

Fischer, who was filming from a safe distance and not interfering with police business, was attempting to document the reality of what was going on in the city — something which couldn’t be done from the confines of the ‘designated media area’ which had been cordoned off the previous night. Without the ability for the press to move freely and document the reality of the situation, potential for police to abuse their power goes unchecked.

From the beginning of the video, it becomes apparent such abuse is common, as police use pepper spray against people who are already following their orders to disburse. Shortly after this, they even forcefully shove someone in the back, who, though in the process of leaving the area, apparently wasn’t moving quickly enough to suit them.

The incident leading to Fischer’s false arrest begins with someone lobbing a bottle at the police. After an MRAP pulls around the corner, the group of officers initiate a pursuit, with Fischer rolling tape alongside them. A still shot from the video along the way shows two young protesters cowering against a building as a cop points his gun directly at them.

The pursuit winds through several side streets, and ends when police pin the suspect down in order to make an arrest. Fischer approaches, but as to be expected,  almost immediately is told by the several police in full tactical gear to “Back up” and “You’re interfering”, despite his distance and neutrality.

Even after they bully him further down the street, the harassment continues and they all begin demanding “Where’s your credentials?” “Show me your credentials!” and even incredulously “Who do you work for?” At the same time as the officer holding his ID says “He’s credentialed media”, another who had approached from behind, shoves Fischer to the ground, appropriately saying

“I don’t care”.

Film stops as he’s placed in handcuffs on the ground, and starts again when Trey Yingst (Trey is the nickname he uses, but his given first name is Gerald as heard on tape) takes over. While Fischer is pinned to the ground, officers cut the straps on his equipment backpack, rather than briefly uncuffing him to allow him to remove it. Yingst repeatedly asks what Fischer is being charged with, and each time officers say “curfew violation” — a direct contradiction of the exception for properly credentialed media. Later that night, upon realizing they had no grounds for detaining Fischer, police arbitrarily switch the charge to a civil citation for disorderly conduct — a penalty that carries a sizable $500 fine, which he can choose to pay or go to trial.

Violations of our constitutionally protected freedoms occur more and more frequently, and it’s rather ironic that a journalist tasked with documenting those abuses winds up on the receiving end. Without freedom for the media to give people a voice when they’ve been victimized by the police state, the cries for justice and change will go unheard. An exception to sweeping curfew restrictions is completely nullified when the media is herded into a tiny pen ‘for their safety’. As if that weren’t insult enough, abducting a journalist under false pretenses is wholly inexcusable. No one is safe. Even those dubbed ‘cop apologists’ are subject to the same arbitrary abuse and random brutalization by the very police they place on a golden pedestal. This entire country desperately needs to come to terms with the fact there is a corrupt and oppressive government currently holding it hostage.

Article published by Claire Bernish for The Pontiac Tribune

Smartphones tether us to the digital universe. They allow us to take our work wherever we go, to photograph our meals and exchange fleeting videos, and to navigate streets while listening to our favorite music. They’ve also helped catalyze the national discussion on race and law enforcement, fundamentally changing the way journalists report and share news of alleged police abuse.

Citizen journalist recording a fire

Such reporting is traditionally an after-the-fact affair. In many cases, it has to be. Journalists rely on information from police reports, eyewitnesses, and potential victims to determine what happened and recreate how it went down. That can often lead to confusion, as was the case with the media narratives of Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, MO. In most cases, however, law enforcement’s point of view tends to dominate stories, as eyewitnesses might not be available or willing to talk, and victims—in the most violent cases—might be severely injured or dead.

But smartphone video footage is changing the dynamic in a growing number of instances. From officers pepper-spraying seated Occupy protesters in California to the bloody arrest of a black University of Virginia student outside a bar, journalists have a new lens into alleged police violence toward civilians, and vice versa. Last year, video of the police killing of Staten Island man Eric Garner drew national outrage, also inspiring a rallying cry, “I can’t breathe,” that has helped galvanize protests of the criminal justice system across the country.

It’s unclear whether any of those incidents would have made national headlines had they not been caught on video. And with the Garner case in particular, the footage gave news outlets and their audiences a visceral, real-time depiction of what happened. That helped media escape their reliance on police or witness accounts, also adding shock value. Though the cop who put Garner in the fatal chokehold was not indicted, the video of the killing allowed journalists and viewers to reconsider the legal framework that left him a free man.

A more glaring example came this week in North Charleston, SC, where a smartphone video drastically changed the media narrative around a police killing of an unarmed black man. On Saturday, Officer Michael Slager, who is white, shot and killed Walter Scott after a traffic stop. As with many incidents involving police, The Post and Courier newspaper’s day-one story relied heavily on law enforcement sources to describe the event:

A statement released by North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said a man ran on foot from the traffic stop and an officer deployed his department-issued Taser in an attempt to stop him.That did not work, police said, and an altercation ensued as the men struggled over the device. Police allege that during the struggle the man gained control of the Taser and attempted to use it against the officer.

The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him, police alleged.
It was not immediately clear how many times Scott had been shot or where on his body he was wounded.

With Scott dead and no eyewitnesses to be found, only Scott’s family members were left to question the account. A Post and Courier follow-up on Monday was similarly structured around information from a police report and Slager’s lawyer, describing how the officer chased and tussled with Scott before the shooting:

“When confronted, Officer Slager reached for his Taser—as trained by the department—and then a struggle ensued,” [Slager’s lawyer] said. “The driver tried to overpower Officer Slager in an effort to take his Taser.”Seconds later, the report added, he radioed that the suspect wrested control of the device. Even with the Taser’s prongs deployed, the device can still be used as a stun gun to temporarily incapacitate someone.

Slager “felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon,” his attorney added.

The report indicated that Slager fired multiple times, but it was not specific.

Backup officers did first aid and CPR on Scott until paramedics showed up. But Scott was pronounced dead.

None of this is journalistic malpractice—the newspaper reported information from the sources available to it. After smartphone video of the shooting surfaced on Tuesday, however, The Post and Courier’s narrative changed drastically, and Slager was charged with murder:

Slager has said through his attorney that Scott had wrested his Taser from him during a struggle.The video appears to show Scott slapping at the officer’s hands as several objects fall to the ground. It’s not clear what the objects are.

Scott starts running away. Wires from Slager’s Taser stretch from Scott’s clothing to the officer’s hands.

With Scott more than 10 feet from Slager, the officer draws his pistol and fires seven times in rapid succession. After a brief pause, the officer fires one last time. Scott’s back bows, and he falls face first to the ground near a tree.

The video goes on to show Slager drop an object that appears to be his Taser next to Scott’s body. He and another officer at the scene don’t perform CPR for the duration of the footage, leaving Scott face-down and handcuffed.

After the video’s publication, what had been a local story drew national headlines overnight. Scott’s alleged murder made the front page of The Washington Post and USAToday on Tuesday, while The New York Times featured multiple frames from the video on A1.

Commentators from both sides of the aisle have since renewed calls for more police body- or dashboard cameras. Such devices indeed helped media and the criminal justice system parse what happened in many instances of alleged brutality, as was the case when the latter captured a police shooting of South Carolina man Sean Groubert last year. In Cleveland, a surveillance camera recorded the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. But police cameras are not mandatory in many jurisdictions, and mounted security cameras are few and far between in most areas.

“When there are no cameras, the advantage goes to the shooter,” Charles C. W. Cooke writes at National Review. “That, I’m afraid, is the inevitable product of a system that privileges the presumption of innocence, and, ultimately, it is an argument for more cameras rather than less justice. Where there are cameras, however, the playing field is leveled.”

That rings true not only in the court system, but also the court of public opinion. Journalists, who operate in the latter, are reliant upon their sources. And in many cases involving alleged police brutality, smartphones may be the best chance to cut through police or eyewitness spin. Cameras, of course, are objective observers.