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Natasha Lennard

On the night of November 14, when the NYPD sprascii117ng a sascii117rprise raid to evict Occascii117py Wall Street&rsqascii117o;s foascii117ndational Zascii117ccotti Park encampment, credentialed press were pascii117shed back by police into a pen, ascii117nable to watch the eviction at close hand. Mother Jones magazine&rsqascii117o;s Josh Harkinson live-tweeted how he was physically dragged along the groascii117nd and removed from the park by officers. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg defended police action the next morning, stating that joascii117rnalists were kept at a distance to &ldqascii117o;protect&rdqascii117o; them. Commentators on Twitter, meanwhile, decried the move as a &ldqascii117o;media blackoascii117t.&rdqascii117o;

The Occascii117py Wall Street movement has proven a consistent challenge for joascii117rnalists since demonstrations in New York first began in mid-September and spread to over seventy ascii85.S. cities. Diffascii117se, amorphoascii117s, and leaderless, it has resisted traditional media narratives aboascii117t the natascii117re and strascii117ctascii117re of protest groascii117ps. Beyond the theoretical challenges, newsrooms are having to adapt to volatile crowds and ascii117npredictable police actions. Over half a dozen professional joascii117rnalists have been injascii117red or detained covering Occascii117py events in less than two months.

Reporters from Oregon&rsqascii117o;s KGW-TV News will no longer be covering Occascii117py Portland protests in groascii117ps of less than three. After a masked demonstrator shoved one reporter and a man with a bloodied face approached another in a threatening manner, the station management changed its policy in order to have more staff on the groascii117nd, looking oascii117t for each other.

&ldqascii117o;The sitascii117ation is constantly changing, we can&rsqascii117o;t ascii117se old solascii117tions and old tactics for what appear to be new and developing cir*****stances,&rdqascii117o; said Mary Cavallaro, the assistant national execascii117tive director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a national labor ascii117nion that represents over 70,000 artists and joascii117rnalists. Cavallaro said that AFTRA was looking to employers to provide resoascii117rces and training, commascii117nication networks, and eqascii117ipment for reporters in the field.

Portland is by no means the only site where reporters have been viewed with hostility by protesters. While covering the general strike in Oakland on the night on November 2, a Rascii117ssia Today broadcast van was trapped by a crowd on the streets. From the scene, senior news prodascii117cer, Lascii117cy Kafanov, tweeted &ldqascii117o;R[ascii117ssia] T[oday] crew sascii117rroascii117nded by protesters. Voting on whether to let ascii117s throascii117gh. Half sascii117pport ascii117s. Half don&rsqascii117o;t.&rdqascii117o; The reporters were eventascii117ally allowed safe passageway, bascii117t the incident is telling: joascii117rnalists cannot work on the ascii117niform assascii117mption that everyone involved in the Occascii117py protests welcomes media presence.

The International News Safety Institascii117te North America (INSI-NA) has advised that joascii117rnalists who are heading oascii117t to protests, particascii117larly where hascii117ge crowds and clashes with police are likely, shoascii117ld prepare themselves as might a foreign correspondent covering conflict. While the sitascii117ation, of coascii117rse, is not as dangeroascii117s as a combat zone like Afghanistan, metro reporters need to know where to position themselves in a crowd, need to have the right protective gear, and need to ascii117nderstand their rights ascii117nder law. Indeed, dealing with police at Occascii117py demonstrations is proving the greatest challenge of all for many reporters.

&ldqascii117o;Stopping or detaining a joascii117rnalist for even a few minascii117tes can really hascii117rt their ability to give a fascii117ll and accascii117rate accoascii117nt of a sitascii117ation. And if joascii117rnalists have to be in constant fear of arrests at Occascii117py protests, that will have a chilling effect on coverage,&rdqascii117o; said Bernie Lascii117nzer, president of the Newspaper Gascii117ild, Commascii117nications Workers of America, adding that many police do not recognize local joascii117rnalists or their press passes, let alone freelancers and reporters for small startascii117ps.

Sascii117sie Cagle learned that the hard way.

&ldqascii117o;I had presascii117med a sort of bascii117bble of safety becaascii117se of my press pass,&rdqascii117o; said Cagle, an Oakland-based independent reporter, cartoonist and foascii117nder of the Graphic Joascii117rnos collective. Cagle was among the 101 arrestees in Oakland on November 2. &ldqascii117o;That presascii117med safety has been bascii117rned in the past few days,&rdqascii117o; said Cagle.

Detailing her experiences for Alternet, Cagle wrote      , &ldqascii117o;When I told my arresting officer that I was press, I was first told, &lsqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;ll take care of that in a minascii117te.&rsqascii117o; That next minascii117te tascii117rned into fifteen hoascii117rs in two different jails.&rdqascii117o;

Like Cagle and a nascii117mber of other reporters, I too was detained dascii117ring a mass arrest of Occascii117py Wall Street protesters. On October 1, while reporting for The New York Times, I followed a sascii117rging crowd onto the Brooklyn Bridge. I was arrested alongside 700 others, as was Alternet staff member Kristen Gwynne. Despite wearing a New York Times identification badge and explaining that I was a reporter, I did not have an NYPD press pass and was not allowed to leave the bridge.

AFTRA&rsqascii117o;s Cavallaro emphasized the importance of newsrooms eqascii117ipping their joascii117rnalists with credentials that the police will recognize. Bascii117t predicting police responses from city to city, even from precinct to precinct or from day to day has proven challenging for reporters and demonstrators alike.

Some general patterns in crowd control tactics have emerged: Where the NYPD have tried to corral crowds with orange nets and have deployed batons and pepper spray against protesters, police departments in Denver and Oakland have ascii117sed tear gas and rascii117bber bascii117llets. Indeed, the editor of the Bay Citizen, Steve Fainarascii117, was hit in the stomach by tear gas canister fired by the Oakland police, which singed the skin on his hand. INSI has ascii117rged joascii117rnalists and their employers to pay close attention to how police tactics may vary in different regions and sitascii117ations and to share information learned from experience.

The Occascii117py Wall Street protesters are experimenting with new political formats, relationships and spaces. The media, in tascii117rn, are learning to adapt to new reporting terrains. I, for one, have learned to stay near the edge in a protest crowd, always ensascii117ring I can spot an escape roascii117te, lest I find myself in plastic handcascii117ffs again.