well one Australian journalist has
suggested it's becoming more dangerous
to carry a camera on America's streets
than a gun she was responding to the
latest attack on the press it happened
right in front of the White House this
is the moment then Australian TV crew
were violently moved on and it's the
same incident from another angle the
cameraman was shoved in the face the
reporter was hit with a baton across her
back and prime minister Scott Morrison
has asked Australia's Embassy in
Washington to investigate well the US
Embassy in Australia has tweeted we
remain steadfast in our commitment to
protecting journalists but not all
American police officers seem to share
that commitment here's the Washington
Post
detailing numerous attacks on
journalists some estimate there have
been more than a hundred this article
quotes the executive director of the
Committee to Protect Journalists who
says I've never seen anything quite like
this many of the norms have broken down
well Linda tirado is a freelance
photojournalist on Friday she was shot
with a rubber bullet while covering the
protests in Minneapolis and she's lost
the sight in one of her eyes this is
what she told us I was lining up a shy
and I caught a projectile from the
direction where the police were and
protestors came to my aid they grabbed
me and put me in their medic van and
drove me to the hospital and had me I
was in surgery within an hour and I have
been permanently blinded in my left eye
well the BBC team is also targeted
cameraman Peter motto was working with
our correspondent and lemic ball in
Washington earlier this week it was
before the curfew and they were both
easily identifiable as press and this is
what happened
meanwhile the president has continued to
tweet about the need to dominate on the
streets and has continued his attacks on
the press to this tweet is from Sunday
he said the lamestream media is doing
everything within their power to foment
hatred and anarchy as long as everybody
understands what they are doing that
they are fake news and truly bad people
with a sickie gender we can easily work
through them to greatness now let's be
clear there's no suggestion the
president has told the police to attack
journalists but if you route and
routinely demonize an entire group of
people from a position of power based on
what history teaches us you can
reasonably expect that prejudice and
hostility from others could well follow
well whatever the reasons the press is
being impacted by police violence and in
many cases the journalists are
identified as press and a cooperating
and it's not just journalists caught up
in this when a woman was filming the
National Guard and military police
coming down her street in me and
Minneapolis this happened of course the
reasons why all of these incidents are
happening is very hard to pin down so
soon after they've occurred each
circumstance varies and it's too early
to have everyone's accounts however
perhaps we were offered a clue in this
Feist news video I'm I'm down I'm down
I'm Press says reporter Michael Anthony
Adams I don't care comes the reply and
then the pepper spray comes out and this
video and many others are causing
concern the head of the UN tweeted at
the weekend when journalists are
attacked societies are attacked no
democracy can function without press
freedom and in the last week various US
police forces have shown at best
repeated indifference to the role of the
press at worst something more sinister
and each incident places a further
question mark by Ronald Reagan's idea
that American democracy is a beacon to
the world