SEJ Objects To Prosecution of Pipeline Journalists

The Society of Environmental Journalists has written law enforcement officials at the state and federal levels, objecting to prosecution of journalists who have been covering protests against the Dakota Access Pipe Line and other pipelines. The text of the letter, sent October 19, 2016, is here.

A North Dakota judge on October 17, 2016, threw out rioting charges agains journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! A local prosecutor had charged her after her crew filmed an assault on protesters against the Dakota Access Pipe Line September 3. The prosecutor, Ladd Erickson of McLean County, has still declined to rule out seeking other charges against Goodman.

In a separate incident, documentary producer Deia Schlosberg was arrested for filming protestors who broke into a pipeline valve station near Walhalla, North Dakota on October 11. She was charged with three felony conspiracy counts, and could face as much as 45 years in jail. Her co-producer, Josh Fox, said she was not participating in the protest but documenting it as a journalist.